Anna Shields, "From 'Literary' to 'Civil': Redefining Literature in the Biographies of the New Tang History"

When
4:30 – 5:30 p.m., Oct. 19, 2017
Where
Tubac Room, Student Union

The Department of East Asian Studies welcomes Dr. Anna Shields of Princeton University

Abstract: How does the literary legacy of the past get handed down for future readers? Who wrote the story of Chinese literature as it developed over the dynasties, and what stories did those historians of that literary past try to tell? As inheritors of the literary legacy of the Tang dynasty (618-907), scholars of the Northern Song (960-1127) actively collected, compiled and edited the works of Tang writers, and they wrote lengthy histories of Tang writers’ lives and works as models for their Song-era composition.

This talk examines the revised biographies of Tang writers found in the New Tang History of 1060, focusing on new definitions of literary writing that appear in the 11th-century text. Song Qi, the chief author of the biographies, advocated for literary composition centered on civil culture rather than literary craft, and he used diverse techniques to elaborate his argument across dozens of biographies. The emerging Northern Song view of wen as primarily a tool for public service has long been observed in other types of writing, but rarely considered in historiography. Rewriting Tang lives, I will show, gave Song Qi the chance to defend his new definitions of literature.

Dr. Wenhao Diao Awarded 2017 Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Grant

July 25, 2017

Dr. Wenhao Diao’s proposal for the 2017 Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program, entitled “Education, Society, and Globalization in China: A Collaborative Teacher Training Program,” has been selected for funding by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the U.S. Federal Department of Education. Supported by a Fulbright-Hays grant of $88,263 and organized with the UA’s Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), the project will enable local K-16 educators to spend four weeks in China in summer 2018 to gain insights into Chinese education and its aspirations for globalization, and discuss a range of issues related to gender, social justice, and globalization in both China and the U.S. The four-week in-country seminar will include language classes, field trips, lectures, small group workshops, as well as one-on-one exchange with Chinese K-16 educators. The goal is for these educators to effectively incorporate their first-hand experience from China into humanities and social sciences curricula in K-16 schools in Arizona. It will directly benefit educators at the Pima Community College, the Catalina Foothills School District, and the Tucson Unified School District. There will also be a few limited spots for our own EAS majors/minors who are committed to becoming K-16 educators. The program will be a great opportunity to bring Chinese language, culture, and perspectives to many children and adults in Arizona and prepare them for an increasingly globalized world. 

The proposal was developed by Dr. Diao in collaboration with Kate Mackay, Associate Director of CERCLL, a Title VI Language Resource Center at the University of Arizona. It received generous support from the Department of East Asian Studies and the College of Humanities. The program’s design was based on the successful experience from the Arizona-in-Shanghai program. It will be hosted by East China Normal University.

UA in Seoul for AAS-in-Asia

July 7, 2017

Drs. Sunyoung Yang and Nathaniel Smith organized a panel called "Cyberwars and Street Politics in Korea and Japan" for the AAS-in-Asia conference in Seoul, South Korea (June 24-27). UA Asian Collection librarian Ping Situ was also in attendance. Dr. Yang's paper was "Not a Human but a Worm: The Rise of Right-wing Internet Politics in South Korea." Dr. Smith presented on "Trolling for the Emperor?: Race, Empire, and Battles on the 'Multicultural' Right in Japan."

Stephen F. Teiser, "Sickness in Chinese Buddhism: Perspectives from Art and Ritual"

April 21, 2017

Dr. Stephen F. Teiser presented a talk, "Sickness in Chinese Buddhism: Perspectives from Art and Ritual," at the University of Arizona on December 5, 2016. 

Abstract: Canonical Buddhist texts proclaim that sickness is one of the four signs of sentient existence: birth, aging, sickness, and death. In this view, only perfect beings such as the Buddha are capable of evading the clutches of impermanence. At the same time, Buddhists all over the world engage in practices to cure illness and secure a happier fate. They imagine a robust, healthy life in Buddhist terms. This lecture reviews some of the broader Buddhist understandings of illness, drawing particularly on the ritual texts and paintings of medieval Chinese Buddhism. This event was sponsored by the College of Humanities East Asian Studies.

Stephen F. Teiser is D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University, where he also serves as Director of the interdepartmental Program in East Asian Studies. He is interested in the interaction between Buddhism and indigenous Chinese traditions, brought into focus through the wealth of sūtras, non-canonical texts, and artistic evidence unearthed on the Silk Road.

 

Hai Ren, "Socially Engaged Art and Urban Renewal"

April 18, 2017

In December 2016, Professor Hai Ren was invited by Redtown, an organization based in Shanghai, to give a public speech on the topic "socially engaged art and urban renewal” at a creative city festival in the City of Chongqing, China. Aiming at urban planners, architects, designers, and the general public, Professor Ren discussed practices of socially engaged art in four cities (New York, London, Detroit, and Chengdu). His speech has been widely circulated on Chinese social media like WetChat. If you read Chinese, you can read his speech here. Here is an English summary of the talk:

When we speak of the relationship between socially engaged art and urban renewal, we look at the issue in the post-industrial urban context: culture as a major productive force in the creative economy. During the industrial period, art related to a public culture in the city through art exhibits and representations in art museums. In the post-industrial period, when manufacturing no longer occupies an important place in society, art engages a city more directly. Conventional art museums are a necessary part of a creative city, but only as one type of creative space. Meanwhile, artists are no longer confined to their studios. Many choose to participate in the development, renewal, and reproduction of an urban community, and to contribute to improving the quality of life for urban residents. In the global context of the creative city, the close relationship between art and everyday life is often expressed through various kinds of creative spaces. 

Professor Ren discusses how artists in four major cities in three continents (New York, Detroit, London, and Chengdu) engage urban spaces and everyday lives through their arts. Drawing on his research, Professor Ren examines the "maintenance art" practices by the New York-based feminist artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles; urban renewal arts by Detroit-based artists and groups such as Power House Productions (established by Mich Cope and Gina Reichert) and Olayami Dabls; and community arts by Chengdu-based artists such as Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun.    

After discussing art practices in these cities, Professor Ren argues that although these cities have different cultural and historical backgrounds, they all address emerging issues and future uncertainties. As art is increasingly tasked to play an important role in planning and developing a creative city, it does not follow one globe model of engaging with a city. Not only do art institutions (art museums and galleries) become important creative spaces, but they also constitute an infrastructure through which a city engages with the rest of the world. For artists, their artistic identity is two-fold. An artist is both a resident of a community or in an urban space and a specialist who is capable of shaping the production of a meaningful urban space. In the former situation, an artist identity is rooted in everyday life, the source of artistic singularity. In the latter situation, the identity of the artist comes from art's potentiality in social transformation. Compared with urban planning and market-driven strategies in addressing emerging problems and future uncertainties, art is a distinctive means of production, one that is capable of going beyond itself, opening up possibilities, and broadening our perspectives.

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