Description
Book SynopsisTouches of History represents a groundbreaking attempt to return to a study of “May Fourth” that is solidly grounded in historical fact. Favouring smaller stories over grand narratives, concentrating on unknown, marginal materials rather than familiar key documents, and highlighting “May Fourth”’s indebtedness to the cultural debates of the preceding late Qing period, Chen Pingyuan reconstructs part of the actual historical scenery, demonstrating the great variety of ideas expressed during those tumultuous decades.
Trade Review"As a whole, Chen's 'writings on the margins' consistently edify and engage readers; they exemplify the joy and satisfaction to be obtained from literary historical scholarship, once the indeterminacy of the May Fourth's meaning is taken as a virtue. That joy and satisfaction come from such things as the discovery of an obscure text hidden in a far corner of a library that unexpectedly reveals how little we know about early twentieth-century China; or when the hard labor of archival research yields new insights into a presumptively fixed historical account. By reexamining both primary sources and received interpretive paradigms, Chen reminds readers of the complexity of literary historical scholarship, and thereby both reappraises the 'May Fourth' and reinvigorate it as an intriguing subject for research and reflection." Tze-ki Hon, State University of New York at Geneseo, MCLC Resource Center Publication (March 2012) http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/pubs/reviews/hon.htm "Touches of History is a fine work of literary history providing new insights into some of the literary and cultural debates of the May Fourth era, showing Chen’s erudition and meticulous scholarship...[T]he book does provide an “entry” into May Fourth China and makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on the early Republican period." Edmund S.K. Fung, University of Western Sydney, The China Journal, No. 69 (January 2013).
