Conference Announcements

announcements about conferences, workshops, and colloquia in modern Chinese cultural studies

Biopolitics–cfp

by at

We are seeking papers to join an organized panel—”Biopolitics, Technologies of Governance, and Media Environments in Modern Chinese and Sinophone Cultures”—to be proposed to the 53rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies Conference, which will take place from November 14th to 16th, 2025 at the University of Pittsburgh.

The creation of modern Chinese identity is closely intertwined with the dynamics between biopolitical governance and strategies of resistance. While technologies of control have permeated discourses of modernization since the late 19th century, they have evolved through revolutionary practices during world wars, ideological conflicts across the Taiwan Strait during the Cold War, and involvements with digital platforms in the age of globalization. Amidst these changes, practices of resistance have consistently emerged, shaping the experiences of Chinese modernity by creating narratives and forms of art that manifest individual autonomy through the embodied process of negotiation.

The panel aims to explore how forms of resistance have interacted and negotiated with the national and transnational apparatuses of control and discipline. This panel invites proposals that examine:

  • Relationships between individual bodies, technologies of control, and medical humanities;
  • Transmedia and multimedia forms of cultural productions that involve negotiation and cooperation;
  • Themes related to transnational flows, global networks, and cross-cultural communications;
  • War, memories, and the construction of collective and individual agencies;
  • Media ecologies and narratives that blur the boundary between the human and the nonhuman.

By examining these topics, this panel seeks to investigate the affective networks constructed within multiple communities and to securitize audiovisual forms of cultural production generated by diverse infrastructures of media technologies.

If interested, please email 250-word abstracts or ideas for your papers to x.hou@wustl.edu and yuc137@pitt.edu and by Friday, June 27th, 2025, even if abstracts are not yet fully formed. We will facilitate further coordination to finalize the materials to be submitted to the conference organizer prior to the final deadline of July 1st, 2025.

Posted by: YuHao Chen <yuc137@pitt.edu>

Re-Visualizing ‘the West’ workshop

by at

Workshop Announcement
Re-Visualizing “The West”: Geo-Literary Images of Europe in Contemporary Sinophone Writings
Milan, June 20–21, 2025
Find the program here

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce a two-day international workshop that will bring together scholars from Europe, the US, and Asia to examine representations of Europe in contemporary Sinophone writings. Particular attention will be paid to geo-literary imaginaries, intertextual strategies, and questions of translation and translingual practice.

The event is convened by Simona Gallo (University of Milan), in collaboration with Giacomo Zanolin (University of Genoa) and Faye Qiyu Lu (UCLA / University of Milan), and will take place in person at the University of Milan, Via Festa del Perdono 7.

Speakers include (see full program attached):

  • David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University
  • Carlos Rojas, Duke University
  • Andrea Bachner, Cornell University
  • Heather Inwood, University of Cambridge
  • Cosima Bruno, SOAS University of London
  • Howard Chiang, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Nicolai Volland, Penn State University
  • Justyna Jaguścik, University of Bern
  • Astrid Møller-Olsen, University of Copenhagen
  • Zhiyi Yang, University of Frankfurt
  • Chris Song, University of Toronto
  • Lucas Klein, Arizona State University
  • Rebecca Ehrenwirth, University of Applied Sciences / SDI Munich
  • Faye Qiyu Lu, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Giacomo Zanolin, University of Genoa

We warmly welcome your attendance and participation!

Posted by: Simona Gallo <simona.gallo@unimi.it>

Networked Agitprop–cfp

by at

CfP – Asiascape: Digital Asia Special Issue on ‘Networked Agitprop’

The peer-reviewed academic journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (DIAS) is now inviting contributions for its 2026 themed issue on ‘Networked Agitprop in Asia’, edited by special issue editors Milan Ismangil and Florian Schneider.

