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Dienstag
31
MAI

12.30 Uhr

„Enfant Terrible, Minister of Culture, Silent Loner?” Lung Ying-tai in conversation with Barbara Mittler

Lung Ying-tai & Barbara Mittler


Encounters

A Cultural Critic and Global Intellectual Fighting for Civility Across the Taiwan Straits: 10 Questions to Lung Ying-tai “

In 1975 when I went to the US for the first time I went to the library and by chance I got a book about Chinese history. That opened my eyes and I thought ‘Oh my God what I was told before were all lies!’”

Lung Ying-tai remembers how, in the mid-1980s, her father would call her every day, just to make sure that she had not been taken away by government spies – for publishing her controversial column “Wild Fire” in the Taiwan daily China Times. Her essays – criticizing Orwellian conditions in Taiwan: government corruption, human rights violations, punched milk powder and more – would soon be published in book form. They have been considered milestones in the history of democratization – Taiwan remained under martial law until 1987 – and they were also read on Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, in 1989.

Born on Taiwan as daughter of parents from the mainland (Hunan, Mao’s native province), educated in the U.S. and resident of Europe, where she raised her two sons, and Hong Kong, where she “observed the growing pains of that special administrative region,” Lung Ying-tai has developed a distinct voice of cultural criticism that is informed by global perspectives. And she has never stopped calling on those around her (in Europe as well as in China). “Where is your Outrage?” was the title of her first piece, addressing her fellow Chinese citizens, “Please, show me your Civility” would speak to those at the top of the political echelon – Chinese President Hu Jintao, in this case with the closing of Freezing Point magazine in 2006. Her voice continues to be heard, even as she moves into other well-established positions of the Chinese public intellectual – the silent loner practicing solitude (as in her most recent work Walking—Practice of Solitude 走路 (2022)). Her voice (as well as her silence) continues to resonate today, on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, and even if many of her writings are forbidden on the mainland, they circulate, nevertheless, in clandestine copies.

In her interventions, which she also put into action, serving her country by acting as Taiwan’s first minister of culture 2012-14, she connects the private and the public, as in her 2009 documentary novel Big River, Big Sea, the story of a war, the civil war that killed 10 million people and that forced a mass exodus and divided many families across the Taiwan Straits. Her older brother (whom she meets, for the first time in 1985) remains on the mainland while her parents flee, with Chiang Kai-shek, who would reign as a dictator for many decades to come, from the Communist People’s Liberation Army to Taiwan. But her novel is not the story of a particular war, it tells the story of war more generally, one especially pertinent today: the cruelty of it. Lung captures the suffering from the perspective of individuals, ordinary people, families, thus counteracting the propaganda of both sides: “If we continue to be the unthinking cogs in a machine,” she once said, “then how do you know whether these tragic misfortunes would not be repeated.”

In this installment of Encounters, we will thus probe into questions of democracy, civility, and war, and how they can be approached – from a writer’s point of view.

Homepage Veranstaltung

https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/veranstaltungen/encounters.html

Veranstalter

Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS)

Homepage Veranstalter

https://www.cats.uni-heidelberg.de

Kontakt

Dr. Anja Schüler

Anmeldung E-Mail

ahennemann@hca.uni-heidelberg.de

Alle Termine der Veranstaltung '„Encounters” - New Perspectives on Asia, America, and Europe':

Encounters

… is a series of dialogues initiated by the Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS) and the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) at Heidelberg University. The events focus on the relationship between the two superpowers of the twenty-first century – the United States of America and China. With the rapid rise of the People’s Republic in recent decades, this relationship has become increasingly confrontational.

… looks at this new constellation and its consequences for Germany and Europe: How do the European Union and its individual member states position themselves in the conflict between China and the United States? Which social and cultural interactions and processes can we observe in this special bilateral relationship?

… brings prominent Chinese and American artists and authors, activists, representatives from the business community, and public intellectuals to Heidelberg where they engage in conversations with scholars from the HCA and CATS.

… offers a nuanced discussion on a wide range of critical issues of these exceptional bilateral relations, such as environmental and trade policies, technology and innovation, white-collar crime and digital surveillance as well as human rights and freedom of expression.

… thus contributes to an informed exchange among academia and the general public, including the business community, the political sphere, and the media. The critical dialogues of the series constitute part of an informed public debate on one of the most important issues for the future of Germany and Europe.

Dienstag, 30. November 2021, 19.15 Uhr

Transforming U.S.-China conflicts? Common interests and transnational perspectives

• Dr. Cheng Li, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. (USA), John L. Thornton China Center • Prof. Dr. Sebastian Harnisch, Heidelberg University, Institute of Political Science

Dienstag, 25. Januar 2022, 12.30 Uhr

Visions of a new global order - A view from China

• Prof. Dr. Wang Hui, Tsinghua University, Peking (China), Department of Chinese Language and Literature • Dr. Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University, Institute of Chinese Studies

Donnerstag, 07. April 2022, 18.15 Uhr

Die liberale Weltordnung in der Krise? Die EU zwischen den USA, Russland und China

Reinhard Bütikofer (MEP), Florian Böller (TU Kaiserslautern)

Dienstag, 31. Mai 2022, 12.30 Uhr

„Enfant Terrible, Minister of Culture, Silent Loner?” Lung Ying-tai in conversation with Barbara Mittler

Lung Ying-tai & Barbara Mittler

Dienstag, 26. Juli 2022, 20.30 Uhr

Peaceful World, Where Are You? Activism and Art in a Global Context.

Pat To Yan & Barbara Mittler

Dienstag, 18. Oktober 2022, 18.15 Uhr

Rivals or Enemies? The United States, Russia and China

Fiona Hill (Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.) in conversation with Martin Thunert (Heidelberg Center for American Studies)

Dienstag, 14. Februar 2023, 19.00 Uhr

China and the U.S. – Ambition and Frustration in Fragile Societies

Biao Xiang (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle) in conversation with Manfred Berg (HCA)