BCAS Prize for Best PhD Thesis

For those with a recent UK PhD, the British Association of Chinese Studies (BCAS) Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis on China – 2023. Upcoming Deadline.

The British Association of Chinese Studies invites nominations for the Best Doctoral Thesis Prize on China for 2023. Self-nominations are invited. To enter the prize competition, candidates need to email their documents to the Administrative Chair of the BACS Doctoral Thesis Prize Panel, Chris Berry, (chris.berry@kcl.ac.uk) by 15 April 2023.

For further information: https://bacsuk.org.uk/2021-bacs-best-doctoral-thesis-prize

Newman Prize in Chinese Literature 2023

The Newman Prize in Chinese Literature Symposium, which was held on March 2, can be viewed on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDyWPkAUUT8. It features Zhang Guixing 張貴興, the 2023 prize winner, reading from a new novel, and talks by Shu-mei Shih, E. K. Tan, and Carlos Rojas. The video starts at around minute 7:00.  The award ceremony, held yesterday, can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDRhiAjHntI. Speeches start at minute 41:40.

Soong Translation Studies Awards 2022-23

Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Memorial Awards (2022–2023)
Call for Entries

Introduction

Stephen C. Soong (1919–1996) was a prolific writer and translator as well as an active figure in the promotion of translation education and research. To commemorate his contributions in this field, the Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Memorial Awards were set up in 1997 by the Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a donation from the Soong family. They give recognition to academics who have made contributions to original research in Chinese Translation Studies, particularly in the use of first-hand materials for historical and cultural investigations.

Entry and Nomination

RCT invites Chinese scholars or research students in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau or overseas regions to participate in the 25th Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Memorial Awards (2022–2023). General regulations are as follows:

  • All Chinese scholars or research students affiliated to higher education/research institutes in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau or overseas regions are eligible to apply.
  • Submitted articles must be written in either Chinese or English and published in a refereed journal within the calendar year 2022. Each candidate can enter up to two articles for the Awards. The publication date, title and volume/number of the journal in which the article(s) appeared must be provided.
  • Up to three articles are selected as winners each year. A certificate and a cheque of HK$3,000 will be awarded to each winning entry.
  • The adjudication committee, which consists of renowned scholars in Translation Studies from Greater China, will meet in June 2023. The results will be announced in July 2023 and winners will be notified individually.
  • Articles submitted will not be returned to the candidates.

Continue reading

The Sacred Marriage

Source: China Daily (2/20/23)
New novel explores challenges faced by urban elites in the new era
By Yang Yang

Shensheng Hunyin (The Sacred Marriage) by Xu Kun. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A new novel Shensheng Hunyin (The Sacred Marriage) by Xu Kun has been recently published by People’s Literature Publishing House.

Xu, with a broad vision and in a sharp writing style, directly addresses the dramatic and complicated changes that young people who return from overseas, outsiders coming to work in Beijing, intellectuals, and cadres who are sent on a temporary task are facing in a new era of the development of Chinese society.

Vivid personal experiences, powerful characterization, and heart-wrenching pain not only display Xu’s unique writing style of playfulness and irony, but also imparts the story with profound feelings.

“From narration to structure, from characterization to plotting, The Sacred Marriage shows the internal rhythm of the new era we are now existing in,” said Li Yan, general manager of China Publishing Group, at the book launch ceremony in Beijing.

“It displays the aesthetic characteristics of fiction in the new era, while exploring serious topics, using China’s traditional cultural value to examine the experiences and changes of urban elites, intellectuals and overseas returnees,” he said. Continue reading

Passing of a colleague at Bard

Dear Members of the MCLC Community,

It is with deep sadness that I write on behalf of the Asian Studies Program at Bard College to share the news of the passing of our esteemed colleague, Li-hua Ying, after a long battle with cancer. Li-hua was a gifted literary scholar, a masterful teacher, and a talented calligrapher. She founded and developed the Chinese Studies Program at Bard and was a cornerstone of our Asian Studies community for more than three decades. Generations of students came to know China through her generous guidance, which was always seasoned with her sharp wit and wry humor. We at Bard are all mourning the loss of our longtime colleague. An excerpt from Bard President Leon Botstein’s message to the college community is pasted below. Thank you for joining us in remembering Li-hua’s life and contributions to the study and teaching of Chinese language and literature.

