Unity and diversity : local cultures and identities in China

Includes bibliographical references and indexThis book examines the evolution of the local identity in China from historical times to the present day. It traces the expression of local identity in religion and myth, in the construction of the provincial character, in the growth of cities, in literature, in economic development and in the expansion of the Chinese state. It argues that the growth of a local identity was part and parcel of the evolution of a national character. But, it notes also that the transforming of the local identity with the extension of the state has often come with a sense of nostalgia, a yearning for a world that has perhaps never beenpublished_or_final_version10 Local Religion and Village Identity / Stephen Feuchtwang p161AcknowledgementsList of ContributorsGlossary p197Index p209Introduction. What Does the Chinese Person Identify With? / Tao Tao Liu p11 Provinces, City Gods and Salt Merchants: Provincial Identity in Ming and Qing Dynasty Hangzhou / Susanna Thornton p152 Becoming Cantonese. The Ming Dynasty Transition / David Faure p373 Literary, Ethnic or Territorial? Definitions of Guangdong Culture in the Late Qing and the Early Republic / May-bo Ching p514 Xinjiang: In Search of an Identity / Laura Newby p675 The Kings Who Could Fly Without Their Heads: 'Local' Culture in China and the Case of the Hmong / Nicholas Tapp p836 The Image and Identity of the Shanghainese / Xiong Yuezhi p997 Creating a Shanghai Identity - Late Qing Courtesan Handbooks and the Formation of the New Citizen / Catherine Yeh p1078 Women, Work and Identity: A Study of two 1930s Novels on the Opera Singer / Mau-sang Ng p1259 Local Identity in Chinese Fiction and Fiction of the Native Soil 'Xiangtu Wenxue' / Tao Tao Liu p13911 Remade in Hong Kong: Weaving Into the Chinese Cultural Tapestry / Helen F. Siu p17