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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 
Venue: 
FAMES Rooms 8/9
Event date: 
Thursday, 21 November, 2024 - 14:00
Event organiser: 

China Research Seminar Series talk given by Huanyu Yue, Washington University.

On June 2nd, 1927, Wang Guowei mysteriously committed suicide. From 1927 to 1934, Chen Yinke wrote at least five pieces to mourn Wang. The longest piece of which is “Elegy of Mr. Wang Guantang (with Preface),” an epic emulating Wang Guowei’s “Lyric of Preserving Harmony Garden.” This article argues that Chen’s mourning writings should be read as a whole, a holistic approach according to Chen’s own theory of “writing that contains all styles,” which was under German theory’s influence. Chen’s elegiac writings help his readers to understand not only his holistic thinking as “history from the heart” on Wang’s suicide but also his theory of historiography. In essence, Chen’s elegiac writings could be read as hagiographical texts of self-sanctification, which construct Wang Guowei as the martyr of Chinese culture while glorifying Chen himself who inherited Wang’s legacy as a cultural sage.
 

Huanyu Yue is a PhD candidate in the Chinese and Comparative Literature joint degree program at Washington University in St. Louis. He works on poetry and intellectual history from late Qing and Republican period to contemporary China. Huanyu’s most recent published work is the Oxford Bibliographies article “Modern Chinese Poetry,” co-authored with Prof. Shengqing Wu and Song Abel Han.

Contact
Dr Noga Ganany: ng462@cam.ac.uk