City University of Hong Kong Dep
Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics
Research Seminar
Ban the Poet Lu Xun! Or,
New Epochs of Indignation.
Reflections on the Problem of Law and Memory
Presented by
Prof. Wolfgang Kubin (顧彬)
Department of Chinese Studies, Bonn University
Date: 12 Dec 2007, Wednesday
Time: 4:30pm - 6:00pm
Venue: B7603 (Lift 3, 7/F, Blue Zone), Academic Building, CityU
Abstract
Prof. Kubin’s paper raises the following question: How do we read texts of the past? Do we read them only as historical texts that tell us something about the past or do we read them also in the light of our contemporary situation? I want to answer this question through the example of Lu Xun (1881-1936). Why? Lu Xun is now (partly) being removed from the text books in China and replaced by Jin Yong. This cannot be mere coincidence in the present situation China sees herself confronted with. It seems that certain essays by Lu Xun (and also by Lin Yutang) transgress history and become such current affairs that a close reading seems to reveal that those writers anticipated problems of New China.
Speaker
Kubin, Wolfgang (in Chinese: Gu Bin 顧彬) is Professor of Chinese Studies at Bonn University and works as a translator and a writer, too. In 1985 he was appointed professor of Chinese at Bonn University. At first he worked at the Department of Oriental Languages where he was in charge of the Chinese section. Since 1995 he has been the head of the Department of Chinese Studies. Since 1989 he has been editing the journals Orientierungen. Zeitschrift zur Kultur Asiens and minima sinica. Zeitschrift zum chinesischen Geist. Since 2002 he has been writing and editing the history of Chinese literature Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur, which is intended to comprise ten volumes. Wolfgang Kubin focuses on Chinese literature and the intellectual history of imperial and modern China. For his scholarly and literary work as well as in the field of translation he was awarded several prizes and honorary professorships.
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