“Parallel Texts, Intersecting Conversations” Series
Part 1: Beyond Sinology and 《何為「中國」？》
Date: 10 Oct 2014
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Venue: LT8, Yasumoto International Academic Park, CUHK
Parallel Texts:
Andrea Bachner, “Introduction”, Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014)
葛兆光，〈導論：有關「中國」的歷史形成與認同困境〉，《何為「中國」？：疆域、民族、文化與歷史》（香港：牛津大學出版社，2014）
Intersecting Conversations:
Prof. Leo Lee Ou-fan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Prof. Lo Kwai-cheung (Hong Kong Baptist University)
About Texts:
Beyond Sinology: Chinese Writing and the Scripts of Culture
New communication and information technologies provide distinct challenges and possibilities for the Chinese script, which, unlike alphabetic or other phonetic scripts, relies on multiple signifying principles. In recent decades, this multiplicity has generated a rich corpus of reflection and experimentation in literature, film, visual and performance art, and design and architecture, within both China and different parts of the West.
Approaching this history from a variety of alternative theoretical perspectives, Beyond Sinology reflects on the Chinese script to pinpoint the multiple connections between languages, scripts, and medial expressions and cultural and national identities. Through a complex study of intercultural representations, exchanges, and tensions, the text focuses on the concrete “scripting” of identity and alterity, advancing a new understanding of the links between identity and medium and a critique of articulations that rely on single, monolithic, and univocal definitions of writing.
Chinese writing—with its history of divergent readings in Chinese and non-Chinese contexts, with its current reinvention in the age of new media and globalization—can teach us how to read and construct mediality and cultural identity in interculturally responsible ways and also how to scrutinize, critique, and yet appreciate and enjoy the powerful multi-medial creativity embodied in writing.
《何為中國？：疆域、民族、文化與歷史》
本書中討論的是什麼是「中國」，現代中國是怎樣從古代中國逐漸形成的，這個包含了眾多民族、複雜文化和龐大疆域的「中國」，在當下面臨著什麼樣的問題？研究中國歷史繞不開這些大問題，觀察現實中國也不能迴避這些大問題。最近，迅速膨脹的中國面臨的嚴重問題之一，就是中國與亞洲和世界，究竟在文化、政治和經濟上如何相處？我們要承認，現代中國已經遇到很多麻煩，比如高句麗問題、東海與釣魚島問題、南海與西沙、南沙問題、外蒙古與內蒙古問題、新疆的東突厥運動以及伊斯蘭教問題、西藏及藏傳佛教問題、中印邊界問題、台灣問題，甚至還有可能死灰復燃的琉球問題等等。
當我們討論「中國」時，也不可避免會涉及「亞洲」的鄰居，比如日本和韓國，甚至涉及到西方世界。生活在這樣一個互相聯繫又互相依賴的世界裡，我們希望反思歷史所帶來的理性，可以讓我們抑制情感驅動的民族主義立場，在同一個世界中彼此尊重。
這本小書中討論這些關係到你、我、他的大問題。本書從「歷史」出發，不僅通過歷史知識認識自我，而且通過歷史知識與周邊鄰居形成一些共識。
About Speakers:
Prof. LEE Ou-fan, Leo is currently Sin Wai Kin Professor of Chinese Culture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, having taken early retirement from teaching at Harvard University to become a long-term Hong Kong resident. Apart from his academic work, he has been an active participant in the Hong Kong cultural scene, having published in the past decades nearly 20 books of cultural criticism in both Chinese and English, including (in English) City Between Worlds: My Hong Kong (Harvard University Press, 2008). Among his scholarly books are Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930-1945 (Harvard University Press, 1999). In addition to literature, his other humanistic interests include classical music, film, and architecture
Prof. LO Kwai-cheung received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and has taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology before joining HKBU in 1998. His research interests are Cultural Studies, Creative Writing, Film Studies, Ethnic Studies, Diaspora Writing in English, East-West Comparative Studies, Literary Theory, and Psychoanalysis. His latest books include 《記憶暫時收藏：羅貴祥詩集》(Memories Temporarily Stored: Collected Poems of Lo Kwai Cheung), and Excess and Masculinity in Asian Cultural Productions.