A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film

Michael Berry

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Paper, 432 pages, 100 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14163-5
$26.50 / £18.50

October, 2008
Cloth, 432 pages, 100 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14162-8
$45.00 / £31.00

"Twentieth-century China had more than its share of pain, and Michael Berry unfolds the layers of its meanings in diverse contexts and several media. He shows how the pain of groups relates to identity, morality, politics, and to the meaning of 'history' and 'literature.' No serious student of modern China will want to miss his erudite survey." — Perry Link, professor of East Asian studies, Princeton University

"Beautifully written, this book is 'educational' in the very best sense. . . . Essential." — Choice

"The book is significant for its extensive survey of the discourse of trauma." — JumpCut

Related Subjects

• Asian History
• Asian Literature
• Film

Series

• Global Chinese Culture

About the Author

Michael Berry is associate professor of contemporary Chinese cultural studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers, Jia Zhang-ke’s Hometown Trilogy, and Memories of Shadows and Light: In Dialogue with the Cinematic World of Hou Hsiao-hsien (in Chinese) and the translator of several novels, including To Live, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, Wild Kids: Two Novels About Growing Up, and, with Susan Chan Egan, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai.

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