Events

This talk is brought to you by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; in collaboration with the National Library Board Singapore.

What is Sinophone World Literature?:
China, Southeast Asia, and the Global 60s

Speaker          :   Professor Shih Shu-mei, The University of Hong Kong, and University of California-Los Angeles, USA
Discussant      :   Assistant Professor Nicolai Volland, National University of Singapore
Chairperson     :   Professor Prasenjit Duara, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This lecture explores the concept of world literature from world historical perspectives and asks whether we can think about world literature from the vantage point of Southeast Asia. While China is often considered as the site of alternative modernity or literature to the West, Southeast Asia, as the South to both the West and to China, is seldom brought into the conversation within this “China versus the West” binarism. Taking select literary representations of the Global 60s across the West (Europe and the United States) and Asia (China and Southeast Asia) as examples, this lecture will explore the possibility of a Sinophone world literature as a network of texts in the world without a predetermined center and a preordained future.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Shu-mei SHIH is the Hong-Yin and Suet-Fong Chan Professor of Chinese at The University of Hong Kong, and Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles.  She is the founder of the field known as Sinophone studies, and her recent works in this area include: Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations across the Pacific (2007), Sinophone Studies: A Critical Reader (2013), and her most recent articles bear such titles as  “Asia, Theory, and the Sinophone” (2010), “The Concept of the Sinophone” (2011), “Is the Post in Postsocialism the Post in Posthumanism?” (2012), and “Race and Revolution: Blackness in China’s Long Twentieth Century” (2013), and “Sinophone American Literature” (2014).

Nicolai VOLLAND is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese Studies, NUS. His research interests include modern Chinese literature and culture, cosmopolitanism and world literature, and the history of print culture in modern China. He is the author of Cold War Cosmopolitanism: China’s Cultural Encounter with the Socialist World, 1949-1960 (forthcoming) and editor (with Christopher G. Rea) of The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurship in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-1965 (UBC Press, forthcoming fall 2014) and Comic Visions of Modern China (MCLC special issue, 2009). Before coming to Singapore, he taught at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and at National Tsinghua University, Taiwan.

ARI ASIA TRENDS 2014 SERIES

ASIA TRENDS is an ARI flagship public outreach event. This annual series of public lectures is an opportunity for ARI to connect with the local Singapore community through informing and interacting with various public sectors (citizenry, government), civil society organizations, businesses, universities and colleges, by presenting cutting edge research on major trends in Asia. Some trends examined in the past include “Confucian China in a Changing World Order,” “Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness,” “Here Today and Tomorrow: Transnational Domestic Workers and the Decent Work Agenda in Asia,” “Demystifying Stereotypes on Asian Education Systems,” and “’Male Modernity’, Puritanism, and the Southeast Asian City.” Each ARI research cluster hosts an evening talk, during which an overseas speaker, who is a prominent researcher or scholar, is invited to examine an emerging trend in that research field; a Singapore-based researcher then provides comments on local development with regard to the relevant trend. Past seminars have witnessed some interesting interaction between speakers and commentators; some have also seen lively audience participation in the discussions. ASIA TRENDS showcase the work of ARI’s research clusters, highlights the relevance of ARI’s research to Singapore, and relates Singapore to the rest of Asia from the perspective of significant trends in the region.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free, however, registration is required. Kindly register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would greatly appreciate that you RSVP to Sharon at arios@nus.edu.sg indicating your name, email, organisation, and contact number.