2020-21 School of Chinese Seminar

Empire, Extraction, and Untranslatability: Mahua Literature and Southeast Asian Chinese Perspectives

帝國、資源開採與不可譯性：馬華文學與東南亞華人的視角

Dr. Nicholas Y. H. Wong

王學權博士

The University of Hong Kong

香港大學

Date日期: May 24, 2021 (Monday)

Time時間: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Venue地點: Room730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus & via Zoom

Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/97429406058?pwd=SDZuUTdncXkyVjlCc1FiYzhuZmdFZz09

Zoom Meeting ID: 974 2940 6058

Password: 148774

Abstract:

This talk approaches the formation of Mahua (or Chinese-Malayan), and more broadly, Southeast Asian Chinese literary subjectivity as a dance between claims of their “untranslatable singularity” and their multifaceted history of translation projects. So, rather than view Mahua literature as either a local-oriented or a diasporic minor literature written in Chinese in present-day Malaysia, I propose a new framework that views translation and notions of untranslatability as a main theme of Mahua literature’s development from colony to nation. Here, untranslatability is connected to the idea of “native language,” the very thing that Mahua literature has struggled to define, in light of other forms of untranslatability that Mahua literature has to contend with, such as imperial sovereignty over religious meaning, or the totality of horror of certain migrant experiences. Using sources such as novels, short stories, and diaries, and relating them to examples of translation projects by colonial offices intended for governance, I locate Mahua literature’s formation within specific state and market conditions of empire and extraction in Southeast Asia, as well as juridical-religious transformations in Malaya’s multilingual, multicultural society.

本演講探討馬華（即華裔馬來亞）文學主體性乃至東南亞華文文學主體性的形成，並將此類建構視為一場觀念及其相關實踐兩者之間的拉鋸。具體而言，在建構的過程中，一方面是馬華文學“不可譯之獨特性”的主張，另一方面則是其翻譯實踐的多維度歷史。因此，與其把馬華文學歸類為當前馬來西亞用華文書寫、具備在地化與離散特質的小文學，本人提出一個新的框架，將翻譯和不可譯性的觀念視為馬華文學歷經從殖民地到新興國家演變的主要議題。在此，不可譯性連結“母語”的概念，而馬華文學一直難以定義後者，卻也同時必須應對其他形式的不可譯性，例如帝國主權所設定的宗教意義或充斥某些移民經驗的恐懼。本人采用各式小說和日記等材料，追蹤它們與殖民地政府旨在進行治理的翻譯項目的關係，從而為馬華文學的形成重新定位。這支東南亞華文文學的緣起同帝國的建立及其在區域内的資源開採密切關聯，涉及的亦是在特定國家和市場條件下，馬來亞多元語言、多元文化的社會中司法與宗教的變革。

Bio:

Nicholas Y. H. Wong (Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on media and modernity in China and Southeast Asia, resource extraction literary politics, Chinese-English translation, transnationalism and diaspora, poetry and poetics. His book project, titled Resource Extraction and Decolonial Literary-Intellectual Chinese Thought from the Malay Peninsula, is a materialist and geoeconomic history of Mahua literature and intellectual culture. His articles and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in CLEAR (Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews), Chapters on Asia, Renditions, and PRISM.​

王學權，美國芝加哥大學比較文學博士。現於香港大學人文榮譽學會（Society of Fellows in the Humanities）擔任博士後研究員，主要研究方向為中國和東南亞的媒體和現代性、資源開採的文學政治、中英翻譯、跨國主義和離散、以及詩歌與詩學。目前正在撰寫專著《馬來半島的資源開採與去殖民化的華文文學與思想》，檢視馬華文學與思想文化的物質與地緣經濟史。 論文和譯作曾在或即將在CLEAR (Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews) 、Chapters on Asia、《譯叢》和PRISM 等期刊或論文集裡發表。

