Lung Ying-Tai, Celebrated writer, literary critic and public intellectual of contemporary Taiwan. Her works also have great influence in the Chinese language world in Hong Kong, China, and North America. Lung Ying-tais most recent work is Big River, Big Sea: Untold Stories of 1949, published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. With it, Professor Lung marks the anniversary in a different way –by writing a book dedicated to the pain and suffering of more than 10 million people who died in the Communist victory and millions of others whose lives were changed forever by it. To that end, Big River, Big Sea: Untold Stories of 1949 is a work of history that transcends nationality, transcends national borders, and straddles the Taiwan Strait. In it, Lung Ying-tai wants to let readers “see an entire generation of people who silently suffered enormous trauma crushed under the iron wheel of history. Western society is familiar with the tragic consequences of the Nazi armys siege of Leningrad during World War Two. Few people are aware, however, of a similar tragedy that took place in 1948 in the northeastern city of Changchun, when Communist armies encircled Nationalist forces during the Civil War. Even the majority of Chinese are unaware of this event. Lung Ying-tai writes not only about that generation, but about all those who were trampled upon, humiliated and destroyed in that historical epoch. Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library
Barber, N. (1979). The fall of shanghai: The communist take-over in 1949. London: Macmillan.
Dulles, F. R. (1972). American policy toward communist china, 1949-1969. New York: Crowell.
Gittings, J. (1989). China changes face: The road from revolution, 1949-1989. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Todorova, M. N., & Gille, Z. (2010). Post-communist nostalgia. New York: Berghahn Books.
UBC Library Research Guides
In collaboration with the Asian Library, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre is pleased to present Cantonese Music: Where East meets West from October 1 to December 15, 2009. Westernization has been a major process in Chinese music since the beginning of the 20th century, illustrated by the adoption of Western harmony, counterpoint and performance practices. Western elements have also influenced the design of instruments, introducing new sonorities to traditional texture.