The Cult of Happiness
Nianhua, Art, and History in Rural North China
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Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780774810340
- Publish Date
- Mar 2004
- List Price
- $34.95
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eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774842341
- Publish Date
- Nov 2011
- List Price
- $34.95
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Description
History and art come together in this definitive discussion of the Chinese woodblock print form of nianhua, literally "New Year pictures." James Flath analyzes the role of nianhua in the home and later in the theatre and relates these artworks to the social, cultural, and political milieu of North China as it was between the late Qing dynasty and the early 1950s. Among the first studies in any field to treat folk art as historical text, this extraordinary account offers original insight into popular conceptions of domesticity, morality, gender, society, modernity, and the transformation of the genre as a propaganda tool under communism.
About the author
Contributor Notes
James A. Flath teaches in the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario.