Reading Sinophone Women Writers
April 4, 2-5pm
Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy St., Harvard University
Speakers:
Li Zishu 黎紫書
Lu Pin 鹿苹
Lin Zhao 林棹
Dorothy Tse 謝曉虹
Moderators:
David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University)
Mingwei Song (Wellesley College)
Dingru Huang (Tufts University)
Sponsors:
East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
Join us for an exciting event, titled ‘Hidden Heritage and Marginal Voices in Chinese Diasporas: Opera, Food and Water’, jointly organised by Hub on Migration, Exile, Languages and Space (HOMELandS) Research Centre and the Contemporary China Centre at the University of Westminster. The panel brings together expert researchers from different countries and universities who will share with us their most recent research into diasporic Chinese heritage. Based on case studies of Chinese diasporas in Canada, Britain and Macao and through the lens of opera, food and water respectively, their fascinating work unveil the hidden heritage and marginal voices of underrepresented individuals, families and communities, asking new questions on memory, identity and belonging in Chinese diasporas and beyond.
Date and time: 1-3 pm, Thursday 3 April 2025
Venue: Online via Zoom
Speakers: Prof. Wing Chung Ng (University of Texas at San Antonio), Dr. Rui Su (Middlesex University) and Dr. Mariana Pinto Leitão Pereira (University of York)
Discussant: Prof. Cangbai Wang (University of Westminster)
Chair: Prof. Gerda Wielander
It is free and open to all, but registration is required. To view the programme and to register, please visit here.
Techno-Nationalism and the Rise of Chinese Animation: Nezha 2 and the Evolution of CGI Blockbusters in China
Speaker: Daisy Yan Du (HKUST)
Date & Time: Mar 26, 2025 11:00 AM EST
Register Here
Description
3D CGI (computer-generated imagery) animation has long been regarded as an American innovation, pioneered by Pixar’s groundbreaking animated feature film, Toy Story (1995). For Chinese animators, mastering 3D CGI technology—a more complex and technically demanding medium compared to 2D animation—has represented an important step in advancing the country’s animation industry. The journey began with the release of China’s first 3D CGI animated feature film, Little Tiger Banban (2001), and progressed through technological milestones such as Thru the Moebius Strip (2004), marking the gradual maturation of Chinese 3D CGI animation. However, it was not until the release of blockbusters like Monkey King: Hero is Back (2015) and Nezha (2019) that Chinese CGI technology began to achieve significant commercial success domestically. The recent global acclaim for Nezha 2 (2025), with its stunning visual effects proudly touted as “made in China,” has sparked a sense of national cultural achievement. Watching the film and contributing to its record-breaking box office sales became a way for audiences to celebrate the progress of Chinese animation. As the highest-grossing animated feature film in world history, surpassing Disney and Pixar, Nezha 2 not only signifies the rise of Chinese animation on the global stage but also underscores the growing influence of Chinese CGI technology in the realms of computer graphics and the creative industries worldwide. This program is part of China Center’s “Considering China Webinar Series”, exploring important topics related to China’s many facets with the local community. Continue reading Nezha 2 and the Evolution of CGI Blockbusters
“Taiwan Democracy and the Chinese Humanistic Tradition”
Capstone lecture by Professor Josephine Chiu-Duke 丘慧芬, on the occasion of her retirement
Details and registration: https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/taiwan-democracy-and-the-chinese-humanistic-tradition/
Thursday, March 6, 2025
3:00-5:00pm reception and lecture
Asian Centre Auditorium
The University of British Columbia
UBC Asian Centre, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC
2025 Capstone Lecture by Dr. Josephine Chiu-Duke
Taiwan’s peaceful transformation from authoritarian rule to a liberal democracy in the early 1990s has been praised as a remarkable political achievement. This achievement, despite the many challenges it has faced and still confronts, has been thriving in the face of China’s claim of sovereignty over the island and its constant threats of serious coercion. To be sure, Taiwan’s production of the world’s most sought for semiconductor chips has already made Taiwan a pivotal link in the world supply chain.
