News in the field

Christine Choy dies at 73

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Source: Cinema Daily (12/9/25)
Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73

Documentary Filmmaker Christine Choy Dies at 73

©Courtesy of the Museum of Chinese in America.

Shanghai-born documentary filmmaker Christine Choy, whose 1987 Oscar-nominated film Who Killed Vincent Chin? galvanized the Asian-American community, died on December 7 in Manhattan. She was 73.

In a career spanning fifty years, the outspoken Choy made more than eighty films and received dozens of awards, including a lifetime achievement award presented to her in 2023 by the Hot Docs film festival. In the previous year, she had been the subject of The Exiles, a documentary  directed by two of her students that won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. That film depicted Choy’s meeting  with a group of Chinese dissidents  who had participated in the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989.

For more than thirty-five years, Choy had been on the faculty of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she chaired the graduate film/TV program from 1994 to 1997 and 2002 to 2005.

Christine Choy was born as Chai Ming Huie to a Chinese mother and a Korean father who was a political exile living in Shanghai. During the Cultural Revolution in China, Choy and her mother fled to South Korea where the family was reunited. In the mid-1960s Choy arrived in New York City, where she quickly became involved in political activism with the Black Panthers and other radical groups.

In 1972, Choy co-founded Third World Newsreel with Susan Robeson, the granddaughter of African American actor Paul Robeson. One of their first releases was a documentary about the 1971 Attica Prison uprising. Choy also directed many other films about the struggles of racial minorities, including From Spikes to Spindles, Mississippi Triangle, Sa-I-Gu, and A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde. Continue reading Christine Choy dies at 73 →

Prof. Aili Mu (1958-2025)

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Professor Aili Mu
(March 21, 1958–December 7, 2025)

Aili Mu, 67, Professor Emerita of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University, passed away on December 7, 2025. Aili was born in Beijing and grew up in Shandong Province, China—the homeland of Confucius. Her life and career bridged China and the USA. After completing her B.A. (1982) and M.A. (1985) in English at Shandong University, she taught at China Foreign Affairs University (1985–1989). She later moved to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at SUNY Stony Brook, which she completed in 1996. Aili joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 2001 after teaching at Vassar College. Over the next twenty-five years, she made Ames her home.

Aili singlehandedly established the Chinese Studies Program at ISU. In addition to developing the Chinese curriculum, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to teaching. She taught Chinese language courses at all levels, as well as classes on Chinese film, literature, cultural traditions, translation, and contemporary China. She also organized numerous extracurricular cultural activities, lectures, and events to enrich student learning. Seeking to bring together the best values of Chinese and American culture, she infused passion and love into her work. Her genuine care for the intellectual and personal growth of her students earned their lasting admiration; many remained in close contact with her long after graduation.

Aili was also a dedicated scholar, developing her research in close dialogue with her teaching. She published extensively in both English and Chinese on Chinese aesthetics, literature and culture, translation studies, calligraphy, instructional technology, and pedagogy. In addition to numerous journal articles, she authored two refereed books with Columbia University Press: Loud Sparrows: Contemporary Chinese Short-Shorts (2006) and Contemporary Chinese Short-Short Stories: A Parallel Text (2017). The latter earned her the 2018 Franklin R. Buchanan Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Aili received both a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2004) and a Fulbright Scholar Research Grant (2007).

Aili was the youngest of three siblings. She is survived by her husband, her elder sister, elder brother and her nephews and nieces. Beyond her family, Aili’s profound knowledge, sincerity, and humility earned her lasting friendships near and far. A loving person, she delighted in exchanging thoughts and ideas, taking long walks in nature, sharing life stories, cooking and dining, gardening, and the arts. Her legacy will continue to inspire all who knew her.

Tonglu Li <tongluli@iastate.edu>

Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize longlist

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Paper Republic: A reader’s guide to the 2025 Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize longlist (August 4, 2025)
By Andrew Rule

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Last week saw the unveiling of the longlist for this year’s Blancpain-Imaginist Prize 宝珀理想国文学奖, one of China’s most prestigious awards for young writers. The prize has a history of identifying important writers early in their careers, and it has an especially strong track record for short-story writers, so scrolling through the nomination list is a good way to keep on the cutting edge of the Chinese literary fiction market. A few of the nominees have had their work translated into English before. Here’s a quick reading list to get familiar with them while we wait for the winner to be announced this fall.

Two nominees had novels released in English just this year:

  • 张悦然 Zhang Yueran was nominated for the novel 《天鹅旅馆》(lit. Swan Hotel), which recently came out in a translation by Jeremy Tiang under the title Women, Seated. She has lots of other fiction available in English as well, including the novels Cocoon and The Promise Bird, both also translated by Jeremy Tiang.
  • 杨好 Yang Hao, nominated for the fiction collection 《大眠》 The Long Slumber, has an earlier novel now out in translation: Diablo’s Boys, translated by Nicky Harman and Michael Day and published this year. For a taste of her style, you can also check out two of her rather harrowing shorter fantastical pieces: “World Map” and “Ritual,” both translated by Michael Day.

Continue reading Blancpain-Imaginist Literary Prize longlist →

50th Anniversary of MCLC

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, which started in 1975 as the modest Modern Chinese Literature Newsletter. To celebrate this milestone, Kirk Denton has written a short history of the journal, and past and present editors have contributed more personal pieces — Howard Goldblatt, Michael Gotz, Theodore Huters, Michel Hockx, Xiaomei Chen, Nick Kaldis, and us. Jointly, they show what a long and remarkable way MCLC, and perhaps our field more broadly, has come over the years:

https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/a-short-history-of-mclc/

Natascha Gentz and Christopher Rosenmeier
Editors, MCLC

Cheng Chou-yu dies at 91

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Source: Focus Taiwan (6/15/25)
Taiwanese poet Cheng Chou-yu dies at 91
By Wang Pao-er and Evelyn Kao

Poet Cheng Chou-yu. CNA file photo

Poet Cheng Chou-yu. CNA file photo.

Taipei, June 15 (CNA) Renowned Taiwanese poet Cheng Chou-yu (鄭愁予) passed away in the United States in the early hours of Friday morning (U.S. time) at the age of 91.

Another local poet Hsiao Hsiao (蕭蕭) told a CNA reporter Sunday that according to Cheng’s sister-in-law Lin Tsai-kuei (林彩桂), Cheng passed away at 4:44 a.m. on June 13 due to heart failure.

Born in 1933, Cheng’s birth name was Cheng Wen-tao (鄭文韜). He was born in Jinan, Shandong Province in China, and his ancestral home was in Ninghe, Hebei. In 1949, he moved to Taiwan with his family following the Nationalist government’s retreat to the island.

In 1967, Cheng went to the United States to participate in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, later earning a Master of Fine Arts degree and doctoral degrees.

He taught at the University of Iowa, Yale University and the University of Hong Kong, and in 2005 returned to Taiwan to serve as a writer-in-residence at National Dong Hwa University.

At the age of 16, Cheng self-published his first poetry collection, Straw Sandals and a Raft. He later published numerous poetry collections including Slave Girls Outside the Window and The Possibility of Snow.

His most famous poem, The Mistake, is highly praised and often cited as a classic in Taiwanese literature. It was included in Taiwan’s Chinese language textbooks.

Cheng was also a frequent traveler, as demonstrated by a line in the Mistake: “I am a passer-by, not a returned man.”

In Memory of John Deeney special issue

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NEW PUBLICATION
Special issue of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 51, 1 (March 2024)
Legacies of the “Chinese School of Comparative Literature”: In Memory of John Deeney 李達三
Guest Editors: Daniel Fried and Sheldon Lu

Introduction
Daniel Fried and Sheldon Lu                    

A Pioneer in Chinese-Western Comparative Literature: John J. Deeney’s Vision and Work
Cecile Chu-Chin Sun                        

Chinese Modernization and the Discursive Construction of the “Chinese School of Comparative Literature”
Zou Zan and Yang Kaihong                     

Composite, Comparativist, and Comparative Literature: Remembering John J. Deeney as a Confucian Gentleman
Haomin Gong                            

The Development and Prospects of a Chinese School of Comparative Literature
Cao Shunqing and Wang Mengru                 

Jack Deeney: An Unsung Hero of Chinese-Western Comparative Literature
Zhang Longxi                            

Cross-hatching Soviet-Russian and Chinese Poetic Traditions: National Form in Xiao San’s New Chinese Poetry
Zhen Zhang                             

Seeking the Right Path: The Question of Rural Youth in Modern Chinese Literature, 1950s-1980s
Xuesong Shao                           

