New publications

posts related to new publications in Chinese studies

Chinese Literature and Thought Today 55.1-2

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Dear colleagues,

I’m pleased to announce that Chinese Literature and Thought Today (CLTT) v55, n1-2 is now online at https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/mcsp21/current.

Routledge has stopped offering a free access period for the entire issue. If your institution subscribes to CLTT, you should be able to read and download the full contents. Additionally, the following two pieces in this double issue will be available for free access until the end of August 2024.

“Crafting an Imaginary World of Her Own: A Conversation with Hong Kong Author Wong Yi” by Jennifer Feeley

 “Affective Chinese Socialist Realism: A Reading of Zhao Shuli’s Sanliwan Village” by Daniela Licandro

best,

Ping Zhu <pingzhu@ucsd.edu>

positions: asia critique 32.2

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New Issue of positions: asia critique (32:2) Available Now Online

We are pleased to announce the publication of positions: asia critique 32:2!

The contributors are Inhye Han, Katherine G. T. Whatley, Junnan Chen, Jennifer Dorothy Lee, Pun Ngai, Qiaoyun Zhang, Guanli Zhang, Wen Huang, Yun Tang, Chang-Min Yu, and Yuqing Yang.

Browse the table of contents and read the Editor’s Introduction at https://read.dukeupress.edu/positions/issue/32/2. The issue is available for purchase at https://www.dukeupress.edu/positions.

Posted by: Dale Booth <positionsjournal@alc.rutgers.edu>

The Translational Turn and the Dual Pressures on Chinese Literary Studies

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List members may be interested in my review essay, “The Translational Turn and the Dual Pressures on Chinese Literary Studies,” recently published by the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry and available via open access.

Here’s the abstract:

Whereas sinology, or the study of Chinese literature in English, has often been identifiable by a Chinese culturism, or belief in Chinese civilization as a coherent whole united by its writing system, this review article looks at five books that could be described as participating in a “translational turn” in Chinese literary studies. Yet even as they make powerful arguments against the fundamental unity and cohesiveness of a diachronic Chinese cultural-political identity in their translingual and translational approaches to scholarship, the books—Carla Nappi’s Translating Early Modern China (2021), Haun Saussy’s The Making of Barbarians (2022), Tze-Yin Teo’s If Babel Had A Form (2022), Yunte Huang’s Chinese Whispers (2022), and Nan Z. Da’s Intransitive Encounter (2018)—risk taking for granted the longevity of China’s participation in globalization and its economic integration with the United States. In light of current changes to the relationship between China, the US, and the world order, this review article reads these books while attempting to think through the gains and pitfalls of the translational turn in Chinese literary studies.

And here’s the first paragraph: Continue reading The Translational Turn and the Dual Pressures on Chinese Literary Studies →

Comparative Literature and China

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NEW PUBLICATION
Comparative Literature and China: Methods and Perspectives, special issue of Journal of World Literature guest edited by Zhang Longxi and Sheldon Lu, Volume 9 (2024): Issue 2 (May 2024).

Table of Contents:

Introduction, by Zhang Longxi and Sheldon Lu

Facing Challenges and Opportunities: Chinese-Western Comparative Literature and Poetics, by Zhang Longxi

Some Under Heaven: World Literature and the Deceptiveness of Labels, by Haun Saussy

East-West Cross-Cultural Encounters of the Lyric: Horace (BCE 65-8) and Tao Yuanming (CE 365-427), by Elisabeth Harper

The Early Modern Period, Dream of the Red Chamber, and World Literature, by Sheldon Lu

Confrontation and Withdrawal: The Literature of ‘Denitiation’, by Jian Guo

Understanding ‘World Literature’ in China Today, by Liu Yan

Comparative Literature in Taiwan in the Age of World Literature, by Chung-An Chang

Manipulated Translation, Politicized Canon: Reception of The Gadfly in China, by Zhen Zhang

