Download Free Everyday Use Of Written Canton Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Everyday Use Of Written Canton and write the review.

An excerpt from the INTRODUCTION: Under the belief that a few brief remarks upon the most striking characteristics of the Chinese language generally, and of the Canton dialect more particularly, will be of service to intending students, they are hereunder subjoined. THE SPOKEN LANGUAGES OF CHINA, which embrace four strongly marked divisions known as the Mandarin, Fuhkien, Cantonese and Hakka Vernaculars, are reputed to include some 360 dialects, many of which present but very slight differences of word or idiom. The Vernaculars, on the other hand, are to all intents and purposes, distinct languages, connected together only by the common use of the same written character and idiom. A popular, but very mistaken, notion is prevalent, on the part of those unacquainted with Chinese, that a sentence of Cantonese, written as it is spoken, is necessarily intelligible to a native of another part of the Empire. This is by no means the case, but as Cantonese and Tartars alike use a style of written composition understood by all, men who cannot understand a word of each others' speech can at once understand each others' letters or dispatches. They therefore possess a common literature, which justifies us in talking of "Chinese" as if the term referred to but one language, possessing only different dialects. It is here unnecessary to enter into any disquisition upon the genius of this written language, which must form the subject of a separate work. It will be sufficient to say that the characters used to represent words consist of various combinations of certain signs, a vast proportion of which, now-a-days arbitrary, can be traced to an original hieroglyphic or ideographic representation of the object alluded to. Under the system now in use 214 of these signs, usually termed "radicals," have been selected as the "keys" under which every character in the language is ranged. They therefore take the place of western alphabets, with the serious difference that they do not by any means necessarily indicate the sound of the characters found under them. The acquisition of the written or "book" language, as it is for convenience termed, hence becomes a very serious effort of memory to the majority of students. The present work is intended primarily for those who desire in the first instance to acquire a knowledge of the vernacular only, the Chinese type being used, chiefly, to allow a native teacher to correct the student's pronunciation; and the author strongly recommends a preliminary six months oral study of the language before the written character is attacked. Many eminent scholars, however, recommend a contrary course, and maintain that no word should be deemed as learnt until the character expressing it is mastered also. The objections to this are, that as many characters have a different sense in the colloquial to that they possess in the " book" style, some confusion is therefore likely to arise in the student's mind; while the difficulties of mastering the characters will probably so retard him in his study of the colloquial, that the enthusiasm of a beginner is apt to become unduly damped. There is, however, nothing to prevent any one so minded from studying both simultaneously. The only necessary caution is that in Chinese every step must be thoroughly mastered. Superficial work is essentially wasted work.
"The letters forming the subject of this small work were written during a fourteen months' residence in the city of Canton, where I enjoyed many opportunities of seeing the inner life of the Chinese, and of learning much of their daily life in their own homes. The letters were written for circulation amongst my family and a few friends who kindly expressed an interest in all I saw and did in the far-off country of China. These descriptive letters accompanied others I wrote at the same time to my family, and so they do not contain any reference to domestic matters necessary to suppress. They are therefore published in extenso. We left Liverpool in the S.S. Abyssinian on our outward journey, January 13th, 1877, and arrived at New York in fourteen days. Our voyage was rough and uninteresting, especially so perhaps to me, as I was very ill the whole time. Fourteen days spent in a cabin is very trying, even to the most patient of minds"--Introduction.
Lisa Hellman offers the first study of European everyday life in Canton and Macao. How foreigners could live, communicate, move around – even whom they could interaction with – were all things strictly regulated by the Chinese authorities. The Europeans sometimes adapted to, and sometimes subverted, these rules. Focusing on this conditional domesticity shows the importance of gender relations, especially the construction of masculinity. Using the Swedish East India Company, a minor European actor in an expanding Asian empire, as a point of entry highlights the multiplicity of actors taking part in local negotiations of power. The European attempts at making a home in China contributes to a global turn in everyday history, but also to an everyday turn in global history.
Over recent years, a greater diversity of spaces has opened up worldwide for the making and display of art beyond the gallery. A new 'space consciousness' has developed, with an emphasis on the significance of the spatial. Judith Rugg takes up a range of site-specific artworks internationally located in countries ranging from China to France, Italy and the UK, Argentina and Canada to Australia, Poland and the Netherlands to explore the relationships between site-specific art and space set within its globalising contexts. Through close inspection of works such artists as Doris Salcedo, Langlands and Bell, Phyllida Barlow and Vong Phaophanit, Rugg considers how an interdisciplinary spatial theory can inform many elements of contemporary art. In clear, illustrated chapters, she engages with very contemporary spatial issues, including those of the environment, cultural identity and belonging, as well as experiences of displacement, migration and marginalisation and the effects of urbanization and tourism. For students and practitioners of fine arts, art theory and history, as well as those who are fascinated by site-specific art, this is an original and challenging exploration.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1894.