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 book seeks to engage Chinese philosophy to reframe existing Western scholarship in the fields of gender, body, and aesthetics. The assembled essays cover traditional and current global issues related to Chinese female bodies by addressing the following questions: Does Confucianism rule out the capacity of women as moral subjects, and hence, as aesthetic subjects? Do forms of Chinese philosophy in some ways contribute or correspond to the patriarchal Confucian culture? In what ways can Chinese philosophy provide alternative perspectives sought by Western feminist scholars? Professor Man uses an interdisciplinary approach to explore feminist philosophy through the issues of the body, aesthetical representation and gender politics, which are simultaneously historical and contextual. The first section of the book, "Body Discourses in Chinese Philosophy", brings in theoretical and philosophical discussions of Western traditions such as those of Plato, Descartes, and Kant, to examine their views on body and mind and how the Chinese philosophical ideas offered by Confucians and Daoists provide alternative body ontologies for critical feminist practices. The second section, "Chinese Bodies, Aesthetics and Art", reviews female aesthetical representations in classical traditional Chinese works ranging from The Books of Songs, women's embroidery, sexuality and suggested ways of kissing, and the contemporary body art represented by the controversial body artist He Chengyao. These chapters demonstrate the intertwining relationship among body, sexuality, aesthetics and the ascribed gendered roles in social environments. The third section, "Chinese Bodies and Gender Matters", aims to unfold the changing perceptions of femininity from imperial China to contemporary China. Case studies touch on female body ideals in the literary fantasies in late Ming, in the iron girls in Communist China, and in the Olympics Hoopla at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This section also discusses Hong Kong women's fashion in the 1960s and how their bodies were shaped by colonial politics. Finally, the subject of sex and emotion in the development of ethical discourse of Chinese female sex workers from late Qing to contemporary society is discussed alongside the impact of the global economy on female beauty today. Overall, this book discusses new conceptual models that feminist scholars are using to displace dualism and emancipate notions of the body from Cartesian mechanistic models and metaphors. The different chapters review traditional and contemporary alternatives to understanding female bodies in Chinese society. Eva Man is professor of humanities and creative writing at Hong Kong Baptist University. She publishes widely in comparative aesthetics, feminist philosophy, cultural studies, art, and cultural criticism.

The Reception of Chinese Art Across Cultures is a collection of essays examining the ways in which Chinese art has been circulated, collected, exhibited and perceived in Japan, Europe and America from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first. Scholars and curators from East Asia, Europe and North America jointly present cutting-edge research on cultural integration and aesthetic hybridisation in relation to the collecting, display, making and interpretation of Chinese art and material culture. Stimulating examples within this volume emphasise the Western understanding of Chinese pictorial art, while addressing issues concerning the consumption of Chinese art and Chinese-inspired artistic productions from early times to the contemporary period; the roles of collector, curator, museum and auction house in shaping the taste, meaning and conception of art; and the art and cultural identity of the Chinese diaspora in a global context. This book espouses a multiplicity of aesthetic, philosophical, socio-cultural, economic and political perspectives, and encourages academics, students, art and museum practitioners to re-think their encounters with the objects, practices, people and institutions surrounding the study of Chinese art and culture in the past and the present.

This is a must-read book about the philosophy of Chinese art and literature. Using examples from a broad range of Chinese art, including bronzes, pottery, fabrics, and paintings, the author brings this marvelous culture into focus and guides his readers in how to examine and interpret Chinese art.

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

This book discusses how China’s transformations in the last century have shaped its arts and its philosophical aesthetics. For instance, how have political, economic and cultural changes shaped its aesthetic developments? Further, how have its long-standing beliefs and traditions clashed with modernizing desires and forces, and how have these changes materialized in artistic manifestations? In addition to answering these questions, this book also brings Chinese philosophical concepts on aesthetics into dialogue with those of the West, making an important contribution to the fields of art, comparative aesthetics and philosophy.