Author Description

Current issues of identity crisis and reconceptualizing "Chinese-ness" are brought to the fore by "marginalized literati" through books and subcultures, contends Shi (media and cultural studies, Tsinghua U., China), surveying Chinese bestsellers, officially banned books and films, popular music, and broadcast and print advertising. Of central concern to Shi are the ongoing encounters between the global and the local in the formation of class, gender, ethnic, societal, and cultural identities. Contemporary critical theory informs his approach as he attempts to analyze the links between Chinese identity and Chinese "globalized" postmodernity. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)