Author: denton.2@osu.edu

Contending for the ‘Chinese Modern’

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Dear Colleagues,

When the 100th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement approaches, I’m pleased to announce that my book Contending for the Chinese Modern: The Writing of Fiction in the Great Transformative Epoch of Modern China 1937-1949 (604 pp.), published by Brill, has gone to the printer and will be available soon. This book studies the writing of fiction in 1940s China. Through a practice of political hermeneutics of fictional texts and social subtexts, it explores how social modernity and literary modernity intertwined with and interacted upon each other in the development of modern Chinese literature. It not only makes critical reappraisement of some renowned modern Chinese writers, but also sheds fresh lights on a series of theoretical problems pertaining to the issue of plural modernities, in which the problematic of subjectivity, class consciousness and identity politics are the key words as well as the concrete procedures that it undertakes the ideological analysis. –Xiaoping Wang <wxping75@163.com> Continue reading Contending for the ‘Chinese Modern’ →

Journal of Cinema and Media Studies call for translations

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The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies is now accepting proposals for translations to be published in 2020. Please find the details below.

Best,

Hongwei Thorn Chen <thorn.chen@gmail.com.

Call for Translations

The Journal for Cinema and Media Studies publishes translations of outstanding scholarly and creative work. The originals may be in any language and come from any period or geographic region. We welcome two types of proposals: (1) a single text such as a journal article, book chapter, or self-contained section of a book that focuses on a particular topic in a unified, coherent way; and (2) a group of smaller texts that are linked thematically, geographically, or otherwise.The total word count of the introduction and translated text(s) should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words in English. One grant-in-aid of $1,000 will be paid to the translator(s) for copyright clearance and as honoraria. Proposals to translate one’s own work will not be considered.SCMS members are invited submit proposals, prepared in accordance with the Chicago Style Manual, with the following: Continue reading Journal of Cinema and Media Studies call for translations →

Liu Xia rebuilds her career as an artist

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Source: The New Yorker (4/30/19)
Liu Xia Rebuilds Her Career as an Artist
By Nick Frisch

Photograph above: Marzena Skubatz for The New Yorker; Photographs below: Liu Xia

After nearly a decade under house arrest in Beijing, Liu Xia, the widow of the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, has started over in exile in Berlin.

The Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in October of 2010, while imprisoned in Liaoning, a province in China’s northeastern rust belt, for co-authoring an open letter calling for liberal democracy in China. A literary critic, professor, and poet, Liu Xiaobo had been an unwavering voice against the authoritarianism of the Chinese Communist Party for more than two decades. He had served several long prison terms—the first one for being a leader of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, in 1989—and had been harassed and surveilled continually by the state. Though the Communist Party suppressed his voice, he was widely known within China’s intellectual community and among human-rights activists around the world. When he was awarded the Nobel, for “his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights,” he became a global celebrity. Unable to reach him in prison, foreign journalists descended on the apartment complex in Beijing where his wife, the artist and poet Liu Xia, lived alone in their home. Continue reading Liu Xia rebuilds her career as an artist →

Party take on May 4

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Source: Xinhua (3/30/19)
Xi urges patriotism among youth, striving for brighter China
Editor: Xiang Bo

CHINA-BEIJING-XI JINPING-MAY FOURTH MOVEMENT-CENTENARY-GATHERING (CN)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a gathering marking the centenary of the May Fourth Movement at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 30, 2019. Xi Jinping called on the country’s young people to be patriotic and strive for the bright prospect of national rejuvenation. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on the country’s young people to be patriotic and strive for the bright prospect of national rejuvenation.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a gathering held at the Great Hall of the People to mark the centenary of the May Fourth Movement. Continue reading Party take on May 4 →

Hundred Days’ Literature

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Dear colleagues,

I would like to take advantage of this mailing list to announce the publication of my (first) book, Hundred Days’ Literature: Chinese Utopian Fiction at the End of Empire, 1902–1910, published by Brill in its “East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture” series.