Sincerely,

Rob Culp <culp@bard.edu>
Professor of History & Asian Studies, Bard College Continue reading

Victor H. Mair: A Celebration

Invitation to Contribute to Tabula Gratulatoria for Professor Victor H. Mair’s 80th Birthday

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have benefited from the kindness of Professor Victor H. Mair. Stories proliferate of him coming to the aid of others. Just a fraction of these stories of his generosity are being published in Victor H. Mair: A Celebration, edited by Neil Schmid and Diana Shuheng Zhang. As Victor Mair turns 80 on March 25, 2023, colleagues and students reflect, in reminiscences that range from touching to hilarious, on how he has impacted their lives. This collection includes essays from luminaries like Ronald Egan, Daniel Boucher, Valerie Hansen, Haun Saussy, Tansen Sen, and more. Together, the 38 essays show how Victor H. Mair has served as a selfless pioneer across disciplines, opening doors to all interested and providing a model of mentorship.

From the introduction of the book:

“Few people would ever imagine that behind the vast piles of overflowing books and papers in a small office on the eighth floor of Williams Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus lies the epicenter of a complex network spanning immense reaches of space and time. That vast web, like the books and papers, has rapidly expanded over the decades, ever since Victor H. Mair’s arrival on Penn’s campus in 1979, his home now for more than forty years. Victor’s boundless curiosity, indefatigable energy, and proficient talents at making connections among disparate phenomena has resulted in hundreds of publications, numerous cooperative projects, and most importantly a rich network of students, colleagues, and friends. His research and interests span domains as far afield as Proto-Indo European linguistics, twentieth-century Chinese literature, and Warring States archaeology, the diversity of areas equally matched with fellow-minded colleagues and conversation partners around the world.”

Be Part of This Book: Please join us in honoring Professor Mair on his 80th birthday with a contribution of $80 toward the publication of this tribute. Your gift will place your name on the tabula gratulatoria, memorializing your part in this important celebration of Victor H. Mair.

To contribute to this publication and include your name, please do so by February 20  at http://cambriapress.com/VictorMair80.

Ben Goodman
Marketing Dept., Cambria Press

Association for Chinese Art History

I am happy to announce the call for membership in the Association for Chinese Art History (ACAH), a new home for scholars of Chinese art history to share news, events, and find their communities. ACAH is the result of a collaboration between the Association for Asian Studies and art historians Amy McNair, Kate Lingley, Roberta Wue, and myself; we are grateful for the support of the Bei Shan Tang Foundation 北山堂基金 and the Smithsonian Institution. Please visit our website and read the #AsiaNow blog post about the development of ACAH and its initiatives, and our meeting in conjunction at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston.

Faculty, students, museum staff, art world professionals, and independent scholars are warmly invited to join us in envisioning how this growing organization can best serve the needs and interests of scholars of Chinese art history by meeting the challenges of the present day and anticipating the opportunities of the future: developing new networks and collaborations across institutions, augmenting the pipeline for Chinese art history, increasing equitable access to resources, and more.

Please help spread the word by forwarding this announcement to your students and colleagues, networks, and listservs. Thank you!

