Southern Encounters: Nanyang and New Cultural Regionalities in Chinese Studies
This conference brings together papers that rethink how the ‘South’ is conventionally being approached and articulated in Chinese Studies. Bringing a diverse set of southern encounters into dialogue with existing discourses about Nanyang, China’s Southwest and the Sinophone South, this workshop seeks to explore newer ways of conceptualizing cultural regionalities in Chinese Studies.

‘Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative’
Jannis Chen Ji Zhou (Asst. Prof, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

‘An Exotic Turn: The emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema’
Yeo Min Hui (Asst. Prof, Nanyang Technological University)

‘Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman’
Jessica Tan Li Wen (Asst. Prof, Lingnan University)

‘Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South’
Chan Cheow Thia (Asst. Prof, National University of Singapore)

10:30: Panel 1

10:30-10:35: Opening Remarks

10:35-11:00: Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative (Jannis Chen Ji Zhou)

11:00-11:25: An Exotic Turn: The emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema (Yeo Min Hui)

11:25-11:55: Q&A

11:55-13:00: Lunch for speakers only

13:00: Panel 2

13:00-13:25: Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman (Jessica Tan Li Wen)

13:25-13:50: Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South (Chan Cheow Thia)

13:50-14:20: Q&A

14:20-15:00: Roundtable + Closing remarks

15.00: Coffee and cake for speakers and attendees
Date: 6 June 2025, 10:30
Venue: Dickson Poon Building, Canterbury Road OX2 6LU
Venue Details: Kin-ku Cheng Lecture Theatre (lower ground floor)
Speaker: Various Speakers
Organising department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Organiser: Professor Margaret Hillenbrand (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: information@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Margaret Hillenbrand (University of Oxford)
Part of: Visual Culture in Modern and Contemporary China
Booking required?: Required
Booking email: margaret.hillenbrand@chinese.ox.ac.uk
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Clare Orchard