Imperial-Time-Order

Imperial-Time-Order is an engagingly written critical study on a persistent historical way of thinking in modern China. Defined as normalization of unification and moralization of time, Qian suggests, the imperial-time-order signifies a temporal structure of empire that has continued to shape the way modern China developed itself conceptually. Weaving together intellectual debates with literary and media representations of imperial history since the late Qing period, ranging from novels, stage plays, films, to television series, Qian traces the different temporalities of each period and takes “time” as the analytical node by which issues of empire, nation, family, morality, individual and collective subjectivity are constructed and contested.

Kun Qian, Ph.D (2009), Cornell University, is Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature and Film at the University of Pittsburgh. She has published critical essays and encyclopaedia entries on modern Chinese literature and cinema in both English and Chinese language.