Download or read book Along the Yangzi River written by Willow Hai Chang and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along the Yangzi River: Regional Culture of the Bronze Age from Hunan accompanies the museum exhibition of the same name exploring recent excavations of Shang and Zhou dynasty bronzes from the middle bank of the Yangzi River.
Download or read book River Town written by Peter Hessler and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Download or read book Ancient Central China written by Rowan K. Flad and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Central China provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological discoveries in the upper and middle Yangzi River region of China, including the Three Gorges Dam reservoir zone. It focuses on the Late Neolithic (late third millennium BC) through the end of the Bronze Age (late first millennium BC) and considers regional and interregional cultural relationships in light of anthropological models of landscape. Rowan K. Flad and Pochan Chen show that centers and peripheries of political, economic and ritual activities were not coincident, and that politically peripheral regions such as the Three Gorges were crucial hubs in interregional economic networks, particularly related to prehistoric salt production. The book provides detailed discussions of recent archaeological discoveries and data from the Chengdu Plain, Three Gorges and Hubei to illustrate how these various components of regional landscape were configured across Central China.
Download or read book Picturing the Yangzi River in Southern Song China 1127 1279 written by Julia C. Orell and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation presents a study of Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) handscroll paintings depicting the Yangzi River. I focus on three long handscrolls that offer detailed, continuous views of scenery along either the river's entire course or large stretches of it and that feature inscribed place names. These Yangzi River handscrolls have been recognized as the earliest extant depictions of the river and as among the earliest extant Chinese topographical landscape paintings in a portable format. My study disassociates the paintings from the role of passive documents of physical reality assigned to them in existing scholarship and instead situates them within a larger field of inquiry to show how topographical landscape painting interacts with other cultural practices in the production of geographical knowledge. The Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279) was a time of intense engagements with historical and cultural geography and a time of new articulations of ordering and representing geographical knowledge in a variety of textual and visual media and genres that include encyclopedias, atlases and maps, (illustrated) local and comprehensive gazetteers, travel writing, and poetry. One result of my investigation is to identify different cultural milieus and agendas for the production of the individual Yangzi River handscrolls and the range of significances associated with the river and its depiction within the framework of cultural and historical geography.
Download or read book The Nature of Disaster in China written by Chris Courtney and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1931, China suffered a catastrophic flood that claimed millions of lives. This was neither a natural nor human-made disaster. Rather, it was created by an interaction between the environment and society. Regular inundation had long been an integral feature of the ecology and culture of the middle Yangzi, yet by the modern era floods had become humanitarian catastrophes. Courtney describes how the ecological and economic effects of the 1931 flood pulse caused widespread famine and epidemics. He takes readers into the inundated streets of Wuhan, describing the terrifying and disorientating sensory environment. He explains why locals believed that an angry Dragon King was causing the flood, and explores how Japanese invasion and war with the Communists inhibited both official relief efforts and refugee coping strategies. This innovative study offers the first in-depth analysis of the 1931 flood, and charts the evolution of one of China's most persistent environmental problems.
Download or read book The Yangzi River written by Judy Bonavia and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guide to the 4,000 mile long Yangzi River, which begins in Tibet.
Download or read book Fixing Landscape written by Corey Byrnes and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1994, workers broke ground on China’s Three Gorges Dam. By its completion in 2012, the dam had transformed the ecology of the Yangzi River, displaced over a million people, and forever altered a landscape immortalized in centuries of literature and art. The controversial history of the dam is well known; what this book uncovers are its unexpected connections to the cultural traditions it seems to sever. By reconsidering the dam in relation to the aesthetic history of the Three Gorges region over more than two millennia, Fixing Landscape offers radically new ways of thinking about cultural and spatial production in contemporary China. Corey Byrnes argues that this monumental feat of engineering can only be understood by confronting its status as a techno-poetic act, a form of landscaping indebted to both the technical knowledge of engineers and to the poetic legacies of the Gorges as cultural site. Synthesizing methods drawn from premodern, modern, and contemporary Chinese studies, as well as from critical geography, art history, and the environmental humanities, Byrnes offers innovative readings of eighth-century poetry, paintings from the twelfth through twenty-first centuries, contemporary film, nineteenth-century British travelogues, and Chinese and Western maps, among other sources. Fixing Landscape shows that premodern poetry and visual art have something urgent to tell us about a contemporary experiment in spatial production. Poems and paintings may not build dams, but Byrnes argues that the Three Gorges Dam would not exist as we know it without them.