What should be noted is that Taiwan today is also the only place where Chinese culture, especially with regard to the values embedded in the Confucian humanistic tradition, has been best preserved since 1949 without being deliberately destroyed as it was during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
In her talk, Dr. Chiu-Duke will discuss why Taiwan’s successful search for liberty and democracy has yet to bring about a consensus on Taiwan’s dealing with China. She will also discuss how Confucius’ innovative re-interpretation of the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven laid the foundation for the Chinese humanistic tradition. This tradition was the key reason for China being identified as one of the “Axial civilizations.” However, it has never being able to make an institutional breakthrough in its pursuit of the Confucian ideal of a humane government, not even during the 1915 May Fourth New Culture movement when liberal democracy and science were advocated as the necessary goals for China’s path to modernity. Continue reading Taiwan Democracy and the Chinese Humanistic Tradition
Online Book Talk: Sentimental Republic: Chinese Intellectuals and the Maoist Past
Speaker/Author:
Hang Tu, Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore
Moderator:
David Der-wei Wang, Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University
Time:
February 25, 2025,
8pm – 9pm (EST)
Zoom Registration:
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sbCTCYhfSfSaNkjASXM6kw#/registration
Chinese Film: Realism and Convention from the Silent Era to the Digital Age
Jason McGrath
SOAS China Institute Webinar
Date: Monday 10th March 2025
Time: 5pm to 6.30pm, GMT/ 1pm – 2.30pm, EDT
This webinar will take place online via Zoom. All welcome, but registration is required here.
Abstract
Discourses of “realism” have been crucial to Chinese cinema since its beginning in the early 20th century, but what exactly is “realism”?
Instead of having one steady meaning, realism gets redefined periodically in response to historical changes and in a dialectical relationship with various sorts of conventions – either by conforming to the conventions of a particular conception of realism or by claiming a break with all conventions to force a new confrontation with the real. The historical dialectics of realism and convention in mainland Chinese film history is the topic of the recent book Chinese Film: Realism and Convention from the Silent Era to the Digital Age (2022).
In this talk, Professor Jason McGrath discusses the progression from critical realism to socialist realism to socialist formalism to post-socialist realism by means of this tension between realism and convention. Continue reading Chinese Film, SOAS webinar
Please find below the announcement for our third Stanford Global Studies Research Workshop on New Civilizationisms. The workshop series is part of a larger project on Civilizationisms at Stanford. You can learn more about the project here: https://thecivilizationismproject.sites.stanford.edu
Stanford Global Studies, the Stanford Program in International Relations, & the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures present
Three Images of “Civilization” in Contemporary China: Global Civilization Initiative, Ecological Civilization, and Science Fiction Struggles
Prof. William A. Callahan, Professor of Political Science (Singapore Management University)
When: February 27th, 2025 at 4pm PST
Where: International Relations Lounge, Encina Hall Central, Stanford University. The event is hybrid and will take place both in-person and on zoom.
Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/99096635018?pwd=G1S9XPARKWGTC6HO6G9L9uFTtg5XpK.1
Please see complete details in the posters below. In case of any queries or difficulties, please contact me at shubhi@stanford.edu. Hope to see you there!
Regards,
Shubhangni Gupta (Workshop Coordinator)
Faculty Sponsors:
Haiyan Lee (Stanford EALC)
Thomas Blom Hansen (Stanford Anthropology)
Serkan Yolaçan (Stanford Anthropology)
Dear MCLC Community,
A few weeks ago, we held a wonderful event at San Francisco State to honor our alum, former faculty member, and pre-eminent translator of Chinese literature, Professor Howard Goldblatt. The event was entitled “Farewells and Homecomings: An Afternoon with Celebrated Translator Howard Goldblatt.” Professor Goldblatt shared stories about his time at SF State, his first trip to China in the 1980s, and his friendships with Chinese writers. The event culminated with Professor Goldblatt presenting SF State with a priceless gift. The recording of the event, along with a slideshow and more information, can now be found on our website. You can also view the recording and slideshow below.
https://mll.sfsu.edu/news/afternoon-celebrated-translator-howard-goldblatt
Happy Thanksgiving,
Frederik Green
Dear colleagues,
The ‘Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative Public Talk Series’ will host the 12th and the final talk on Tuesday 26 November 2024. Our speaker is Mr. Gao Donghui, Director of the Jiangmen Museum, Guangdong, China. He will give a talk on The Distinctive Development Path of Regional Overseas Chinese Museums: A Case Study of the Jiangmen Museum 区域华侨博物馆的特色发展路径：以江门市博物馆为例
Date: Tuesday 26 November 2024
Time: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm (GMT)
Venue: Online via Zoom
The event is free to attend and open to all.
