Cross Cultural Reflections On Chinese Aesthetics Gender Embodiment And Learning

​This book gathers research and writings that reflect on traditional and current global issues related to art and aesthetics, gender perspectives, body theories, knowledge and learning. It illustrates these core dimensions, which are bringing together philosophy, tradition and cultural studies and laying the groundwork for comparative research and dialogues between aesthetics, Chinese philosophies, Western feminist studies and cross-cultural thought. Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, the book also integrates philosophical enquiries with cultural anthropology and contextual studies. As implied in the title, the main methodologies are cross-cultural and comparative studies, which touch on performances in art and aesthetics, social existence and education, and show that philosophical enquiries, aesthetical representation and gender politics are simultaneously historical, living and contextual. The book gathers a wealth of cross-cultural reflections on philosophical aesthetics, gender existence and cultural traditions. The critical thinking within will benefit undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in the area of comparative philosophies. It blends academic rigor with personal reflection, which is a critical practice in feminist philosophy itself.

This book argues the importance of aesthetic literacies in learning and teaching in schools for future work. The study of aesthetics is critical in today’s learning, due to the increasingly complex ways in which we communicate meaning, such as through the presentation of texts and objects. The book provides educators, pre-service teachers, and students an in-depth understanding of aesthetic literacies in innovative spaces, including in philosophical literature, environmental spaces, curricula and classrooms. Using various theoretical frames from both the arts and literacy fields, this book shares relevant pedagogies, theorisations and contexts where aesthetic literacies are at the core of learning. It emphasises how improved knowledge of aesthetics and quality experiences in beauty are vital in aiding students and young children develop the necessary resilience and tolerance needed in today’s uncertain world.

This singular work presents the most comprehensive and nuanced studies available in any Western language of Chinese aesthetic thought and practice during the Six Dynasties (A.D. 220–589). Despite a succession of dynastic and social upheavals, the literati preoccupied themselves with both the sensuous and the transcendent and strove for cultural dominance. By the end of the sixth century, their reflections would evolve into a sophisticated system of aesthetic discourse characterized by its own rhetoric and concepts. A prologue details the historical context in which Six Dynasties aesthetics arose and sketches out its major stages of development. The ten essays that follow bring fresh perspectives to bear on important writings on literature, music, painting, calligraphy, and gardening. Grounded in close readings of primary texts, they reveal the complex, dynamic interplay between life and art, the sensuous and the metaphysical, and the artistic and the philosophicaleligious that lies at the heart of the aesthetic thought and practice of the time. As a whole, the collection demonstrates that Six Dynasties achieved a sophistication in aesthetic thought comparable in many ways to that of the West: The discussion of disinterestedness in art, aesthetic judgment, and how mental images mediate between the supersensible and the sensible are reminiscent of Kant. The findings of various Chinese critics provide much food for thought in the broad fields of comparative literature and aesthetics. Chinese Aesthetics will fill a gap in Western sinological studies of the period. It will appeal to scholars and students in premodern Chinese literary studies, comparative aesthetics, and cultural studies and be a welcome reference to anyone interested in ancient Chinese culture. Contributors: Susan Bush; Zong-qi Cai; Kang-i Sun Chang; Ronald Egan; Robert E. Harrist, Jr.; Rania Huntington; Wai-yee Li; Shuen-fu Lin; Victor Mair; François Martin.

This book examines aesthetic issues based on humanities principles and creates a theory of Chinese aesthetics from a global perspective by applying China’s traditional and cultural history to a Western theoretical framework. In particular, this book emphasizes the shared features of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, namely the unity of heaven and men, unity of nature and society, and the materialization of human feelings and humanization of material things. It also highlights the dominant role of humans in the aesthetic relationship between human and object, while placing imagery in a focal position.

Featuring the work of renowned scholars, this anthology provides an introduction to Chinese aesthetics and literature.

As a feminist cultural anthropologist specializing in social transformations in contemporary China, my research and teaching necessarily involves exploring the construction of difference, the intersectionality of gender with other social positions, and how difference upholds or challenges power. In this essay, I employ biographical reflection to illustrate how my everyday experiences as a student, foreign English teacher, and scholarly researcher in China have refined my awareness of these important insights of feminist theory. As my attention to these processes increased, I became more mindful of the myriad ways women negotiate cultural configurations of gender and power in their everyday lives. Personal experiences also prompted me to reflect on how my identity and positionality impact the research process and outcomes. Thus experiential knowledge greatly enriched my study and understanding of the changing lives of women in China. I suggest how educators can impart these valuable lessons to students through experiential learning.

Art education can be a wonderful discipline for teaching people how to see and shape the world and find aesthetic and humanistic meaning in life. In the past few decades, however, art education has failed to fulfill its best potential largely because of the polarized debate between the modernists and postmodernists, especially in regard to the question of how the artistic self relates to the spiritual self within the context of a community. In my dissertation, the theoretical and practical possibilities of contemporary art education are explored through comparative studies of Western and Chinese aesthetics and art education theories. Art educators are the agents for change in the field. Thus, my main aim in this dissertation is to examine possibilities, and map out directions that reflect meaning and value in art for the improvement of art teacher education. There is much that Chinese aesthetic theory can contribute to the development of Western art. Similarly, there is much of value that China can learn from Western art. In this respect, an academic visit arranged by the Chinese art educator, Professor Guo, in which my Senior Supervisor Professor Richmond and I visited three national academies of fine art in China in 2003 has become a preliminary cross-cultural dialogue between Western and Chinese art educators. Additionally, ideas and questions which came up for discussion during the academic visit have become a source for my dissertation; one key question is what are the possible solutions for offsetting the impact of globalization on contemporary art and art education? Perhaps, the Chinese concept of 'wholeness' (a vital theme in Chinese philosophy and aesthetics) and the approach of self-cultivation (a core theory in Chinese art and art education) would be potential prescriptions. A positive outcome of the interchange of ideas between Western and Chinese cultural tradition might be to retain the explorative energy of Western art controlled by the internal discipline of Chinese aesthetics with the aim of training oneself to be a good human being by tuning the self to live harmoniously with other people and in hãrmony with the earth within the eternal cosmos.

This book is a collection of translations of recent work by contemporary Chinese aestheticians. Because of the relative isolation of China until recently, little is known of this rich and ongoing aesthetics tradition in China. Although some of the articles are concerned with the traditional ancient Chinese theories of art and beauty, many are inspired by Western aesthetics, including Marxism, and all are involved in cross-cultural comparisons of Chinese and Western aesthetic traditions.

For anyone working in aesthetics interested in understanding the richness of the Chinese aesthetic tradition this handbook is the place to start. Comprised of general introductory overviews, critical reflections and contextual analysis, it covers everything from the origins of aesthetics in China to the role of aesthetics in philosophy today. Beginning in early China (1st millennium BCE), it traces the Chinese aesthetic tradition, exploring the import of the term aesthetics into Chinese thought via Japan around the end of the 19th century. It looks back to early practices of art and craftsmanship, showing how the history of Chinese thought provides a multitude of artefacts and texts that give rise to a wide range of aesthetic creations and notions. Introducing various perspectives on traditional arts in China, including painting, ceramics, calligraphy, poetry, music and theatre, it explores those aesthetic traditions not included in “canonic” art forms, such as martial arts, rock gardening, and ritual performance. Written by Chinese, European, and American theoreticians and practitioners, this authoritative research resource enhances contemporary aesthetics by revealing the possibilities of a Chinese philosophy of art.

Engages with Chinese philosophy to offer new conceptual models for reframing gender, bodies, and aesthetics.