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Yearly Archives: 2023
Citizenship Lab Research Symposium
On Friday, November 24th, the HRC Citizenship Lab will host a one-day Research Symposium featuring presentations of research conducted by students and faculty affiliated with the Lab. Anyone from the DKU community is welcome to attend.
The symposium will feature three panels: (more…)
Blurring the Color Line
Mark your calendar (Nov 30, 6:15pm, CCT Theater) for an fascinating in-person film screening, Blurring the Color Line, with the award-winning film director, actress, and talk-show host, Crystal Kwok!
See the trailer of Blurring the Color Line
More about Crystal Kwok’s film work
Crystal Kwok holds a PhD in Performance Studies and an advanced Graduate Certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is an award winning filmmaker who established her career in Hong Kong as an actress, writer, director, and controversial talk show host. Her debut feature film, The Mistress, won the Audience Choice Awards at the Deauville Asiatic Film Festival and her Cable TV and RTHK radio talk show pushed boundaries in Hong Kong, addressing socially sensitive topics around sexuality and the body. She has taught courses in Women and Film/Media at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and currently teaches at the University of Hong Kong under the Department of Comparative Literature. Her latest film production, Blurring the Color Line, examines race-relations between the Chinese and Black communities. This documentary was streamed nationally on PBS under America ReFramed and has won multiple awards including Best Documentary at the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival, Courage Award at DisOrient Film Festival, and the Mira Nair Rising Female Filmmaker Award at the Harlem International Film Festival. Through both creative and scholarly work, Crystal is committed to breaking boundaries and amplifying voices of women and marginal communities.
* The event is sponsored by DKU UG Studies, Division of Arts and Humanities, and the Humanities Research Center (Doc Lab + Freedom Lab + co-host Supedeep)
Gender Studies Initiative Calls for Applications for Faculty-Student Research Grants
The Gender Studies Initiative invites applications for spring 2024 funding (up to $500 USD) for new faculty-student research projects on topics related to gender, sexuality, queer theory, and/or feminism. The applications may be submitted either by the faculty member or the student(s) but must involve some sort of faculty-student collaboration. This could entail a collaborative faculty-student project but also includes faculty working with student research assistants and students working on their Signature Work projects with their mentors. (more…)
Intimacy and the Afro-Asian Imaginary during the 1930s
Date: Nov 29, Wed
Time: 5-6PM BJT
Zoom: https://duke.zoom.us/j/3443189585
Freedom lab presents “Intimacy and the Afro-Asian Imaginary during the 1930s” with Dr. Owen Walsh from the University of Aberdeen.
Archives of Black travel in Asia during the1930s testify to the ways that Afro-Asian solidarities were forged through multiple forms of intimacy. Whether in crowded traincars, around dinner tables, or in lovers’ beds, personal and political relations between Black travelers and their Asian hosts were impossible to disentangle. This talk examines the different kinds of intimacy through which Langston Hughes, Juanita Harrison, and Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman became agents of Afro-Asian alliance. It argues that Black narratives and archives of travel proved important spaces for the performance of an Afro-Asian solidarity in opposition to global white supremacy, even as they struggled to operate beyond the Orientalist imaginaries characteristic of that system.
Superdeep #20: “DKU Philosophy ’23” | Thu Nov 23, 6:04pm
6:04pm | Water Pavilion
Come to the Water Pavilion this Thursday, Nov 23 at 6:04pm to spend time with arcane creatures of DKU legend, the likes of which you’d normally only encounter in books, caves, or airports: the Philosophers. Members of DKU’s philosophical community (faculty & students, across Divisions) will share & discuss what we’re are up to & excited about philosophically (…& food & drink). Join us!
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The Workshop is Superdeep‘s venue for philosophical work-in-progress research & practice. For more info or to submit proposals for the Workshop, follow this link; for more info on Superdeep more generally, follow this one.
Superdeep is sponsored by DKU’s Humanities Research Center.
Superdeep Nighthawks: “Philo Night” (DKU Philosophers 2023) | Nov 23, 8:04pm
8:04pm | secret venue
This week the Nighthawks return to one of their original callings: following the philosophers’ convergence in Superdeep #20 we will venture out into the night for a good old time together. Join the Philo Night!