A Re-deliberation of Minzu Literature and World Literature: The Literary World in Alai’s Writing, by Haomin Gong

Chasing Traces

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This rich collection of essays on history and anthropology in China/SE Asia is out from Hawaii:

Chasing Traces. History and Ethnography in the Uplands of Socialist Asia, edited by Pierre Petit and Jean Michaud. University of Hawaii Press, 2024. (Don’t understand why the publishers would have a website w/o the ToC? But one can buy the book at the above link. )

My own chapter in it is on the Wa people, whose ancient land was cut up by Burma and China, “Wa History: Agency and Victimization”

For chapter abstracts, and all contents, see JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.6505269

Sincerely,

Magnus Fiskesjö

Ming Qing Studies 2023 and cfp

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Call for Papers: Ming Qing Studies
edited by Paolo Santangelo (Sapienza University of Rome)

Ming Qing Studies is a blind peer-reviewed international publication edited by Paolo Santangelo. We are pleased to announce that proposals are being accepted for the 2024 and following issues. We invite the submission of original articles, research notes, and book reviews from any field of study related to the history of late imperial China and East Asian cultures (14th-early 20th centuries). Contributions on social history, collective imageries, representations of emotion and gender, borderland management and innovative approaches to art history, cartography, and imperial ethnography are particularly welcome. All the submitted articles must be written in good English and revised according to our editorial rules. Please e-mail an abstract of 300-500 words, together with a preliminary bibliography and a short-bio of yourself in Microsoft Word or pdf attachment to the following address. Make sure to specify your full name, academic title, affiliation and contact details in your e-mail. Submissions of novel research for inclusion in our brand-new spin-off series, Ming Qing Studies – Monographs, are also encouraged.

Deadlines for submission

Ming Qing Studies 2024     Abstract and bibliograph. notes: May 15, 2024
Full article: July 10, 2024

Ming Qing Studies 2025     Abstract and bibliograph. notes: July 31, 2024
Full article: December 31, 2024

Monographs: December 31, 2024 Continue reading Ming Qing Studies 2023 and cfp →

Chinese queer poetry collections

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Dear MCLC members,

It is my great pleasure to announce the publication of my poetry pamphlet Dream of the Orchid Pavilion (Big White Shed Press, 2024) and poetry collection The Passion of the Rabbit God (Valley Press, 2024). The two books draw on classical Chinese texts such as the Rabbit God story and the Orchid Pavilion Gathering to develop a creative narrative of queer Chinese identity and migrant experience. They also rewrite classical Chinese texts about Chang’e, Qu Yuan and Liangzhu as well as modern English texts about Fu Man-chu from a contemporary feminist, queer and anti-racism lens.

The two books will be launched in Five Leaves Bookshop (Nottingham) in May and The Carousel (Nottingham) in June 2024. They can be purchased in-store from Five Leaves bookshop and online from the Big White Shed Press and Valley Press websites.

Thank you and all the best,

Hongwei Bao <renebao@gmail.com>

Untamed Shrews talk

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Book Talk–Untamed Shrews: Negotiating New Womanhood in Modern China
Shu Yang (Western Michigan University)
LRCCS Noon Lecture Series at Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
Tuesday, April 16, 12 pm
First floor of Weiser Hall, Room 110-120
500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Talk page

Zoom registration

Posted by: Shu Yang <shu.yang@wmich.edu>

Self-kidnappings

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Source: The Diplomat (4/8/24)
Self-kidnappings by Chinese Students Abroad: Mystery Solved
The puzzle presented by these incidents can only be understood in the context of China’s police brutality and growing transnational repression.
By Magnus Fiskesjö

Self-kidnappings by Chinese Students Abroad: Mystery Solved

Credit: Depositphotos.

One of the most baffling news items in recent years has been the cases of Chinese students abroad who effectively kidnap themselves for ransom. They leave home, even tie themselves up with ropes, all on the orders of Chinese cyber-criminals – who are not even there with them.

