This book introduces traditional and modern aesthetics and arts, comparing the similarities and differences between traditional and modern Chinese aesthetics. It also explores the aesthetic implications of traditional Chinese paintings, and discusses the development of aesthetics throughout history, as well as the changes and improvements in Chinese aesthetics in the context of globalization.

From 1978 to 1985 there was a craze for aesthetics in China. This was anticipated by a "great aesthetics discussion" between 1956 and 1962, but its cause lay more in its significance for Chinese society immediately after the Cultural Revolution. It played an important part in the ideological liberation movement, which transformed the minds of the Chinese; it encouraged the spread of Western ideas in China, and it broke up the ossified Zhdanovist system in Uterary and artistic theory, making the (...) Chinese reflect on their own tradition, recognize Western culture and thus try to develop an aesthetics of both China and the world. (shrink)