Parallels, interactions, and illuminations : traversing Chinese and Western theories of the sign / Ersu Ding.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The first major work in Sino-Western comparative semiotics, Parallels, Interactions, and Illuminations is a trans-disciplinary and intercultural effort that makes intellectual connections not only across diverse academic fields but also between Chinese and Western theories of the sign.

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CHOICE Review

Ding (Lingnan Univ., Hong Kong) here presents the first published work in the field of Chinese-Western comparative semiotics: the study of cultural signs and symbols and their meanings, specifically, the relation between signs and the effects they have on the people who use them. The author's underlying premise is that a comparison of Chinese and Western theories about signs will reveal new knowledge about semiotics in general, and about certain individual cultural traditions in particular. Ding covers a broad range of texts. The first chapter alone reviews the traditions of "semiotic realism" from Plato and Edmund Husserl to Mozi and Ouyang Jian, and later discussions extend to the semiotic models of Ferdinand de Saussure, Jurgen Habermas, and Qian Zhongshu, among others. Sinologists will be especially interested in chapter 6, in which the author demonstrates how common similes and metaphors extend across Chinese and English. Just one example of simile: "as light as a feather" (qing ru emao). A common formulation of metaphor: "to be in the same boat" (tong zhou gong ji). Ding's point, which he is convincing in making, is that such overlapping expressions are the result of common but arbitrary pairings that extend across different cultures. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. J. M. Hargett SUNY at Albany