MCLC: Horizons of Sinophone Studies

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Celina Hung <celinahung at gmail.com>
Subject: Horizons of Sinophone Studies
***********************************************************

Please join us at our three-day seminar, “Horizons of Sinophone Studies:
Perspectives from Comparative Race/Ethnic Studies and Translation
Studies,” at the annual ACLA Conference held at NYU on March 21-23. Please
find below our panel presenters and guest commentators.

 
HORIZONS OF SINOPHONE STUDIES
Organizer: Tzu-hui Celina Hung (NYU Shanghai)
Location: 19 University Place (Room 222), New York

 
The recent emergence of Sinophone Studies pioneered by Shu-mei Shih has
propelled scholars to confront the interconnectedness of Chinese studies,
postcolonial studies, Asian American and diaspora studies, and theories of
ethnicity and race. While Sinophone studies promises a countermeasure
against the China-centric and Han-centric genealogy of Chinese literary
and cultural discourse, its emphasis on the multiplicity of, and hierarchy
among, sounds and scripts points further to other questions yet to be
fully addressed but of equal polemic intensity. Examples include but are
not limited to the following:

 
In what ways can Sinophone studies equip the non-Sinophone, non-Chinese,
and non-Han with the necessary theoretical and analytic tools to
articulate cultural affinities beyond Sinitic-language written texts?

How can Sinophone studies accommodate articulations of mixed-race
identities or effectively borrow from Western theories of race to
reconceptualize and even intercept the term ethnicity (minzu, or
nationality) as has been predominantly used in mainland China and Taiwan?

How can Sinophone studies be theoretically useful for, or enriched by, the
studies of long-term ethnolinguistic transformation among the Chinese
diaspora, such as the use of pidgin and creole often found in formerly
colonized societies or among trading communities?

In a similar vein, how can one discuss Sinophone studies in contexts where
Sinitic languages are waning and where translation is needed? Where does
Sinophone studies intersect with writings about Chinese in English or
other languages?

 
PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

 
Friday, March 21, 11AM-12:50PM
SOUNDS & IMAGES IN FILM & POP MUSIC
 

Lunpeng Ma (College of William and Mary)
Sinophonic Image and Sound in Hualian Harbor
 

E.K. Tan (Stony Brook Univ.)
Sinopop: Multilingual Genre, Interethnic Relations and National Identity
in Namewee’s Popular Music
 

Michelle Bloom (U of California Riverside)
From the Sinophone and the Francophone to the Sino-French
 

Commentator: Andrea Bachner (Cornell)
 

Saturday, March 22, 11AM-12:50PM

DESCENT & DISSENT IN CHINESE AMERICA
 

Emma Jinhua Teng (MIT)
Expanding the Horizons of “Chinese” Studies through Critical Mixed Race
 

Sharon Tang-Quan (Westmont College)
Cultural Capital Post-Tiananmen Square: The Transnational Sensibility of
Cultural Difference in Wang Ping’s Poetics
 

Commentator: Tzu-hui Celina Hung (NYU Shanghai)
 

Sunday, March 23, 11AM-12:50PM
WRITING ACROSS LANDS AND SEAS
 

Julian Suddaby (New York U)
The Literary Potential of Childhood: Lao She's "Little Po's Birthday" and
the novels of May Sinclair
 

Guanchang Qian (Harvard U)
Modern "Far Roaming (Yuanyou)": The Trials and Travels of a 20th Century
Taiwanese Female Icon Sanmao
 

*Commentator: Shu-mei Shih (HKU/UCLA)