Western Theory’s Chinese Transformation
Abstract
In “The Making of Chinese Meixue,” Li and Wang discuss the Chinese translation of the term “aesthetics.” It had been believed that it was the German missionary Ernst Faber who first coined the Chinese term “meixue,” which is refuted in this paper. The view that the term “shenmeixue” in Japan was derived from Wilhelm Lobscheid’s English and Chinese Dictionary also lacks factual basis. It is true that the term “meixue” was introduced to China from the West via Japan, but it was then a term that had not yet developed within a specific discourse, which would have never been achieved without Wang Guowei’s unique insights. Wang Guowei’s important contribution to modern Chinese aesthetics lies in his integration of Western-derived aesthetic terms into the construction of Chinese aesthetic discourse, establishing a new paradigm of cross-cultural aesthetics for Chinese meixue.
Recommended Citation
Qingben, LI;
and Gang, WANG.
"The Making of Chinese Meixue."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
25.3
(2023):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.4485>
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