MCLC: ACCL 2015 Conference report, presidency nominations

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ACCL 2015 Conference report, presidency nominations
Dear Colleagues,
I am writing to express my gratitude to many of you who travelled from afar to Fudan University to participate in the ACCL conference last month! The conference report and acknowledgements are included at the end of this message.
We are now inviting interested scholars in Chinese literary, cultural and comparative studies to put their names forward or nominate others for the position of President of ACCL. We will solicit nominees for about two weeks. Once at least two candidates are chosen, we will ask them to produce a brief statement on their plans for holding a conference, probably in the summer of 2017. During the nomination stage, inquires may be sent to me at hmswu at ust.hk. During the election, we will have two scholars (Prof. Michelle Yeh and Prof. Xiaomei Chen) count the votes, so as to ensure the integrity of the process.
The primary task of the president is to organize a major conference on Chinese and Comparative Literature/Culture/Film. Serving as president is a wonderful way to network and contribute some service to the profession.
Thank you very much for your consideration! We look forward to hearing from some of you. Wishing you all a wonderful summer!
Best regards,
Shengqing Wu
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
ACCL’15 Conference Report and Acknowledgements: 
Traveling Text/Image/Media: 
The Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature Conference
Hosted by International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University
Co-sponsored by Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University
Division of Humanities at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
June 18-20, 2015
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Hosted by the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University, the biannual conference of the Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL) was held from June 18-20 at Fudan University in Shanghai. Integrating literary, visual, and historical studies, this conference was centered around the theme of “traveling text/image/media.” Echoing many critical concerns of “traveling theory” put forth in the past decades, we treated “travel” in its literal and metaphorical senses as complex literary and cultural practices, striking across geopolitical, temporal, and media boundaries. We took “travel” as a form of inquiry or method to interrogate and articulate different geopolitical mappings and cultural imaginaries, moving beyond the dualistic division between home and abroad, center and margins in political, cultural and linguistic terms.
With the enthusiastic response to our call for papers last fall, we received 268 paper proposals and accepted approximately half of those submissions, with a total of 150 scholars participating in the conference. In addition to North America and mainland China, there were also scholars from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, India, Singapore and many European countries (Britain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Italy, Israel, Switzerland and Sweden). A good number of recent PhDs and advanced graduate students presented their research, an extremely encouraging sign for our field. Topics presented ranged from “Pushing the Limits of Enlightenment,” “Chinese Novels in the Cross-Cultural Context,” “Chinese Mediascapes,” thematic and textual travel, and translation across time and space, to gender issues, ecology, and illness in the Chinese-language films and other contemporary social medias.
In addition to the sets of three concurrent panels for three full days, Michelle Yeh, Paolo Santangelo, David Der-wei Wang and Longxi Zhang gave the ACCL lectures to engage with such topics as Xia Yu’s poetics, the issue of emotion, Chinese literary theory, and translation and world literature. One documentary film event, attended by the film director Zhou Hao, and panelists Lv Xinyu, Yingjin Zhang, Yomi Braester and Carlos Rojas, offered a lively discussion on documentary films and contemporary Chinese politics. An engaging evening with translators (Dai Congrong, Andrea Lingenfelter, Eleanor Goodman, and Canaan Morse), editors (Qin Jiang Higley and Peng Lun) and host Ted Huters, was filled with beautiful readings, insights on translation as an art and Chinese literature in the global market, and stimulating exchanges among scholars, creative writers and publishers. To conclude the conference, a roundtable discussion brought together Chen Sihe, Ted Huters, Longxi Zhang, Ellen Widmer, Michelle Yeh, Yingjin Zhang, and Sheldon Lu, who offered their considered thoughts on the state of field, as well as providing advice to young scholars entering the field. With our collective efforts and cooperation, the conference went smoothly and we were humbled by the kind words we received.
As the President of ACCL (2013-15), I would like to take advantage of this opportunity to acknowledge the support and tremendous help that I received from institutions and many individuals over the course of the planning and organization of this conference. First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University (http://icscc.fudan.edu.cn/index.php), and in particular, to the directors of the Center, Prof. Jin Guangyao 金光耀, Prof. Chen Yinchi 陈引驰, and Prof. Li Tiangang 李天纲, for their willingness to host our event. This conference was unprecedented in the Center’s history, yet the Center offered invaluable institutional support throughout the process! I want to especially thank Prof. Chen Yinchi, my co-organizer, who is also the Chair of the Department of Chinese Literature at Fudan. He not only graciously accommodated my constant requests in a timely manner, but would also sometimes respond to my dry logistical concerns with cheerful notes written in refined classical Chinese. Dr. Zhang Ke 章可, the person in charge of the daily activities at the Center, patiently responded to my countless requests and changes of plans, showing great collegiality, talent, and cooperation as we worked through all the details. I also want to thank Qian Yu 钱宇and Wang Yingda 王英达 for their great logistical help, patience and skills.
The conference, co-sponsored by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, also received the Research Development Fund offered through the Division of Humanities at HKUST. Over the course of planning the conference, I received a lot of advice and help from many of my colleagues in the field. I am particularly grateful to Profs. Charles Laughlin 罗福林, Ni Zhange 倪湛舸, Jin Wen 金雯, Richard Jean So and Zhong Yurong 钟雨柔 for organizing and taking charge of the three popular seminars. To our esteem senior colleagues who generously agreed to participate in the lecture series and roundtable discussions, I can only offer my greatest appreciation for their unfailing support and trust in me. I also want to thank the following colleagues for their contributions: Christopher Lupke, Charles Laughlin, and Qian Nanxiu 钱南秀, the former presidents of the ACCL who offered valuable advice.
Established in the early 1990s, the ACCL is a professional organization mainly comprised of scholars of Chinese and comparative literature at North American universities. The current membership exceeds 500 people and spans North America, Europe, and different countries in Asia. The main activity is a large biannual conference for scholarly exchange and networking in the field of Chinese literary study. In the recent decade, the conference has frequently taken place in Asia in order to foster communication between scholars across the English and Chinese-speaking worlds. We are now looking forward to our gathering in two years, which will be put together by our soon-to-be elected president.
Respectfully Submitted,
Shengqing Wu
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
by denton.2 at osu.edu on July 14, 2015
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