To find out where they’ll be headed (which they may or may not know in advance, quite frankly), find them during Superdeep #20 (6:04~7:42pm) in the Water Pavilion.
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Superdeep Nighthawks meet on Thu eve (~8pm till late). For more info, or to submit proposals for the Nighthawks, follow this link; for info on Superdeep more generally, follow this one.
Superdeep is sponsored by DKU’s Humanities Research Center.
Drawing Lines, Spinning Time: Textile Histories at a River’s End
A research project initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen in collaboration with Feng Haoxin, Liew Xiao Theng, Sun Jiyuan, Wang Ruohan, Xiong Xin, Yan Jiayue, Zeng Yuting, Zhang Tianyu, Zhang Yilin, and Zhou Feiyang
- Community Center East Wing (CCTE)， Duke Kunshan University
- Exhibition: 22 November – 8 December 2023
- Public program: 22 – 24 November 2023
- Organized by: DKUNST Art on Campus
- Supported by: Division of Arts and Humanities | Humanities Research Center, Duke Kunshan University
Drawing Lines, Spinning Time: Textile Histories at a River’s End, traces an over-hundred-year history of the Chinese textile industry and its many extensions since the emergence of industrial capitalism within the Yangtze River Delta region. Initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen, the exhibition and public program draws upon materials gathered over a six-month process of fieldwork, archival research, and workshops organized as part of Duke Kunshan University’s (DKU) DKUNST Art on Campus program and with the participation of DKU undergraduates. The program at DKU follows the first large-scale public presentation of the research at Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai earlier this year.
The exhibition is organized into two sections, each providing a distinctive artistic framework to probe into the historical development of the textile industry in the region. The first, “Drawing Lines”, focuses on material culture and draws upon cartographic and archival methods to trace the networks of labor, technology, and capital that connect the industrial centers of the region to its agrarian peripheries and beyond. The second, “Spinning Time”, centers the embodied experience of labor and its representations by examining films set in textile mills and real-life accounts by retired textile workers. Through the public program, the objects and images on display are further articulated through a curated film program and one-day live program that includes a lecture, guided tour, and a mapping exercise.
The DKUNST Art on Campus program is curated by Prof. Zairong Xiang.
Public Program
Wednesday, 22 November
- 1700 Exhibition opening
- Location: 1F CCTE
- 1900 Screening and discussion: Huang Baomei
- Location: Performance Cafe
A rarely seen gem made by the renowned Third Generation Chinese director Xie Jin, Huang Baomei (1958) is a docudrama based on the real-life experiences of the national model worker of the same name. Set at Shanghai No. 17 Cotton Mill, the film focuses on how the workers collectively resolve the problems posed by their aging machines as they strive for a technical breakthrough. As an exemplar of the genre of “artistic documentary” advocated by Premier Zhou Enlai during the Great Leap Forward, the film is known for its collective scripting process and predominantly female cast of actual cotton mill workers playing themselves.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Qian Zhu.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Mandarin without subtitles.
Thursday, 23 November
- 1900 Screening and Discussion: A Single Spark
- Location: Performance Cafe
A Single Spark (1959) is a Shanghainese opera film based on a violent confrontation between indentured laborers and their managers at the Japanese-owned Naigaiwata Company No. 7 Cotton Mill in 1925. Reflecting the dominant tropes of Chinese socialist cinema of the period, the film follows the trials and tribulations of a villager fighting to extricate her daughter from the despotic system of contract labor as well as the collective action taken by her fellow workers that eventually catalyzed the May Thirtieth Movement.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Kim Gordon.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Shanghainese with Chinese subtitles.
Friday, 24 November
- 1400 Screening and discussion: Red Skirt Popular in the Street
- Location: CCT E1011
Set in the fictitious Shanghai-based Dafeng Cotton Mill, Red Skirt Popular on the Street (1984) follows the story of an enterprising model worker as she navigates the challenges of young adult life, from workplace conflicts to choosing what clothes to wear on her days off. A landmark of the early years of the Reform era, the film shows the growing consumer consciousness among the working class amidst the transition to the market economy, as best observed in the spellbinding array of colors seen in their sartorial choices—a reflection of the fashion trends being introduced into the country through trade fairs and catwalks at the time.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Andrew Field.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Mandarin without subtitles.
