Bibliographies on Chinese history and culture
Except for the bibliography "Protest and dissent
in traditional China" (which is closed and only available as a Winword
file), the other bibliographies are updated irregularly and are available in the normal WWW format. They are work-in-progress, geared
to my personal research and teaching. They all deal with different aspects
of Chinese culture and history. Links may be outdated.
Table of contents:
On using the Internet for scholarly purposes
Annotated Bibliographies on Violence
and Literacy:
A research guide for the study of Chinese
religious culture:
Annotated bibliographies for the
study of Chinese religious culture.
On using the Internet for scholarly purposes
Some words of
caution are in place at this point concerning Internet resources. One should not be misled by the semblance of perfection that often radiates from
beautifully designed webpages. The esthetics of such webpages are often
in an inverted relationship to their quality. Generally speaking, any resource
is as good as its author(s) and as up-to-date as the energies of the author(s)
allow. Only too often, resources are placed in the Internet and then not
maintained. Also, there are too many collections of links without comments
on the quality of the websites to which a link is provided. Increasingly,
I am starting to feel that materials in the Internet are in fact often
of less quality than traditional publications. One reason for this may
well be that quality control in the sense of peer reviews (both preceding
publication in print and afterwards in the form of critical book reviews)
is virtually lacking. The Internet would profit from more critical
self-reflection.
Do not forget that the age-old paper format allows for easier reference whilst
doing something else, since one can spread sheets of paper out on one's
bed or desk, open up many books at the same time, etc. etc. Therefore,
one should use the Internet as a potentially wonderful medium for making
one's own resources available and using other people's resources, without
relying on it exclusively. (Addendum, 2-9-2018) Although I wrote these wise words two decades ago, it seems still true today--at least for me personally. Since then I have acquired thousands of digital books on my external harddisks, and yet even with two computer screens I need to have paper resoures available as well. It must be my generation, since my (grown up and now university trained) children are increasingly comfortable with using their smart phone as a dictionary and so on.
Annotated Bibliographies on Violence
and Literacy
-
"Literacy, writing and education" This bibliography treats all aspects of reading, writing, orality, education etc. in the premodern and modern
periods. Since this is a huge topic, some sections will be more developped than others. My main orientation is towards disproving the supremacy of writing and the written, including demonstrating that the written often functioned differently from our modern way (at least as it functioned in the west until recently, since here too change is imminent) and certainly from the way Chinese literati have assumed it to function.
-
"Annotated bibliography on violence in Chinese culture"
On the structuring role of violence in Chinese culture, rather than on
violent events per se. Including topics such as violence, discussions on
violence, sacrifice, cannibalism, warfare, exorcism, healing, religious
culture and violence, etc. Here I am interested in all facets of violence, without wishing to make the claim that violence can be good, but certainly open to the likelihood that it is common and well-accepted in many forms in most parts of Chinese culture for most of the time.
-
"Protest and dissent in traditional China" (closed
december 1994) (crosslinks to a textfile in Winword, can be read
after downloading these files to one's own computer)
A Researchguide for the study of Chinese
religious culture
-
Working
on religious culture in China. Here I treat both written and electronic resources for studying Chinese religious culture, always from the viewpoint of their scholarly usefulness.
Annotated bibliographies for the
study of Chinese religious culture