Exploring Chinese literature, culture through Marxism, immigrants and fashion

In line with its commitment to advance Chinese language and culture education, Arizona State University’s Confucius Institute and the School of International Letters and Cultures will be hosting a series of free public talks by Wang Xiaolu, professor of Chinese Literature and Cultural Criticism at Sichuan University in China, Feb. 20, 21 and 25.

The talks, titled “From Authentic Marxism to Western Marxism: The Culture of Literary Studies in Mainland China” and “20世纪作为中国时尚与观念形态 (Fashion as Conception History During the 20th Century China)” will be hosted at 11:30 a.m., Feb. 20 and 9:30 a.m., Feb. 25, respectively, inside the G. Homer Durham Languages room 165 at the Tempe campus.

“I hope that the discussion helps students and attendees better understand the current cultural situation in China from a different perspective,” said Wang.

The talk at 4:30 p.m., Feb. 21, is set to take place in LL room 2. Titled “鬼·洋鬼子·老外——中国西方观的演进" ("The Changing Concepts of Foreigners in China"), the discussion will be an opportunity for the ASU Confucius Institute to engage with Chinese students at ASU and the Chinese community in Arizona.

“The range of topics for professor Wang’s talks reflects the diversity of the ASU Confucius Institute’s programming,” said Madeline K. Spring, director of the Confucius Institute and the Chinese Flagship Program at ASU. “Chinese culture is much deeper than merely red lanterns and lion dances, and we want audiences to gain an enhanced understanding and appreciation of a range of issues that are part of China’s rich traditions and remarkable complexity.”

“In the first talk, I hope to demonstrate that the academic culture within mainland China has been under transformation with diversified sources toward its modernity in both social sciences, and the humanities,” Wang said. “The talk on Feb. 21 will touch upon the changing Chinese cultural attitude to the outside world, while the third discussion will cover the changing conception among the Chinese by focusing on some historical events and social trends since the early 20th century.”

Wang is a professor of Chinese Literature and Cultural Criticism at Sichuan University in China. He also serves as academic director of Center for American Studies and chair of Professorship Committee at the College of Overseas Education at Sichuan University, and served as an adjunct faculty professor at ASU in 2007.

He has been a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, the University of Chicago, Duke University and Ghent University, Belgium. In addition, he was a visiting scholar at Soochow University of Taipei, Chinese University, City University and Baptist University in Hong Kong. His academic interests cover the fields of cultural criticism, literary theory and cross-cultural studies.

For more information regarding the talks and location, click here.