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The Resource A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific, Hua Hsu

A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific, Hua Hsu

Creator
Author
Summary
"A Floating Chinaman is, in the broadest sense, a book about who gets to speak for China. The title is taken from a lost manuscript by H.T. Tsiang, a Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels in the 1930s, a time when China was recast as a rich, unexplored mystery to the American public. At this time the United States "rediscovered" China, and the book traces its causes and cues in a variety of sites: the comfortable, middlebrow literature of Pearl Buck, Alice Tisdale Hobart and Lin Yutang; the journalism of Carl Crow and Henry Luce; exuberant reports from oil executives proclaiming a new era in global trade. On the margins--in Chinatowns, on college campuses, in the failed avant-gardism of Tsiang--a different conversation about the possibilities of a transpacific future was taking place. The book is about the circulation of ideas about China; but it is also a book about writers, rivalries, and the acquisition of authority. It is about the creation and refinement of those ideas, as well as the spirit of competition that underlies all critical endeavors. These were decades when China represented a new area of inquiry, and the stakes for writers to flex their expertise were at once intellectual, professional, and deeply personal. The author considers a range of texts--from best-sellers to self-published paperbacks, travel literature to corporate newsletters, FBI surveillance files to flowery letters from an Ellis Island detention center--and considers the competing notions of a transpacific future that animated the literary imagination as well as some satisfying moments of revenge."--Provided by publisher
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
276 pages
Contents
  • Chinese whispers
  • Naïve melody
  • Four hundred million customers
  • A pilgrim, protesting
  • New York ghost
  • Chinatown, USA, world
  • Too big to fail
Isbn
9780674967908
Instance
Label
A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific
Title
A floating Chinaman
Title remainder
fantasy and failure across the Pacific
Statement of responsibility
Hua Hsu
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"A Floating Chinaman is, in the broadest sense, a book about who gets to speak for China. The title is taken from a lost manuscript by H.T. Tsiang, a Chinese immigrant writer who self-published a series of visionary novels in the 1930s, a time when China was recast as a rich, unexplored mystery to the American public. At this time the United States "rediscovered" China, and the book traces its causes and cues in a variety of sites: the comfortable, middlebrow literature of Pearl Buck, Alice Tisdale Hobart and Lin Yutang; the journalism of Carl Crow and Henry Luce; exuberant reports from oil executives proclaiming a new era in global trade. On the margins--in Chinatowns, on college campuses, in the failed avant-gardism of Tsiang--a different conversation about the possibilities of a transpacific future was taking place. The book is about the circulation of ideas about China; but it is also a book about writers, rivalries, and the acquisition of authority. It is about the creation and refinement of those ideas, as well as the spirit of competition that underlies all critical endeavors. These were decades when China represented a new area of inquiry, and the stakes for writers to flex their expertise were at once intellectual, professional, and deeply personal. The author considers a range of texts--from best-sellers to self-published paperbacks, travel literature to corporate newsletters, FBI surveillance files to flowery letters from an Ellis Island detention center--and considers the competing notions of a transpacific future that animated the literary imagination as well as some satisfying moments of revenge."--Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
MH/DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1977-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Hsu, Hua
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Tsiang, H. T
  • Tsiang, H. T
  • Public opinion in literature
  • Authors and publishers
  • Diplomatic relations
  • Public opinion, American
  • Public opinion in literature
  • Authors and publishers
  • China
  • United States
  • China
  • China
  • United States
Label
A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific, Hua Hsu
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Chinese whispers -- Naïve melody -- Four hundred million customers -- A pilgrim, protesting -- New York ghost -- Chinatown, USA, world -- Too big to fail
Control code
921102699
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
276 pages
Isbn
9780674967908
Lccn
2015032635
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
System control number
(OCoLC)921102699
Label
A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific, Hua Hsu
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Chinese whispers -- Naïve melody -- Four hundred million customers -- A pilgrim, protesting -- New York ghost -- Chinatown, USA, world -- Too big to fail
Control code
921102699
Dimensions
25 cm
Extent
276 pages
Isbn
9780674967908
Lccn
2015032635
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
System control number
(OCoLC)921102699

Subject

Genre

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