Download or read book Eulogy for Burying a Crane and the Art of Chinese Calligraphy written by Lei Xue and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2019-12-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eulogy for Burying a Crane (Yi he ming) is perhaps the most eccentric piece in China’s calligraphic canon. Apparently marking the burial of a crane, the large inscription, datable to 514 CE, was once carved into a cliff on Jiaoshan Island in the Yangzi River. Since the discovery of its ruins in the early eleventh century, it has fascinated generations of scholars and calligraphers and been enshrined as a calligraphic masterpiece. Nonetheless, skeptics have questioned the quality of the calligraphy and complained that its fragmentary state and worn characters make assessment of its artistic value impossible. Moreover, historians have trouble fitting it into the storyline of Chinese calligraphy. Such controversies illuminate moments of discontinuity in the history of the art form that complicate the mechanism of canon formation. In this volume, Lei Xue examines previous epigraphic studies and recent archaeological finds to consider the origin of the work in the sixth century and then trace its history after the eleventh century. He suggests that formation of the canon of Chinese calligraphy over two millennia has been an ongoing process embedded in the sociopolitical realities of particular historical moments. This biography of the stone monument Eulogy for Burying a Crane reveals Chinese calligraphy to be a contested field of cultural and political forces that have constantly reconfigured the practice, theory, and historiography of this unique art form. Art History Publication Initiative A McLellan Book
Download or read book Along the Yangzi River written by Hunan Sheng bo wu guan and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Yangzi River and the Three Gorges written by Judy Bonavia and published by Odyssey Publications. This book was released on 2004 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the wild windswept snowfields of its source in Tibet, to the rich farmlands of its delta on the East China Sea, the mighty Yangzi has always had symbolic and practical significance for the Chinese people. They refer to it simply as Changjiang, or Long River. Stretching for nearly 4,000 miles, the Yangzi is China's main artery, supporting a third of its people; it also serves as the country's primary commercial waterway. This detailed guide to the river and its scenery and environs includes practical information about sights and accommodation. Illustrated by exceptional color photography and informative maps and plans, it is an essential companion for anyone with an interest in China. There is also a selection of literary excerpts, from authors such as Paul Theroux and Han Suyin, to enrich the reader's understanding of China's Long River.
Download or read book Three Gorges of the Yangzi River written by Richard Hayman and published by Odyssey Publications. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the wild windswept snowfields of its source in Tibet to the rich farmlands of its delta on the Yellow Sea, the mighty Yangzi has always had symbolic and practical significance for the Chinese. They refer to it simply as Changjiang, or Long River. Stretching for nearly 4,000 miles, the Yangzi is China's main artery, supporting a third of its people; it also serves as the country's main commercial waterway. Despite the legendary difficulties of navigation, the Yangzi River's magnificent Three Gorges have long attracted tourists for their grandeur and beauty. In this book, each of the gorges comes to life in a dramatic juxtaposition of bustling human activity on China's busiest waterway and soaring, breathtaking natural monuments that have inspired artists and travelers for millennia. This famous river and its spectacular gorges are now endangered by the world's largest dam project. This book summarizes the history, geography and local culture of this ancient and mythological region of China, with current information on its transformation. Millions of visitors pass along the great river without knowing the depths of its tradition or troubles. Three Gorges of the Yangzi River gives the best introduction to the area and its uncertain future.
Download or read book On Leaving Bai Di Cheng written by and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 1993-05-05 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the product of a private Canadian expedition to China in 1992. Its members sought to gauge the potential cultural destruction of the daunting and controversial Three Gorges Dam project, which was actively supported by the Canadian government and by corporate sectors.What cultural losses will accompany the expected economic and political gains? What will China, Canada, and the world community lose? How might we, as Canadians, view the purpose and impact of the project, which is now well under way? Using a government-sponsored assessment of the cultural artifacts destined to be submerged by rising waters behind the dam project, our guides - a publisher (Caroline Walker), a heritage consultant (Robert Shipley), a travel writer (Ruth Lor Malloy), and a scholar (Fu Kailin) - lead us on a sometimes comical and frequently troubling tour of the Yangzi gorges region.
Download or read book The Water Kingdom written by Philip Ball and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China’s culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization. Water, Ball shows, is a key that unlocks much of Chinese culture. In The Water Kingdom, he takes us on a grand journey through China’s past and present, showing how the complexity and energy of the country and its history repeatedly come back to the challenges, opportunities, and inspiration provided by the waterways. Drawing on stories from travelers and explorers, poets and painters, bureaucrats and activists, all of whom have been influenced by an environment shaped and permeated by water, Ball explores how the ubiquitous relationship of the Chinese people to water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression. From the Han emperors to Mao, the ability to manage the waters ? to provide irrigation and defend against floods ? was a barometer of political legitimacy, often resulting in engineering works on a gigantic scale. It is a struggle that continues today, as the strain of economic growth on water resources may be the greatest threat to China’s future. The Water Kingdom offers an unusual and fascinating history, uncovering just how much of China’s art, politics, and outlook have been defined by the links between humanity and nature.
Download or read book Through the Dragon s Mouth written by Ben Thomson Cowles and published by Daniel & Daniel Publishers. This book was released on 1999 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a young man, Cowles was spellbound by tales of danger and daring from those who had ventured into the famed "Dragon's Mouth." In 1946, just prior to the Communist takeover, Cowles, along with a Chinese professor and an Army pilot-engineer, set out to experience the gorges firsthand. For 19 days they immersed themselves in the life of the river, along side 65 crewmen aboard a 95-foot junk.
Download or read book A Companion to Chinese Archaeology written by Anne P. Underhill and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 900 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Chinese Archaeology is an unprecedented, new resource on the current state of archaeological research in one of the world’s oldest civilizations. It presents a collection of readings from leading archaeologists in China and elsewhere that provide diverse interpretations about social and economic organization during the Neolithic period and early Bronze Age. An unprecedented collection of original contributions from international scholars and collaborative archaeological teams conducting research on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan Makes available for the first time in English the work of leading archaeologists in China Provides a comprehensive view of research in key geographic regions of China Offers diverse methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding China’s past, beginning with the era of established agricultural villages from c. 7000 B.C. through to the end of the Shang dynastic period in c. 1045 B.C.
Download or read book The Yangzi River and the Three Gorges written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Yangzi River written by Judy Bonavia and published by Odyssey Publications. This book was released on 2001-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the snowfields of Tibet to the deltas of the Yellow Sea, the mighty Yangzi has enormous significance for China. As the main commercial waterway it is also a scenic boating route. This guide details its environs with maps, history and illustrations.
