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China Labor Bulletin closes

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Source: NYT (6/12/25)
Chinese Labor Rights Group Led by Former Tiananmen Protest Leader Closes
The China Labor Bulletin, founded by Han Dongfang, tracked factory closures and worker protests in China. It cited financial difficulties for its dissolution.
By Alexandra Stevenson, Reporting from Hong Kong

Han Dongfang, wearing a blue polo shirt and jeans, sits at a cluttered desk in a small room.

Han Dongfang, the founder of China Labor Bulletin, in his Hong Kong office in 2024. The group, which tracked worker unrest in China, announced on Thursday that it was ceasing operation. Credit…Anthony Kwan for The New York Times

China Labor Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based group that tracked worker unrest in China and was started by a former pro-democracy protest leader, said on Thursday that it was shutting down because of financial difficulties. The group had also faced increased scrutiny in recent years amid a broader crackdown and silencing of civil society in Hong Kong.

The group said that because of “financial difficulties and debt issues,” it could no longer maintain operations and had “decided to dissolve.” It said it would stop updating content on its website and social media platforms.

The group was founded by Han Dongfang, one of the last remaining labor rights activists not in hiding in Chinese territory. The group continued to operate in Hong Kong, even as other China-focused civil society groups started closing or leaving from 2020, when Beijing imposed a national security law that has dismantled civil rights protections that gave the city its semiautonomous status.

China Labor Bulletin, a resource for journalists and academics about worker unrest in China, was founded in 1994 by Mr. Han, who had been one of the leaders of pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989. Over the years, the organization closely monitored some of China’s biggest labor disputes and secured compensation for workers with grievances against their companies. It regularly updated a map of labor strikes across the country, and published reports on companies and industries with known labor concerns. Continue reading China Labor Bulletin closes →

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                           

Biopolitics–cfp

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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>

China Times Young Scholar Fellowship

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2025-26 China Times Young Scholar Fellowship Award – Deadline is approaching, apply NOW!

The China Times Cultural Foundation (CTCF) is pleased to announce the 2025-26 competition for the annual China Times Young Scholar Fellowship Award in Chinese Studies.

About the Foundation

The China Times Cultural Foundation (CTCF) is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting Chinese culture and related studies. Since its founding in 1986, CTCF has given hundreds of awards to PhD candidates who have made outstanding contributions to Chinese studies. The Foundation has also sponsored numerous academic seminars, symposia, and scholarly publications.

Funding Details

Award Amount:

$10,000 for the Special Fellowship Award in memory of CTCF Founder Mr. Chi-Chung Yu and Mrs. Alice Tsai Yu; $7,000 for the Young Scholar Fellowship Award

Number of Awards Given This Year:

The top 2 applicants will be selected for the Special Award; another 8 applicants will be given the Young Scholar Award

Eligibility Criteria Continue reading China Times Young Scholar Fellowship →

Re-Visualizing ‘the West’ workshop

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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>

CUHK visiting fellowship programme 2026

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Call for Applications

The Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) invites applications for the Visiting Fellowship Programme. This Programme aims to support scholars in Chinese Studies to visit and conduct research at CUHK for a period of 3 to 4 months during the academic year either from January to April, or September to December. While in residence, the visiting fellow is expected to interact with colleagues at CUHK, conduct and present his/her research, and work on a publication project.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Assistant Professors or above from recognized universities or research institutions

Application should include:

  • An updated curriculum vitae
  • A research project proposal

Online Application: https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13709242

Deadline: 31 July 2025. Selection will be made on a competitive basis.

Announcement of Result: 29 August 2025

Subsidy

Airfare to and from home institution (economy class), on-campus accommodation, an office space and a monthly stipend of HKD$20,000.

Completion Report

  • A three-page written report within 3 months of completion, listing the activities participated during his/her visit.
  • A book manuscript/chapters with the acknowledgment to this visiting scheme that he/she published within a year.

Enquiries: ics-programmes@cuhk.edu.hk

Posted by: Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
<ics-programmes@cuhk.edu.hk>

Hong Yen Chang

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Source: NYT (6/6/25)
Overlooked No More: Hong Yen Chang, Lawyer Who Challenged a Racist System
He struggled to become the first Chinese American person to practice law in the U.S., then used his training to fight for other Chinese Americans.
By Julie Ho

A black and white portrait of Hong Yen Chang formally dressed and looking off to the side.

Hong Yen Chang in about 1890. He was one of 120 young men selected by the Chinese government to study in America, where he chose to stay. Credit…Bushnell Photography, via Huntington Digital Library

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

Before Hong Yen Chang graduated from Columbia Law School in New York, he was breaking barriers just by being there.

Before he became the first Chinese person allowed to practice law in the United States, he had to wrangle with New York’s judiciary for permission.

Before he could protect Chinese immigrants in court, he studied tirelessly to master a legal system that was not inclined to welcome him. Essentially, Chang realized that before he could help anyone else, he had to help himself.

Chang was born on Dec. 20, 1859 (some records say 1860), in what was then called Heungshan, a prosperous district in Southern China connected to the Portuguese port of Macau. His father, Shing Tung Chang, was a merchant who died when Hong Yen was a child; his mother was Yee Shee. Continue reading Hong Yen Chang →

U of Vienna postdoc

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Postdoc position on FWF-funded project “Performing Postsocialism in Twenty-First-Century China”, University of Vienna, Austria

The Department of East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies section) of the University of Vienna, Austria is seeking to appoint a postdoctoral researcher to work on the project “Performing Postsocialism in Twenty-First-Century China” (PI: Prof. Rossella Ferrari), funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

The duration of the postdoc contract is of 2 years (24 months), starting on 01/01/2026. The language of the project is English.

The full job description and application details can be found at: https://jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Scientific-project-assistant-postdoc/1210420601/

Application deadline: 04/07/2025

Rossella Ferrari <rossella.ferrari@univie.ac.at>

Networked Agitprop–cfp

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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 →

What we can learn about Xi’s rule from his father’s life

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Source: NYT (6/3/25)
What We Can Learn About Xi’s Rule by Studying His Father’s Life
Xi Zhongxun was purged by the Communist Party he served and went on to help reform Chinese politics. His son is the most authoritarian leader since Mao.
By Li Yuan

Xi Jinping, left, with his father, Xi Zhongxun, and brother, Xi Yuanping, in 1958. Credit…Pictures From History/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

A month later, Xi Jinping, who had just turned 23, visited his father, who made him recite two of Mao Zedong’s famous speeches from memory: “On Contradiction” and “On Practice.”

The Cultural Revolution ended that fall with Mao’s death. Xi Zhongxun would go on to become a national leader in the 1980s with a reputation as a reformer. His son Xi Jinping would become China’s top leader in 2012 and chart a more authoritarian course than any leader since Mao.

One of the most enduring debates — and, for many people, deepest disappointments — in contemporary China is why Xi Jinping did not live up to his father’s image. After both were persecuted under Mao’s autocratic rule, why has Xi Jinping’s reign come to echo Mao’s cult of personality rather than the more open, institutionalized governance that his father most likely would have preferred?

In a new biography of Xi Zhongxun, the China scholar Joseph Torigian addresses this question and contributes greatly to our understanding of China. The book, deeply researched, tells the story of a man torn between his humanity and his loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party, offering insights into the party’s workings and the human suffering that shaped his son’s governing style and conception of power. Continue reading What we can learn about Xi’s rule from his father’s life →

Museums in Motion — cfp extension

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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 →

Never-ending screenings of ‘Ne Zha 2’

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Source: China Digital Times (5/27/25)
Netizen Voices: Never-Ending Screenings of “Ne Zha 2” Are “Off the Rails”
By Arthur Kaufman

The Chinese animated film “Ne Zha 2” has continued its record-breaking run, grossing over $2 billion worldwide and remaining on China’s top-five box-office list over 110 days after its release. But the film’s success has belied its curated image and masked a broader chill for the Chinese box office. Many Chinese companies and schools have organised patriotic outings and repeat viewings to boost box-office figures. Articles and comments critical of “Ne Zha 2” have been deleted from social media platforms, and Chinese bloggers and reviewers have reported being criticized or attacked online for expressing dissenting views about the film. Now, news that screenings of the animated blockbuster will be extended to June 30—the fourth extension thus far—has drawn mockery from netizens who wonder whether there will ever be an end to official efforts at promoting the film:

专踢周宁海那条好腿: Wouldn’t it be nice if they could bring things full circle by extending its release to next Lunar New Year?

waldeinsamkeit: This is turning into a joke. Why not extend it straight through to the end of summer vacation?

还不是尽头: Haha, might as well extend it until “Wolf Warrior 3” comes out.

专属小杰哥哥: If you don’t watch “Ne Zha,” you’re not Chinese.
无敌暴龙战士: We’ve fast-forwarded to: “If you don’t watch ____, you’re not Chinese.”

NN: I was banished to Singapore because I didn’t watch “Ne Zha.”

余杭: While it’s normal for theatrical releases to be extended, it’s obvious that the wall-to-wall publicity for “Ne Zha 2” has sapped whatever goodwill it once had.

横蛮但却恐惧: Couldn’t you theatres and film associations manage to coordinate with each other to show some other movies? Over the past few months, there have been a few new movies I honestly wanted to see, but they never showed up in theatres. Theatres have just been extending release dates and rescreening old films day after day. I’m baffled—I want to go out and spend money but they won’t let me.

立鑫: In the past, no matter how good a movie was, it would never stay in theatres this long. Besides investors trying to wring the last bit of profit out of a dying market, there’s an acute shortage of resources being invested in film.

Joe.: It’s kind of gone off the rails. These endless extensions just to chase box office clout seem pointless.[Chinese] Continue reading Never-ending screenings of ‘Ne Zha 2’ →

Suipian no. 6

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碎篇 // Suipian // Fragments no. 6 (May 31, 2025)
By TABITHA SPEELMAN

Welcome to the 6th edition of Suipian, my personal newsletter in which I share thoughts and resources that help me make sense of Chinese society and its relationship to the rest of the world. You’re receiving this because you were previously subscribed to Changpian, my earlier newsletter sharing Chinese nonfiction writing – or if you recently subscribed. See here for more introduction to Suipian.

Suipian is coming to you from Rotterdam on this 端午节. I have spent the last few months mostly here for personal reasons, but China never feels far. Whether it is the ever-expanding range of authentic Chinese food offerings, the number of high-quality events, or the first European museum designed by a Chinese architecture firm that recently opened in my neighborhood (see this video and pictures below), these cultural trends feel energetic and like they have their own momentum apart from the political cycle, at least for now.

The below selection is as random as ever – hope there’s something you enjoy.

随笔 // Suibi // Notes

Sharing thoughts or resources related to my work as a correspondent

Like many, I am struggling to keep up with political developments, let alone my emotions around them. So I was touched when, on podcast 不合时宜, I heard Chinese semiconductor industry strategist Lu Ming discuss how every day he has to remind himself of what has changed: “我们已经处于一个不短的历史趋势的可能是头部，然后它在一时半会是结束不了的，抱着一种侥幸心理去期待世界不是这样子不会有任何的帮助,” he says, adding that: “这是我经常,每天,都跟自己在说的一件事情.” Continue reading Suipian no. 6 →

Animated Slideshows and Creative Ecologies in Socialist China

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LECTURE: Animated Slideshows and Creative Ecologies in Socialist China
Speaker: Professor Jie Li, Harvard University
Moderator: Professor Daisy Yan Du, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Format: 40-50 minutes’ lecture, followed by around 30 minutes’ Q & A
Time: 4:30-6:00pm, June 9 (Monday, Hong Kong time)
Venue: Cheung On Tak Lecture Theater (LTE), HKUST

Abstract

From the 1950s to the 1980s, lantern slideshows, dubbed “rustic cinema” (tu dianying), were deployed as an important form of local propaganda and entertainment.  Technically simple to produce from cheap and locally available materials, lanternslides could be projected using gas lamps without electricity.  Local propaganda artists and film projectionists thus wrote, drew, projected, and narrated their own slideshows, often featuring local heroes and local histories, thereby enabling the creation of local media content when film production was centrally orchestrated.

Whereas rural audiences celebrated cinema for being “live” or “animated” (huo de) and slideshows for being “still” or “dead” (si de), innovative experimentation with slideshow animations launched a “Three Sisters Projection Team” from a rural county to nationwide fame by the mid-1960s.  This projection team invented a slide projector with multiple lenses to create illusions of movement—such as red flags waving, horses running, and masses celebrating—to the sound accompaniment of clapper talk with rhyming verses. To emulate such animated slideshows, local cadres around the country recruited grassroots artists, writers, performers, and technicians to participate in propaganda endeavors over the next two decades.

Through a media archeology of animated slideshows, this talk seeks to excavate the creative ecology of Socialist China as well as to reflect on human creativity in the age of generative AI.  This talk will show how propaganda, censorship, and technology promoted or stifled, mobilized or immobilized creativity through their complex interactions with talent, skill, economics, politics, and institutions. Continue reading Animated Slideshows and Creative Ecologies in Socialist China →

Periodising HK cinema

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New publication: Jessica Siu-yin Yeung, “Periodising early Hong Kong cinema (1914–41): Tianyi Hong Kong Studio, Cantonese resistance, and colonial paradox.” Early Popular Visual Culture (May 2025).

I hope this piece will help some listserv subscribers teach early Hong Kong film history. It is written with the intention of serving as reading for novice students who have no prior knowledge of early Hong Kong cinema, providing accurate information, many images, and minimal jargon. Here is the abstract:

This article asks, ‘What do we mean when we say “early Hong Kong screen culture and cinema?” It answers this question with a threefold response. Against the scholarship that has been focusing on Shanghai-Hong Kong connections, this article emphasises the overlooked Canton-Hong Kong connections. It highlights the separationist government Chen Jitang’s contribution to preventing Cantonese filmmaking from being banned by the Kuomintang government in the 1930s when the Nanking government promoted Mandarin as the national language. Also, existing studies have overemphasised ‘The Father of Hong Kong Cinema’, Lai Man-wai and his family as important personages in early Hong Kong cinema for making the first fiction film and some national defence films. Yet this article argues that it was the Shaw Brothers’ Tianyi Hong Kong Studio that inaugurated the era of quality Cantonese filmmaking. Lastly, this article periodises early Hong Kong cinema (1914–41) into three stages: the silent film and the partially-sound Cantonese film age (1914–32), the talkies, the boom, and the censorship of Cantonese filmmaking (1933–36); and the peak and decline of Cantonese filmmaking (1937–41). Hong Kong’s status as a colony paradoxically endowed it with the criteria to preserve Cantonese filmmaking, as this article shall explicate such serendipity with Barbara Ward’s framework of ‘colonial paradox’. In other words, it was the nonchalance of the British Hong Kong government towards Cantonese filmmaking that preserved this endangered indigenous art through the Kuomintang censorship and the wartime, so that Cantonese filmmaking could be continued in the post-war period.

Jessica Siu-yin Yeung <jessicayeung@LN.edu.hk>