24 May 2021
Distinguished Speakers on Contemporary Greater China Series: Feng Menglong and Ming Short Stories: A comparative approach

Date: 24 May 2021 (Monday)
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:45 pm
Venue: Space4ALL, G/F Library
Language: English
Registration: https://forms.gle/dYbu4qMMLn6A8Bqu5
*This seminar will take place via Zoom
(Meeting link will be sent to successful registrants one day before the public lecture.)

HSUHK students who join the talk will be accorded 1 ECA hour/1 iGPS Unit.

Topic:
Feng Menglong and Ming Short Stories: A comparative approach

Introduction:
Feng Menglong wrote and compiled some 120 short stories near the end of the Ming dynasty – stories which are contemporary with the rise of the European novel, and which compare with the medieval French fabliau and the romance, and which deserve to be as well known as the great masterworks of Chinese literature such as the Hongloumeng (紅樓夢). They present a China in change, between the traditional and the modern, which is shown in their developments in writing; they show a society questioning itself and its values, asserting these and self-criticising them sometimes from the most unexpected quarters. This paper tries to give an advanced introduction to these stories from a comparative position, aligning them with the Shakespeare which they are parallel. It attempts to read the strengths of Chinese culture and its discontents from them.

Speaker:
Professor Jeremy TAMBLING

Professor of SWPS University,
Former Professor of University of Hong Kong and University of Manchester,
Author of several monographs:
Madmen and Other Survivors: Reading Lu Xun’s Fiction (2007);
The Poetry of Dante’s Paradiso (2021)

About Centre for Greater China Studies (CGCS)
CGCS aims to provide a platform to enhance interdisciplinary research concerning Greater China region.