Agitative propaganda, or agitprop, has long been a powerful tool for shaping public opinion, mobilizing movements, and cultivating ideological narratives. Originally describing the Soviet Union’s methods of distributing propaganda to fuel revolutionary fervour, the term agitprop has recently resurfaced in popular usage. For instance, influential political streamer Hasan Abi titled his short-lived show “Agitprop,” aiming to “amplify the anti-capitalist message.” Today, agitprop has evolved beyond its traditional confines of propagating Communism, finding new energy and purpose within digital networks and grassroots activism.

The rise of digital technologies in Asia has revolutionized the form and function of agitprop, transforming it from a centralized form of propaganda into a dynamic phenomenon driven by an anonymous mass whose solidarity stems from digital networks (see Jodice 2022, Lee & Chan 2018).Movements such as the 2015 Sunflower Protests in Taiwan, the 2020 white paper protests in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), or the 2025 protests against Martial Law in Korea and the Taiwanese movement the same year that aimed to recall unwanted politicians are all prominent examples. We can further consider everyday examples such as Morton (2023) who discusses aJapanese online agitprop poetry community. The role of the internet in social movements is not new; already 2011’s Arab Spring was hailed by some as the ‘Twitter Revolution’. Since then, the evolution of the internet and growing digital expertise amongst the population, not to mention the recentinfluence of generative AI, has led to different forms of integration of the digital with the offline. Two recent examples from the 2019 Hong Kong social movement are pertinent: Continue reading Networked Agitprop–cfp →

Museums in Motion — cfp extension

by at

Deadline Extended (June 10, 2025): Call For Papers
Museums in Motion: New Frontiers in Chinese Museum Studies
Dates: 13–14 November 2025
Format: Hybrid (Online & In-Person)
Hosting University: University of Siena, Department of Philology and Literary Criticism – Arezzo Campus
Venue: Logge del Grano Hall, Piazzetta Logge del Grano 5, 52100 Arezzo, Italy

Studying Chinese museums is both an intriguing and rewarding pursuit, offering a valuable perspective on the histories and cultures of China and its unprecedented transformations over the past three decades. These institutions house an extraordinary wealth of historical, artistic, and cultural artefacts, providing deep insight into China’s long and complex past, as well as its multilayered interactions with the world today. From ancient bronzes and calligraphy to contemporary art and political exhibitions, museums in China serve as dynamic spaces where history is preserved, interpreted, and debated. They shape narratives, influence national and local identities, and even serve political functions. The way history and culture are presented—what is emphasized, omitted, or reframed—offers a revealing glimpse into China’s evolving relationship with its past and present.

At the same time, questions of accessibility and representation remain central. While major state-run museums, such as the National Museum of China, present grand, state-approved narratives, smaller independent museums sometimes offer alternative perspectives, occasionally challenging official histories. This raises critical discussions about who controls historical narratives and how they are curated. Beyond their role as cultural and historical institutions, Chinese museums are at the forefront of technological and curatorial innovation. Digital exhibitions, AI-driven curation, and new approaches to audience engagement are transforming how visitors experience history and culture. But what does this mean for museum studies as a field? Are existing theories and methodologies sufficient to analyze these developments, or do we need new frameworks to understand this evolving landscape? Continue reading Museums in Motion — cfp extension →

Transnational Literary Production symposium

by at

Online Symposium: Transnational Literary Production and Consumption in the Digital Age
Date: Tuesday, 17th June 2025
Time: 12:00-14:30 London time / 7:00-9:30 Miami time / 19:00-21:30 Beijing time / 21:00-23:30 Sydney time
Venue: Microsoft Teams

To register: https://forms.office.com/e/zeMucwgpiB

Programme:

  • Dr Xiang Ren (University of Sydney): AI Integration and Resistance in Chinese Online Literature: Authorship, Governance, and Globalisation
  • Dr Anna Muenchrath (Florida Institute of Technology): Publishing Translations with Algorithmic Data in the US: China, India, and Beyond
  • Dr Heather Inwood (University of Cambridge): Worlding and Unworlding in Chinese Online Fiction
  • Dr Liang Ge (UCL): Danmei culture in trans-ing
  • Dr Peng Qiao (University of Science and Technology Beijing): Towards a carnivalesque interpretive community of Chinese Internet Literature