- 1630 Guided tour
- Location: 1F CCTE
- 1700 Mapping exercise: Object and Network
- Location: 1F CCTE
Using a selection of objects as its starting point, this student-led cartographic exercise attempts to connect the lines between different objects, people, and sites across the Yangtze River Delta region as a way to visually represent the material networks that constitute the region’s modern textile industry.
- 1730 Discussion moderated by Prof. Zairong Xiang
- Location: 1F CCTE
- 1800 Break and refreshments
- Location: 1F CCTE
- 1900 Lecture: Spinning Time Ho Rui An and Zian Chen
- Location: Performance Cafe
In this lecture, the networked lines of labor, technology, and capital that makeup one river delta region flow into another river delta region as the textile histories along the Yangtze River are woven with those of its southern double: the Pearl River. Drawing upon their research across Shanghai, Nantong, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Ho Rui An and Zian Chen construct a timeline that inquires into the displacements and returns that characterize China’s modern textile history as much as it reflects on the time of history itself.
Drawing Lines, Spinning Time: Textile Histories at a River’s End
Drawing Lines, Spinning Time: Textile Histories at a River’s End
A research project initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen
in collaboration with Feng Haoxin, Liew Xiao Theng, Sun Jiyuan, Wang Ruohan, Xiong Xin, Yan Jiayue, Zeng Yuting, Zhang Tianyu, Zhang Yilin, and Zhou Feiyang
Community Center East Wing (CCTE)
Duke Kunshan University
Exhibition: 22 November – 8 December 2023
Public program: 22 – 24 November 2023
Organized by: DKUNST Art on Campus
Supported by: Division of Arts and Humanities | Humanities Research Center, Duke Kunshan University
Drawing Lines, Spinning Time: Textile Histories at a River’s End, traces an over-hundred-year history of the Chinese textile industry and its many extensions since the emergence of industrial capitalism within the Yangtze River Delta region. Initiated by Ho Rui An and Zian Chen, the exhibition and public program draws upon materials gathered over a six-month process of fieldwork, archival research, and workshops organized as part of Duke Kunshan University’s (DKU) DKUNST Art on Campus program and with the participation of DKU undergraduates. The program at DKU follows the first large-scale public presentation of the research at Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai earlier this year.
The exhibition is organized into two sections, each providing a distinctive artistic framework to probe into the historical development of the textile industry in the region. The first, “Drawing Lines”, focuses on material culture and draws upon cartographic and archival methods to trace the networks of labor, technology, and capital that connect the industrial centers of the region to its agrarian peripheries and beyond. The second, “Spinning Time”, centers the embodied experience of labor and its representations by examining films set in textile mills and real-life accounts by retired textile workers. Through the public program, the objects and images on display are further articulated through a curated film program and one-day live program that includes a lecture, guided tour, and a mapping exercise.
The DKUNST Art on Campus program is curated by Prof. Zairong Xiang.
Public Program
Wednesday, 22 November
1700 Exhibition opening
Location: 1F CCTE
1900 Screening and discussion: Huang Baomei
Location: Performance Cafe
A rarely seen gem made by the renowned Third Generation Chinese director Xie Jin, Huang Baomei (1958) is a docudrama based on the real-life experiences of the national model worker of the same name. Set at Shanghai No. 17 Cotton Mill, the film focuses on how the workers collectively resolve the problems posed by their aging machines as they strive for a technical breakthrough. As an exemplar of the genre of “artistic documentary” advocated by Premier Zhou Enlai during the Great Leap Forward, the film is known for its collective scripting process and predominantly female cast of actual cotton mill workers playing themselves.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Qian Zhu.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Mandarin without subtitles.