They may be asked to put bags on their heads, or to cry on camera. They are invariably made to take kidnapping selfie pictures or videos of their suffering. The criminals then use these to blackmail their parents into depositing ransom money to bank accounts in China. Occasionally, the criminals mix in threats of pending arrest, or extradition back to China, as would-be punishment for alleged fraud or other crime said to have been committed by the students or their families. Invariably, the victims are told to cut off all contact with their family and the outside world, and to perform for the camera. Sometimes this is framed as necessary to help the consulate or the police with their “investigations.” There is no logic – except that of perceived power.

During the last few years, a long series of incidents along these lines have involved Chinese students in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the United States – all destinations where Chinese parents with a lot of money send their children to study.

It’s easy to see that this creates an opportunity for criminal fraudsters. The basic scheme of the student kidnappings forms part of a wider array of phone scams, and the peculiar niche of student scams seem to have perpetrators moving from country to country, perhaps as media attention disrupts their chances of success.

But why do all these Chinese students allow themselves to be kidnapped by telephone, and even go on to stage the crime themselves? How should we understand this phenomenon? Continue reading Self-kidnappings →

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality

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We are pleased to share the publication of the Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality coedited by Jamie J. Zhao and Hongwei Bao, which may be of interest to some in this group.

The ebook is available for purchase via Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality. A free preview of the book’s introduction is also available on its T&F page (T&F page for Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality). A 20% DISCOUNT (using the code EFLY01) IS CURRENT AVAILABLE. A flyer for promotion is also attached to this email. Please help widely share and order the Handbook with your local/university libraries. Please kindly find its description and TOC below:

This Handbook offers a rich survey of topics concerning historical, modern and contemporary Chinese genders and sexualities. Exploring gender and sexuality as key dimensions of China’s modernisation and globalisation, this Handbook effectively situates Chinese gender and sexuality in transnational and transcultural contexts. It also spotlights nonnormative practices and emancipatory potentials within mainstream, heterosexual-dominated and patriarchally structured settings. It serves as a definitive study, research and resource guide for emerging gender and sexuality issues in the Chinese-speaking world. This Handbook covers interdisciplinary methodologies, perspectives and topics, including: Continue reading Routledge Handbook of Chinese Gender and Sexuality →

JCLC 10.2

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The new issue of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 10.2 is now available in print and online. All articles are ready to be downloaded via Duke University Press Journals Online (subscription needed)

Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 
Volume 10 Issue 2   November 2023
Editors Yuan Xingpei and Zong-qi Cai

Table of Contents

The Philosophical Proposition “A Piercing Glance Elevates the Mind” and the Buddhist Thought in Zong Bing’s “A Preface to the Painting of Landscape”
By ZONG-QI CAI and STEPHEN RODDY

Horse Language and Improvised Memorials: Gong Kai’s Equine Paintings and Song Loyalism
By NAJUNG KIM

Unquiet Qing: The Course of Lovesickness in the Modernization of Chinese Literature
By LIU ZIYUN and YUEFAN WANG

Demon-Immortal Monkey: Categories of Being in the Cosmos of Journey to the West
By KEITH MCMAHON

How Should the Dragon King Memorialize the Jade Emperor? Margins of Political Thought in Late Ming China
By SHOUFU YIN

Emperor Qianlong’s Literary Aggrandizement in the Eighteenth Century
By YAN ZINAN

Review Essay

On Translating Mountains & Seas: A Review Essay
By NEWELL ANN VAN AUKEN Continue reading JCLC 10.2 →

Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singpore event

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Dear colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to invite you to the panel discussion commemorating the launch of my book, Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singapore: Cultural Intervention and Artistic Autonomy 1990-2006.

