Spring 2019 Events

“Frontiers and Strata in Modern Chinese Literary and Media Studies”
Harvard-Yale Joint Workshop on Modern China, Harvard University, March 1, 2019

A Harvard-Yale joint workshop, organized by Professor David Der-wei Wang and Professor Jing Tsu, took place at Yenching Library on March 1st 2019, from 9am to 5pm. Entitled “Frontiers and Strata in Modern Chinese Literary and Media Studies,” the workshop sought to bring graduate students from Harvard and Yale to work on the latest scholarly trends in the field of modern China. It was composed of three panels: “Reconsiderations in Sinophone literature, modernism, and transnational Modernity,” “From Left melancholia to the crisis of postsocialism,” and “Post-humanism, eco-criticism, and new directions in media and film studies.” The first panel examines how the global and trans-regional circulation of modernity and modernism diversifies our understanding of Chinese literature. The second one considers the psychological and aesthetic reorientation in literature writing amid a post-revolutionary atmosphere across the Taiwan Strait. The third one is split into two parts: the first introduces an ecological perspective by focusing on posthuman and nonhuman others—automaton, animal, tree, and rock in relation to literary culture, while the second investigates new directions in media theory and film studies. Presenters include Fangdai Chen, Jizhou Chen, Jessica Tan, Kyle Shernuk, Dingru Huang, Huanruo Wang, Hang Tu, Yedong Chen, Peng Hai, Nan Qu, Yingchun Fan, Po-hsi Chen, Simone Glasl, Dihao Zhou, and Cheng Li. Professor Karen Thornber, Professor Jing Tsu, and Dr. Zhou Hau Liew served as discussants for these panels. A formal dinner was held at Harvard Faculty Club, with reading activities featuring the publication of Jizhou Chen’s first novel The Stories of Eng Watt Street.