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Seminar

Cantonese Pirates in World Literature: the Legend of Ching I Sao

(Cheung Po Tsai’s stepmother/wife) according to Jorge Luis Borges

廣東海盜與世界文學：波赫士筆下的鄭一嫂（張保仔之妻）

Dr. Yunfei Bai

柏雲飛博士

The University of Hong Kong

香港大學

Date日期: May 24, 2021 (Monday)

Time時間: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Venue地點: Room730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus & via Zoom

Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/97429406058?pwd=SDZuUTdncXkyVjlCc1FiYzhuZmdFZz09

Zoom Meeting ID: 974 2940 6058

Password: 148774

Abstract:

This talk traces how the Jinghai Fenji (Record of the Pacification of Pirates) by Qing dynasty historian Yuan Yonglun blossomed—through repeated translation and rewriting—into the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’s famous short story “La viuda Ching, pirata” (The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate) in the latter’s 1935 collection, Historia Universal de la Infamia, known in English as A Universal History of Infamy. The original text, published in Canton in 1830, was translated into English by German sinologist Charles Neumann in 1831; this in turn was further adapted by British writer Philip Gosse into a portion of his History of Piracy, upon which Borges, knowing no Chinese, based his own retelling. By closely comparing Borges’s reworking with the previous Western versions, and against the original source in Chinese, I argue that when adapting the Chinese work, Borges opted for brevity, self-reference, and lightheartedness, moreover, his multivoiced “baroque” Orientalism proved a self-conscious parody of itself while caricaturing the biases of Chinese officialese at face value, thereby offering a corrective to the fallacies of cultural appropriation.

本次講座旨在通過一個具體的案例來探討文學作品通過不斷的翻譯和改寫來實現全球流通的有趣現象。具體言之，清代史官袁永綸於1830年在廣州出版了記錄嘉慶年間清廷剿滅華南海盜經過的《靖海氛記》一書。僅僅一年之後，德國漢學家紐曼便將該書翻譯成英文在倫敦出版。在1932年出版的《海盜史》一書中，英國通俗作家戈斯根據紐曼的譯本重新演繹了一段以海盜領袖鄭一嫂（張保仔之妻）為中心的異域故事。不久之後，阿根廷文學大師波赫士根據戈斯的版本進一步將鄭一嫂的傳奇經歷改寫成了他的著名短篇小說《女海盜金寡婦》。通過一種建立在極簡敘事， 自我指涉和趣味性之上的“巴羅克” 式的再創作，波赫士在嘲諷中國史官對挑戰帝國秩序者所帶有的意識形態偏見的同時也消解了“東方主義”敘事的嚴肅性，從而有效規避了文化挪用的諸多陷阱與風險。

Bio:

Yunfei Bai is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong. A polyglot, he is broadly interested in the tangled relationship between translation/rewriting, nationalism, Orientalism, and the global dissemination of world literature under state regulation of the book market. His recent articles have appeared and are forthcoming in journals including Comparative Literature Studies, French Forum, French Cultural Studies, Revue d’Études Tibétaines, Archiv orientální, China Perspectives, and Translation Studies.

柏雲飛博士畢業于美國羅格斯大學，目前在香港大學文學院擔任博士後研究員。作為一名多語言者，他現階段主要關注文學作品如何通過翻譯和改寫來實現全球流通，以及相應傳播路徑與東方主義，民族主義，出版物審查制度等諸多意識形態因素之間錯綜複雜的關係。他最新的期刊文章付梓或即將見刊於Comparative Literature Studies, French Forum, French Cultural Studies, Revue d’Études Tibétaines, Archiv orientální, China Perspectives, 以及 Translation Studies.