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Founded in 1990, Drama Box is a socially-engaged theatre company known for creating works that inspire dialogue, reflection and change. Published thirteen years ago in Chinese, Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singapore: Cultural Intervention and Artistic Autonomy 1990-2006 received critical acclaim for its “comprehensive insight” into cultural policies and “excellent analysis” of the company’s theatre practice which “amplifies the voices of marginalised communities.” Now available in English, it has been updated and edited for a wider readership. To commemorate its publication, you are invited to join us for the live streaming of the book launch and panel discussion as speakers working in theatre, education and academia explore the nexus between theatre and crisis.

Online event:
Title of Panel Discussion: THEATRE AND CRISIS
Date: 9 March 2024 (Saturday)
Time: 0800 to 0930 (UK time)
Language: English Continue reading Drama Box and the Social Theatre of Singpore event →

positions: asia critique 32.1

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We are pleased to announce the publication of “the good life in late-socialist Asia: aspirations, politics, and possibilities,” a thematic issue of positions: asia critique (32:1), edited by Minh T. N. Nguyen, Phill Wilcox, and Jake Lin.

Topics include the quest for “the good life” in the political economy of late socialism across China, Laos, and Vietnam; future-making and the politics of aspiration; living well as an individual and collective pursuit; care as both an instrument of late socialist governance and a means to value creation by ordinary people; and the encounter between localized and globalized ideas of the good life.

The contributors are Kirsten W. Endres, Arve Hansen, Roberta Zavoretti, Sandra Kurfürst, Jiazhi Fengjiang, Charlotte Bruckermann, Elizabeth M. Elliott, Fan Zhang, Michael Kleinod-Freudenberg, Sypha Chanthavong, and Li Zhang.

The issue is available for purchase at https://read.dukeupress.edu/positions/issue/32/1

Posted by: Dale Booth positionsjournal@alc.rutgers.edu

CLT2 5.3-4

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Chinese Literature and Thought Today vol. 5, no. 3-4
Free access period in March 2024!

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/mcsp21/current

The latest double issue of CLTT features a memorial for Professor Yingjin Zhang (1957-2022) guest-edited by Géraldine Fiss, Zhang’s colleague in the Department of Literature at UC San Diego, with contributions from Zhang’s teacher, classmate, friends, colleagues, collaborators, and students that outline Professor Zhang’s numerous accomplishments and contributions as well as his remarkable persona.

This issue also includes critical essays by Cheng Li, Yuemin He, Yawen Li, and She Shiqin, plus a group of short philosophy digest essays and four poems by Mingwei Song. Please take advantage of free access during March to read and download the rich contents in this new double issue!

Reimagining Queer Chinese Screen Studies

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Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to share the publication of the special issue “Reimagining queer Chinese screen studies” of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas coedited by Jamie J. Zhao and Hongwei Bao, which may be of interest to some in this group. Some of the articles are open access on the journal’s site. Please kindly find its TOC and links copied below:

Special Issue of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas
Reimagining queer Chinese screen studies
Guest edited by Jamie J. Zhao and Hongwei Bao

Introduction: Queer screens with Chinese characteristics?: Reimagining queer Chinese screen studies in the twenty-first century
By Jamie J. Zhao and Hongwei Bao

Digital video activism: Fan Popo’s queer Asian diasporic politics
By Hongwei Bao

Queer cinemas of the Sinosphere: Queer China goes out
By Zoran Lee Pecic

Queering the cinematic border of the PRC and Hong Kong: On Fruit Chan’s prostitute trilogy
By Alvin K. Wong

Taking a queer-friendly stance under censorship: Beijing International Short Film Festival as an alternative site for screening Chinese queer shorts
By Heshen Xie

Queering community: The affect of visuality in the Sinosphere
By Jinyan Zeng

Toward a cinematic transtopia
By Victor Fan

Heart and body: Queer crossings in Go Princess Go
Carlos Rojas

Posted by: Lila Yang thelandfilled@gmail.com (On behalf of Dr. Jamie J. Zhao)