Leo Ou-fan Lee – författare

Lu Xun and His Legacy explores the profound and complex impact of Lu Xun, a towering figure in modern Chinese literature, whose influence has extended far beyond his writings. Hailed as a revolutionary thinker and a literary pioneer, Lu Xun's works, including Call to Arms and Wild Grass, were instrumental in shaping the intellectual and cultural landscape of 20th-century China. The book examines the dichotomy between his public persona as a revered advocate of social reform and his private struggles with self-doubt and existential anguish. It delves into the Chinese Communist Party's canonization of Lu Xun, framing him as an ideological forerunner to Mao Zedong, while critically assessing the simplifications and distortions that resulted from this state-sponsored idealization.The collection features interdisciplinary essays that dissect Lu Xun's literary genius, political engagement, and lasting cultural legacy. It investigates his innovative narrative techniques, his nuanced critique of Chinese society, and the tensions between his humanistic morality and revolutionary ideals. The book also highlights the varied global reception of Lu Xun's works, from Japan's deep intellectual engagement to Western scholars' burgeoning interest. Through a blend of historical context, literary analysis, and cultural commentary, Lu Xun and His Legacy offers an indispensable resource for understanding the life and works of one of China's most iconic and enigmatic figures, while charting new directions for scholarly discourse.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

Lu Xun and His Legacy explores the profound and complex impact of Lu Xun, a towering figure in modern Chinese literature, whose influence has extended far beyond his writings. Hailed as a revolutionary thinker and a literary pioneer, Lu Xun's works, including Call to Arms and Wild Grass, were instrumental in shaping the intellectual and cultural landscape of 20th-century China. The book examines the dichotomy between his public persona as a revered advocate of social reform and his private struggles with self-doubt and existential anguish. It delves into the Chinese Communist Party's canonization of Lu Xun, framing him as an ideological forerunner to Mao Zedong, while critically assessing the simplifications and distortions that resulted from this state-sponsored idealization.The collection features interdisciplinary essays that dissect Lu Xun's literary genius, political engagement, and lasting cultural legacy. It investigates his innovative narrative techniques, his nuanced critique of Chinese society, and the tensions between his humanistic morality and revolutionary ideals. The book also highlights the varied global reception of Lu Xun's works, from Japan's deep intellectual engagement to Western scholars' burgeoning interest. Through a blend of historical context, literary analysis, and cultural commentary, Lu Xun and His Legacy offers an indispensable resource for understanding the life and works of one of China's most iconic and enigmatic figures, while charting new directions for scholarly discourse.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.

An Intellectual History of Modern China, first published in 2002, is a comprehensive book on modern China's intellectual development from the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee introduce and set the contemporary, scholarly context for this collection of essays, drawn from the later volumes (Volumes 12-15) of The Cambridge History of China. The chapters, authored by eminent historians and social scientists in the field of Chinese studies, together trace the transformation of Confucian ideas, the introduction of Western views, and the resulting, uniquely Chinese view of the world. By linking key intellectual developments and figures to emerging political movements, they explain the profound impact of changing ideas and values on Chinese politics and revolution. Merle Goldman brings the history up to date with a new, concluding chapter on the Deng Xiaoping era and China's intellectual scene at the end of the twentieth century.

An Intellectual History of Modern China, first published in 2002, is a comprehensive book on modern China's intellectual development from the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee introduce and set the contemporary, scholarly context for this collection of essays, drawn from the later volumes (Volumes 12-15) of The Cambridge History of China. The chapters, authored by eminent historians and social scientists in the field of Chinese studies, together trace the transformation of Confucian ideas, the introduction of Western views, and the resulting, uniquely Chinese view of the world. By linking key intellectual developments and figures to emerging political movements, they explain the profound impact of changing ideas and values on Chinese politics and revolution. Merle Goldman brings the history up to date with a new, concluding chapter on the Deng Xiaoping era and China's intellectual scene at the end of the twentieth century.

Hong Kong is perched on the fault line between China and the West, a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Leo Ou-fan Lee offers an insider’s view of Hong Kong, capturing the history and culture that make his densely packed home city so different from its generic neighbors. The search for an indigenous Hong Kong takes Lee to the wet markets and corner bookshops of congested Mong Kok, remote fishing villages and mountainside temples, teahouses and noodle stalls, Cantonese opera and Cantopop. But he also finds the “real” Hong Kong in a maze of interconnected shopping malls, a jungle of high-rise residential towers, and the neon glow of Chinese-owned skyscrapers in the Central Business District, where land development, global trade, capital accumulation, consumerism, and free-market competition trump every value—except family. Lee illuminates the relationship between Hong Kong’s geography and its colonial experience, revisiting colonial life on the secluded Peak, in the opium-filled godowns along the harborfront, and in crowded, plague-infested tenements. He examines, with a critic’s eye, the “Hong Kong story” in film and fiction: romance in the bars and brothels of Wan Chai, crime in the walled city of Kowloon, ennui on the eve of the 1997 handover. Whether viewed from Tsing Yi Bridge or the deck of the Star Ferry, from Victoria Peak or Lion Rock, Hong Kong sparkles here in all its multifaceted complexity, a city forever between worlds.

In the midst of China’s wild rush to modernize, a surprising note of reality arises: Shanghai, it seems, was once modern indeed, a pulsing center of commerce and art in the heart of the twentieth century. This book immerses us in the golden age of Shanghai urban culture, a modernity at once intrinsically Chinese and profoundly anomalous, blending new and indigenous ideas with those flooding into this “treaty port” from the Western world.A preeminent specialist in Chinese studies, Leo Ou-fan Lee gives us a rare wide-angle view of Shanghai culture in the making. He shows us the architecture and urban spaces in which the new commercial culture flourished, then guides us through the publishing and filmmaking industries that nurtured a whole generation of artists and established a bold new style in urban life known as modeng. In the work of six writers of the time, particularly Shi Zhecun, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang, Lee discloses the reflection of Shanghai’s urban landscape—foreign and familiar, oppressive and seductive, traditional and innovative. This work acquires a broader historical and cosmopolitan context with a look at the cultural links between Shanghai and Hong Kong, a virtual genealogy of Chinese modernity from the 1930s to the present day.