All best wishes,

ACAH Board of Directors
Michelle C. Wang <mcw57@georgetown.edu>, Amy McNair, Kate Lingley, Roberta Wue, Shellen Wu

Xi Xi dies at 85

Source: SCMP (12/19/22)
Hong Kong author Xi Xi, often credited with putting city on literary map, dies aged 85
A prolific writer of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and screenplays, Xi Xi led a life that was ‘wonderful, happy and meaningful’, a publisher she co-founded said. Her imaginative writing often gave mundane events a fairy tale twist. She famously called Hong Kong a ‘floating city’ in 1984 when its return to China was sealed
By

A scene from “Women Like Us”, a chamber opera commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival last year is based on two short stories by Xi Xi. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival

A scene from “Women Like Us”, a chamber opera commissioned by the Hong Kong Arts Festival last year is based on two short stories by Xi Xi. Photo: Hong Kong Arts Festival

Hong Kong author Xi Xi, whose whimsical tales became a defining portrait of a city transitioning away from British rule, died on Sunday, according to a publisher she co-founded. She was 85.

One of the most beloved names in Sinophone literature, she published more than 30 books of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and screenplays in a career spanning six decades.

She was often credited with putting Hong Kong on the map in the literary world.

Xi Xi died of heart failure at a Hong Kong hospital on Sunday morning surrounded by family and friends, publisher Plain Leaves Workshop said in a statement on Facebook. Continue reading

Paper Republic 16

Hello, hello, a happy autumn to one and all! (It’s my favourite season, can you tell?) (Sickening, right?)

It’s been a while since the last instalment of this here newsletter came out, and a lot has happened between those heady dog days of August and now, some of which you might have missed. So wherever there are recordings of events I’ve included them below. And of course, if there’s something that has happened in the world of Chinese lit over the past few months that isn’t below, please do send in the article or link and I’ll pop it in the list [website only].
The reason for this is, though you might have been waiting eagerly chewing at the bit for this issue to come out, it is nevertheless going to be the last one for a short while. Probably until early next year, in fact. We enjoy running the newsletter and putting it together, and there has been some lovely feedback about it as a resource, for which we thank you, but we need to rethink how to make it more readily sustainable and maintainable for those of us behind the scenes. In the meantime, a period of rest is in order (instead of a period of procrastination, which is what the last three months have been).

We hope you’ll stick around and stay subscribed for when the new issue drops into your inboxes come January or February, and if it happens that any of you have any interest in being part of running a newsletter for Chinese literature in translation on a voluntary basis, then be sure to get in touch. The same goes for if you have or know of any news that you think would fit the newsletter, now or anytime in the future; you can always email news AT paper-republic DOT org with anything Chinese-lit-related that you think worth sharing. If it’s urgent, and waiting until the next issue would mean missing out, we’ll post it straight onto the website and socials (Facebook, WeChat and Twitter for the time being). Continue reading

Remembering Yingjin Zhang

November 25, 2022

Dear Colleagues,

It’s with a heavy heart that over the past several days we gradually recognized and accepted the fact that Professor Yingjin Zhang had passed away. Yingjin was the fourth president of the Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature, serving our Association from 1992 to 1994, and convening the third ACCL conference, in 1994 at Princeton University.

Many of us, through Facebook postings or emails, shared touching, emotional tributes in which we described how each of us benefited so much from Yingjin’s erudition, generosity, and professional perfectionism. Over the past four decades, Yingjin Zhang was one of the most foundationally important scholars who reshaped our field of modern Chinese studies. He was a pioneer in urban studies, cinema studies, visual studies, transmedia studies, and studies in world literature, with his numerous groundbreaking monographs, an incredibly long list of research articles, and various important anthologies and encyclopedias. Almost all of us, teachers of modern Chinese literature, have taught something written by Yingjin, and his ideas and research have already inspired two or three new generations of younger scholars to find new paths in the academic world. Yingjin has been remembered as a kind, courteous, and principled person, a mentor to many and a friend to all. His contribution to the field has become an integral part of our knowledge, research, and collective memory, which will last and live on. Yingjin will be profoundly missed, and his life and achievement, cherished forever.

