Academic Centre27 November (English panel)
Keynote speech "Chinese Literature Between Diffusion and Identity"
Mr. Kraushaar Frank (Prof. Dr., Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria)
The keynote will explore the major field of tension between the "traditional" and the "modern" in the perception of literature written in Chinese. However, the definition of these two terms, which frequently are held in opposition to each other, will not follow the almost standardised paradigm of 20th century literary history in Chinese context. The latter builds on the assumption that only through a radical break with tradition, enforced by political activists, who called themselves and were perceived as "revolutionaries", modern Chinese literature, society and state could be achieved. Since the political enthusiasm of the "New Culture Movement" (Xin wenhua yundong) of the 1920th until today's very much fragmented and often dispersed literary scenes in China and beyond, this claim never lived up to the ideological vision at its heart.
I argue that the medial turns in early premodern China (which begins with urbanisation and the invention of printing techniques) and at the beginning of this century (closely related to the expansion of internet literature) should be looked at from a comparative angle. While printing, mechanised book-making and the developping markets already under Song boosted individual styles and new subgenres in poetry and later lead to the formation of regional identities via literary societies under Ming and Qing, cyberpoetry (which I will use as an example) and fiction diminish the sense of both individual authorship and cultural identity. At the same time, we clearly see the re-emergence of multifold "classicisms" remaking "modern" what used to be discarded by former generations as "traditionalist".
Research On Ocean Imagery and Contemporary Web Celebrity Narrative in The Great Hao Daxiao
Ms. Wang Anqi (Master of Arts in Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, South of China Normal University)
The imagery associated with the ocean can be classified into three categories: natural elements that do not inherently "convey meaning", but are imbued with consciousness, such as oceans, beaches, and islands; man-made objects that do not inherently carry meaning, such as fashion and artificial beaches; and deliberate "pure symbols" crafted solely for the expression of meaning, like the "MOsea" brand. In "The Great Hao Daxiao," the ocean serves as more than just a natural entity; it's a canvas onto which human emotions and thoughts are projected. Be it the sea in Sanya or the island in Hao's memory, these marine landscapes provide more than just a backdrop to the narrative. They transform into profound symbols that encapsulate absent entities and intricate meanings.
The author, Zhou Wanjing, often intertwines descriptions of the ocean with themes of familial love and dreams. As the narrative unfolds, the symbolism of the ocean becomes intertwined with notions of freedom, adventure, and transformation. Zhou Wanjing once remarked, "My writing is always centered on people." For her, the ocean evolves into a metaphorical vessel in "The Great Hao Daxiao," allowing her to explore existential queries. As Zhao Yiheng elucidates in "Semiotics: Principles and Deduction," "To affirm one's existence, humans must seek out the meaning of life, making symbols an intrinsic aspect of human existence." This paper primarily employs semiotic theory to delve into the nature and significance of oceanic symbols within the narrative framework of contemporary internet celebrity literature.
Keywords: Web Celebrity, Symbol, Freedom, Ocean Image
"An Asian Type of Literature": An Examination of Translations of Classical Chinese Culture and Literature in Lin Yutang and Han Suyin’s English Novels
Ms. Emma Lu Ferguson (Beijing University, M.A. in China Studies)
"We must create an Asian type of literature [in English]; we need something other than nineteenth-century English writers", wrote Han Suyin. This presentation investigates two Anglophone authors of Chinese heritage, Lin Yutang and Han Suyin, and their creation of a new type of English novel by incorporating elements of classical Chinese culture in their English writing.
The presentation examines the two authors’ strategies of translation from Chinese in their novels, which have been the subject of academic scrutiny in China and elsewhere, but could nevertheless profit from more comprehensive and comparative analysis. Such strategies include foreignised translations of selections from Chinese literature, and domesticated descriptions of Chinese worldviews, both targeted towards monolingual English readers.
Besides this, the presentation introduces a new argument: both Lin and Han’s English writings aim not only to introduce Chinese culture to English readers, but also to benefit a small but growing audience of cross-cultural Chinese-English readers. The two authors achieve this through instances of cultural translation detectable only to readers familiar with both cultures. In this way, Lin and Han’s English writings are engineered to reward bilingualism.
In short, this presentation argues that Lin and Han pioneered a type of novel that presents elements of classical Chinese culture in an English medium to serve, in different ways, Anglophone and bilingual target audiences. Such "Chinese novels in English" both reflect and promote increased cultural interaction in an age of globalisation, when the boundaries between source and target cultures are so often blurred and transversed.
Keywords: Lin Yutang, Han Suyin, translingual literature, cultural translation, Chinese-to-English translation
Flower Burial in "The Dream of the Red Chamber": Exploring Intimacy of Fate Over Intimacy of Emotions
Mr. Pacôme Sebastien (enrolled in M.A. of China’s Studies, Yanjing Academy, Beijing University)
The evocative scene of flower burial in "The Dream of the Red Chamber" has intrigued scholars and anthologists alike due to its powerful imagery, naive elegance, and profound thematic resonance. Surprisingly, despite its significance, the burial of flowers remains understudied, particularly in English, French, and Italian literary scholarship.