Lorenzo Andolfatto
Hundred Days’ Literature: Chinese Utopian Fiction at the End of Empire, 1902–1910. Leiden: Brill, 2019 – East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture series, Volume 11. ISBN: 978-90-04-39884-9

From the Editor’s presentation:

In Hundred Days’ Literature, Lorenzo Andolfatto explores the landscape of early modern Chinese fiction through the lens of the utopian novel, casting new light on some of its most peculiar yet often overshadowed literary specimens. The wutuobang or lixiang xiaoshuo, by virtue of its ideally totalizing perspective, provides a one-of-a-kind critical tool for the understanding of late imperial China’s fragmented Zeitgeist. Building upon rigorous close reading and solid theoretical foundations, Hundred Days’ Literature offers the reader a transcultural critical itinerary that links Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward to Wu Jianren’s Xin Shitou ji via the writings of Liang Qichao, Chen Tianhua, Bihe Guanzhuren, and Lu Shi’e. The book also includes the first English translation of Cai Yuanpei’s short story “New Year’s Dream.” Continue reading Hundred Days’ Literature →

Tiananmen 30 years later

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Source: The Globe and Mail (4/19/19)
Never forget. Never give up: The Tiananmen Movement, 30 years later
Rowena Xiaoqing He

Rowena He is author of Tiananmen Exiles: Voices of the Struggle for Democracy in China. She is currently a member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, working on her next book on history, memory and nationalism in the post-Tiananmen China.

On April 15, 1989, 30 years ago this week, the sudden death of reform-minded former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary-general Hu Yaobang sparked the Tiananmen Movement. Chinese citizens across the country took to the streets calling for political reforms. The peaceful movement, highlighted by college students’ hunger strike on Tiananmen Square, ended on June 4 when the Chinese government deployed more than 200,000 troops, equipped with tanks and machine guns to suppress what the regime called a “counterrevolutionary riot.” Continue reading Tiananmen 30 years later →

Matteo Ricci The Musical

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Source: SCMP (4/26/19)
Matteo Ricci: 16th-century Italian priest who tried, and failed, to convert Chinese to Catholicism is resurrected on stage
Matteo Ricci The Musical might not be the show Hong Kong wanted, but, according to those who brought it to the stage, it’s the one we needed. The priest was the first European to enter the Forbidden Palace in Beijing and is buried in the Chinese capital
By Fionnuala McHugh

Jonathan Wong performs in Matteo Ricci The Musical, on April 19. Photo: Matteo Ricci The Musical / Cheung Chi-wai

Jonathan Wong performs in Matteo Ricci The Musical, on April 19. Photo: Matteo Ricci The Musical / Cheung Chi-wai

On Palm Sunday, which this year fell on April 14, the first run-through of Matteo Ricci The Musical was held at Clarence Film Studio, in the depths of Shek Kong, in the New Territories. The follow­ing day, everything would shift to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui, in preparation for open­ing night on Holy Saturday. As every Christian knows, Palm Sunday marks the day Jesus entered Jerusalem, after 40 days in the desert, to cheering crowds. By Good Friday, these fans are enthusiastically calling for his crucifixion. Three days later, he’s risen from the dead. It’s the scene-setter for a week of dramatic reversals. Continue reading Matteo Ricci The Musical →

Censorship in Chinese Studies (6)

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Brill has terminated its agreement with Higher Education Press in China to distribute Frontiers of Literary Studies in China, Frontiers of History in China, Frontiers of Law in China and Frontiers of Philosophy in China to customers outside China, effective 2020. Brill will continue to fulfill existing obligations to current customers.

Lauren Bissonette < bissonette@brill.com>

Science and the May Fourth

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Source: Sup China (4/24/19)
Protesting In The Name Of Science: The Legacy Of China’s May Fourth Movement
By YANGYANG CHENG

A hundred years after the rally for “Mr. Science” and “Mr. Democracy,” can the pursuit of scientific truth bring political freedom?

When I bade goodbye to my family in China in the summer of 2009, I proudly declared that I was going to America to study science — and be free. Always hesitant about her daughter’s choice of science over a more “feminine” discipline, my mother was nevertheless more concerned about my second objective. “What do you mean by ‘being free’? What will you do when you are ‘free’?”

“Focus on your profession,” my mother warned. “Don’t talk about politics. Don’t participate in politics. Don’t ever join street demonstrations, not even for the spectacle.” Continue reading Science and the May Fourth →

The Banished Immortal review

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Source: LA Review of Books, China Channel (4/22/19)
The Banished Immortal
Rui Zhong reads Ha Jin’s biography of Li Bai

The rumors of how Li Bai (also known as Li Po) met his end are greatly exaggerated. The specifics are murky, ranging from alcohol poisoning to drowning while chasing after the moon’s reflection on the surface of a river. It may seem troubling how easily the pertinent details of one of China’s best-known literary icons are lost. However, given that Li often embellished his speech and never liked to stay in one place for too long, his multiple-accounts demise is oddly appropriate.