Professor Yingjin Zhang was the Distinguished Professor of Modern Chinese Literature in the Department of Literature at the University of California, San Diego, where he also served as Department Chair. His research fields included Chinese Literature; Comparative Literature; Cinema and Media Studies; Visual Culture; Literary and Cultural History; Urban Studies. He received his M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1987 and Ph.D. in comparative literature from Stanford University in 1992. Before joining the UCSD faculty in 2001, he taught at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he was honored with an Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in 1996. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago as well as several Chinese universities, such as Nanjing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, and Wuhan University. His most influential books include: The City in Modern Chinese Literature and Film: Configurations of Space, Time, and Gender (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996); Screening China: Critical Interventions, Cinematic Reconfigurations, and the Transnational Imaginary in Contemporary Chinese Cinema (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002); Chinese National Cinema (London: Routledge, 2004); and Cinema, Space, and Polylocality in a Globalizing China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010).

Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature

Signed by:

Mingwei Song <msong2@wellesley.edu>, President of ACCL (Professor of Chinese Literature, Wellesley College)
Michelle Yeh, ACCL President 1999-2001 (Distinguished Professor of Chinese, University of California at Davis)
Daniel Fried, ACCL President 2017-2019 (Associate Professor, University of Alberta)
Nicolai Volland, ACCL President 2019-2022 (Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Penn State University)
Carlos Rojas, ACCL President 2015-2017 (Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, Duke University)
Sheldon Lu, ACCL President 1991-1992 (Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California at Davis)
Christopher Lupke, ACCL President 2011-2013 (Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta)
Michel Hockx, ACCL President 2002-2004 (Professor of Chinese Literature, University of Notre Dame)
Charles A. Laughlin, ACCL President 2008-2010 (Professor of Chinese Literature, University of Virginia)
Shengqing Wu, ACCL President 2013-2015 (Professor of Chinese Literature, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, ACCL President 1999-2000 & President-Elect 1997-1998 (Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature, The University of Texas at Austin)
Yomi Braester, ACCL President 2006-2008 (Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Washington)
Xiaomei Chen, ACCL Founding President 1988-1989 (Distinguished Professor Emerita of Chinese Literature, University of California, Davis)

https://www.chineseandcomparativelit.org/

Chang Kuei-hsing wins 2023 Newman Prize

For Immediate Release Nov. 2, 2022
Sinophone Novelist Chang Kuei-hsing Wins 2023 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature 張貴興荣获2023年美国纽曼华语文学奖

NORMAN, OKLA. – An international jury has selected the Sinophone novelist Chang Kuei-hsing (張貴興) as the winner of the eighth Newman Prize for Chinese Literature.

Sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Institute for US-China Issues in the David L. Boren College of International Studies, the Newman Prize is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, and is conferred solely on the basis of literary merit. Any living author writing in Chinese is eligible. A jury of five distinguished literary experts nominated the seven poets last spring and selected the winner in a transparent voting process on Oct. 26, 2022.

Chang Kuei-hsing will receive $10,000, a commemorative plaque and a bronze medallion. He will be celebrated at an online symposium and award ceremony held on the OU Norman campus March 2-3, 2023. Chang Kuei-hsing was nominated for the prize by Professor E.K. Tan (Stony Brook University). Other nominees and jurors include: Continue reading

New Ailing Zhang English manuscript

Source: USC Libraries (9/2/22)
New English Manuscript Discovered in Ailing Zhang (Eileen Chang) papers
By Nathan Masters

A page from the recently discovered manuscript

A new English translation of Eileen Chang’s short story “Xiang Jian Huan,” translated as “She Said Smiling,” has been discovered in the author’s papers in the USC Libraries’ Special Collections. The twenty-two typewritten pages were previously believed to be related to Chang’s translation of the 1892 novel Hai Shang Hua (The Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai)—until a patron noticed that they came from a different project. With the help of the patron and Professor Yunwen Gao of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, archivist Bo Doub and Chinese studies librarian Tang Li of the USC Libraries confirmed the discovery and moved the manuscript to its own folder within Box 2 of the collection.

