China Mysteries

Download or read book China Mysteries written by Jeffrey C. Kinkley and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the 1989 Beijing massacre fading from popular memory in the West, China from the mid-1990s to a few years ago felt more open than ever to global trade, communication, travel, and cultural and educational exchanges. There was even talk in the mainstream press that China was heading toward a more democratic future. It was during this second Sino-Western honeymoon that authors in the US, Canada, France, the UK, and elsewhere began writing mystery fiction set in contemporary China in their regional languages. These “China mysteries”—crime, detective, and mystery thriller novels that take place in China but were not written or published there—formed a new genre of popular fiction that highlighted the world’s hopes and fears after Tiananmen. The multinational and multicultural writers of China mysteries, among them ex-PRC nationals like Qiu Xiaolong, Zhang Xinxin, and Diane Wei Liang, converged on the China Mainland to negotiate political and cultural complexities through crime fiction plotlines. Their books emerged from Western lineages of the modern novel and popular genre fiction—with Chinese contributions—and depended on Western commercial publishing models shaped by cultural, national, political, and economic factors. This work examines more than a hundred China mysteries—many describing and analyzing social and economic changes at the center of modern life in China—to provide a brief history of the genre and analyze the formulaic and original elements of the mysteries, including their attention to matters of location, social content, characterization, history, and biography. It also highlights the role of “information” acquisition as a motivation for readers and authors of popular fiction, which has become a topic of discussion in Chinese literature studies. With its timely commentary on Sino-Western relations as presented through crime fiction, China Mysteries will appeal to students and scholars of contemporary Chinese literature and culture, as well as fans of crime novels and others who are curious about the global dimensions of the genre and how it complicates our understanding of “world literature.”

Download or read book Mysteries of the Great Wall of China written by Karen Latchana Kenney and published by Lerner Publications (Tm). This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discover the fascinating mysteries surrounding the Great Wall of China. An iconic symbol, the wall's sections, trenches, and barriers stretch across more than 5,500 miles. How and why was it built? Scientists have many theories, but plenty of mysteries remain."--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book 29 Chinese Mysteries written by Roy Bates and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-09-05 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating book of 29 Chinese Mysteries, easy to read and easy to enjoy. Of considerable interest to anyone who has ever been to China, or is longing to go there.

Download or read book Mysteries of Ancient China written by Jessica Rawson and published by George Braziller. This book was released on 1996 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrated with one hundred and eighty-five color images and including a comprehensive series of essays by leading Chinese and European scholars, this volume summarizes current thinking about the archaeology and the history of the religious and social development of ancient China.

Download or read book The Chinese Nail Murders written by Robert Hans van Gulik and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1977-11-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judge Dee and his helpers investigate a series of murders despite pressure to solve them quickly.

Download or read book Midnight in Peking written by Paul French and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-04-24 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the both the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime and the CWA Non-Fiction Dagger from the author of City of Devils Chronicling an incredible unsolved murder, Midnight in Peking captures the aftermath of the brutal killing of a British schoolgirl in January 1937. The mutilated body of Pamela Werner was found at the base of the Fox Tower, which, according to local superstition, is home to the maliciously seductive fox spirits. As British detective Dennis and Chinese detective Han investigate, the mystery only deepens and, in a city on the verge of invasion, rumor and superstition run rampant. Based on seven years of research by historian and China expert Paul French, this true-crime thriller presents readers with a rare and unique portrait of the last days of colonial Peking.

Download or read book China's Major Mysteries written by Paul Dong and published by China Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, c1984.