Lectures

Global Sinophonia 2 and 3

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Presented by Center for Film and Moving Image Research, Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University

  • Global Sinophonia 2: Five Guys who made a Hong Kong historical drama movie: “Hong Kong 1942”
  • Global Sinophonia 3: Screening & Sharing, “Memories To Choke On Drinks To Wash Them Down”

Global Sinophonia 2: Five Guys who made a Hong Kong historical drama movie: “Hong Kong 1942”

“Hong Kong 1942” is a World War II feature film filmed entirely in Hong Kong with all local actors and film crew. This movie is a small, independent production with a very limited budget and was created with just 5 film crew members during most of the 20-day filming schedule. Filmmaking is like putting together a puzzle, a thousand pieces needed to be assembled to create the final product. Money is not the biggest limitation on a production, it is the ability of the filmmakers to understand how to plot a pathway forward of doing the possible. We will reveal the production process of making Hong Kong 1942, the tips and tricks that every filmmaker should know before rolling into production.

ZOOM ID: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://hkbu.zoom.us/j/95560798929__;!!KGKeukY!zX1sU6oE8DC4Zj0qbLt16swUx_6VLbxYBRQ7Rez-v3zKmDomL0oK6L_2VVs24IeBvyPiyfF8H3GaU068t19wZJU$
LINK: 955 6079 8929

Speakers:
Grace Yan-yan Mak (Producer), Craig McCourry (Director)
Discussant: Kenny Ng Continue reading →

Frederik Green book talk

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Book talk and reading by Frederik Green on his book Bird Talk and Other Stories, a volume of translations of short stories by the Shanghai and Hong Kong-based author Xu Xu
2022 Asian Studies Symposium, Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (WCAAS)
Friday, October 21 from 4:00-5:30 pm MDT via Zoom (please register in advance using the link below)

This panel will feature a talk by Professor Frederik Green of San Francisco State University on his recent translated volume Bird Talk and other Stories by Xu Xu (Stone Bridge Press). Xu Xu, who began his career in Shanghai, China, relocated to Hong Kong in 1950 and established himself there as a writer, critic, editor, and professor. While he also wrote poetry and plays, he is best remembered for his short stories that bring together the modern, the romantic, and the exotic. In the post-1949 era, many of his works were adapted for film and television in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Professor Green will introduce the writer and the cultural and historical milieu in which he worked, read from and discuss his translations, and then field questions from the audience.

Please register in advance using the following link:

https://byu.zoom.us/j/94373090132?pwd=Y1FJUy9aMnlDb3lKRDE4OGkreFFuZz09

Posted by: Steve Riep <steven_riep@byu.edu>

A Conversation with Liu Wai Tong

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Poetics and Everyday Resistance: A Conversation with Liu Wai Tong
October 20, 2022, 13:00-14:30

How does poetry arrive at the spot of social events in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? How is the everyday resistance represented in women poets’ writing? And how does contemporary Chinese poetry intervene in the use of the Chinese language?

In this conversation with poet, writer, and photographer Liu Wai Tong (廖偉棠, pinyin: Liao Weitang), the Centre’s Post-doctoral Fellow Jinyan Zeng and Liu revisit poems written over the past three decades in responding to social movements, social incidents, women poets’ writing, and unofficial poetry initiatives in the Chinese-speaking world.

Webinar, Chinese dialogues with an English translation channel
網絡研討會，中文對話，英文翻譯

Registration: https://www.ace.lu.se/calendar/poetics-and-everyday-resistance-conversation-liu-wai-tong

Posted by: Jinyan Zeng <jinyan.zeng@ace.lu.se>

Chinese Crip Poetry as World Literature

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Lecture – “Crossing the World to Sleep with You: Chinese Crip Poetry as World Literature,” by Hangping Xu (Oct 19)

We invite you to join us at a hybrid seminar titled “Crossing the World to Sleep with You: Chinese Crip Poetry as World Literature,” featuring Professor Hangping Xu from the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, UC Santa Barbara.

Wednesday, October 19 at 4:45pm (EST)
G08, Uris Hall, Cornell University & Online
Zoom Registration: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlfumgqj8tGNykJ4ZscC3H9Jhpp3XUvXEF

Yu Xiuhua rose to her celebrity status when her poem “Crossing China to Sleep with You” went viral in 2014 on Chinese social media platforms, causing what can be called a cultural event, which director Fan Jian documents in his 2016 film Still Tomorrow. As a female poet who lives with cerebral palsy in rural China, Yu was often labeled by media representations as a “brain-paralyzed peasant poet.” Such a sensationalist labeling strategy exploits her various minority identities. Focusing on the rise of Yu as a “crip” trickster figure, the talk advances a critical account of Chinese internet poetry as transmedial performance. By discussing the politics of translation, the talk also considers Chinese crip poetry as world literature. It cross-examines various English translations of Yu’s sensationally received poem in order to demonstrate a comparative reading practice that strives for an intertextual dialogue among various translations of a given poem. Such a multiplication of translated textuality puts into motion a poem’s rhetoricity and the cultural work that it performs. This comparative approach to translation ultimately invites us to articulate a critical pedagogy of teaching translated literature, namely, cataloging multiple translations of the same text and cross-analyzing the formal and performative tension that they present enables a reading experience and practice that is more cross-culturally vital and ethical. Continue reading →