Thursday, 23 November
1900 Screening and discussion: A Single Spark
Location: Performance Cafe
A Single Spark (1959) is a Shanghainese opera film based on a violent confrontation between indentured laborers and their managers at the Japanese-owned Naigaiwata Company No. 7 Cotton Mill in 1925. Reflecting the dominant tropes of Chinese socialist cinema of the period, the film follows the trials and tribulations of a villager fighting to extricate her daughter from the despotic system of contract labor as well as the collective action taken by her fellow workers that eventually catalyzed the May Thirtieth Movement.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Kim Gordon.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Shanghainese with Chinese subtitles.
Friday, 24 November
1400 Screening and discussion: Red Skirt Popular in the Street
Location: CCT E1011
Set in the fictitious Shanghai-based Dafeng Cotton Mill, Red Skirt Popular on the Street (1984) follows the story of an enterprising model worker as she navigates the challenges of young adult life, from workplace conflicts to choosing what clothes to wear on her days off. A landmark of the early years of the Reform era, the film shows the growing consumer consciousness among the working class amidst the transition to the market economy, as best observed in the spellbinding array of colors seen in their sartorial choices—a reflection of the fashion trends being introduced into the country through trade fairs and catwalks at the time.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Andrew Field.
Note: Due to the lack of international distribution, the film is only available in Mandarin without subtitles.
1630 Guided tour
Location: 1F CCTE
1700 Mapping exercise: Object and Network
Location: 1F CCTE
Using a selection of objects as its starting point, this student-led cartographic exercise attempts to connect the lines between different objects, people, and sites across the Yangtze River Delta region as a way to visually represent the material networks that constitute the region’s modern textile industry.
1730 Discussion moderated by Prof. Zairong Xiang
Location: 1F CCTE
1800 Break and refreshments
Location: 1F CCTE
1900 Lecture: Spinning Time
Ho Rui An and Zian Chen
Location: Performance Cafe
In this lecture, the networked lines of labor, technology, and capital that make up one river delta region flow into another river delta region as the textile histories along the Yangtze River are woven with those of its southern double: the Pearl River. Drawing upon their research across Shanghai, Nantong, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, Ho Rui An and Zian Chen construct a timeline that inquires into the displacements and returns that characterize China’s modern textile history as much as it reflects on the time of history itself.
Superdeep Nighthawks: “Minari” (“미나리”; Chung 2020) | Nov 16, 8:24pm
IB 1008 (IB Auditorium)
In a bustling week join the Nighthawks for a cineastic meal with Lee Isaac Chung‘s 2020 Minari (미나리; & food & drink). Thu, Nov 9, 8:24pm, IB 1008 (Auditorium).
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Superdeep Nighthawks meet on Thu eve (~8pm till late). For more info, or to submit proposals for the Nighthawks, follow this link; for info on Superdeep more generally, follow this one.
Superdeep is sponsored by DKU’s Humanities Research Center.
Event Report: The Professional Divide Between Writing & Language Studies in the US: History, Epistemology, and Implications for DKU
On Friday Nov. 2nd, the Third Space Lab (TSL) invited Prof. Tyler Carter from the Language and Culture Center to give a talk at the Brown Bag Lunch Talk event.
Dr. Carter provided an overview of the socio-historical development of English writing and foreign language instruction in the U.S with a focus on the development of the process approach to writing instruction, the audio-lingual approach to language instruction, and a series of key historical events in US higher education reform during the 1960’s. This talk was based on his newly published paper “Apples and Oranges: Toward a Comparative Rhetoric of Writing Instruction and Research in the United States” in College English. As an addendum to the talk, Laura Davies from the Language and Culture Center offered her perspectives on the British system of writing and language and the implication for the DKU context.
The event was well received by the audience, including more than 30 faculty, student and staff members of the DKU community. The speakers and the audience engaged in an excellent discussion of how the different developmental trajectories of wiring and language studies across the globe have an impact on the ideologies, pedagogical practices, and professional advancement of faculty in and beyond the DKU context. The event was organized and hosted by Prof. Zhang Xin, assistant professor of Chinese and Intercultural Communication, and co-sponsored by the Humanities Research Center (HRC) and the Language and Culture Center (LCC).