Continue reading Transnational Literary Production symposium →

5th Int’l Conference on Chinese Translation History–cfp

by at

The International Conference on Chinese Translation History series, organized by the Research Centre for Translation (RCT), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, explores Chinese translation history within the bigger framework of world civilization and human thought. It aims to lay groundwork for new models, methods, and perspectives in this innovative interdisciplinary branch of learning through detailed case studies. Since 2015, the conference series have been held every two years, with a different central theme for every conference. The fifth conference focuses on the broad spectrum of issues pertaining to the concept of text and context in Chinese translation history.

Since the Cultural Turn in the 1980s, Translation Studies has shifted from a traditional prescriptive paradigm to one that examines the social, historical, and cultural factors influencing translation activities. As Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere pointed out in Translation, History and Culture (1990), translation is not merely a linguistic matter; instead, there is always a context in which the translation takes place, always a history from which a text emerges and into which a text is transposed. This international conference invites scholars to explore the theme of “Text and Context”, focusing on various case studies to investigate the internal elements of translated texts and the contexts in which they are generated, circulated, and received. It aims to examine the influence of ideologies, poetics, and politics on translated texts and contexts, thereby showcasing the complexity and diversity of translation history.

Participants may attend the conference as individuals or members of a panel up to three.

Submission procedures: Please email the completed application form (click here) with an abstract of your paper/panel (no more than 250 words) to RCT (translationhistory@cuhk.edu.hk) on or before 15 August 2025. For panels, please also submit one abstract for each individual paper. All abstracts will be reviewed by the Conference Academic Committee. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out before 31 August 2025. Continue reading 5th Int’l Conference on Chinese Translation History–cfp →

Non-human celebrities–cfp

by at

Non-Human Celebrities in Digital East Asia
Special Issue of Celebrity Studies–Call for Papers

We are seeking proposals for articles to be included in a special issue on non-human celebrities in East Asia. Celebrity Studies has expressed interest in publishing the special issue.

This proposed special issue explores the phenomenon of non-human celebrities in East Asia in the digital age. Non-human celebrities refer to prominent figures that are not human beings but have nonetheless achieved celebrity status in media, culture, and public life. These include animals, fictional characters, mascots, computer-generated personalities, and even personified objects. With the advent of AI-generated figures, some virtual entities are now designed to be virtually indistinguishable from real humans in both appearance and behaviour, further complicating ontological distinctions and challenging the very definition of celebrity.

While existing scholarship has addressed some of these figures, key gaps remain. As John Blewitt (2013) observes, non-human celebrities, particularly animal stars, are “a human construct,” and their popularity often reflects human desires, anxieties, or ideals. This perspective becomes even more relevant in the context of today’s platform-driven media environments, which amplify the visibility and marketability of non-human figures. However, most studies to date have taken a predominantly anthropocentric and Western-centric view. There is thus a need to reconceptualise non-human celebrities from a posthuman perspective, while also examining how the phenomenon is shaped by the specific cultural, technological, and social conditions of non-Western contexts. Continue reading Non-human celebrities–cfp →

Creativity and Climate Crisis

by at

International Conference-Creativity and Climate Crisis: Asian Media and Arts in the Anthropocene
Date: 19-20 May 2025 (Mon-Tue)
Day 1 / 10:00-16:00
Day 2/ 15:00-19:30
Venue: YIA LT2, Yasumoto International Academic Park, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Registration link

Extreme weather, pollution, water crises, and the loss of lives and biodiversity are some of the greatest challenges of our time. In both urban and rural Asia, extreme climate conditions and regional disparities have created increased climate vulnerability and inequalities. This interdisciplinary conference invites papers and discussions that examine media, elemental/infrastructural, and creative responses that help make sense of these challenges. How do media and arts in Asia engage new methods, materials, and practices to address current environmental changes? How do media technologies, art forms, and social actions create new meanings arising from these challenges? What are the “ecological affect” or “climate unconscious” that are structuring our feelings, emotions, practices, and actions?

