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Where have all the villages gone?
Posted on May 22 2015
Venue: University of Edinburgh
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Event Date: 04/06/2015 17:30 - 19:00
In China, “home sweet home” would refer to a village rather than a city. This talk shows that the Chinese village, a source of nostalgia and memory, undergoes decline and rebirth in the midst of China’s pursuit of modernization and urbanization. Whether as a retreat or a depository of traditional values, the village home epitomizes a series of responses to uprooting and destruction.Walking through literary scenarios and film clips, Professor Wang will discuss changing stances and sentiment toward village culture and rural landscape. In literature, nostalgia for home is mixed with a rejection of tradition. On the other hand, depictions of the desolate village are tinged with utopian yearnings for the harmonious home of the Peach Blossom Spring.
The fourth scholar in our Distinguished Lecture Series is Ban Wang, the William Haas Professor in Chinese Studies and a board member of the Confucius Institute at Stanford University.