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

Peach Spring: A Ritual and Cultural History

桃源：儀式與文化史

Dr. Mark Meulenbeld

梅林寶博士

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

香港理工大學

Date日期: May 12, 2021 (Wednesday)

Time時間: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Venue地點: via Zoom

Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/98215705216?pwd=T2oxQkJKREJhbkdLVGpWd1h0MkE3dz09

Zoom Meeting ID: 982 1570 5216

Password: 752767

Abstract:

Though long seen uniquely from the perspective of the Chinese literary canon, Tao Qian’s 陶潛 (365?-427) famous “Record of the Peach Blossom Spring” (“Taohuayuan ji” 桃花源記) may find an even more fruitful disciplinary home in religious studies. The story refers itself to a grotto at Wuling 武陵 (nowadays northern Hunan province, PRC), a site that has been associated with Daoist “transcendents” (shenxian 神仙) at least since the middle of the sixth century. An older Daoist monastery on that same site, the Peach Spring Abbey (Taoyuan guan 桃源觀) or Peach Blossom Abbey (Taohua guan 桃花觀), became officially recognized in 748 and received imperial support not long after. This article studies the long history of Peach Spring as a sacred site, or, as Tao Qian referred to it in his poem, a “divine realm” (shenjie 神界). It also discusses the living ritual tradition in Hunan that revolves around the female transcendents (“Immortal Mothers,” xianniang 仙娘) in the grotto, and the significance of all this for understanding the ways in which culture circulated before modernity.

陶潛（365? – 427）著名作品《桃花源記》長久以來多被視為一篇文學的經典；但今日若我們想要充分挖掘其價值，由宗教研究的方向取徑應更有發展潛力。陶潛的故事開篇即直指位於武陵（現湖南省北部）的一個洞室絕境，該地至少從六世紀中葉已經和道教的神仙信仰有所關聯。位於該地的古道觀桃源觀，又稱桃花觀，也於748年得到官方認可，並在不久之後就得到了宮廷的護持。本演講就作為道教聖地桃源（陶潛在《桃花源詩》中稱之為「神界」）的悠長歷史展開細緻的研究。其次，則考察圍繞在洞中所有女性神仙（「仙娘」）的活躍儀式傳統，以進一步了解古代文化傳播的基本流通渠道。

Bio:

Mark Meulenbeld (MA, Leiden; PhD, Princeton) has held positions as instructor at Bryn Mawr College (2006 – 07), and as Assistant & Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007 – 17). Currently he teaches Chinese Religion at the HK Polytechnic University (2017 – ). He focuses on Daoism and its interaction with local cults (“folk religion”), especially from the perspective of ritual, divinity, narrative, and community. He studies “locality” (relating it to the “mainstream”), and combines text and practice through intensive fieldwork. His work focuses mostly on the Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) and the modern period, often combining both.

梅林寶 (Mark Meulenbeld), 荷蘭萊頓大學漢學研究院碩士，美國普林斯頓大學東亞系博士。曾任教于布林莫爾學院 (2006 – 07)、威斯康辛大學麥迪遜分校助理教授、副教授 (2007 – 17)，現任香港理工大學中國文化學系副教授 (2017 – )。教學領域以中國宗教為主。研究集中在從儀式、神學、傳說、以及社會的面向解析道教與地方香火的互動關係。他的廣泛研究興趣在於地方傳統與文化主流的互動，並通過長期田野調查結合對文本與實踐的檢視。部分研究著眼於明代、當代現象，常常主張歷史現象與當代實踐之間的承續關係。

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

Sino-Iranian Relations in the Medieval Period

中古時期中國與伊朗的關係

Dr. Jeffrey Kotyk

康傑夫博士

University of British Columbia

英屬哥倫比亞大學

Date日期: May 12, 2021 (Wednesday)

Time時間: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon

Venue地點: via Zoom

Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/98215705216?pwd=T2oxQkJKREJhbkdLVGpWd1h0MkE3dz09

Zoom Meeting ID: 982 1570 5216

Password: 752767

Abstract:

China and Sasanian Iran enjoyed a number of diplomatic exchanges in response to growing political expansions from the fifth to sixth centuries. The understanding of pre-Islamic Iran and its influences on Chinese civilization are not so widely studied or understood. This paper will examine the diplomatic contacts between Iran and China, as well as the contacts between the caliphates and China during the Tang dynasty. We will further examine Chinese accounts of the Iranian calendar, economy and culture. I argue that Iran exercised a significant historical and cultural influence on China, but also that Chinese sources can provide rich information about contemporary Iran.