Notes and documents

New Orientations for Comparative Literature
John J. Deeney                           

BACS Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2025 — nominations

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2025 BACS Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis on China
Calls for Nominations:

The British Association of Chinese Studies invites nominations for the Best Doctoral Thesis Prize on China for 2025. Self-nominations are invited. To enter the competition:

  • A candidate must be a member of the British Association of Chinese Studies. If you are not a member and wish to be eligible, please find details on how to join BACS here: http://bacsuk.org.uk/about-us/membership
  • A candidate must have successfully passed their thesis at any point between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024.
  • The candidate must have completed their doctorate at a UK higher education institution OR else be based in the UK at the time of submitting their application.
  • Candidates can have completed their thesis on China in any disciplinary or interdisciplinary (e.g. area studies, development studies, gender studies, social policy studies, media studies) department and with reference to any time period.
  • Candidates should be available to attend the BACS annual conference.

To enter the prize competition, candidates need to email the following documents to the Administrative Chair of the BACS Doctoral Thesis Prize Panel, Chris Berry, (chris.berry@kcl.ac.uk) by 31 May 2025: Continue reading BACS Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2025 — nominations →

ACLS, AHA, and MLA file lawsuit

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I try not to post stuff related to US politics, but this situation strongly affects the work we do in Chinese Studies.–Kirk

Source: ACLS (May 1, 2025)
ACLS, AHA, and MLA File Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Dismantling of National Endowment for the Humanities
By Joy Connolly

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the American Historical Association (AHA), and the Modern Language Association (MLA) filed a lawsuit in federal district court today, seeking to reverse the recent actions to devastate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), including the elimination of grant programs, staff, and entire divisions and programs.

In recent weeks, the NEH has suspended entire divisions, initiated the mass firing of 65 percent of its staff, and suspended entire grant programs. These moves threaten the future of American research into history, literature, languages, philosophy, politics, society, and culture. They restrict Americans’ ability to understand our national history and experiences.

The National Endowment for the Humanities was created in 1965 as a federal agency dedicated to funding the humanities, free of political interference. Over the past six decades, the NEH has awarded over $6 billion in funding and has supported the humanities in every state and US jurisdiction. While the agency’s current budget represents a mere one hundredths of one percent of the federal budget, the NEH has an outsize public impact. It plays a crucial role in connecting Americans to their cultural heritage, facilitating grassroots programs that have enriched K–12 education, promoted understanding of military experiences and supported returning veterans, bolstered local tourism economies, hosted community events, supported public education, produced pioneering research, and much more. Continue reading ACLS, AHA, and MLA file lawsuit →

ACLS joint statement on NEH cuts

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Joint Statement on Cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities 

The American Council of Learned Societies, the Council of Graduate Schools, and The Phi Beta Kappa Society are deeply concerned by the April 2 notices cancelling grants made by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and by the reported plans to dramatically reduce its staff. As the organizations who played a critical role in helping to establish the nation’s cultural endowments, we urge the administration to reconsider this direction and ask Congress to protect this vital independent federal agency.

In 1963, our organizations jointly convened a National Commission on the Humanities to assess the need for federal support. The Commission concluded that “expansion and improvement of activities in the humanities are in the national interest and consequently deserve financial support by the federal government.” Acknowledging the values of free inquiry as essential for democracy, the founding of the NEH in 1965 with strong congressional support signaled America’s belief that a truly great society invests in the humanities.

The Commission’s findings are as true today as they were decades ago. Critical thought, cultural memory, and wisdom fostered by the humanities remain crucial to a vibrant democracy. The NEH has upheld these values since its founding.  For less than the cost of a postage stamp to every American, the NEH’s thoughtful grantmaking helps community and scholarly life thrive. Continue reading ACLS joint statement on NEH cuts →

Newman Prize events

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Dear MCLC friends,

I hope you can mark your calendar for two events starting today!

(1) Panel Discussion, Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, Celebrating the Work of the 2025 Laureate Ling Yu
Thursday, March 27, at 12 noon (central time).

CIS Newman Panel discussion 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 to recognize outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, based solely on literary merit.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycsaK7dBfL4)

(2) This Friday evening (tomorrow, March 28th), we will celebrate this year’s Newman Prize for Chinese Literature Prize winner Ling Yü, and the Newman Prize for English Jueju winners starting at 7pm (central US time). Here is the live streaming link: link.ou.edu/newmanprize-livestream. Or you can watch on Youtube:

(https://www.youtube.com/live/6XlvSCIS_Bc)

I hope you can join us as we celebrate Sinophone poetry and Chinese poetics across languages!