Professor Gao, a USC alumna and Chang scholar, wrote the following introduction to the manuscript:

The 22 pages of manuscripts from the Zhang Ailing paper archive at USC has been discovered recently. Scholars from mainland China (Li and Zhou) have published research articles to prove that it is one version of the English translation/transwriting of Chang’s 1978 short story “Joyful Reunion” (相見歡). The Chinese title of the story is named after a Tang and Song tune pattern (cipai 詞牌), which describes the plot of two cousins, neither happy with their marriage, get together in their middle age, chat with each other with the company of one’s daughter, reminisce their youth, and end the conversation with a shocking moment when one forgets about telling an anecdote while the other forgets about having heard of it a few months before. The story was first drafted in the 1950s, yet not until 1978 did the story get published in Taiwan. In 1983, a revised version of the story was published in the short stories collection titled “The Story of Regret” (惘然記). In the decades in between, the story, like many other stories written around the same time, went through rounds and rounds of revision, translation, or as scholars call it, transwriting. In the article by Li and Zhou, they proved that there are at least two versions of the English translation of “Joyful Reunion,” translated as “She Said Smiling,” according to a letter from April 29, 1964 by Eileen Chang. The English manuscript found at USC, which is missing the title page, has many similarities with the Chinese version of “Joyful Reunion” and the English version “She Said Smiling” so that the authors Li and Zhou concluded that it might be the manuscript of “She Said Smiling.” Continue reading

ACCL Election

Dear ACCL members
本會會員台鑒:

My final duty as ACCL President is to call the election for the our next President. In accordance with our Constitution, the election is overseen by two members of the Executive Committee—Wu Shengqing and Daniel Fried—who will be reporting results back to me. I am grateful for their support.
會長最後之任務,即協助下任會長之選舉過程。本會會章規定,選舉由兩位執行委員會會員來監督,選舉完畢之後向會長報道。吳盛青、傅雲博執行委員已答應監督本次選舉,特此表示感謝。

Two candidates are standing for election: Song Mingwei (Wellesley College) and Zhu Ping (Univ. of Oklahoma). We are fortunate to have two excellent candidates who will skillfully steer our Association into the future. Please find the candidate’s personal statements below, as well as on our website.

本次選舉候選人爲朱萍(俄克拉荷馬大學)、宋明煒(韋爾斯利學院),均是傑出人才,將會作爲能幹有力之領導人。候選人之自我介紹詳見如下,也可以參見本會網頁

Please cast your vote at this link.
投票請按如下鏈接.

If you encounter problems you may fill out the pdf form.
投票若遇到問題,也可以填本函附件中的表格

The deadline for your vote is Aug. 14, 2022. All votes received by 11:59 pm (EST) will be counted.
投票爲2022年8月14日晚上11點59分(美國東部時間)爲止。

Sincerely,

Nicolai Volland 傅朗
ACCL President 本會會長 Continue reading

ACCL elections: call for nominations

Dear Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL) members,
本會會員台鑒:

After we have successfully concluded our biennial conference, it is my final responsibility to supervise the election of the next President of our Association. To that end, members can download a nomination form, and would ask that you all consider either nominating yourself, or encouraging colleagues to seek election.
雙年會圓滿落幕,會長最後之任務,即協助下任會長之選舉過程,特此附上候選人提名表格,歡迎諸位會員,或自己當候選人,或鼓勵其他同事當候選人。

The primary duty of the President is to run the day-to-day affairs of the Association and to help strengthen and deepen our Association’s institutional structure. Aside from that, the President arranges the next biennial conference. The President is supported by the Treasurer, the Communications Director, and the Executive Committee, all of whom are appointed as outlined in our Constitution (to be found on our website).
會長之主要任務,是主持本會日常工作、擴充學會的機制、加深本會的專業化等。此外,會長負責舉辦下次雙年會。會長有挑選財務、公關等秘書、執行委員會之權,以便協助會長之工作(細節可見本會會章)。 Continue reading