Upcoming Events

Online Sinology Fortnightly (2026 Spring)

To celebrate the essence of traditional culture and deepen academic dialogue on campus, the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology has introduced the “Sinology Fortnightly” series. This academic event invites emerging scholars of Chinese and Sinological studies worldwide to collaboratively explore classic texts and share scholarly insights, thereby igniting intellectual creativity and expanding perspectives. At present, the “Sinology Fortnightly” series is primarily conducted online and warmly welcomes enthusiastic participation from peers eager to explore these profound topics.

No registration is required for this lecture series. All are welcome to attend each lecture with the following Zoom meeting details:

https://hkbu.zoom.us/j/97528322208?pwd=XTbKY99dYD7qfHNEFs2ULD4lmvGbDw.1

Meeting ID: 975 2832 2208

Password: 916442

HKBU students: For CCL attendance, please (1) log in Zoom using HKBU email account, with your name as “STUDENT ID NO. + NAME”, and (2) complete and submit the Co‐curricular Learning Evaluation Form after the activity in 3 working days.

Note: A CCL-recognised event must be at least 1 hour long. Please observe the requirements if students wish to update the attendance record.

Below are details of the seminars in the 2026 Spring:

Session 1

2026/3/12 | 10:30–12:00 | Putonghua

Trauma, Transience, and Traversal: Philosophizing on Time through Su Shi’s Huangzhou-Period Literary Works

ZHENG Zemian

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Research Interest: Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, History of Chinese Philosophy

Abstract: During his demoted exile in Huangzhou, Su Shi wrote a number of literary works that explore the experience of time. In order to heal the trauma inflicted by the Crow Terrace Poetry Case, he had to philosophically see through the temporal nature of trauma. Trauma is a dialectic of transience. For a traumatic event to constitute trauma, it must involve a sudden, unforeseen deprivation and, at the same time, leave the victim unable to dispel it. The past is gone, yet it refuses to fade into the past, thus giving rise to a dialectical structure of intertwined contradictions of temporal experience. The young Su Shi was already acutely sensitive to transience. In his writings from Huangzhou, he emphasized the relativity of inner temporal experience, on serendipity, and on those moments of encounter between self and others—moments imbued with a sense of déjà vu, wherein the distances between past, present, and future are traversed. His “First Poetic Exposition on the Red Cliff” was influenced by the Surangama Sutra, while the crane dream in his “Second Poetic Exposition on the Red Cliff” advanced the discussion on transience and eternity in the first one, because it indicates the idea that transience is the repercussion of traversal. This idea can be articulated via the Huayan tenet of interpenetration between past, present, and future, a school Su Shi knew well. This crane dream is comparable to the butterfly dream of Zhuangzi in philosophical depth.

Session 2

2026/3/26 | 15:00–16:00 | Putonghua

Between Seclusion and Withdrawal from Officialdom: The Patriotic Writings and Identity Aspirations of Female Poets in Dynastic Transition Periods

LIU Yihan

Lecturer, School of Humanities, Jinan University

Research Interest: Women’s Literature and Culture in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Late Qing and Republican Literature

Abstract: The Ming–Qing dynastic transition profoundly affected not only the political world of the literati but also the writings and self-understandings of women poets. Scholarship on remnant literature has primarily focused on male loyalists, leaving women’s responses to dynastic change insufficiently explored. This study examines women poets active during the transition period and situates their writings within concrete historical contexts. It identifies three broad identity positions: female loyalists, wives of officials who served the new regime, and women who chose reclusion. Women in these different circumstances expressed their responses to political upheaval in distinct ways. Some continued established moral discourses of loyalty through elegies for the fallen dynasty and writings on chastity. Others conveyed anxiety and ethical conflict within families that accommodated the new rule. Those who withdrew from public life often turned to themes of landscape and everyday experience. These writings show how women engaged with dynastic change through poetic expression despite their exclusion from formal political participation.

Session 3

2026/4/13 | 14:30–16:00 | Putonghua

Capturing the British “Princess”: A Historiographical Inquiry and Knowledge Circulation of the Anne Noble Incident, 1840-1930s

WANG Zewei

PhD, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University

Research Interest: Literature and Culture of the Qing Dynasty, Sino-Western Cultural Exchange in the Qing Dynasty

Abstract: TBC

Session 4

2026/4/30 | TBC | Putonghua

Between Fact and Fiction: Two Approaches in the Studies of the Shanhaijing

LEE Wa Lun Valente           

Lecturer, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Research Interest: Classical Chinese Texts, Chinese Paleography, Early Chinese Mythology and Religions

Abstract: TBC

Session 5

2026/5/11 | 15:00–16:30 | Putonghua

Memories on the Margins: Nanyang Aging Women and the Folk Perspective in Late Qing Classical Fiction

LAN Qian

Senior Research Assistant, Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, Hong Kong Baptist University

Research Interest: Chinese Classical Tales

Abstract: TBC

Session 6

2026/5/27 | TBC | Putonghua

Relocation of Emperors’ Portraits: Storage of Qing Emperors’ Portraits in the Phoenix Building, Mukden Palace

DU Wang

Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Chinese Culture, China National Academy of Arts

Research Interest: Political History of the Qing Dynasty, Historical Philology / Documentary Studies of Ming–Qing History

Abstract: TBC