Performing Solidarities lecture

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PUBLIC LECTURE: “Performing Solidarities: ‘Third World’ Alliance as Choreographic Practice in Mao-Era China”
Professor Emily Wilcox (College of William & Mary)
5:00-6:30pm, Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Room 604, UBC Asian Centre (1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)

This free event is co-sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Theatre & Film of the University of British Columbia.

Event details and registration:

https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/performing-solidarities-third-world-alliance-as-choreographic-practice-in-mao-era-china/

Lecture description:

The concept of ‘Third World’ unity emerged in the mid-twentieth century as a way of forging political alliances and solidarities among Asian, African, and Latin American people, by focusing on shared experiences of colonial history, racism, and decolonial struggle and imagining possibilities for global interaction beyond the bipolar Cold War framework.

In this talk, Wilcox explores uses of performance, especially dance, to build and enact transnational alliances across differences. Through examples such as a 1964 Chinese dance drama about the US Civil Rights Movement and the Asia-Africa-Latin America programs of China’s Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (est. 1962), Wilcox asks what it meant to choreograph alliances with transnational communities in Mao-era China. Continue reading →

HK Lit in Translation

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IT’S COMPLICATED: HONG KONG LITERATURE IN TRANSLATION
Louise Law, Project Director, Spicy Fish Cultural Production Limited
Thursday, October 6, 2022
5:30-6:45 pm PT, HYBRID (In Person & Online)
Free and open to the public. Registration required.
https://www.usfca.edu/event/its-complicated-hong-kong-literature-translation/9792596

The University of San Francisco Center for Asia Pacific Studies and the Asian Studies Program welcome writer and editor Louise Law for a discussion of Hong Kong literature in translation—a discussion of a literary landscape that reflects the complicated geographic, linguistic, and political history of the city itself. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about Hong Kong Literature, especially in translation? How many works have been translated into English and how many have yet to be uncovered? This talk will give an overview of Hong Kong Literature in the past 70 years, highlighting key writers who are representative of the spirit of Hong Kong.

After a short lecture, Louise Law will engage in a conversation with award-winning literary translators Jennifer Feeley and Andrea Lingenfelter, followed by Q&A with the audience. Continue reading →

Hollywood in China book talk

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Book Talk – Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market
Date: Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 9:00am to 10:00am
Location: Virtual event, registration required

Join the Rajawali Institute Foundation for Asia for a discussion with Professor Ying Zhu, author of Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market. Professor Zhu’s conversation will be moderated by Rajawali Foundation Institute Director Tony Saich.

Register here

About the Author

Ying Zhu is the founder and chief editor of the peer-reviewed academic journal Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is the author of four books including Hollywood in China: Behind the Scenes of the World’s Largest Movie Market and Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television (both from The New Press) and co-editor of six books including Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds. Previously on the faculty at the City University of New York, she is now a professor in the Academy of Film at the Hong Kong Baptist University and an adjunct professor in the School of Arts at the Columbia University. Continue reading →

Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century lecture series

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Dear colleagues,

I write to draw your attention to the online lecture series entitled Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century, which is funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and co-organized by National Chengchi University and the University of Canterbury. This series features four established scholars in the field: Professor Carlos Rojas (Duke University), Professor Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang (University of Texas, Austin), Professor Yenna Wu (University of California, Riverside), and Professor Michelle Yeh (University of Calfornia, Davis). Please see the flyer for our lecture schedule.

Looking forward to seeing you online.

Best wishes,

Ming-ju Fan (National Chengchi University)
Chia-rong Wu (University of Canterbury) chiarong.wu@canterbury.ac.nz

Su Tong event

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List member might be interested in a hybrid event in London with both an offline and online components. Su Tong (author of Raise the Red Lantern) will be in conversation with Frances Wood from the British Library.

Open-Air Cinema: In conversation with Su Tong
Date: 16 July, 2022, 3:00 PM–4:00 PM BST
Place: China Exchange UK, 32a Gerrard Street, W1D6JA, London

TICKETS (in-person, China Exchange, London):
https://tickettailor.com/events/chinaexchange/697810/

TICKETS (join online):
https://tickettailor.com/events/chinaexchange/713348/

Daniel Yang Li
Book Marketer
Alain Charles Asia Publishing

Yan Lianke event

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Dear Friends,

I write to invite you, and those you know who might be interested, to join us in an online book club conversation about the novel Hard Like Water 坚硬如水 with author Yan Lianke and long-term collaborator and translator Carlos Rojas.  We will hold the event both in-person and online (online registration) on August 11th from 7-9PM ET.  Please click this link or the graphic below for more details.

