Institut für Sinologie Popular Cultures Research Group
Introduction
Founded in 2005, the Popular Cultures Research Group consists of doctoral and postdoctoral students at the Institute of Chinese Studies and the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies interested in questions of everyday and popular experiences in the sinophone world—both in the past and in the present.
Former members have worked on a vast range of different topics from propaganda posters to plagiarism and advertisements in the 19th and early 20th century, from the only seemingly clearcut institutional history of an early leftist Chinese film company to the only seemingly clearcut institutional change from rite to law in marriage; from the successful figure of the (single) new woman to the successful figure of the new business(wo)man. They have addressed elite and popular discourses around building large dams and beautiful bodies, they have dealt with game-playing in Japan, and musical practice in Taiwan as well as the world of Chinese AID and law in a divided China; more recently, members have taken up various manifestations of translation: reconfiguring the author as hero in the museum space, reconceptualizing humor in Hong Kong poetry, and censorship in literatures from the mainland. Members have also taken up to learn more about local and gendered media and emotions, about indie films and its audiences as well as the fans of (former) propaganda art, about ecocritical literature and the lives and deaths of animals in urban China. All of these studies are built on the premise that paying attention to a diversity of material evidence in a global context will help rewriting the history of social change and how it is experienced and remembered in modern and contemporary China and Asia more generally.
Former members have worked on a vast range of different topics from propaganda posters to plagiarism and advertisements in the 19th and early 20th century, from the only seemingly clearcut institutional history of an early leftist Chinese film company to the only seemingly clearcut institutional change from rite to law in marriage; from the successful figure of the (single) new woman to the successful figure of the new business(wo)man. They have addressed elite and popular discourses around building large dams and beautiful bodies, they have dealt with game-playing in Japan, and musical practice in Taiwan as well as the world of Chinese AID and law in a divided China; more recently, members have taken up various manifestations of translation: reconfiguring the author as hero in the museum space, reconceptualizing humor in Hong Kong poetry, and censorship in literatures from the mainland. Members have also taken up to learn more about local and gendered media and emotions, about indie films and its audiences as well as the fans of (former) propaganda art, about ecocritical literature and the lives and deaths of animals in urban China. All of these studies are built on the premise that paying attention to a diversity of material evidence in a global context will help rewriting the history of social change and how it is experienced and remembered in modern and contemporary China and Asia more generally.
How? Our definition of popular culture hinges on the apparently popular texts we peruse: newspapers and, encyclopedias, women's magazines, comics, folksongs, legal and political proclamations, commercial films, street signs, literature and blogs, and new media sites, musical performances and advertisements. The question of whether or not these texts actually are popular, in the sense that a great number of people enjoys perusing them or believes in their use, is one we continually pose. Producers of popular texts try precisely to make them popular. The tension between imagined and real popularity of particular texts is one which actually creates/makes these texts. Their success or failure can tell us a lot about society at large at that moment in time. Their success or failure hinges on historical contingencies. It is worthwhile to uncover these.
My ideal students
(M)ein idealer Student (Mann oder Frau) stellt unbequeme Fragen und lernt sie selbst zu beantworten. Wäscht seine Wäsche und kocht selbst (meistert schwierige und leichte Probleme in kreativer Weise). Missversteht die Uni nicht als Supermarkt. Lernt nicht für die Klausur allein. Freut sich auf Semesterferien. Bereitet sich vor – denkt sich was dabei. Ist kein Nein-, erst recht kein Ja-Sager, nur sesshaft, wenn es nicht anders geht. Liest ab und an ein gutes Buch. Liebt sich und seinen Nächsten wie sich selbst (verwehrt anderen nicht das Lesen bestimmter Texte). Weiß das Internet zu schätzen und zu fürchten. Will wissen, nicht sich verkaufen und hat Spaß daran. Weiß, dass man sich manchmal zur Arbeit zwingen muss, manchmal besser spazierengeht als zu arbeiten. Glaubt seinem Verstand, nicht den Rankings von Magazinen.
Table
Chan, Hei Ching (PhD) |
Chen, Nannan |
Floriani, Giuia Pra |
Landa, Sara |
Morel, Lucie (PhD) |
Schumann, Matthias |
Shen, Xueying |
Tang, Peipei (PhD) |
Wang, Yiran (PhD) |
Chang, Xiaojie |
Xie, Jia |
Yip, Suk Man |
Zhang, Haoling |
Zhang, Shimin |
Zhong, Dalu |
PhD and Postdoc Projects
Table
Activities
- Regular reading sessions devoted to theoretical works and member’s work-in-progress
- Organisation of workshops, film screenings and lecture series
- Digital Humanities Projects and Databases, e.g. Early Chinese Women’s Magazines (womag), Early Chinese Periodicals Online ECPO, a Continuous Revolution
Visiting Scholars
- Xiaohong Xiao-Planes, Paris
- Si-yen Fei, University of Pennsylvania
-
Leon Rocha, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
, University of Cambridge
- Joscha Chung, Taipei,
- Aihwa Ong, Berkeley,
- Paola Zamperini, Northwestern
- Christian Henriot, Aix-Marseilles Lyon
- Yeh Wen-hsin, Berkeley
- Jeffrey N Wasserstrom, UC California, Irvine
- Susan Brownell, St. Louis
- Kam Louie, Australian National University
- Louise Edwards, Australian National University
- Paul Pickowicz, UC San Diego
- Perry Link, UC Riverside
- Jie Li, Harvard