Jonathan Stalling

Kuo-ch’ing Tu dies at 83

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Source: US-Taiwan Literature Foundation (2/21/25)
Kuo-ch’ing Tu, leading poet and scholar of Taiwanese literature, dies at 83
By Terence Russell and Lucian Tu

Official release by US-Taiwan Literature Foundation and Tu Family

Kuo-ch’ing Tu, celebrated poet and scholar of Taiwanese literature and inaugural holder of the Lai Ho and Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) passed away on February 21, 2025. Tu played a major role in the Modernist poetry movement in Taiwan beginning in the 1960s, and through his translations of modernist writers such as T.S. Eliot and Charles Baudelaire, he was instrumental in introducing modernist theory and practice in Taiwan. Later, during his tenure as a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he worked tirelessly to promote awareness of Taiwanese literature on the international stage, especially through the medium of Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series, a journal that he founded in 1996.

Kuo-ch’ing Tu was born in 1941 in the Fengyuan District of Taichung City, Taiwan. After being admitted to National Taiwan University, he studied in the Department of Foreign Languages and became involved with the group of young writers who founded the literary journal, Modern Literature, a seminal publication in the introduction and popularization of modernist literature in Taiwan. In 1964, Tu and Chen Ch’ien-wu, a relative and fellow Taichung native, were among the founders of the Bamboo Hat Poetry Society, which published Bamboo Hat (Li), an influential journal devoted to modern poetry. Continue reading Kuo-ch’ing Tu dies at 83 →

Liu Jiakun wins Pritzker Prize

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Source: NYT (3/4/25)
Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun Wins Pritzker Prize
Liu, known for understated structures that respond to their surroundings, has been awarded the profession’s highest honor.
By Robin Pogrebin

A man with gray hair and a dark shirt stands in front of a brick wall.

“Liu Jiakun takes present realities and handles them to the point of offering a whole new scenario of daily life,” the Pritzker jury said in a statement. Credit…Tom Welsh for The Hyatt Foundation, via The Pritzker Architecture Prize

At 17, Liu Jiakun was sent to labor in the countryside as part of China’s “re-education” efforts during the Cultural Revolution.

“I didn’t see a clear future for me — a lot of things were quite meaningless,” Liu said through a translator (his son, Martin) in a recent phone interview from his office in Chengdu, China. “I thought at the time that life was inconsequential.”

Eventually, Liu, now 68, found meaning in architecture, a pursuit that has earned him the profession’s highest honor: the Pritzker Prize.

Having founded his own practice, Jiakun Architects, in his native Chengdu in 1999, Liu has built more than 30 projects in China — including academic buildings, cultural institutions and civic spaces. He also designed the inaugural Serpentine Pavilion Beijing in 2018 and has been featured in Venice Biennales. Continue reading Liu Jiakun wins Pritzker Prize →

Lu Xun and World Literature

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New Publication
Ma, Xiaolu and Carlos Rojas, eds. Lu Xun and World Literature. HK: Hong Kong University Press, 2025.

Abstract: In Lu Xun and World Literature, Xiaolu Ma, Carlos Rojas, and other contributors examine various aspects of Lu Xun, who is known as the father of modern Chinese literature. Essays in this book focus on Lu Xun’s works in relation to the notions of world literature and processes of literary worlding. The contributors offer detailed analyses of Lu Xun’s own literary oeuvre and of foreign works that engage with his writings. This volume also focuses on many facets of the publication and dissemination of Lu Xun’s works, from printing and binding to the discussions and debates that followed their release in China and abroad. This book not only makes an important contribution to the field of Lu Xun studies, but also proposes a reexamination of the category of world literature.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Lu Xun, China, and the World, by Xiaolu Ma

Lu Xun, World Poetry, and Poetic Worlding: From Mara Poetry to Revolutionary Literature, by Pu Wang

The Young Lu Xun and Weltliteratur: The Making of Anthology of Short Stories from beyond the Border, by Wendong Cui Continue reading Lu Xun and World Literature →

Paper Republic newsletter no. 20

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Image description

Happy Chinese New Year!

As we usher in the Year of the Snake, this vibrant and meaningful occasion is the perfect time to celebrate the richness of Chinese culture—and what better way than through the lens of its literature?

