Why the Dragon is Central to Chinese Culture | Monstrum

Check out Subcultured on @pbsvoices: Don’t miss future episodes of Monstrum, subscribe! The Chinese dragon is one of the world’s most globally recognized monsters. Playing a major role throughout Chinese history, they were both creators and destroyers and controlled the elements. They’ve influenced everything from politics to religion—what is it about the Chinese Dragon that makes it such a central figure in Chinese culture? The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans’ unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies. Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka Director: David Schulte Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Producer: Thomas Fernandes Editor/Animator: P.W. Shelton Assistant Editor: Jordyn Buckland Illustrator: Samuel Allen Executive in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing Additional Footage: Shutterstock Music: APM Music Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. Follow us on Instagram: __________ BIBLIOGRAPHY Allan, Sarah. “The Taotie Motif in Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: pp. 21–66. Hodge, Bob, and Kam Louie. The Politics of Chinese Language and Culture the Art of Reading Dragons. Routledge, 1998. Ho, Judy Chungwa. “Representing the Twelve Calendrical Animals as Beastly, Human, and Hybrid Beings in Medieval China.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: pp. 95–136. Irwin, J. O’Malley. “Fossils of the Chinese Dragon.” The Far Eastern Review. Dec. 1915, Vol. XII, Issue 7, pg. 247. Purtle, Jennifer. “The Pictorial Form of a Zoomorphic Ecology: Dragons and Their Painters in Song and Southern China.” The Zoomorphic Imagination in Chinese Art and Culture Eds. Jerome Silbergeld, and Eugene Y. Wang. University of Hawai’I Press, 2016: 253–288. Sax, Boria. Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human. Reaktion Books, Limited, 2013. Schipper, Mineke., et al. China’s Creation and Origin Myths Cross-Cultural Explorations in Oral and Written Traditions. Brill, 2011. Sri Ranjan, Dharma Keerthi, and Zhou Chang. “The Chinese Dragon Concept as a Spiritual Force of the Masses.” Sabaramuwa University Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, Dec. 2010, pp. 65–80. Strassberg, Richard E. Chinese Bestiary. University of California Press, 2002. Zhang, Qiong. “From ‘Dragonology’ to Meteorology: Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and the Beginning of the Decline of the Dragon in China.” Early Science and Medicine, vol. 14, no. 1-3, BRILL, 2009, pp. 340–68.