中國和薩珊波斯王朝在五至六世紀之間為了應對日益增長的政治擴張，進行了多次外交交流。目前學界缺乏對接受伊斯蘭教之前的伊朗及其對中國文明影響的研究。本文將考察伊朗與中國的外交往來，以及唐時期哈里發與中國的来往。

還將進一步分析中文文獻中對伊朗曆法、經濟和文化的記載。本文認為伊朗對中國產生了重大的歷史和文化影響，且中文中保存著大量有關當時伊朗的豐富材料。

Bio:

Jeffrey is presently researching the relationship of China and Iran during the medieval period with a particular interest in diplomatic, economic and religious relations. This research compares and contrasts a variety of sources, from dynastic histories to the Buddhist canon.

康傑夫（Jeffrey Kotyk）目前主要致力於研究中古時期中國和伊朗的關係問題。主要關注於兩者的外交、經濟和宗教關係等領域。本文主要對正史和佛典中的大量文獻進行了比照和分析。

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

墨家光學與天志

Mohist Optics and the Will Heaven

周博群博士

Dr. Boqun Zhou

清華大學

Tsinghua University

日期Date: May 10, 2021 (Monday)

時間Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

地點Venue: via Zoom

演講語言Language: 普通話Putonghua

https://hku.zoom.us/j/94302780557?pwd=U3pOQXJUSUlqU3JEcFAwcTVLN0kxQT09

Zoom Meeting ID: 943 0278 0557

Password: 247022

Abstract:

墨家哲學中有一則著名的被稱為“三表法”的隱喻，指的是判斷倫理命題正確與否的標準和原則。在中國古代，“表”這一光學儀器有多種功能，其中之一是通過觀察早晨與黃昏的日影位置來確定正東正西的方向，這也是“三表法”隱喻的現實技術基礎。然而根據《周髀算經》與《淮南子·天文訓》的記載，表還有另一項重要的功能，即通過相似三角形的比例間接推算遠距離龐大物體的高度或尺寸（如測量天高）。本文認為，墨家的倫理政治思想也受到了這一間接測量的功能的影響。特別是《天志》、《非攻》等篇章中的一系列類比論證，試圖在日常道德情境與宏觀政治情境之間建立比例關係，並由此確立抽象的天志在具體政治問題中的表現。同時，本文還將進一步探索《墨經》光學部分背後的邏輯結構。

It is well-known that in Mohist philosophy the “three gnomons” is an important epistemological metaphor for the correct standards of valid arguments. The metaphorical meaning of the gnomon comes from a technique known as the “shadow method” based on the gnomon’s optical function, namely to establish due east and west by observing gnomon shadows at dusk and dawn. I argue that there is also an overlooked, implicit aspect of the gnomon metaphor that comes from another of its optical functions – measuring the height of heaven indirectly through proportional calculation. The method of indirect measurement inspires a strategy of argumentation in Mohist ethics, which involves a series of parallel cases arranged proportionally from the small scale to the large scale. Such a strategy, which I call “analogical upscaling,” helps to determine the content of the Will of Heaven in a particular circumstance, just as the gnomon measures heaven’s physical height. In the end, I shall also examine the logical structure of the optics section in the Mohist Canon.

Bio:

周博群，芝加哥大學東亞語言文明系博士，現為清華-密西根研究員協會博士後研究員。主要研究領域為中國古代思想文化史、科技史、出土文獻，尤其關注先秦諸子倫理與政治思想中的技術隱喻。目前正在從事專著《機心：中國古代思想中的權衡與權勢》的寫作，以及清華簡伊尹五篇與《殷高宗問于三壽》的英譯。

Boqun Zhou is a postdoctoral fellow in the Tsinghua-Michigan Society of Fellow. He earned his doctorate at the University of Chicago in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. His research interests range across ancient Chinese intellectual history, history of science and technology, and excavated bamboo manuscripts, with particular emphasis on how classical thinkers utilize technological metaphors in their ethical and political theories. He is currently working on his book manuscript, The Mechanical Mind: Metaphor, Body, and Technology in Early China, as well as an annotated translation of six manuscripts from the Tsinghua Bamboo Slips.

