Lifestyle and Entertainment in Yangzhou

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Edited by Lucie Olivová and Vibeke Børdahl

September 2009, 400 pp, 15x23 cm, hardback
83 color photos, 49 B&W photos, 4 tables

Yangzhou, once the central place of literati and urban culture, is still one of the most important centers of traditional culture in China today. Over the years particular regional forms of art and entertainment have arisen here, some surviving into the present time.

This richly illustrated volume celebrates Yangzhou’s rich cultural tradition through a well-balanced spectrum of topics spanning the period from the late seventeenth century to modern times. These are grouped into four thematic parts: Yangzhou’s cultural heritage during historic downfalls and revivals; regional literature and book production; local theatre and storytelling; and various artists of the eighteenth-century Yangzhou School of Painting. Within each thematic part, descriptions and evaluations of cultural phenomena are supplemented with reflections on lifestyle and customs, weaving a virtual dialogue that binds the topical richness of the collection tightly together.

About the Editors

Dr. Vibeke Børdahl has taught Chinese language and literature at the University of Aarhus, the University of Oslo, and the University of Copenhagen. In recent years she has mainly been engaged in research on Chinese oral literature with special emphasis on Yangzhou storytelling. She is an honorary member of the grass-roots organization Friends of Yangzhou Performing Arts (Yangzhou quyi zhi you). Her book-length studies in English include Along the Broad Road of Realism: Qin Zhaoyang’s World of Fiction (1990); The Oral Tradition of Yangzhou Storytelling (1996), revised and augmented edition in Chinese (with Mi Feng and Lee Chinyun) (2006); The Eternal Storyteller: Oral Literature in Modern China (ed., 1999); Chinese Storytellers—Life and Art in the Yangzhou Tradition (with Jette Ross, 2002); and Four Masters of Chinese Storytelling—Full-length Repertoires of Yangzhou Storytelling on Video (with Fei Li and Huang Ying, eds), bilingual edition English and Chinese, DVD (2004).

Keywords

China | Jiangsu Province | cultural traditions | performing arts | storytelling | historical literature | Yangzhou School of Painting