Monstrosity and Chinese Cultural Identity: Xenophobia and the Reimagination of Foreignness in Vernacular Literature since the Song Dynasty.

• Author: Idema, Wilt L.

Monstrosity and Chinese Cultural Identity: Xenophobia and the Reimagination of Foreignness in Vernacular Literature since the Song Dynasty. By ISAAC YUE. Amherst, NY: CAMBRIA PRESS, 2020. Pp. xii + 199. $110 (cloth); $40 (paper).

Isaac Yue is fascinated by the ugly, even monstrous appearance of some of traditional China's most popular characters during the last millennium. He observes a similarity between that monstrosity and the image of the barbarian Other, the foreigner, and then tries to explain how these characters can still be such beloved figures. Following a short introduction on "China and the Foreign" (pp. 1-8), the book is made up of five chapters. The first chapter is entitled "China Turning Inward" (pp. 9-30), borrowing its title from a well-known monograph by James T. C. Liu, stressing the chauvinistic and xenophobic elements in Song thought, especially in early Neo-Confucianism. The second chapter, "Bestiality and Brutality" (pp. 31-54) focuses on the increasingly negative descriptions of foreigners during the Southern Song dynasty, quoting extensively from the poetry of Lu You (1125-1209), well known for his aversion against the Jurched who had occupied Northern China. In his verse, Lu You often described them as despicable animals--the author notes a reemergence of this imagery, following the demise of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, during the early Ming. The next three chapters are case studies of characters from vernacular literature who in the words of the author of this monograph combine a Chinese inner identity with a later acquired "non-Chinese physicality," and whose enduring popularity prove to him that by the mid-Ming Chinese culture had abandoned the extreme xenophobia of the Southern Song. "The Barbarian and/as the Hero" (pp. 55-84) traces the developments in the characterization of Zhang Fei, who in Ming iconography acquired a swarthy face and full beard. "The Taming of the Ape" (pp. 85-121) deals with some of the contradictions in descriptions of Xuanzang's simian disciple before the sixteenth century. The fifth chapter is titled "An Animalistic Warrior? A Demon-Vanquishing Scholar? The two Faces of Zhong Kui" (pp. 121-44). The text of the monograph ends with "Conclusion: 'Flawed' Characters as Part of the Chinese Heritage," because the ample "Appendix" gathers some of the visual materials referred to in the preceding chapters.

The three main characters that are discussed as examples of a Chinese inner identity and a...