The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65

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The Business of Culture

Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65

Edited by: Christopher Rea and Nicolai Volland

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2014

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About this book

From the late nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth century, changing technologies and growing transregional ties provided unprecedented opportunities for the entrepreneurially minded in China and Southeast Asia. The Business of Culture examines the rise of Chinese “cultural entrepreneurs,” businesspeople who risked financial well-being and reputation by investing in multiple cultural enterprises in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rich in biographical detail, the interlinked case studies featured in this volume introduce three distinct archetypes: the cultural personality, the tycoon, and the collective enterprise. These portraits reveal how changes in social and economic conditions created the fertile soil for business success; conditions that are similar to those emerging in China today.

Author / Editor information

Christopher Rea is an associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. Nicolai Volland is an assistant professor of Asian studies and comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University.

Contributors: Chua Ai Lin, Robert Culp, Grace Fong, Michael Gibbs Hill, Eugenia Lean, Christopher A. Reed, Sin Yee Theng, Wang Gungwu, and Sai-Shing Yung

Reviews

This collection of essays represents a new period in the historiography of China, and the vantage point, that of capitalist China revived and flourishing, fits well with the analyses presented in the volume. Indeed, as Rea’s theoretical chapter on the concept of cultural entrepreneurship notes, this offers a new approach to "pluralism and mobility in the cultural sphere" (27) beyond the categories imposed by a political analysis.

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Front Matter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Wang Gungwu Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Christopher Rea and Nicolai Volland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	3
Enter the Cultural Entrepreneur Christopher Rea Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	9
Cultural Personalities
Between the Literata and the New Woman Lü Bicheng as Cultural Entrepreneur Grace Fong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	35
The Butterfly Mark Chen Diexian, His Brand, and Cultural Entrepreneurism in Republican China Eugenia Lean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	62
Culture by Post Correspondence Schools in Early Republican China Michael Gibbs Hill Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	92
Tycoons
Aw Boon Haw, the Tiger from Nanyang Social Entrepreneurship, Transregional Journalism, and Public Culture Sin Yee Theng and Nicolai Volland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	121
One Chicken, Three Dishes The Cultural Enterprises of Law Bun Sai-Shing Yung and Christopher Rea Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	150
Collective Enterprises
Local Entrepreneurs, Transnational Networks Publishing Markets and Cantonese Communities within and across National Borders Robert Culp Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	181
Cultural Consumption and Cosmopolitan Connections Chinese Cinema Entrepreneurs in 1920s and 1930s Singapore Chua Ai Lin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	207
Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Twilight The Shanghai Book Trade Association, 1945–57 Nicolai Volland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	234
Epilogue Beyond the Age of Cultural Entrepreneurship, 1949–Present Christopher A. Reed and Nicolai Volland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	259
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	283
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	295
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	317
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	320
Contemporary Chinese Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	331

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

August 24, 2023

eBook ISBN:

9780774827829

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

348

https://doi.org/10.59962/9780774827829

eBook ISBN: 9780774827829

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

The Business of Culture

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About this book

Author / Editor information

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