Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society (Anthropology in Asia)

This unusual and interesting book is a fascinating account of the world of Chinese writing. It examines Chinese space and the political and social use of writing as propaganda, a publicity booster and as a ladder for social climbing. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of figures......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Brief chronology of Chinese history......Page 12 Introduction: the abode of calligraphic inscriptions......Page 14 Dances with power: Public calligraphy and its social effects......Page 28 Becoming a person through wen......Page 46 Handwriting and personhood......Page 70 Body-person engineering through ink and brush: Brush techniques and calligraphic composition......Page 94 Brush work: Alternative bodybuilding......Page 120 Ideograms and knowledge......Page 148 Characters reloaded......Page 169 Notes......Page 184 Bibliography......Page 201 List of Chinese characters for terms used in the text......Page 216 Index......Page 227 "Drawing on both written material and on ethnography of popular conceptions, this book aims to show that calligraphy and writing in China is a highly empowered cultural form through which power is articulated, social relations lubricated, deep knowledge extracted and one's relationship with the world is interpreted, ultimately indicating and formulating Chinese personhood."--BOOK JACKET