China’s Literary Cosmopolitans

China’s Literary Cosmopolitans offers a comprehensive introduction to the literary oeuvres of Qian Zhongshu (1910-98) and Yang Jiang (b. 1911). It assesses their novels, essays, stories, poetry, plays, translations, and criticism, and discusses their reception as two of the most important Chinese scholar-writers of the twentieth century.

In addition to re-evaluating this married couple’s intertwined literary careers, the book also explains why they have come to represent such influential models of Chinese literary cosmopolitanism. Uncommonly well-versed in Western languages and literatures, Qian and Yang chose to live in China and write in Chinese. China’s Literary Cosmopolitans argues for their artistic importance while analyzing their works against
the modern cultural imperative that Chinese literature be worldly.

Christopher Rea (Ph.D., Columbia) is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (California, 2015), co-editor of The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65 (ubc Press, 2015), and editor of Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts: Stories and Essays by Qian Zhongshu(Columbia, 2011).

Christopher Rea (Ph.D., Columbia) is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (California, 2015), co-editor of The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia (UBC Press, 2015), and editor of Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts: Stories and Essays by Qian Zhongshu (Columbia, 2011).

"[T]his edited volume makes a crucial contribution to the fields of Chinese studies and literary studies by offering a new model for theorizing cosmopolitanism outside a Eurocentric paradigm, built on meticulous analyses of Qian’s and Yang’s works. […]China’s Literary Cosmopolitans will be an indispensable text for scholars seeking to investigate the relationship between the provincial and the cosmopolitan, the particular and the universal, literature and politics, and the nation and the world."
Inhye Han, Ewha Womans University, MCLC Resource Center Publication (September, 2016)

"论文集的出版将助力海内外学者重新审视这两位学者型作家对中国文学和世界文学的重大贡献，助推他们的作品在西方的译介、传播与研究。第一次将钱锺书、杨绛定位于“文学世界主义者”，从全新的角度评价他们对中国文学和世界文学做出的突出贡献。第一次在英语世界相对完整地研究杨绛的作品，是海外杨绛研究的扛鼎之作。第一次较为系统地、别出心裁地出版钱锺书、杨绛研究的论文集，给海内外钱锺书、杨绛研究吹来一缕清风。"
余承法, 中南民族大学, 当代作家评论 (2016年2期)
Yu Chengfa, South-Central University for Nationalities, Contemporary Writers Review (March, 2016)

“[This volume] brings the English-language scholarship on both authors up to date. At the same time it is a useful tool and stepping stone to more studies about the fascinating works of Yang Jiang and Qian Zhongshu.”
Monika Motsch, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 64.2, December 2016

"China’s Literary Cosmopolitans offers both a valuable introduction to two outstanding cultural figures, and innovative scholarship on aspects of their work which have previously received less scholarly attention."
Richard King, University of Victoria, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 90, No. 1 (March 2017)

"These essays illumine their very influential contributions to the development of Chinese literary and cultural forms and their lifelong negotiations with their changing audiences about the positions they could occupy and the work they could do...Rea and his colleagues have woven together many threads of a narrative about the course this pre-eminent Chinese literary couple charted over nearly eight decades of risks and challenges."
Ellen Soullière, Massey University, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies (June 2017)