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

The Power of Invisibility:

The Making of a Martial Goddess in Daoism and Chinese Vernacular Fiction

隱身術的威力：道教與中國白話小說對一位軍事女神的塑造

Dr. Peng Liu

劉鵬博士

Rutgers University

羅格斯大學

Date日期: May 10, 2021 (Monday)

Time時間: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon

Venue地點: via Zoom

Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/94302780557?pwd=U3pOQXJUSUlqU3JEcFAwcTVLN0kxQT09

Zoom Meeting ID: 943 0278 0557

Password: 247022

Abstract:

Concealing a hero’s body and helping him defeat enemies, the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens is a powerful goddess in Daoism and Chinese vernacular fiction. Her divine power and military wisdom invite us to investigate her identity and the process of her creation. In this talk, Dr. Liu takes an interdisciplinary approach to these issues, using textual and visual evidence to show how Daoism and the Ming (1368–1644) novel Water Margin perpetuated the Mysterious Woman’s role as a warrior protectress. As Dr. Liu shows, during the Tang and Song periods, a set of Daoist texts strengthened her role as a warrior protectress by giving prominence to her magic of concealing the body and to magic concerning the worship of the Northern Dipper; a Daoist ordination ceremony in the Ming imperial court elevated her status and turned her into a tutelary goddess of the state; against this background, Water Margin popularized esoteric Daoist knowledge pertaining to the Mysterious Woman, making this female divinity’s story accessible to common readers and preventing her from falling into oblivion.

九天玄女在道教文本和白話小說中是一位極具威力的女神。她隱藏主人公的身體並助其擊退敵人。她的神聖力量和軍事智慧啟發讀者探究她的真實身份及其塑造過程。在此次演講中，劉博士將採用跨學科的研究路徑，利用文本和圖像證據來展示道教經典和白話小說聯手塑造九天玄女戰爭保護神形象的過程。劉博士指出，唐宋時期的道教文獻突出玄女的隱身術和北斗法；明代皇室的一次受籙儀式提升了她的地位，把她變成國家保護神；在這樣的背景下，小說《水滸傳》將跟玄女有關的道教神秘知識通俗化，使玄女的故事易於為大眾理解並接受。

Bio:

Peng Liu is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University. Dr. Liu received his first doctorate in Buddhism and Medieval Chinese Literature from Fudan University and his second doctorate in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. His current book project investigates how late imperial Chinese fiction popularized Daoist goddess cults that would otherwise have been marginalized or forgotten.

劉鵬博士現任教於羅格斯大學亞洲語言與文化系。他先於復旦大學獲得博士學位，研究方向為佛教與中古文學；後又於哥倫比亞大學獲得東亞語言與文化博士學位，專攻道教與明清小說。他目前的專書項目探討明清時期的白話小說如何將道教女神（玄女和素女）的形象戲劇化、通俗化。

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

左思《詠史》研究新視角
New Perspectives of Studies on Zuo Si’s “Poems on History”

張月博士
Dr. Zhang Yue
澳門大學
University of Macau

日期Date: May 14, 2021 (Friday)
時間Time: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
地點Venue: via Zoom
演講語言Language: 普通話Putonghua

https://hku.zoom.us/j/92740498537?pwd=a2t5UkdnZzFTZnRnOGk2R0tMWm9yQT09
Zoom Meeting ID: 927 4049 8537
Password: 144648

