Beijing: City and People

Author: Zhao Yuan
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The choice of "literary history" over "biographies of literary masters" or "critical essays on literature" as the primary form of literary research in Chinese academia clearly benefits from the wave of Western learning spreading to the East. From the transformation of literary concepts and the shift in the positioning of literary genres, to the reform of the education system and the updating of curriculum design, "literary history" gradually became a familiar knowledge system in China. As a form of writing that combines education and research, "literary history" in 20th-century China achieved an extraordinary production volume and widespread dissemination. This is not a book on the history of Beijing culture, nor is it a study of a specific category of Beijing culture. What this book aims to discuss is the city and its people—a great city and its inhabitants, a great city and its depicters. The main contents include the preface to the "Literary History Series," "The City and Its People," "The Homeland—Beijing," "Beijing and Those Who Write About Beijing," "The City and Its People," "Talking About 'Beijing Flavor'," "What Constitutes 'Beijing Flavor'," "Various Aspects of Style," "Contemporary Writers," "Beijing Fiction and Beijing Culture," "Cultural Beijing," "Modern Writers: Cultural Nostalgia and Cultural Critique," "Family Culture · Commercial Culture · Architectural Culture," "Cultural Division and Cultural Diversity," etc.