This study addresses this gap by examining the flower burial scenes within the novel's narrative context. The initial question revolves around the function and impact of these scenes. While a romantic encounter between Bao-Yu and Dai-Yu is expected, their interactions bear complex layers of sentiment and intention, often veiled under sarcasm or ambiguity. Contrary to conventional romantic interpretations, it is argued that the flower grave and the act of gathering the fallen flowers in this final resting place serve as a literary, poetic, bucolic, and above all, spiritual connection-creation between Dai-Yu and Bao-Yu. These flower graves discreetly and ideally seal their fate at the dawn of their relationship, which ultimately also foreshadows their tragic sunset to come.
The analysis navigates the narrative settings of the flower burials, highlighting how the scenes evoke romantic expectations but then subvert them. It also explores the dense intertextuality framing the passages.
In conclusion, this study contributes to the exploration of overlooked flower burial scenes in literary scholarship and challenges the prevailing romantic interpretation. It argues that these scenes encapsulate a delicate and spiritual connection between Dai-Yu and Bao-Yu, laying the foundation for their ambivalent relationship and its impending tragic resolution.
The study of the image of "grass" in Nineteen Ancient Poems
Ms. Li Yuying 李雨赢 (Master of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, South China Normal University)
Nineteen Ancient Poems is the general term of nineteen poems written by Xiao Tong in the Southern Dynasty.In the book Nineteen Ancient Poems, there are six poems with "grass" images and rich meaning, namely "Green River Grass", "Picking Lotus on the River", "Bright River", "Bright Night", "Ran Gu Bamboo", "Return" and "The East City High and Long", in the form of "grass", "fragrant grass", "wild grass", "autumn grass", "hundred grass", "bamboo", "rabbit silk "and "女萝 "and other kinds of "grass" objects to present. With the title of "grass", the Han people express their tender feelings for love, the sadness of the time sequence and the frustration of the fetters. The emotional implication of the image of "grass" is "see sincerity in the small". It permeates the rich life experience of the scholars in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and reveals their clear and profound spiritual world.
Keywords: Nineteen Ancient Poems, grass, image
Nationalism as subtle presence in the socialist writings of Premchand and Lu Xun
Mr. Rajiv Ranjan (PhD Programme in Comparative Literature, K. R. Mangalam University)
Lu Xun and Premchand, the two contemporary and most important authors of the modern Chinese and Indian literature, have made significance impact on the society of the two countries. Their works have not only given direction to the people of their own countries, but it has been read and followed worldwide. Both the authors have been critical to the established practices of the society and challenged the social taboos through their characters. Due to colonial and semi colonial background, nationalism has been another prime theme in both the countries in the early 20th century period. We find a very subtle presence of nationalism in the writings of Lu Xun and Premchand both, along with all the serious social issues raised in their literature. They demonstrate the struggle, needs and dreams of the common people, with their effective and ineffective efforts of finding success in their own way. However, some of their characters change the traditional fixed thinking and show the strength to speak about the nation or contribute for the nation. In the contemporary world, nationalism is again emerging as an important phenomenon in the world including India and China both. In this background their writings are more important to revisit where they find thin balance writing about the social challenges and the national interests both.
Therefore, in this paper the researcher will be analysing the nationalism of Lu Xun and Premchand and try to explore the nationalism in their writings. The paper will mainly focus on the two authors of India and China to conduct detailed research and comparison, from various angles and aspects of their nationalists’ characters and their social status.
Keywords: India-China cultural exchanges, Language & literature, Nationalism
The Review of Zhu Yizun's Love Lyrics from Literary Orthodoxy Perspective
Ms. Anastasija Galkina (M.A. graduate of the University of Latvia)
Zhu Yizun 朱彝尊(1629–1709) was a famous Chinese scholar, poet and founder of Zhexi school of ci genre (song lyrics) during the Qing dynasty. Zhu Yizun’s way of expressing ci in his works was bold and straightforward. During his whole life, Zhu Yizun put a lot of great efforts to make ci poetry to be part of Chinese literary category of belles-letters in the "Complete books of the Four Storehouses", because since the Song dynasty, the ci poetry was neglected and considered as a minor art.
Because of Zhu Yizun’s ambition and boldness, the interest of ci poetry was not only rediscovered, but also rapidly gained more popularity, however some undercurrent of ambivalence towards ci genre still was remained, which made some poets of ci genre to walk away from ci. Despite some difficulties and criticism, Zhu Yizun wanted to show that the nature of ci genre is versatile. For example, in the “Amusements on the Lute of the Jingzhi Dwelling” 静志据琴曲 collection, poet assembled ci genre that mostly focused on love lyrics and erotic songs, in other words, thematic elements such as romantic love, desire, passion and sexuality were considered improper for exploration and exposition in Chinese orthodoxy literature.
