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Beyond the Skies

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Source: SupChina (8/12/22)
‘Beyond the Skies’: An award-winning art house war film set during the Chinese civil war
“Beyond the Skies,” whose executive producer is the noted Tibetan auteur Pema Tseden (万玛才旦 Wànmǎ Cáidàn), won three laurels at the Beijing International Film Festival last year, including Best Feature Film and Best Cinematography.
By Amarsanaa Battulga

Beyond the Skies, the directorial debut of Chinese Academy of Art professor Liú Zhìhǎi 刘智海, is a black-and-white arthouse war film that is evocative of Chinese ink wash painting. It premiered a year ago at the Shanghai International Film Festival, then nabbed three Tiantan awards in Beijing before moving on to other festivals in Kyoto and Okinawa. But at home, few have heard about and ever fewer have watched this film.

Set in 1935 during the Chinese Civil War, the film follows the young Communist soldier Hong Qichen on a mission to destroy the Kuomintang (KMT) ammunition depot within 48 hours; at stake are the lives of 350 of his fellow soldiers. On the way, Hong enlists the help of other Red Army recruits. Their high-risk trek across the treacherous, dreadful mountains exacts a heavy toll, and the situation is further complicated when it seems that no one else has received the order that Hong did. Against the backdrop of palpable tension filling the heavy air, Beyond the Skies explores the conflict between individuals’ survival instinct and their sense of duty to their nation.

Probably one of the lowest-budget war films in history, Beyond the Skies is decidedly different from other war films. “It’s actually a commissioned work,” says the director Liu, “but the government wanted a biographical war film in the traditional sense. However, I’m relatively averse to such orthodox, ‘main melody’ (主旋律 zhǔ xuánlǜ) war films with grand narratives.” His feeling is understandable, especially when the current domestic film industry has been oversaturated with blockbuster war epics such as The Battle at Lake Changjin and Snipers. Continue reading →

Sogang position

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Assistant Professor in Classical Chinese Literature (Tenure-track)
Sogang University, Chinese Culture
Seoul, South Korea

Application deadline: August 29, 2022, 5 p.m. Local Time in Seoul
Appointment Date: March 1, 2023
Field: Poetry Specialist Preferred

To apply for this position, please follow the university’s instructions posted on the website below.

https://professor.sogang.ac.kr/notice.asp?lang=B01200

(email) profapply@sogang.ac.kr

Posted by: Jeesoon Hong <jh274@sogang.ac.kr>

China overtakes US in scientific research output

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Source: The Guardian (8/11/22)
China overtakes the US in scientific research output
Between 2018 and 2020 China published 23.4% of the world’s scientific papers, eclipsing the US
By

A child interacts with an installation at Yangzhou Science and Technology Museum

The Japanese report also found that Chinese research comprised 27.2% of the world’s top 1% most frequently cited papers. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

China has overtaken the US as the world leader in both scientific research output and “high impact” studies, according to a report published by Japan’s science and technology ministry.

The report, which was published by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTP) on Tuesday, found that China now publishes the highest number of scientific research papers yearly, followed by the US and Germany.

The figures were based on yearly averages between 2018 and 2020, and drawn from data compiled by the analytics firm Clarivate.

The Japanese NISTP report also found that Chinese research comprised 27.2% of the world’s top 1% most frequently cited papers. The number of citations a research paper receives is a commonly used metric in academia. The more times a study is cited in subsequent papers by other researchers, the greater its “citation impact”. Continue reading →

Queering the Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific–cfp

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Please find below a call for papers (CFP) Queering The Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific. Selected papers from the symposium will result in a special issue for the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 10 year anniversary in 2024.

Queering The Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific: A Hybrid International Symposium
8-9 December 2022
Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Languages, and Literature
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Supported by the Academy of Korean Studies, Korean Studies Grant No. AKS-2022-R033

Selected presentations at the symposium will be considered for a special issue of The East Asian Journal of Popular Culture addressing the topic of “Queering the Korean Wave across the Asia-Pacific” for publication in 2024.

Call for Proposals

Those wishing to join the symposium are invited to submit 300-word abstracts addressing the symposium theme to the convenor, Dr Thomas Baudinette (tom.baudinette@mq.edu.au) by 14th October, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time. Along with your abstract, please also include your name, title, contact details, and a short biography of no more than 100 words. Please place “Submission: Queering the Korean Wave” in your subject line when submitting your proposal. Continue reading →

Telos special issue on China and the West

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I would like to draw your attention to the newly released issue of Telos, which focuses on China and the West: Methodologies for Comparison, featuring a number of scholars of Chinese literature.

You can see the full issue here, though you will need to be logged in to your university library to access the articles:

http://www.telospress.com/store/Telos-199-Summer-2022-China-and-the-West-p472723444

David Pan
Editor, Telos (telospress.com)

#WomeninTranslation month

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#WomeninTranslation month: Paper Republic publishes a Month of Women Poets

Paper Republic is proud to present A Month of Chinese Women Poets, to mark #WomeninTranslation Month. From Alice Xiang, the series editor: “Born in the ’50s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, the poets in this series write from vantage points that span the PRC’s decades of vertiginous change. Yet it goes without saying that the series is not ‘representative’ in even the most modest sense of the word. It offers a few glimpses into contemporary Chinese poetry, several framings of the experience of womanhood, mere slivers of the polyphonic, transnational Sinophone literary universe. The series is an invitation……”

Dip in and enjoy! https://paper-republic.org/pubs/read/series/a-month-of-women-poets/

Nicky Harman <n.harmanic@gmail.com>

NCCU position in Taiwanese Literature

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Faculty Position-Taiwanese Literature, NCCU
August 8, 2022

The Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University, invites applications for a tenure-track position at all ranks beginning in February, 2023.

  • Positions available: One.
  • The successful applicant will be expected to begin employment on February 1, 2023.
  • Applicants should meet either of the qualifications: (1) as a holder of a Ph.D. degree, (2) as an assistant professor or a more advanced scholar.
  • Specializations: Fields related to Taiwanese Literature.
  • Required Application Documents (for checklist, please see attachment 2)

(1) Curriculum vitae (attachment 1, please save this document in word (*.doc) and email to tailit@nccu.edu.tw, email subject: application form for a teaching job [name ○○○]) Continue reading →

Network of Concerned Historians 2022 report

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Source: Network of Concerned Historians (8/8/22)

The Annual Report 2022 of the Network of Concerned Historians (NCH) is now available (pdf; 165 pages) at http://www.concernedhistorians.org/ar/22.pdf

This is the 28th NCH Annual Report. It contains news about the domain where history and human rights intersect in 100 countries, especially about the censorship of history and the persecution of historians, archivists, and archaeologists around the globe, as reported by various human rights organizations and other sources. It mainly covers events and developments of 2021 and 2022. The fact that NCH presents this news does not imply that it shares the views and beliefs of the historians and others mentioned in it.

[The China section of the report is from pages 27-41.–KD]

Made in China 7.1

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Dear Colleagues,

I am happy to announce the publication of the latest issue of the Made in China Journal. You can download it for free at this link: https://madeinchinajournal.com/2022/07/28/out-of-time.

Below you can find the editorial:

Out of Time: Realms of Chinese Nostalgia

乡愁如亡国之君
寻找的是永远的迷失

Nostalgia is like a king with his kingdom lost
What it searches for is an eternal bewilderment.

—Bei Dao, 2008 (translation by Tao Naikan and Simon Patton)

Cultural theorist Svetlana Boym famously distinguished two types of nostalgia: a restorative one that ‘manifests itself in total reconstructions of monuments of the past’; and a reflective one that ‘lingers on ruins, the patina of time and history, in the dreams of another place and another time.’ But nostalgia is not necessarily only backward-looking. Rather, it can represent a feeling of longing for a future yet to be lost or even realised. For the historian Roxanne Panchasi, nostalgia may originate in the ways in which people anticipate and plan their lives around an expected future. This anticipated future, Panchasi intimates, ‘can tell us a great deal about the cultural preoccupations and political perspectives of the present doing the anticipating’. In these and other ways, nostalgia can actualise in cultural expression and performance within communities of nostalgia and as immersive environments that shine a light on past trauma to move closer to reconciliation. Contributors to this issue explore the workings of nostalgia in people’s memories and spaces in China and beyond from a variety of perspectives to uncover how and why admirers of the Maoist and post-socialist eras express their longings for pasts real, imagined, and somewhere in between. Continue reading →

All the Crows in the World

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Source: SupChina (8/5/22)
Palme d’Or-winning short film ‘All the Crows in the World’
“All the Crows in the World” impressed judges at Cannes last summer and won the top prize in the short film category. This 15-minute film is currently available for streaming.
By Catherine Zauhar

Still from All the Crows in the World

All the Crows in the World (天下乌鸦 tiānxià wūyā), Táng Yì’s 唐艺 2021 Palm d’Or Winner, condenses a century’s worth of China’s misogyny into a short film with humor and ease. We follow our protagonist, the precocious and wry high schooler Shengnan (played by the equally comic and subtle Chén Xuānyǔ 陈宣宇), through a single night as she enters a surreal world of sexist men and their many toxic delights.

Continue reading →

Taiwan’s generational divide on China’s threats

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Source: NYT (8/5/22)
Fight or Surrender: Taiwan’s Generational Divide on China’s Threats
In areas close to the military drills, younger Taiwanese worried about the future, while older residents looked back to a harsher past to find hope.
By Amy Chang Chien, John Liu and Paul Mozur

Volunteers cleaned up a beach on the Matsu Islands on Thursday as Taiwanese troops loaded artillery shells onto a boat. Life there has proceeded mostly as normal during China’s recent military drills.

Volunteers cleaned up a beach on the Matsu Islands on Thursday as Taiwanese troops loaded artillery shells onto a boat. Life there has proceeded mostly as normal during China’s recent military drills. Credit…An Rong Xu for The New York Times

KINMEN COUNTY, Taiwan — The San Jiao Fort cafe on Kinmen Island may well be the best place in Taiwan to watch for the threat of invasion by China. Boasting a direct view of the Chinese city of Xiamen just six miles away, it is built atop an old military bunker, festooned with camouflage netting, and serves hot and cold beverages.

With Chinese warships now lingering off Taiwan’s coast and missiles falling into its seas, the divided loyalties of the cafe’s two proprietors say much about a generational shift in Taiwan that has transformed the island democracy’s relationship with China.

If China tried to take Taiwan by force, Chiang Chung-chieh, 32, would fight, even if the chances of winning are slim. Ting I-hsiu, 52, said he “would surrender.”

With a culture forged by eras of Indigenous people, hundreds of years of Chinese immigration, Japanese colonial occupation and a harsh period of martial law, Taiwan is not monolithic. During its three decades as a democracy, conflicting allegiances have dominated its politics, with debates over whether to accommodate or oppose China’s claims to the island breaking down along the lines of age, identity and geography. Continue reading →

Pomona position

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Postion: Assistant Professor of Chinese

The Department of Asian Languages and Literatures (ALL) at Pomona College, which consists of a Chinese and Japanese Program, invites applications for a tenure-track position in either modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture or Chinese linguistics to begin July 2023. Applicants must have native or near-native fluency in Mandarin Chinese and English, demonstrated excellence in undergraduate teaching, and Ph.D. in hand at time of appointment. This position carries a 2/2 teaching load, including three language courses and a course taught in English in the candidate’s area of specialization.

Please upload the following application materials to https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/22188

(a) letter of application describing research and teaching interests, (b) curriculum vitae, (c) graduate transcript(s), (d) three brief statements – one addressing teaching philosophy and experience, one addressing scholarship including your future directions, and one addressing demonstrated ability to mentor a diverse student body, (e) teaching evaluations, and (f) three letters of recommendation. Please address queries other than applications to the search committee chair, Feng Xiao (feng.xiao@pomona.edu). Priority will be given to applications received by October 2, 2022 (PST), at which time review of applicant files will begin; applications may be accepted until the position is filled. Continue reading →

Perils of preaching nationalism play out on social media (1)

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Nice. Hope someone could comment on the psychology of the associated self-flagellation, like in these ‘Pinkie Memories’《粉红色的回忆》, posted today by @KodyLakewood on Twitter, and which gets progressively worse and worse! (I thought the guy at the end would get a nosebleed beating himself? Maybe just a self-concussion).

Magnus Fiskesjö <nf42@cornell.edu>

Perils of preaching nationalism play out on social media

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Source: NYT (8/4/22)
Perils of Preaching Nationalism Play Out on Chinese Social Media
阅读简体中文版 | 閱讀繁體中文版
Many users mocked the government for not taking military action to stop Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip, saying it hadn’t lived up to its tough rhetoric.
By Li Yuan

Welcoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday. Many Chinese social media users expressed disappointment that China had allowed her plane to land.

Welcoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday. Many Chinese social media users expressed disappointment that China had allowed her plane to land. Credit…Chiang Ying-Ying/Associated Press

It doesn’t often happen that ordinary Chinese say publicly that they’re disappointed with their government. That they’re ashamed of their government. That they want to renounce their Communist Party memberships. And that they think the People’s Liberation Army is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

It’s even rarer that such angry comments come from the kind of nationalists who usually support whatever their leaders demand of them.

For much of Monday and Tuesday, many Chinese applauded the tough rhetoric from government, military and media personalities who were attempting to thwart Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Then, as Ms. Pelosi’s plane was touching down in Taiwan late Tuesday night, some social media users commented on how disappointed they were with Beijing’s lame response.

No military action in the Taiwan Strait, as they felt they had been led to expect. No shoot-down, no missile attack, no fighter jet flying next to Ms. Pelosi’s plane. Just some denunciations and announcements of military exercises.

Many people complained that they felt let down and lied to by the government. “Don’t put on a show of power if you don’t have the power,” wrote a Weibo user with the handle @shanshanmeiyoulaichi2hao shortly after the flight’s landing. “What a loss of face!” Continue reading →

Paper Republic no. 15

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Hey all 500+ of you! (One milestone down!) We’re jumping right into the news in this instalment since it’s a little overdue. Do keep your eyes peeled on the Paper Republic website for a new Read Paper Republic series in the very, very near future. This one is guest-edited and includes some of our favourite Chinese poets and translators.

Extracts, stories and poems:

News:

Continue reading →