Modern sculpture of Du Fu (712-770), Du Fu Cottage, Chengdu

Writers, Critics, and Scholars: The Public Intellectual and Chinese Literature The Biennial Conference of the Association of Chinese & Comparative Literature Tsinghua University, Beijing, June 19-21, 2009

Why study Chinese literature? Can the answer be framed in terms of contributing to public discourse on China? What does Chinese cultural expression have to say to the rest of the world? How can we tell whether a work is directed at an exclusively Chinese or universal audience? If it is Chinese only, does that mean there are no lessons to be learned from it in other cultures? What can translators and scholars offer the global audience from the Chinese experience?

Call for Papers

The next biennial meeting of the ACCL will take place at Tsinghua University in Beijing. This event is jointly sponsored by ACCL and the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua, with support from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Tsinghua University. Conference accommodations and panel sessions will be at the UNIS International Exchange Center, just outside the East Gate of Tsinghua University. Rooms at UNIS will be provided at a discounted rate for conference attendees, and graduate students coming from outside Beijing can apply for financial aid. Daily breakfasts at UNIS, one luncheon and one dinner banquet will be provided free of charge.

The conference theme is Writers, Critics, and Scholars: The Public Intellectual and Chinese Literature. We invite papers and panels from scholars all over the world on this theme or other topics in Chinese and comparative literature. Papers may be given in Chinese or English, preferably Chinese.

This conference offers an opportunity to explore the relationship between literature and public discourse in China. This relationship has many facets (the outline below is not intended to be comprehensive, but to stimulate thought):

• The author (perceived) as a public intellectual endeavoring to effect change through literary creation

  • Traditional (e.g., Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Su Shi, Wang Anshi, Li Qingzhao, Huang Zunxian, Xue Shaohui, Chen Jitong, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao)

  • Modern (e.g., Hu Shi, Gu Hongming, Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Ding Ling, Lin Yutang, Liu Binyan, Su Xiaokang, Yu Qiuyu)

• The aesthetics of artistic social commentary

  • Is the artist's public intellectual role harmful to art? Does it have to be?

  • How can we gauge the social effects of works of literature (premodern or modern)?

  • Reportage literature and other socially engaged artistic forms

  • Since the 1990s, what artistic media still speak to current events and issues? Is literature still one of them? To what degree is this colored by a global audience?

    • Jia Zhangke's films, documentary and independent films

    • Fine arts on the global market

• Authors, critics, and scholars acting as public intellectuals through engagement in social action or (nonartistic) expression through the media

  • Writers' roles in the evolution of modern Chinese society (e.g., Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Ding Ling, Liu Binyan, Bo Yang, Su Xiaokang, Li Ao, Long Yingtai, Gao Xingjian, Yu Qiuyu, Yu Jie, Chen Danqing, Ai Weiwei, Cui Weiping)

  • Ministers of Culture Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Wang Meng

  • Crises and influential works

    • Wang Shiwei, “Wild Lilies,” Ding Ling “Thoughts on March 8” and the Rectification Campaign

    • Liu Binyan, “Between People and Monsters”

  • Newspaper columnists on contemporary culture (e.g., Zou Taofen, Deng Tuo, Ding Wang)

• Scholars of Chinese culture contributing to media discourse on China (within China and across national borders)

We hope through in-depth and detailed discussions we can examine the writer as social/cultural agent of change from new perspectives.

Please submit panel proposals and/or paper abstracts to accl2009@gmail.com.

Work plan:

• October 15, 2008 Call for papers
• December 15, 2008 Deadline for submission of abstracts and/or panel proposals (including panel participants' abstracts)
• January 31, 2009 Letters of acceptance posted
• April 30, 2009 Deadline for confirmation of attendance and paper titles; conference program released
• May 30, 2009 Deadline for submission of revised English and Chinese abstracts
• June 19-21 Conference