Abstract:
西晉左思的《詠史》八首作為詠史詩的代表作被歷代學者所關注。目前學界對於左思《詠史》的研究主要集中在兩個方面：一是將其放置在詠史詩類的發展脈絡中，指出其借詠史以詠懷，打破了以班固《詠史》為代表的史傳型詠史；二是將《詠史》置於六朝詩歌的發展中，指出其質樸、豪邁的風格和語言與陸機、潘岳主導的繁複、綺麗詩風迥異。左思風力更是影響了後代很多作家，包括陶淵明、鮑照、李白等人。左思的《詠史》除了載史、抒情以外，還有什麼功用與目的？左思“記憶”歷史人物的方法和手段有哪些？左思在“接受”歷史人物的過程中側重哪些特點，又有哪些改變，他所塑造的歷史人物如何影響後代文人的創作？本講座從文化記憶與接受美學的角度，深入歷史典籍、中古文學文本、社會政治環境與哲學的發展，來聚焦歷史在詩歌中的呈現，給《詠史》的解讀帶來新的視角和方法。

Zuo Si’s (ca. 250–305) “Poems on History” (“Yongshi”) have often been regarded as a milestone in the development of the yongshi subgenre of Chinese poetry. Scholars have noted Zuo’s poems break from the yongshi norms, which usually mimic historical narration and conclude with a moral assessment; instead, they articulate his personal emotions and ambitions to criticize his contemporary political hierarchy. Scholars have also recognized Zuo’s poems as representing an alternative to the ornamental style of poetry popular in his time. To deepen the extant research, this talk will re-interpret these poems using the perspectives of cultural memory and reception studies to answer some key questions: Aside from praising historical figures and articulating his emotions, what other purposes does Zuo Si aim to achieve? What approaches does he adopt to deal with historical figures? Why does he choose to retain certain details and omit others, and consequently how do these adaptations influence later writings? This talk reveals the complexity of Zuo’s appropriation of earlier cultural sources, and broadens our understanding both of the significance of his “Yongshi” and how history is disseminated through poetry.

Bio:
張月，多倫多大學博士，現任澳門大學中國文學副教授、中文系研究生項目主任。此前，他在美國大學獲得長聘教職，擔任中國研究副教授。張教授的研究側重中國古代文學和海外漢學研究，尤其是六朝詩歌。在這些領域，他發表了三十餘篇中英文文章，目前有三部書稿已經或即將由紐約州立大學出版社、復旦大學出版社、北京大學出版社出版。

Zhang Yue (Ph.D. from the University of Toronto) is Associate Professor and Graduate Programme Coordinator in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Macau. Prior to this position, he was Associate Professor at Valparaiso University in the U.S. Professor Zhang’s research focuses on classical Chinese literature, specifically the poetry of the Six Dynasties (220–589) and recent developments in Sinology. In these fields, he has published more than 30 articles in Chinese and English, and has three books published or forthcoming by the State University of New York Press, Fudan University Press, and Beijing University Press.

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

《冥報記》中的敘事認知與社交網絡
Narrative Epistemology and Social Networks in the Record of Miraculous Recompense

羅曼玲博士
Dr. Manling Luo
印第安納大學
Indiana University

日期Date: May 14, 2021 (Friday)
時間Time: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
地點Venue: via Zoom
演講語言Language: 普通話Putonghua

https://hku.zoom.us/j/92740498537?pwd=a2t5UkdnZzFTZnRnOGk2R0tMWm9yQT09
Zoom Meeting ID: 927 4049 8537
Password: 144648

Abstract:
這個演講討論唐臨（約602–約661）編纂的《冥報記》裡的副文本 ，即故事集的序言與單個故事的後記。佛教靈驗故事集主要被用於討論中國佛教或宗教文化的發展，文學研究的學者較少關注，因爲這些故事顯得粗糙而重複。我分析副文本而非故事本身來揭示唐臨的敘事認知（他對自己作爲故事講述者的準則與方法的明確與潛在的觀點）與他眼中的社交網絡，以探討中古時期的故事講述作爲一種日常文化如何與宗教文化相交叉。

This talk examines the paratexts in the Record of Miraculous Recompense compiled by Tang Lin (ca. 602–ca. 661), that is, the preface to the collection and epilogues to individual stories. Medieval Buddhist miracle tales have been studied for insights into the development of Chinese Buddhism in particular and religious culture in general. They have received little attention, however, from literary scholars, who tend to judge them as artistically crude and formulaic. Rather than the stories proper, I dissect the paratexts to show Tang Lin’s narrative epistemology (explicit and implicit views of his criteria and methods as a storyteller) and social networks as represented by him. The analysis explores how the medieval culture of informal storytelling intersected with religious culture.

