We regret to inform you that the following seminar has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Please accept our apologies.
| Date | : | 9 March 2018 (Friday) |
| Time | : | 3:30pm – 5:30pm |
| Venue | : | B3-LP-05, Tai Po Campus |
| Medium | : | English |
Since the 19th Century, our modes of thought and knowledge, in Africa, Asia and Latin America, have been shaped by imperial and colonial encounters. For critical intellectuals in particular, the historical sources of thought (practices, institutions, worldviews/cosmologies, etc) have become untouchable. The desire to be “modern” has generated self-hatred, made us look down on our own peasant-centered family/clan histories and popular faith, as if these were superstitions to be abandoned and relegated into the garbage can of history. However, at the present conjuncture of global transformations, as Marx would have it, the ghosts have begun to resurface, becoming twilights of hope guiding us on our path of uncertainties. This presentation attempts to reclaim the past as systems of reference via “personal” trajectories of re/discovering ancestral stories contiguous with world history. Tang Sanzang 唐三藏 (602-664; Xuanzang 玄奘 or Chen Hui 陳禕), the main protagonist of Journey to the West 《西遊記》, who, according to Prof. Tan Chung 譚中, invented the term “India” and the term “China” was coined by an Indian monk, has turned out to be my ancestor. What I have done in the past 30 years or so is merely an extension of what he had decisively opened up. This “re/turn” is not a nostalgia (which is also legitimate) but a possibility to reground ourselves to imagine that “another world is possible.” This is one of the leftover tasks of intellectual work today.
Bio
Professor Chen is the founding chair of Taiwan’s Cultural Studies Association and founding member of the Association for Cultural Studies and Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society (and its Consortium). He is a core member of the Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies, he has been a co-editor of the journal, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies: Movements (2000-) and Renjian Thought Review (mandarin Chinese; 2010-). A writer, editor, reporter, cultural organizer, curator, karaoke singer, and iPhone photographer, he is a Tibetan Buddhist.
All are welcome to join the seminar and no registration is required. Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Mr. Manni Cheung at 2948 7360 or via email cheungml@eduhk.hk. For other information regarding Professor Chen’s visit at EdUHK during 6 – 10 March 2018, please contact Ms. Emily Mang at 2948 6142 or via email ewlmang@eduhk.hk.
We look forward to seeing you there!