Fact in fiction : 1920s China and Ba Jin's Family / Kristin Stapleton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stapleton, Kristin, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ba, Jin, 1904-2005. Jia.

Ba, Jin.

Families in literature.

Social change in literature.

Historical fiction, Chinese--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, Chinese.

Literature and history--China--History--20th century.

Literature and history.

Chengdu (China)--History--20th century.

Chengdu (China).

China--History--Republic, 1912-1949.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (293 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Historical novels can be windows into other cultures and eras, but it's not always clear what's fact and what's fiction. Thousands have read Ba Jin's influential novel Family, but few realize how much he shaped his depiction of 1920s China to suit his story and his politics. In Fact in Fiction, Kristin Stapleton puts Ba Jin's bestseller into full historical context, both to illustrate how it successfully portrays human experiences during the 1920s and to reveal its historical distortions. Stapleton's attention to historical evidence and clear prose that directly addresses themes and characters from Family create a book that scholars, students, and general readers will enjoy. She focuses on Chengdu, China, Ba Jin's birthplace and the setting for Family, which was also a cultural and political center of western China. The city's richly preserved archives allow Stapleton to create an intimate portrait of a city that seemed far from the center of national politics of the day but clearly felt the forces of—and contributed to—the turbulent stream of Chinese history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Ba Jin’s Fiction and Twentieth-Century Chinese History

1. Mingfeng: The Life of a Chinese Slave Girl

2. The Patriarch: Chengdu’s Gentry

3. Juexin’s City: The Chengdu Economy

4. Sedan-Chair Bearers, Beggars, Actors, and Prostitutes: The Worlds of the Urban Poor

5. Students, Soldiers, and Warlords: Protest and Warfare in the City

6. Qin: Chengdu and the “New Woman”

7. Juehui: Revolution, Reform, and Development in Chengdu

Epilogue: Family and City in China’s Twentieth-Century Revolutions

Appendix 1: Timeline of Chengdu’s History and Ba Jin’s Life

Appendix 2: List of Turbulent Stream Characters, with Pinyin and Wade-Giles Romanizations

Notes

Glossary

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9780804799737

0804799733

OCLC:

1178769520