The Monster That Is History

"This is a magnificent book—one of the most original and stunning in the field of modern Chinese literature. The eight studies that comprise the book unfold a vast canvas of twentieth-century China, one that is filled with terror, violence, phantasmagoria, and death. This is indeed the dark, ghostly side of the 'Chinese Modern.' Wang's prodigious command of primary Chinese texts from the entire literary legacy of twentieth century China is nothing short of stunning. No other study in the field in any language is remotely comparable to the richness and density of materials and insights packed into the book."—Leo Ou-fan Lee, Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University

"This is a revolutionary book, a series of connected essays that lay bare 20th-century China's history of violence. The range and quality of investigation into literary and historical representations of pain are stunning; the material is as fresh as the scholarly ends to which it contributes. An absolute must read."—Howard Goldblatt, co-editor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature

"David Wang is in his element. In this monumental work on the mutual implication of Chinese modernity and the representation of violence, Wang is at once historical, critical, and mythopoetic. The haunting metaphor of tauwu as monster and history gives this book both a theoretical backbone and a contemplative richness that goes beyond the genre of literary criticism. It is a masterpiece of the finest caliber."—Jing Wang, S.C. Fang Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology