China Humanities Seminar
Zeb Raft – ‘Echoes’ in the Shishuo Xinyu: Repetition and its Significance in Early Medieval China
Speaker: Zeb Raft, Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica The Shishuo xinyu, the fifth-century collection of anecdotes, is full of echoes. Stories can be repeated, in somewhat different form. Individual entries may juxtapose two accounts that are different, yet similar in certain respects. Common motifs figure prominently. How should we interpret this “echo effect”? This […]
Paize Keulemans – Acoustic Immersion and Iconic Extraction in Three Kingdoms History, Fiction, and Videogames
Speaker: Paize Keulemans, Princeton University What are the ludic attractions of a fifteenth-century novel? What role is played by historical narrative in a twenty-first-century game? How is a character developed in text and in pixels, in words, painting, or on a (computer) screen? And how is the noise and confusion of a third-century battle digitally reproduced […]
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite – “The 18th Brumaire of Yuan Shikai,” By Mao Zedong: History, Classical Commentary, and Politics.
Speaker: Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, New York University Taking a small comment by the young Mao Zedong in his "Classroom Notes" as its point of departure, this talk revisits the very early days after the fall of the last dynasty. It ties them to events in post-revolutionary France and the late Han period. It ends and begins […]
China Humanities Seminar Featuring Tina Lu – The Politics of Li Yu’s Xianqing ouji (Casual Expressions)
Speaker: Tina Lu, Colonel John Trumbull Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University When it comes to an understanding of the politics of literature and literary production, our field is still largely dominated by Craig Clunas’ framework (itself largely adapted from Bourdieu). I am interested in considering the politics of Li Yu’s Xianqing […]
China Humanities Seminar featuring Paula Varsano – Troubled Hearts and Worried Minds: Knowing the Subjects of the “Airs of the States”
Speaker: Paula Varsano, University of California, Berkeley In a moment when digital humanities, distant reading, manuscript studies, and a variety of historical and political lenses invite us to look at […]
China Humanities Seminar featuring Wu Hung – Unearthing Wu Daozi (c. 686 – c. 760)
Speaker: Wu Hung, University of Chicago Worshipped by later folk artists as the God of Painting, Wu Daozi (c. 686 – c. 760) was also praised by Tang art historian […]
China Humanities Seminar Featuring Stephanie Balkwill – Another Cakravartin Ruler?: Feminist History and the History of Buddhism in Early Medieval China
Speaker: Stephanie Balkwill, Assistant Professor, Buddhist Studies, UCLA Northern Wei 北魏 (386–534 CE) Empress Dowager Ling 靈 (d. 529) is commonly regarded as the last independent ruler of her dynasty, which descended into terminal internecine war during her regency. As a ruler, she inherited a deeply divided state. The move of the capital from Pingcheng […]
China Humanities Seminar Featuring Scott Pearce – Looking Behind the Text: The Case of Northern Wei’s ‘Yuan Pi’
Speaker: Scott Pearce, Western Washington University All textual traditions are based on their own particular sets of assumptions and preoccupations. This was the case of the Chinese classical tradition as […]
China Humanities Seminar Featuring Suyoung Son – Publisher at Work: Yu Xiangdou’s Images and Visualizing Intellectual Labor
Speaker: Suyoung Son, Associate Professor, Cornell University How could intangible, tacit intellectual labor be legible, acknowledged, and compensated? The relationship between authorship and authorial property was hotly debated in late […]
China Humanities Seminar featuring Yuhang Li – Engineering Religious Bliss at the Qing Court: Jile shijie in the Beihai Park
Speaker: Yuhang Li, University of Wisconsin-Madison In 1770, with the purpose of presenting an unusual surprising gift to his mother Empress Dowager Chongqing (1692-1777) for her eightieth birthday, Emperor […]
China Humanities Seminar featuring David Mozina – Ritual and Relationship in Daoist Practice
Speaker: David Mozina, Author, Knotting the Banner More information coming soon!
China Humanities Seminar featuring Yiqun Zhou – A Book for Hard Times: Wu Mi and Dream of the Red Chamber
Speaker: Yiqun Zhou, Stanford University This talk examines the role that Dream of the Red Chamber played in the life and work of Wu Mi 吳宓 (1894-1978), a pioneer in the study […]