Popular Culture in Late Imperial China by David Johnson (PDF)

Description

One of the principal purposes of this book is to help bring the study of non-elite culture into the mainstream of academic discourse about traditional China. No one believes that we can understand China by studying only the privileged and the educated. But they produced most of the documents, and so they have received, and still receive, attention from historians far out of proportion to their numbers. This overemphasis on the elite has led to grave distortions in our vision of Chinese history and culture, distortions that can only be remedied by serious systematic study of the world beyond the boundaries of the ruling class…. We have tried in this book to concentrate on topics of special importance to the study of Chinese popular culture, and to come to grips with some of the major conceptual problems that arose in the course of research, writing, and discussion. — excerpts from book’s Preface

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is a great sampling of cultural creativity by local people in recent centuries. Below the rather boring mask of official culture and religion, we have a seething ferment of arts and myths. The authors show how how new movements spread through popular art, how social movements take politicized form as secret society networks, and how local heroes evolve into new gods and goddesses. This book reinforces Joseph Campbell’s insights in showing mythology as a furiously mutating, rapidly evolving thing–not a static inheritance from long ago. I was especially fascinated by James Watson’s great investigation of the rising cult of Mazu, or T’ien Hou, Queen of the Seas and Empress of Heaven–who rose from a fishing-village girl in the 900s CE to a goddess with a around a hundred million devotees.–author of A Galaxy of Immortal Women: The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization

⭐Not found.

⭐Not found.

⭐Not found.

Keywords

Free Download Popular Culture in Late Imperial China in PDF format
Popular Culture in Late Imperial China PDF Free Download
Download Popular Culture in Late Imperial China 2006 PDF Free
Popular Culture in Late Imperial China 2006 PDF Free Download
Download Popular Culture in Late Imperial China PDF
Free Download Ebook Popular Culture in Late Imperial China