From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China

by Wendy Larson

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When Freudian sexual theory hit China in the early 20th century, it ran up against competing models of the mind from both Chinese tradition and the new revolutionary culture. Chinese theorists of the mind-both traditional intellectuals and revolutionary psychologists- steadily put forward the anti-Freud: a mind shaped not by deep interiority that must be excavated by professionals, but shaped instead by social and cultural interactions.

Chinese novelists and film directors understood this focus and its relationship to Mao's revolutionary ethos, and much of the literature of twentieth-century China reflects the spiritual qualities of the revolutionary mind. From Ah Q to Lei Feng investigates the continual clash of these contrasting models of the mind provided by Freud and revolutionary Chinese culture, and explores how writers and filmmakers negotiated with the implications of each model.

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  • ISBN10 0804700753
  • ISBN13 9780804700757
  • Publish Date 16 October 2008
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Stanford University Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 336
  • Language English