Date: 28th February 2012 (Tuesday) Time: 6pm Venue: to be confirmed
Shuyun has written about the founding myth of modern China, the testing march for survival of the Communist armies during the mid-1930s. Brought up and inspired by the stories of heroism, suffering and sacrifice, she retraced the route of the trek from the southern mountains of Jinggangshan to the arid hills of Yan'an in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, which became the Communist base during the war against Japanese occupation.
Sun Shuyun has penetratingly and critically explored the myths and stories of this epic historical episode, and interviewed many of the local people and veterans of those experiences, revealing many aspects which paint a more realistic and complicated picture than the officially promoted version of history.
This talk will provide a vivid background for those who are interested in following in the footsteps of the Long March with the next Meridian Society tour, and for all others more generally interested.
Sun Shuyun is the author of several other exploratory books on ancient and modern China: A Year in Tibet, and Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud, which recounts the historical tale of the journey of the Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, who travelled to India and back to bring the Buddhist sutras to China during the 7th Century. Sun Shuyun herself travelled to these places to experience life in Tibet and to explore the territories along the Buddhist sutra road.
Michael Freeman. Tea Horse Road: China's ancient trade road to Tibet.
Date: 13th March 2012 (Tuesday) Time: 7pm Venue: SOAS (Room to be confirmed)
One of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient world, the Tea Horse Road carried a crucial exchange for 15 centuries between China and Tibet. China needed war horses to protect its northern borders, and Tibet could supply them. When the Tibetans discovered tea in the 7th century, it became a staple of their diet, but its origins are in southwest China, and they had to trade for it.
Michael Freeman, author and photographer of many books on southeast Asia ancient culture and peoples, spent two years compiling this visual record of dramatic landscapes, from the tea mountains of southern Yunnan and Sichuan to Tibet and beyond.
Hugo de Burgh: Through a Glass Darkly: China's Media: developments and dilemmas
Professor Hugo de Burgh is the Director of the China Media Centre and Professor of Journalism at Westminster University. After graduating in Chinese Studies and gaining his PhD at SOAS, he taught Chinese history at Edinburgh University.
Hugo de Burgh founded the CMC at Westminster University, and he organises conferences and academic exchanges with students, journalists and acadmics on the media from China. In 2007, Hugo spent 3 months as Visiting Professor at Qinghua University, Beijing.
His publications include 'China, Friend or Foe?' and 'China's Environment and China's Environmental Journalists'.
Iain Robertson. Contemporary Chinese Art: its innovations and extravagances
Iain Roberston is a lecturer in arts policy and management at City University. He is a member of The National Art Collections Fund and Association Internationale des Critique d'Art. He is an adviser to the Asia Art Archive and responsible for information on Asian art developments in London. His recent publication is: A New Art from Emerging Markets and his next publication is Understanding International Art Markets.
Nick Holdstock. The Tree That Bleeds: A Uighur town on the Edge.
Nick Holdstock lived and taught English in a small town, Yining, in Xinjiang Province in far west China during the early 2000s. He stayed there for three and a half years living amongst the local Uighur Moslem and Han Chinese, which he observed with a keen eye and through his camera lens. In July 2009, after his return to Britain, there were demonstrations and clashes between the Uighur and Han populations in the provincial capital of Urumqi, which were harshly suppressed by the authorities. Nick decided to investigate the background and details of these clashes, and went back to Xinjiang in March 2010 to collect information for his book, The Tree That Bleeds.
Julia Lovell. Chinese writers and their impact in the world
Julia Lovell will join others literary experts in discussing the role of Chinese writers from the period of literary renaissance in China (c. 1915-1925), in comparison and connection with the English modernist writers, particularly of the Bloomsbury Group, including Virgina Woolf.
Julia Lovell graduated in Chinese studies from Cambridge University and has written, amongst other books, a Penguin translation of the short stories of the pioneer of the Chinese literary movement, Lu Xun (The Real Story of Ah-Q, and Other Tales of China). Julia is presently teaching at Birkbeck College, and her other books include: The Politics of Cultural Capital: China's Quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature and The Great Wall: China Against the World 1000 BC-AD 2000. Her most recent publication is:The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China.
Dr Li Ruru
Dr Li Ru will be giving a talk on the playwright Cao Yu and the significance of his works in the development of modern Chinese literature.
Li Ruru is the step-daughter of Cao Yu, the great pioneer of modern Chinese drama, author of the famous play, Thunderstorm, 1933. She is an expert in and performer of Beijing Opera.
She is Senior Lecturer at Leeds University, from which she obtained her PhD.
She recently published: The Soul of Beijing Opera: Theatrical Creativity in the Changing World (2010)
She recently organised a series of exhibitions on Cao Yu and his works in various cities in the UK, including SOAS, London.
