New Readings in Jiangsu Symbols

Culture

By China Report

In terms of cultural heritage, the Great Wall is often most associated with and representative of China. What about cultural symbols for the eastern province of Jiangsu?

This new series of Selected Edition presents readers at home and abroad with 15 cultural symbols, developed in Jiangsu but well known in China and beyond. They include:

– Kun Opera, one of the three ancestors of modern plays in the world
– The Grand Canal, the largest and most extensive civil engineering before the first Industrial Revolution, linking the national capital of Beijing in the north stringing through producers of grain and fine arts in Jiangsu to the southeast coast, now a world cultural heritage
– Xuzhou Stone Carvings, art on burial stones or structures from the Han Dynasty (206BC–AD220)
– Suzhou Gardens, Chinese landscaping on the UNESCO list of world cultural heritage known for its use of space.

For readers with refined taste buds for Chinese food and drink, Huaiyang Cuisine and Yixing Purple Sand Pot are enticing titles that trace the history and modern development of one of the eight Chinese cuisine families and brewing utensils for Chinese tea.

Updated Editions

The 15 titles in the new series have all gone through a rigorous process of selection from the previous five series of Jiangsu Symbols, 52 symbols in 52 volumes. They have been re-edited and redesigned to incorporate the most up-to-date research and developments. For example, the latest volume on the Grand Canal, a UNESCO world heritage site listed in 2014, is updated with the concept of a cultural belt promulgated in 2017 along the whole length of the canal, with contributions from the World Canal Organisation.

The previous five series were published by three different publishers. To give the new series a unified look and feel, the new series, as with the last two series, are managed by Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing, part of Phoenix Publishing and Media Group. Wang Linjun, the deputy chief editor of the Fine Arts publisher, said most titles have been completely reworked by expert English writers.

The Selected Edition is a renewed effort to promote cultural heritage in Jiangsu. The authors involved hope that the upcoming titles will give the readers a chance to revisit and come to a better understanding of the unique cultural heritage of the province, through a more manageable selection of Jiangsu symbols to digest and explore.