This issue brings you a feast of publications and media showcasing the brilliance of Chinese writing in translation. From fresh releases to interviews with translators and other news, we’re thrilled to spotlight stories and voices that resonate with the spirit of this festive season. Whether you’re an avid reader or simply curious about Chinese literature, there’s plenty to explore. So, grab a cup of tea, settle in, and let’s dive into the world of Chinese storytelling together!

Read online for free

  • Yan An’s poems “Territory” and “Empty Train” (translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen) were published online in Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment (Iowa State University).

Events

  • Our 9th book club on modern Chinese literature with the Open University Book Club was on 17th January. Helen Wang joined us to discuss her translation of the short story “Ying Yang Alley” (鹰扬巷) by Fan Xiaoqing (范小青). If you missed it, you can check out the recording and transcript of the event here. And keep an eye on the website as we will be doing another book club in the next few months.
  • Don’t miss this masterclass and workshop by Nicky Harman and Yan Ge on 8 March 2025 at the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. Writing Lives: from China in the 1930s to Britain in the 2020s. Part 1: Presentation with Nicky Harman on Ling Shuhua and Life-Writing; Part 2: Creative Writing Workshop on Characterisation, with Yan Ge. Registration link now available here.

Continue reading Paper Republic newsletter no. 20 →

The Anaconda in the Chandelier review

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MCLC Resource Center is pleased to announce publication of Jeffrey Kinkley’s review of The Anaconda in the Chandelier: Writings on China, by Perry Link. The review appears below and at its online home: https://u.osu.edu/mclc/book-reviews/kinkley2/. My thanks to Nicholas Kaldis, our literary studies book review editor, for ushering the review to publication.

Kirk Denton, MCLC

The Anaconda in the Chandelier:
Writings on China

By Perry Link

Reviewed by Jeffrey C. Kinkley

MCLC Resource Center Publication (Copyright January, 2025)

Perry Link, The Anaconda in the Chandelier: Writings on China Perry Link. Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2025. viii + 287 pp. ISBN 9781589881983 (paper)

Perry Link’s eminence as scholar and as public intellectual is well known to most MCLC readers. His pioneering scholarship on twentieth-century Chinese popular narratives and on the linguistic inventiveness of Chinese oral and written expression more generally is embodied in full-length monographs,[1] supplemented by studies of the circulation of Mao-era printed novels and unapproved hand-copied manuscripts, as well as essays on comedians’ dialogues (xiangsheng 相声) of the Mao and post-Mao years. Link’s 2007 essay on xiangsheng in the early People’s Republic of China (PRC) serves as a bang-up penultimate chapter for The Anaconda in the Chandelier.[2] The book prints in total thirty-one of Link’s 1998-2023 short and medium-length essays, book reviews, and prefaces, including a number of Link’s longer and more academic articles, together with their footnotes. Most are reprints—with revisions, says the preface, but changes are scarcely visible. Many of these contributions take on the dark task of explaining the finely tuned mechanics, psychology, and social psychology of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of Chinese communication through censorship, pre-censorship, and, above all, the creation of an unconscious, second-nature self-censorship among writers and the general public. Link calls the condition “fossilized fear.” That was the subject of a landmark monograph from Princeton University Press he published in 2000—on the “uses” of literature in China.[3] He updated the story in newsy and learned essays published in The New York Review of Books and various op-ed and human rights forums. (NYRB-related contributions make up about half of the essays anthologized in The Anaconda in the Chandelier.) The author’s expertise, Chinese friends and informants, and ever-critical yet always humanely empathetic social probings enabled what is probably now his best-known research: historical and biographical accounts of Chinese dissidence and protest. That focus, too, dates back to the 1980s, when he began to translate, edit, and publish short fiction and essays by freethinking PRC writers who surfaced, or, like Liu Binyan 刘宾雁, resurfaced, after the demise of Mao.[4] Consideration of the 1989 June Fourth massacre accelerated Link’s major collaborative academic projects and human rights activism, which includes documenting and explaining the before-and-after of China’s nationwide 1989 calamity, the Charter 08 movement, and the life story of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo 刘晓波.[5] Through it all, Link has pursued yet another vocation: teaching in and administering Chinese language programs, while coproducing textbooks for them.[6] Continue reading The Anaconda in the Chandelier review →