In his talk, Lam will give a revisionist history of emotions in Chinese literature and culture centered on the idea of emotion as space – which the Chinese call “emotion-realm” (qingjing) – rather than a state of mind. If The Peony Pavilion (Mudan ting, 1598) is the romantic play par excellence in early modern China, it is not because, as many assume, it celebrates emotion as the innermost essence of a liberated individual. Rather, it ...