Bernard Shaw’s Bridges to Chinese Culture (Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries)

"Kay Li's study of Bernard Shaw's relationship with a number of leading Chinese figures and the assimilation of his plays into Chinese culture is a significant addition to her important previous work on Shaw and China. This new book expertly situates Shaw in wide-ranging spheres of Chinese culture, while also demonstrating the complexities of cross-cultural literary relations. It is a major contribution not just to Shaw studies but to interdisciplinary approaches to cultural dialogue."--Leaf W. Conolly, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Emeritus Professor of English, Trent University, Ontario, Canada and Honorary Fellow, Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK This book explores the cultural bridges connecting George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, such as Charles Dickens and Arthur Miller, to China. Analyzing readings, adaptations, and connections of Shaw in China through the lens of Chinese culture, Li details the negotiations between the focused and culturally specific standpoints of eastern and western culture while also investigating the simultaneously diffused, multi-focal, and comprehensive perspectives that create strategic moments that favor cross-cultural readings. With sources ranging from Shaw's connections with his contemporaries in China to contemporary Chinese films and interpretations of Shaw in the digital space, Li relates the global impact of not only what Chinese lenses can reveal about Shaw's world, but how intercultural and interdisciplinary readings can shed new light on familiar and obscure works alike Foreword 7 Acknowledgments 9 Contents 12 Abbreviations 14 List of Figures 15 Chapter 1: Introduction: Seeing and Being Seen from Chinese Angles 16 Shaw from a Chinese Angle 18 Duality of the Chinese Angle 20 Significance of the Chinese Angle 26 Shaw and His Contemporaries: Seeing and Being Seen from Chinese Angles 27 Notes 30 Part I: Shaw and His Contemporaries: The Chinese Angle as Culturally Specific 31 Chapter 2: Seeing China: Shaw and His Contemporaries 32 Chinese Angles Seen from Chinese and Western Perspectives 34 Shavian Iconoclastic Uses of Chinese Angles 37 Chinese Angles behind Confucius in Back to Methuselah 40 Chinese Angles as Alternatives to the West 43 John Dewey and Bertrand Russell 44 Shaw and the Bloomsbury Vision of China 45 Chinese Angles as Multiple and Inclusive 48 Notes 50 Chapter 3: Shaw and the Last Chinese Emperor, Henry Pu-yi Aisin-Gioro 52 The Chinese Angle Defined by the Chinese 52 Joan and the Dauphin, Johnston and Pu-yi 55 Pu-yi as Joan 58 Pu-yi and Shaw 61 Sinicization and Westernization 65 How Powerful Is the Chinese Angle? 69 Shaw and Dickens 70 Cultural Politics behind the Chinese Angles 72 Notes 77 Chapter 4: Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Transnational Chinese Feminism 80 Mrs. Warren Under the Lens of Chinese Feminism 81 Soong Ching-ling and Bernard Shaw 83 Mrs. Warren and Its Chinese Audience 84 Building Chinese Feminism Through Realistic Films or Plays 87 Shavian Women in Chinese Martial Arts 90 Mrs. Warren and Transnational Chinese Feminism 91 Notes 92 Chapter 5: Sir Robert Ho Tung and Idlewild in Buoyant Billions 94 Visualization 94 “Money”: What the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Saw in Shaw 96 “Know”: Speech at the University of Hong Kong 99 “Must”: Meeting Sir Robert Ho Tung 108 Shaw’s Chinese Angles and Buoyant Billions 111 Notes 114 Part II: The Contemporaries of Shaw’s Works: Chinese Angles as Multi-focal 117 Chapter 6: John Woo’s My Fair Gentleman and the Evolution of Pygmalion in Contemporary China 118 My Fair Gentleman and the Official Chinese Angle 119 Focus on Shanghai: Marketing in the Metropolis 120 The Significance of My Fair Gentleman 121 A Hollywood Crew 123 A Romantic Comedy Played by a Stellar Cast 124 The Socio-Economic Angle: The Rise of Entrepreneurial Peasants 125 The New Chinese Angle: The Rise of the Market Economy 126 The Chinese Angle Tests Shaw’s Play: Life Force and Creative Evolution 129 The Final Tableau: The Chinese Angle Shared by the Common People 131 Contemporary Chinese Angles: Woo’s Pygmalion Effect in Other Films 132 The Official Chinese Angle: “Up, China” 133 Notes 134 Chapter 7: Chinese Film Adaptations of Shaw’s Plays 136 Adaptation and Globalization: Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm and Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower 138 Adapting Western Literature to the Chinese Screen: Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Xiaogang Feng’s The Banquet 141 Adapting a Chinese Martial Arts Novel to the Global Screen: Wo Hu Cang Long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) 143 Adapting a Hong Kong Film in Hollywood: Infernal Affairs and The Departed 146 The Way Forward: Transcending Cultural