Co-convenors:
Wu Ka-ming (CUHK)
Tan Jia (CUHK)

Speakers: Continue reading Creativity and Climate Crisis →

Routledge series–call for proposals

by at

Routledge Series on Contemporary Asian Societies: Call for Proposal Submissions

EASt (Université libre de Bruxelles, Centre for East Asian Studies) is calling for book proposal submissions to publish in its Routledge series on Contemporary Asian Societies! Created in 2018, the series aims at providing an original and distinctive contribution to current debates on evolutions shaping societies, cultures, politics and media across Northeast and Southeast Asia.

Currently, EASt’s Routledge Collection consists of six books: four edited volumes and two monographs, including EASt members and external collaborators. Another volume is under preparation.nWe now invite proposals for books and are open to submissions for single-authored, multi-authored, and edited volumes.

Please contact the series directors Vanessa Frangville (vanessa.frangville@ulb.be) and Frederik Ponjaert (frederik.ponjaert@ulb.be) for more information or to submit your proposal, and check our website.

Wars in Film and Films During Wartime–cfp

by at

Call for Papers [CHINESE VERSION BELOW]
The Sixth International Conference on the Film Histories of Taiwan and Asia Cinema, 2025
Wars in Films and Films during Wartime
Date: August 23-24, 2025
Venue: College of Communication, National Chengchi University

The theme of this year’s conference is “Wars in films and films during war time.” As one of the most enduring subjects in film history, war not only reflects historical realities but also functions as a potent medium of cultural expression. This conference seeks to examine the multifaceted relationship between war and cinema, and how these two forces have shaped and informed one another across different historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. We welcome submissions of research papers on related topics and invite distinguished scholars to deliver keynote addresses that further enrich the discussion.

Sample Topics:

  1. Narrative and Visual Style of War Films:
    How are wars in Asia portrayed on screen? How do narrative structures, visual styles, and cinematic techniques shape audience understanding of war?

  2. War and National Identity:
    How do Asian and Taiwan films construct, reinforce, or question national, racial, and political identities during wartime? What ideological roles do war films play across different industries, countries, or historical periods in Asia?

  3. Representation of History and Memory:
    As a tool of historical narration, how does cinema re-present the history of war? What are the functions and limitations of film in reconstructing historical memory? Continue reading Wars in Film and Films During Wartime–cfp →

Southern Encounters workshop

by at

Dear MCLC members,

Please see the information below about a one-day conference to be held at the University of Oxford China Centre on June 6th, 2025. This event is in-person only. To register, please contact Margaret Hillenbrand (margaret.hillenbrand@chinese.ox.ac.uk).

Best wishes,

Margaret Hillenbrand

Southern Encounters: Nanyang and New Cultural Regionalities in Chinese Studies

This conference brings together papers that rethink how the “South” is conventionally being approached and articulated in Chinese Studies. Bringing a diverse set of southern encounters into dialogue with existing discourses about Nanyang, China’s Southwest and the Sinophone South, this workshop seeks to explore newer ways of conceptualizing cultural regionalities in Chinese Studies.

Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative
Jannis Chen Ji Zhou (Asst. Prof, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

An Exotic Turn: The Emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema
Yeo Min Hui (Asst. Prof, Nanyang Technological University)

Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman
Jessica Tan Li Wen (Asst. Prof, Lingnan University)

Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South
Chan Cheow Thia (Asst. Prof, National University of Singapore) Continue reading Southern Encounters workshop →

Neurons and Texts–cfp

by at

Neurons and Texts: New Frontiers of Chinese Humanities
Call for Papers
Event website here

The symposium Neurons and Texts will be held on October 17–18, 2025, at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. The title reflects the intersection of “neurons,” the fundamental units of intelligent systems underpinning natural cognition and artificial intelligence, and “texts,” which embody the diverse forms and patterns of natural and cultural expression.