Best,

Alex Nickley
Interim Assistant Director
Asian/Pacific Studies Institute – asianpacific.duke.edu
Duke University, Durham, NC
email: alexander.nickley@duke.edu | office: 919-684-2783

Empire of Dust event

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Join us for a discussion about Jiang Zilong’s Magnum Opus – Empire of Dust. We will be joined by Olivia Milburn, the translator of Empires of Dust (https://sinoistbooks.com/product/empires-of-dust/)
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sinoist-book-club-june-empires-of-dust-jiang-zilong-tickets-350565359427

Date and time: Sun, 19 June 2022; 15:00 – 16:30 BST

About this event

It is almost time for another session of our Readers’ Club! Join us, translator Olivia Milburn as we venture into Jiang Zilong’s Empires of Dust, an epic realist novel charting the relentless rise and depraved fall of restless entrepreneur Guo Cunxian, a ‘rugged individual’ of sorts who persists and profits through the revolution, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Reform and Opening that paved the way for business ventures bold, brave, and benighted. Greed is good, comrades… Continue reading →

Artist Geng Xue talk

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Sculptures in Front of the Camera: An artistic talk by Geng Xue
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
12:30 – 14:00 British Summer Time
Online

What happens when a work of sculpture is placed in front of the camera? Based on her own creative practices, contemporary Chinese artist Geng Xue reflects on her recently completed moving-image trilogy, which is composed of Mr. Sea (2014), The Poetry of Michelangelo (2015), and The Name of Gold (2019). The creative fusion of the language of film and that of sculpture – especially the ways in which lighting, poetry, sound, and traces of the hand come into play in the transformative process – will be discussed.

To register and for further information
https://bit.ly/3Lt1rBP

About the Speaker
Geng Xue (born. 1983) is a contemporary Chinese artist whose work covers a variety of media, including porcelain, sculpture, painting, installation, and moving image. She currently teaches in the Department of Sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (of China), where she received her BFA in sculpture and MFA in printmaking. She has been invited to exhibit her works at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018), and the Busan Biennale, South Korea (2014), among many others.

Event Access
A Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees before the event starts.

Posted by: Panpan Yang panpanyangpanpan@gmail.com

Jia Pingwa ‘Broken Wings’

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MCLC members might be interested in this event, featuring the great Nicky Harman and Zhang Lijia:

Readers Club (May): Jia Pingwa – Broken Wings

Join us for a discussion about the issues faced by contemporary Chinese women from the viewpoint of one of China’s literary titans

About this event

It is almost time for another session of our Readers’ Club! Join us and translator Nicky Harman as we go through the story of Butterfly, a humble but also ambitious young woman who unexpectedly finds herself part of a plan that will change her life forever. Jia Pingwa’s 2019 novel Broken Wings addresses themes of great social importance that make it incredibly relevant and contemporary – among which women trafficking and forced marriage, great urban investments as opposed by the expenses paid by rural village life.

It will be an interesting discussion open to everyone, regardless if you’ve read the book before or not, but you can order your copy here [https://sinoistbooks.com/product/broken-wings/] with 10% off using code CLRCUK10. If you’d like a taster before you buy or find yourself opening this too close to the date to read the whole book, please find the afterword available to read here – trust us, it might be the afterword, but it is definitely worth reading before the rest.

We would love to see you there!

Daniel Yang Li

Book Marketer
Alain Charles Asia Publishing

Workshop on Taiwan Literature

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Learn more about the rich literature from Taiwan through this workshop that explores key works by Taiwanese writers. Focusing on six books in the Literature from Taiwan Series, the panel experts will discuss works by Ye Shitao, Husluman Vava, Li Ang, Ta-wei Chi, and many more. The event will be held on May 27 and 28, 2022.

The six books that will be discussed are:

  • A Taiwanese Literature Reader edited by Nikky Lin
  • The Soul of Jade Mountain by Husluman Vava; translated by Terence Russell
  • A History of Taiwan Literature by Ye Shitao; translated by Christopher Lupke
  • A Son of Taiwan: Stories of Government Atrocity edited by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin
  • Transitions in Taiwan: Stories of the White Terror edited by Ian Rowen
  • Queer Taiwanese Literature: A Reader edited by Howard Chiang

To sign up for the event, please contact Professor Christopher Lupke (University of Alberta) at lupke@ualberta.ca. For more information on the books, see https://www.cambriapress.com/taiwanlitbooks.cfm