The defining tunes of the Sinophone community in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were those of the Cantonese opera performed in Chinese theaters. This history has been invisible due to the scarcity of materials about Sinophone community in archives. The sonic imageries were also...
Taiwan has long held a pivotal—if “strategically ambiguous”—position in inter-imperial tensions over global influence and has in recent decades been frequently used to refurbish debates over a “new Cold War.” Situated at the nexus of inter-imperial entanglements, settler-colonial formations, and migrant labor networks, Taiwan’s perpetually...
Ku'er, the Mandarin transliteration of the English word "queer," has a distinctly Taiwanese genealogy, as implied in the homophonic meaning of being "cool." This conference examines the interrelationships between queer studies and Taiwan studies, from placing Taiwanese history and culture on the map of queer...
In this talk, Wen Liu will argue that Asian Americans are not a coherent racial population, but they are made so through the psychological technologies of “racecraft.” These technologies aim to demonstrate the racial elasticity of the Asian American mind, including cultural essentialism, democratic governmentality,...
In his talk, Ian Rowen will highlight how Chinese tourism split Taiwan into “Two Taiwans”—one portrayed as part of China for Chinese tour groups, and the other experienced as the everyday reality of local residents and independent travelers. He will also examine how this dynamic...
Over the past decade, Sinophone studies, which first emerged in the discussions of literature, have garnered significant scholarly interest and have become a burgeoning field of research that transcends disciplinary boundaries. By exploring various Sinitic languages and cultures, “Sinophone” as a critical concept challenges the...