ZHAOKUN XIN: Censoring Practice in China [Research Talk]

With the compilation of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries (1772-1783), the Qianlong reign (1735-1796) bore witness to the largest project for book collection in Chinese history. This state-sponsored project imposed wide-ranging censorship on the assembled titles, and more generally subjected cultural productions under the imperial eyes’ intensified scrutiny. Coinciding with the decease of the Qianlong Emperor in 1799, the turn of the nineteenth century was situated at a critical juncture of the lingering aftermath of strengthened censorship in late eighteenth century China and a new reign’s emerging cultural policies. Drawing on recent archival work, this talk will focus on a series of dramatic adaptations of Jin Ping Mei(The Plum in the Golden Vase) produced at the start of the nineteenth century to explore continuities and discontinuities of institutional censoring practice during this transitional period. In the meantime, the talk will further demonstrate the proliferation of literary strategies that navigated the state’s shifting landscape of censorship.

Zhaokun Xin is Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research is rooted in late imperial Chinese literature and draws on the fields of affect and gender studies, ritual theory, and medical humanities. His current project seizes on so-called "negative" emotions to explore the discursive reconfiguration of emotional norms in late imperial Chinese literature. He is also broadly interested in translation studies and Sino-Japanese literary exchanges.

promotes multidisciplinary research, teaching and programming with impact beyond academia, seeking to remedy class, racial, gender, and other inequalities, and to improve mutual understanding in UK-China relations. The MCI is based at the University of Manchester.

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Background visual credits: The New Yorker

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