The symposium aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue, showcasing the integration of traditional humanities with cognitive science, digital tools, and computational theory, thereby advancing the study of Chinese literature and culture. We welcome contributions methodologically aligned with (but not limited to) the following domains:

  • Digital Humanities: Utilizing big data analytics, computational conceptuality, and language models to explore Chinese literature and culture.
  • Computational and Cognitive Linguistics: Integrating linguistic analysis with cognitive science to examine Chinese texts, including distributional semantics, metaphor theory, and language evolution.
  • Philosophy and Cognitive Science: Engaging philosophical questions through the lens of cognitive science, with a focus on ethics, religious texts, and the relevance of Chinese philosophy to modern challenges.
  • Cultural Neuroscience: Exploring the neural basis of cultural expression, including embodied cognition, predictive processing, emotion theory, and their textual manifestations.
  • Histories of Medicine: Examining historical perspectives on Chinese medicine, bodily practices, and cultural representations of the body.

Continue reading Neurons and Texts–cfp →

The Mediterranean through Chinese Eyes

by at

The Mediterranean Through Chinese Eyes: Transcultural Encounters and Representation in Chinese Sources
May 16th-17th, 2025
UNIVERSITY OF PALERMO
Botanical Garden, Lanza Conference Room (and online)

The international conference The Mediterranean Through Chinese Eyes: Transcultural Encounters and Representation in Chinese Sources is the second conference of the MeTChE research project. This event aims to investigate how the Mediterranean has been perceived, represented, and reimagined in Chinese sources across time. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the conference will explore the construction of a transcultural perception of Mediterranean civilization(s) in Chinese geographical texts and travel diaries. Particular attention will be given to how representations of the sea and distant lands contributed to shaping the image of the “other” in Chinese thought.

The conference will be transmitted live on Microsoft Teams. We invite you to attend remotely and participate in the discussion. Full program, link and other details are available at the conference website.

Posted by: Renata Vinci <renata.vinci@unipa.it>

Performing Postsocialism–cfp

by at

CALL FOR PAPERS
Symposium Performing Postsocialism: Cultures of Performance-Making in Twenty-First-Century China

Symposium Dates: 9-10 April 2026
Venue: University of Vienna (Jura Soyfer-Saal, Hofburg)
Deadline: 30 May 2025
Submission guidelines: See below and here

Organized as part of a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), this symposium invites proposals that address the relationship between performance and postsocialism in twenty-first-century China. Since its initial formulations in the late 1980s and 1990s, the notion of postsocialism has captured the ideological ambiguities and cultural contradictions brought about by China’s late-twentieth-century transition to a socialist market economy and integration into the global capitalist system in the new millennium.

Postsocialism denotes a fluid condition of socioeconomic unevenness and temporal dissonance that mirrors the stratification of traditional values with historical experiences of revolution and reform, and the persistence of socialist-era practices and institutions alongside the affirmation of new societal dynamics and cultural formations. The postsocialist turn has informed scholarly debates in several fields, ranging from literature and intellectual history to media and visual cultures. However, research on the impact of postsocialist transformation on the theory and practice of performance and on the reconfiguration of performance ecologies, aesthetics, and epistemologies since the turn of the twenty-first century has been limited. Continue reading Performing Postsocialism–cfp →

AI pedagogy workshop

by at

PedAIgogy: Teaching Chinese Language, Literature & Culture in the Age of AI
Date: Saturday, May 3, 2025
Time: 9:30am – 4:00pm
Location: Founders Room, Claremont Colleges Library
800 N Dartmouth Ave., Claremont, CA 91711

The integration of AI into higher education presents both challenges and unprecedented opportunities. This interdisciplinary workshop provides a collaborative space for instructors in Chinese language, literature, and culture to share insights, strategies, and experiences in integrating AI into their teaching, learning, and research.

Click here for more information.

Registration (due 4/10/2025 PST)   Please register here to attend.

Posted by: Eileen Cheng <eileen.cheng@pomona.edu>