Zoom ID: 896 9673 2914
Password: 12345
Zoom meeting link:
https://ntu-sg.zoom.us/j/89696732914?pwd=dn5XUF8tXT3HUckilc6P2KYrPFQQLi.1
The talk will be given in Mandarin Chinese. Simultaneous translation into English will be provided.
Chair: Yow Cheun Hoe, Director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore
Speaker: Gao Donghui, Director of Jiangmen Museum, China Continue reading Jiangmen Museum talk
SOAS China Institute webinar
The Chinese Cultural Revolution Discourse in Ming Pao
Shuk Man Leung (University of Hong Kong)
Date: Monday, 18 November 2024
Time: 1pm to 2.30pm, GMT
This webinar will take place online via Zoom. All welcome, but registration is required here.
Abstract
Recent studies marked the 1967 riots as a watershed in Hong Kong’s subsequent identity formation, which was based on a dichotomy between a benevolent British colonial administration and a hostile socialist China.
However, this prevailing view overlooks the complexity of Chinese nationalism and the role of the Cultural Revolution (CR) in forming a local consciousness. In the process of structuring its local/national identity discourse, Ming Pao, a neutral newspaper, took a strategically ambiguous approach, rather than a definite political position involving factional leftism, Communist nationalism, Trotskyism, cultural nationalism, and pro-KMT ultra-rightism.
The aim of this investigation of Ming Pao’s CR discourse is to reveal how its intellectual tropes—“stability and prosperity,” “three-in-one combination” (i.e., socialist equality, capitalist economy’s freedom, and Confucian benevolence), and “the concepts of everyday and labor”—helped to cultivate a local identity for the Chinese during the CR.
Ming Pao’s nationalist discourse demonstrated an alternative way to understand the formation of the popular identity discourse of Hong Kong, which transcended the traditional Cold War dichotomy between communism and capitalism and the pro-colonial identity discourse. Continue reading The Cultural Revolution Discourse in Ming Pao
Book Talk (hybrid) with Hong Kong author Lau Yee-wa and translator Jennifer Feeley at the University of Denver
Time: Oct 23, 2024; 5-7 pm (MST)
Speakers:
Lau Yee-wa (author of Tougueless)
Jennifer Feeley (translator)
Moderator:
Wayne CF Yeung (University of Denver)
Sponsors:
University of Denver
Hong Kong Arts Development Council
Pennsylvania State University
Zoom link:
https://udenver.zoom.us/j/5350893952
(The moderator would like to thank Dr. Nicolai Volland and Dr. Shuang Shen (Pennsylvania State University) for their support with arranging Yee-wa’s visit.)
One and All: The Logic of Chinese Sovereignty — An Online Book Talk with Laikwan Pang
Time: Oct. 24, 2024; 8-9:15pm (EDT)
Speaker:
Laikwan Pang (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
With:
Yurou Zhong (University of Toronto)
Hang Tu (National University of Singapore)
Moderator:
David Der-wei Wang (Harvard University)
Sponsors:
Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies
East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation
Zoom registration:
https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jmaBY41-TSS6wjgs6fWQmQ
USC EASC Guest Speaker Series: The First Chinese American: The Remarkable Life of Wong Chin Foo
Talk by Scott D. Seligman
Saturday, September 28, 2024 | 10:00AM-11:20AM | Zoom (meeting link will be emailed) | RSVP
EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Scott D. Seligman with Faculty Moderator Li-Ping Chen (GESM 120: Moving Stories from China)
Chinese in America endured abuse and discrimination in the late nineteenth century, but they had a leader and a fighter in Wong Chin Foo (王清福, 1847–1898), whose story is a forgotten chapter in the struggle for equal rights in America. The first to use the term “Chinese American,” Wong defended his compatriots against malicious scapegoating and urged them to become Americanized to win their rights. A trailblazer and a born showman who proclaimed himself China’s first Confucian missionary to the United States, he founded America’s first association of Chinese voters and testified before Congress to get laws that denied them citizenship repealed. Wong challenged Americans to live up to the principles they freely espoused but failed to apply to the Chinese in their midst.
