Chinese concepts of Privacy

8vo pp.241, coll. sinica leidensia vol. lv. Privacy is a basic concept in discussions on the concept of human rights. This first book on the (traditional) Chinese approach to the subject shows that concepts of privacy have been part of discourse in China from the earliest recorded times to the present, with varying contents, mechanisms, functions and values at different times and among different groups of people.Individual chapters examine inscriptions on early bronzes, medical case histories in the Ming and Qing dynasties, fictional representations of privacy experiences, discussions on public and private virtue by Liang Qichao, the role (or absence) of privacy issues in letters in early imperial China, and the function and values of privacy, secrecy and seclusion in the correspondence between Lu Xun and Xu Guangping.As the first treatment of Chinese concepts of privacy in any language, the book is interdiscipinary by nature and pays particular attention to the terminology and methodology of privacy studies.Particulars and Universals: Studies on Chinese Privacy / Bonnie S. McDougall Solitude, Silence and Concealment: Boundaries of the Social Body in Ming Dynasty China / Charlotte Furth Privacy in Dream of the Red Chamber / Cathy Silber Studying the Private Sphere of the Ancient Chinese Nobility through the Inscriptions on Bronze Ritual Vessels / Maria Khayutina Privacy and Letter Writing in Han and Six Dynasties China / David Pattinson The Origins of Modern Chinese Concepts of Privacy: Notes on Social Structure and Moral Discourse / Peter Zarrow Functions and Values of Privacy in the Correspondence between Lu Xun and Xu Guangping, 1925-1929 / Bonnie S. McDougall Privacy and its Ill Effects in Post-Mao Urban Fiction / Robin Visser The Extrication of Memory in Tie Ning's Woman Showering: Privacy and the Trap of History / Chen Xiaoming Reflections on Privacy in China / Stephan Feuchtwang.