TY - BOOK ID - 77883940 TI - Speaking to history AU - Cohen, Paul A AU - Gillis, John R PY - 2009 SN - 1283291746 9786613291745 0520942396 9780520942394 9781283291743 9780520265837 0520265831 6613291749 9780520255791 0520255798 PB - Berkeley University of California Press DB - UniCat KW - HISTORY / Asia / General. KW - Goujian, KW - Kou-chien, KW - 勾践, KW - 勾踐, KW - China KW - History KW - S04/0400 KW - S04/0900 KW - S11/0540 KW - S16/0475 KW - China: History--General works: China KW - China: History--People's Republic: general KW - China: Social sciences--The Chinese model KW - China: Literature and theatrical art--Popular literature (incl. fairy tales, legends) KW - 20th century chinese history. KW - 5th century chinese history. KW - antiquity. KW - bai hua. KW - chiang kai shek. KW - china. KW - chinese culture. KW - chinese history. KW - collective memory. KW - crisis and response. KW - cross cultural perspectives. KW - cultural narratives. KW - cultural studies. KW - folklore. KW - folktales. KW - history. KW - hope. KW - insider cultural knowledge. KW - inspiration. KW - king goujian. KW - late qing years. KW - national humiliation. KW - nobility. KW - past story. KW - political allegory. KW - political. KW - present reality. KW - privatizing china. KW - republican years. KW - royalty. KW - taiwan. KW - woxin changdan fever. KW - xiao jun. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77883940 AB - The ancient story of King Goujian, a psychologically complex fifth-century BCE monarch, spoke powerfully to the Chinese during China's turbulent twentieth century. Yet most Americans-even students and specialists of this era-have never heard of Goujian. In Speaking to History, Paul A. Cohen opens this previously missing (to the West) chapter of China's recent history. He connects the story to each of the major traumas of the last century, tracing its versatility as a source of inspiration and hope and elegantly exploring, on a more general level, why such stories often remain sealed up within a culture, unknown to outsiders. Labeling this phenomenon "insider cultural knowledge," Cohen investigates the relationship between past story and present reality. He inquires why at certain moments in their collective lives peoples are especially drawn to narratives from the distant past that resonate strongly with their current circumstances, and why the Chinese have returned over and over to a story from twenty-five centuries ago. In this imaginative stitching of story to history, Cohen reveals how the shared narratives of a community help to define its culture and illuminate its history. ER -