When True Love Came to China - Lynn Pan - Bookniverse

When True Love Came to China

Lynn Pan

US $26.00

Mon Nov 02 2015 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

9789888390083

ePub

Hong Kong University Press

copy

About this book

Humanities & Social Science > Conmultilingual_settingsorary Ideology > Gender Studies

Most people suppose that the whole world knows what it is to love; that romantic love is universal, quintessentially human. Such a supposition has to be able to meet three challenges. It has to justify its underlying assumption that all cultures mean the same thing by the word ‘love’ regardless of language. It has to engage with the scholarly debate on whether or not romantic love was invented in Europe and is uniquely Western. And it must be able to explain why early twentieth-century Chinese writers claimed that they had never known true love, or love by modern Western standards. By addressing these three challenges through a literary, historical, philosophical, biographical and above all comparative approach, this highly original work shows how love’s profile in China shifted with the rejection of arranged marriages and concubinage in favour of free individual choice, monogamy and a Western model of romantic love.

About the author(s)

Lynn Pan

Lynn Pan was born in Shanghai and educated in London and Cambridge, England. She is the author of more than a dozen books on China and the Chinese diaspora, including Shanghai Style; Tracing It Home; and Sons of the Yellow Emperor, the winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize.

About the publisher

Established in 1956, and part of the University of Hong Kong, Asia’s most prominent English-speaking university, HKU Press publishes more than 30 new titles annually, with a growing proportion (more than 25%) in Chinese. Building on Hong Kong's unique global position, HKU Press books examine, critique, and celebrate Asia’s place in the world. We have gained particular renown for publications in Chinese history and culture, law, public health, social work, film/media studies, art and architecture/urban planning.

Reading information

Install the Bookniverse app for Android and iPad/iPhone . It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.