Posted by: Li-Ping Chen <lipingch@usc.edu>
Dear colleagues,
The ‘Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative Public Talk Series’ will host the 11th talk on Friday 20 September 2024. Our speaker is Prof. Cai Xianliang, Director of the He Xiangning Art Museum. He will give a talk on Art as a Bridge: The Role of the He Xiangning Art Museum in Enhancing China’s Relationship with the Overseas Chinese以艺为桥：何香凝美术馆在增进中国与海外华人联系中的作用
Date: Friday 20 September 2024
Time: 12:00 pm to 13:30 pm (BST)
Venue: Online via Zoom
The event is free to attend and open to all.
Zoom ID: 849 7996 8532
Password: 12345
Zoom meeting link:
https://ntu-sg.zoom.us/j/84979968532?pwd=LogccVmU7Yrra0mgiZvr3NfuVqa0Kq.1
The talk will be given in Mandarin Chinese. Simultaneous translation into English will be provided.
Chair: Yow Cheun Hoe, Director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore
Speaker: Cai Xianliang, Director of the He Xiangning Art Museum, China
Abstract
He Xiangning Art Museum is the first national art museum in China named after an individual and has the richest collection of He Xiangning’s works and historical documents in the world. It is the main collection organisation and research institution for He Xiangning’s art works and documents, and its daily work mainly focuses on research, exhibitions, publications, and public education activities. In her early years, He Xiangning had a long history of revolutionary activities overseas, and had extensive and deep connections with overseas countries, thus becoming an important bridge between overseas Chinese and China. In her later years, He Xiangning mainly focused on hosting national overseas Chinese affairs. He Xiangning Art Museum located in Shenzhen adheres to the spirit of He Xiangning and her deep affection for overseas Chinese, attaches great importance to the development of overseas Chinese art, planning a series of thematic exhibitions of overseas Chinese art, fine art exhibitions, and becomes an important platform for the exchange, introduction and promotion of contemporary Chinese art. It has become an important platform for the exchange, introduction and promotion of contemporary Chinese art.
The event is jointly hosted by HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) at the University of Westminster and the Chinese Heritage Centre of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. It is organised as part of the ‘Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative’ project funded by AHRC.
It would be appreciated if you could share this event with your colleagues and your networks. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Cangbai Wang (he/him)
Professor of Migration, Heritage and Language
University of Westminster
The Chinese Program at San Francisco State University invites you to
Farewells and Homecomings: An Afternoon with Celebrated Translator Howard Goldblatt 迎朋送友：與著名翻譯家葛浩文相聚
Howard Goldblatt is the preeminent translator of Chinese Literature of our time. Among the more than 50 Chinese-language authors he has translated are Mo Yan 莫言, the 2012 winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Huang Chunming 黃春明, one of Taiwan’s most acclaimed nativist writers, and Pai Hsien-yung 白先勇, author of one of the first gay novels in Chinese. He is also a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow and Professor Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame.
Goldblatt’s journey into the realm of Chinese literature began at SF State where he obtained an MA in Chinese in 1971 and where he taught from 1974 until 1988. During this homecoming, Goldblatt will talk about his career as a translator, his friendships with Chinese writers, his time at SF State, and a farewell poem that has seen him through life’s most poignant moments.
DATE/TIME: Saturday, Sept. 28, 2 – 4 p.m.
LOCATION: SF State Campus, Humanities 133 (a campus map and driving instructions will be sent upon registration)
Admission is free but registration is required by Sept. 14. Seating is limited.
Click here to register:
https://renxt.sfsu.edu/site/Calendar?id=101321&view=Detail
If you have any questions please contact the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at MLL@sfsu.edu.
SF State welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations upon request. If you would like reasonable accommodations for this event, please contact the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at MLL@sfsu.edu so your request may be reviewed.
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue, ADM 153
San Francisco, CA 94132
(415) 338-2217