Binarism 148 Notes 149 Chapter 8: Nobel Laureates Bernard Shaw and Gao Xingjian 151 Shaw and Arthur Miller at the Beijing People’s Arts Theatre 152 The Chinese Institutionalization of the “Foreign Expert” 153 Elements of the Chinese Perspective 154 Respect and Recognition Given to the Foreign Expert 155 Local Political and Social Background 156 The Economic Context 157 Miller’s Chinese Perspective: Assumptions of Cultural Difference 158 Differences in Performance Techniques 159 Seeking Common Ground 160 Nobel Laureates in Literature: Shaw and Gao Xingjian 163 Migration of the Texts and the Shifting Chinese Perspective 166 A Central Focus: A Centripetal Movement Converging toward the Self 168 The Chinese Perspective as a Centrifugal Movement Reaching toward a Universal Humanity 169 The Chinese Perspective as a Centrifugal Movement Reaching Toward the Universal 172 Built-in Literary Techniques to Transcend Cultural Boundaries 174 Translations 175 “No-ism” 175 All-Round Theater 176 Pronouns 176 Multiple Discourses 177 Tripartite Film 178 The Chinese Perspective as Multi-Focal 179 Notes 179 Chapter 9: Major Barbara on Chinese Wikipedia and in Microblogs 182 The Chinese Perspective on Major Barbara in Baidu Wikipedia 184 The Chinese Perspective in a Changed Economic and Social Context: Major Barbara on Baidu Post Bar 187 Didactic Use of the Chinese Perspective: “Right is right; and wrong is wrong” 188 Notes 192 Chapter 10: Bernard Shaw’s Bridges to Chinese Culture 193 Bridging Cultures Through Chinese Perspectives 195 Notes 197 Bibliography 198 Index 213 'Kay Li's study of Bernard Shaw's relationship with a number of leading Chinese figures and the assimilation of his plays into Chinese culture is a significant addition to her important previous work on Shaw and China. This new book expertly situates Shaw in wide-ranging spheres of Chinese culture, while also demonstrating the complexities of cross-cultural literary relations. It is a major contribution not just to Shaw studies but to interdisciplinary approaches to cultural dialogue.' - L.W. Conolly, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Emeritus Professor of English, Trent University, Ontario, Canada and Honorary Fellow, Robinson College, University of Cambridge, UK This book explores the cultural bridges connecting George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, such as Charles Dickens and Arthur Miller, to China. Analyzing readings, adaptations, and connections of Shaw in China through the lens of Chinese culture, Li details the negotiations between the focused and culturally specific standpoints of eastern and western culture while also investigating the simultaneously diffused, multi-focal, and comprehensive perspectives that create strategic moments that favor cross-cultural readings. With sources ranging from Shaw's connections with his contemporaries in China to contemporary Chinese films and interpretations of Shaw in the digital space, Li relates the global impact of not only what Chinese lenses can reveal about Shaw's world, but how intercultural and interdisciplinary readings can shed new light on familiar and obscure works alike This book explores the cultural bridges connecting George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, such as Charles Dickens and Arthur Miller, to China. Analyzing readings, adaptations, and connections of Shaw in China through the lens of Chinese culture, Li details the negotiations between the focused and culturally specific standpoints of eastern and western culture while also investigating the simlutaneously diffused, multi-focal, and comprehensive perspectives that create strategic moments that favor cross-cultural readings. With sources ranging from Shaw's connections with his contemporaries in China to contemporary Chinese films and interpretations of Shaw in the digital space, Li relates the global impact of not only what Chinese lenses can reveal about Shaw's world, but how intercultural and interdisciplinary readings can shed new light on familiar and obscure works alike. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Seeing and Being Seen from Chinese Angles....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Seeing China: Shaw and His Contemporaries....Pages 19-38 Shaw and the Last Chinese Emperor, Henry Pu-yi Aisin-Gioro....Pages 39-66 Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Transnational Chinese Feminism....Pages 67-80 Sir Robert Ho Tung and Idlewild in Buoyant Billions ....Pages 81-103 Front Matter....Pages 105-105 John Woo’s My Fair Gentleman and the Evolution of Pygmalion in Contemporary China....Pages 107-124 Chinese Film Adaptations of Shaw’s Plays....Pages 125-139 Nobel Laureates Bernard Shaw and Gao Xingjian....Pages 141-171 Major Barbara on Chinese Wikipedia and in Microblogs....Pages 173-183 Bernard Shaw’s Bridges to Chinese Culture....Pages 185-189 Back Matter....Pages 191-215