By studying more Zhu Yizun’s production of ci genre and self-consciously designed poetry, modern scholars could clearly see the problematic space for the "private" and "feminine" in this genre.
Keywords: Zhu Yizun, love, lyrics, orthodoxy, literature, poetry
The Motif of Mulan's Homecoming in 2020 Film Adaptations
Ms. Markéta Koklarová (Ph.D. programme at Palacký University Olomouc)
The presentation will discuss film adaptations of the Ballad of Mulan. In nearly 100 years, more than 20 films have been made with Mulan as the main protagonist. The most recognised by Western viewers are "The Legend of Mulan" (1998) and "Mulan" (2020), produced by the global film industry hegemon – the Walt Disney Studio. These two American versions inspired several other filmmakers to make their own versions of this legend in a short time period. "The Legend of Mulan" (1998) was taken as an inspiration to create five Western-produced animated fairy tales, which were introduced at the turn of the new millennium. However, this trend was even more noticeable in 2020, when another five Chinese films were released in addition to Disney's live-action remake. These works could be considered as China's answer to Walt Disney's production. This presentation will primarily focus on the above-mentioned Chinese films. First, it will characterize the shifts in the story's narrative and the possible Western influence on them. Then, the focus will turn to the analysis of the motif of Mulan's homecoming. This motif was intentionally selected because 2020 could also be seen as a year of Mulan's symbolic return to China after the release of the American versions of the legend. Moreover, it is one of the most essential motifs that is recurring through various retellings.
Keywords: China, film, homecoming, legend, motif, Mulan, Walt Disney
The Versatility of Ghostly Cyborgs: Generic Hybridity in Xia Jia’s "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight"
Mr. Eero Suoranta (Doctoral Researcher, Master of Arts, University of Helsinki)
According to Cara Healey, contemporary Chinese science fiction can in part be characterised by "generic hybridity" or "the combination and reinterpretation of both Western science fiction subgenres and local Chinese genres," with the critical realist mode pioneered by Lu Xun (魯迅, 1881–1936) and other modern writers playing an especially important constitutive role in this combination. In my presentation, I will seek to apply and expand Healey’s approach by examining how Xia Jia’s (夏笳, b. 1984) science fiction short story "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" (百鬼夜行街, 2010) combines critical realist and science-fictional conventions with direct allusions to older Chinese literature, such as Pu Songling’s (蒲松龄, 1640–1715) marvel tale collection Liaozhai zhiyi (聊斋志异, 1766) and Cao Xueqin’s (曹雪芹, 1710–1765) novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" (红楼梦, 1791), as well as to non-Chinese works of fantasy fiction.
I argue that by employing this kind of intertextuality in combination with science-fictional estrangement, Xia Jia’s story is able to reinterpret conventional elements of earlier literary traditions and use them to comment on pertinent questions of tradition and modernity, capitalist exploitation, and alienation and community in the context of contemporary Chinese society. Moreover, I argue that the story’s generic hybridity and its attendant cross-cultural borrowings also allow its examination of these issues to resonate with readers from different cultural backgrounds and with varying levels of familiarity with the literary traditions that Xia Jia draws from, which helps explain the international popularity of her work.
Keywords: science fiction, fantasy fiction, critical realism, estrangement, generic hybridity
English Translation of Body-part Expressions in Chinese Xiqu
Ms. Zhu Xiaohan 朱小涵 (University of Debrecen)
This is a study on the solutions of translating body-part expressions in Chinese Xiqu. It also discusses the cultural differences in the functions and meanings of body-part expressions between Chinese and English. It is found that, the difference in the way of thinking between Chinese and English causes different understanding of the functions of body-part expressions, so that most body-part expressions need specific solutions for translation. Through the analysis of examples in Xiqu, there will be three types in translation, named 1-1 translation, 1-X translation, and 1-null translation. Pym’s terminology of translation solutions (Pym 2016a) will be used as the framework to deal with these types of situations. Pym compared the translation solutions of Vinay and Darbelnet with those of Loh Dian-yang, and proposed his own classification. He has used this table on another Chinese corpus, which are everyday phrases in Chinese, so it has been tested that it can be used for dealing with the problem of Chinese- English translation. After analysing several text-examples it will become evident that despite the existence of body-metaphors in both languages their meanings and functions remains different. The difficulty of finding a one-to-one solution for translating necessitates a deeper understanding of cultural implication in order to reformulate textual structures in English which would allow for reintegration of the meaning intended by the Chinese text into translation.
Keywords: Body-part expressions, translation solutions, Chinese Xiqu