So begins Ha Jin’s portrait of the famed poet, The Banished Immortal. This title is the latest entry in Jin’s extensive bibliography of poems, short fiction and novels, but The Banished Immortal is his first foray into biography. Jin boasts accolades primarily for his prose works, with deal with the intermingling of politics and ordinary life in 20th-century China, including the National Book Award-winning novel Waiting. In The Banished Immortal, Jin flexes his fiction-writing muscles and his eye for political detail in order to characterize Li Bai’s showboating personality and to discuss how power and social systems worked in the world he inhabited. Continue reading The Banished Immortal review →

Made in China 4.1: Smashing the Bell Jar

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Dear Colleagues,

I am glad to announce the publication of the latest issue of the Made in China Journal. You can download the pdf for free and subscribe at this link: http://www.chinoiresie.info/made-in-china-quarterly/. Below you can find the editorial:

Smashing the Bell Jar: Shades of Gender in China

Sun and moon have no light left, earth is dark;
Our women’s world is sunk so deep, who can help us?
Jewelry sold to pay this trip across the seas,
Cut off from my family I leave my native land.
Unbinding my feet I clean out a thousand years of poison,
With heated heart arouse all women’s spirits.
Alas, this delicate kerchief here
Is half stained with blood, and half with tears.

Qiu Jin, 1904 (translated by Jonathan Spence) Continue reading Made in China 4.1: Smashing the Bell Jar →

Sydney China Visitors Program reminder

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Call for Applications: 2020 Sydney China Visitors Program
The University of Sydney invites applications for the prestigious Sydney China Visitors program.

This is a friendly reminder that the University of Sydney’s 2020 Sydney China Visitors Program will close for applications on Friday 3 May 2019.

The 2018 and 2019 programme have been very successful, and we are keen that this opportunity for 2020 reaches out to as many colleagues internationally as possible, so we would be grateful if you could circulate this to your networks.

The Sydney China Visitors program offers two types of fellowship:

  • Sydney China Distinguished Fellowship will host senior scholars specialising in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, culture or translation studies.
  • Sydney China Fellowship will host scholars at any stage of their career specialising in any field, historical or contemporary, related broadly to China or the Chinese world (including, for example, Hong Kong, Taiwan, overseas Chinese, ‘minorities’, as well as comparative or global perspectives).

Continue reading Sydney China Visitors Program reminder →

Vinograd lecture at the British Museum

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Professor Richard Vinograd to give the 2019 Sir Percival David Lecture at the British Museum, on 16 May.

Work of art: artistic labour in 19th century China
Thursday 16 May 2019, 18.00–19.00
BP Lecture Theatre, The British Museum
Free, booking essential

Representations of the work of Chinese art, that is artistic labour, had many sources and dimensions both within and outside of nineteenth century China. Some of those arenas of interest were in artistic process and technologies, in imperial works of ideological or political import, and in customs and occupations from ethnographic perspectives. This lecture will focus on two further views, involving the foreign photographer’s lens and the sociality of urban Chinese painters.

Richard Vinograd is the Christensen Fund Professor in Asian Art in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University. He is the author of Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900; (1992); co-editor of New Understandings of Ming and Qing Painting(1994); co-author of Chinese Art; Culture (2001) and author of Ink Worlds: Contemporary Chinese Paintings from the Collection of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang (2018). Professor Vinograd’s research interests and publications include studies of Chinese portraiture, landscape painting, literati painting of late imperial China, urban print culture, painting aesthetics and theory, art historiography, modern and contemporary Chinese painting, and aspects of intercultural artistic exchange in the early modern era.

Sponsored by the Sir Percival David Foundation Trust.

https://britishmuseum.org/whats_on/events_calendar/event_detail.aspx?eventId=5105&title=Work%20of%20art:%20artistic%20labour%20in%2019th%20century%20China&eventType=Lecture

Posted by: Helen Wang <hwang@britishmuseum.org>

Sarah Lawrence position

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Chinese Language – Guest Faculty Position

The search committee is still accepting applications.

Sarah Lawrence College invites applicants for a guest position in Chinese Language for the 2019 – 2020 academic year, with the possibility of renewal for the 2020 – 2021 academic year. Applicants for the position should possess at least a Master’s degree in Chinese language pedagogy, second-language acquisition, education or related field. Requirements include native or near-native command of Mandarin and English; experience in teaching all levels of Chinese language (preferably at the university or college level in the U.S.) and experience in curriculum and material development.

Responsibilities will include teaching Chinese language at a range of levels and overseeing our Language Assistants. The application should include the following: cover letter, curriculum vitae, statement addressing the candidate’s teaching philosophy and experience, sample syllabi, a lesson plan for one class at the intermediate level, and three letters of recommendation. Review of applications will begin on April 20 and will continue until the position is filled. To apply for the position, please go to: Continue reading Sarah Lawrence position →