Bio:
羅曼玲是印第安納大學的中國文學副教授。她的研究興趣包括敘事的社會生命力、文人文化、性別、以及宗教文學。她的第一部專著名爲《中國中古晚期文人的故事講述》（2015年華盛頓大學出版社），另有多篇中英文研究文章。

Manling Luo is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at Indiana University. Her research interests include the social life of narratives, literati culture, gender, and religious literature. Her first monograph is entitled Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China (University of Washington Press, 2015). She has also published a range of research articles in English and Chinese.

ALL are welcome

2020-21 School of Chinese Online Seminar

The Masculine Bee in Classical Chinese Literature
中國古典文學中的雄性蜜蜂

Professor Olivia Milburn
米歐敏教授
Seoul National University
國立首爾大學

Date日期: May 11, 2021 (Tuesday)
Time時間: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Venue地點: via Zoom
Language演講語言: English英文

https://hku.zoom.us/j/92859787654?pwd=NjFqcXVobm8xWTBIZDNVOVhPdnFmUT09
Zoom Meeting ID: 928 5978 7654
Password: 099410

Abstract:
From antiquity to the present day, the products of honeybees are crucial to many industries and aspects of human life. As a result, honeybees have been the subject of intense study and interest, but this has not necessarily served to advance understanding about lifecycle of these insects. Bees are in fact eusocial insects, divided into three castes: queens, drones, and workers. As with other eusocial creatures, all castes have to be present for the colony as a whole to survive. However, in China, from the Jin dynasty onwards, literature about honeybees stressed that all bees were male. Observers had noted egg-laying and mating behavior, but in poetry and prose Chinese literati continued to write about bees as male insects, living in an ideal patriarchal society without any female involvement. This paper will explore literary representations of “king bees” (fengwang) / queens; “prime minister” (xiangfeng) or “general bees” (jiangfeng) / drones; and “vassal bees” (fengchen) / workers to show how these insects were used to idealize a militarized patriarchal society. However, some writers found such representations profoundly alienating, and instead turned to Buddhist images, where honeybees were an allegory for study and effort.

從古至今，蜜蜂的產物對許多行業和人類生活至關重要。即使蜜蜂因此成爲了被關注和研究的主題，也不一定更增進人們對它們生命過程的了解。蜜蜂實爲真社會性昆蟲，分爲蜂后，雄蜂，工蜂三類。但在中國，從晉代起，相關文學作品都強調蜜蜂皆爲雄性。本文將探討蜂王、相蜂/將蜂、蜂臣的文學表現形式，以呈現它們是如何被用來理想化已軍事化的父權制社會。不過，也有其他學者轉向蜜蜂是象征學習和努力的佛教意象。

Bio:
Olivia Milburn is currently Professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Seoul National University. Her major publications include a study of the history of the kingdom of Wu, and gazetteers for the city of Suzhou. In addition, she has translated a number of classical Chinese works into English, such as the Yuejue shu and Yanzi chunqiu. Her translations from contemporary Chinese literature include novels by Mai Jia, Feng Jicai, Jiang Zilong, and Fang Fang. Olivia Milburn’s research concentrates on the history and culture of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and also literary presentations of marginalized people.

米歐敏現任國立首爾大學中文系教授，研究方向爲中國古代江南曆史及文化和邊緣人群（殘疾人、女性等）。其主要出版著述涉及春秋時期的吳國文化遺跡和蘇州地方志，英譯了古籍《越絕書》及麥家、馮驥才等現當代作家的小說。

ALL are welcome