csgchku Past Events

An Ecology of Migrant Life

SPEAKER: Arina Rotaru, Lecturer, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU
MODERATOR: Daniel Elam, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU

This presentation discusses the aesthetic potential of artistic experiments emerging in the diaspora and some ways in which they can be tied to an ecology. I position ecology in relation not only to the environment but also to contemporary racialization. The focus of my inquiry lies in the theoretical and performative concept of migritude, which designates migrant strategies of living in the metropolis rather than returning to one’s homeland. Initially applied in a Francophone context, migritude has also taken shape in narrative performance across national borders. I apply the possibility associated with this concept to a discussion of the work of Afro-German author Olumide Popoola, especially through a reading of her account of the refugees of Calais. I then read it in conjunction with a Francophone film on the “jungle camp.”

csgchku Past Events

Outcry and Whisper: An Online Discussion

Outcry and Whisper Trailer

Film Synopsis
Shot over an eight-year period (2007-2015), this documentary film aims to present women’s struggle in the private and public spheres, both in China and Hong Kong. It offers a view into the lives of female factory workers, artists, rights activists, and intellectuals – whom deal with political violence, sexual harassment, online bullying, long-term separation from family, arbitrary treatment by transnational factory, management, and/or poverty in their home villages.

Filmmaker Bibliographies
Huang Wenhai, Director, Cinematographer, Editor
Huang Wenhai (aka: Wen Hai) studied at the Beijing Film Academy and has since 2001 been active as an independent film director. Among his best known films are Floating Dust (2004), Dream Walking (2006), We (2008), and We the Workers (2017).
*Huang Wehnhai was unable to attend the panel

Trish McAdam, Animation Director
Trish McAdam, Filmmaker and Visual Artist, best Know for Snakes and Ladders (1997), Hoodwinked (1998), No Enemies Liu Xiaobo (2012) and Strangers of Kindness (2015). Member of Aosdana (2017). Irish Film Institute Director in Focus 2019.

Zeng Jinyan, Producer, Co-director, Cinematographer, Performing Artist
Zeng Jinyan, scholar, writer, and documentary filmmaker, a HKU alumna, the 2017 Oak Fellow at Colby College, is the 2020 -2022 Outstanding Chinese and Indian Post-doc Fellow at the University of Haifa.’

“Outcry and Whisper”: A conversation between Jinyan Zeng, Trish McAdam, and Gina Marchetti

csgchku Past Events

How Matter Comes to Matter: New Materialism In Ecology and the Arts

Rick Dolphijn, associate professor at Utrecht University, and Lucas van der Velden, director of Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, gave a talk on new materialist philosophy and sonic art installations at the Common Core Lounge on 16 Oct 2019, hosted by Prof. Gray Kochhar-Lindgren who in his introduction quoted John Dewey’s Art as Experience. The title of the talk, “How Matter Comes to Matter,” was itself from an essay by Karen Barad, an American feminist theorist, and Rick began and ended his presentation by quoting Whitman and Nietzsche, with an eye on the big picture of humans in Nature.

Rethinking humanism and the idea of nature, with “relation” as a starting point to map
how matter matters, Rick discussed a wide range of sources (from Spinoza and Michel
Serres to N. David Mermin and Amitav Ghosh) and fields (from chemistry and quantum
physics to feminist and post-racial theories) for a non-dualistic and non-anthropocentric
materialism that might help people imagine technology, nonhuman life forms, and sense
in new ways, to find blind spots, consider the unthinkable, and envision future humanity
with a “response-ability” for contemporary (ecological and capitalist/humanitarian) crises.

Lucas, the other co-speaker, complemented Rick’s theorization by examples of art that showed “the world otherwise.” Lucas introduced a multidimensional project called Dark Ecology (2014-16), which took place near the Norway-Russia border. It involved artists that dealt with sounds to express their ideas, such as Justin Bennett, who produced an artwork at the Kola Superdeep Borehole; Jana Winderen, who recorded multichannel sounds above and under water; and Raviv Ganchrow, who created a land-art sound installation to investigate infrasound and to probe landscape and long-wave vibrations.

During the Q&A section, among other things, Rick contended that literary realism and mainstream modernism had focused too much on the human to welcome other sounds of the imaginary, and that “indigenous knowledge” might embody not only the past, but also the future. Lucas, however, mentioned a new trend of artists interacting with their natural and social surroundings, including an influx of work about walking, and a new sensitivity in the making, which would bring people together in new alliance. In addition, Lucas hoped that academic writing could be more reader-friendly and open-access.

For more information: www.sonicacts.com, https://www.darkecology.net

Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin, New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies (2013)
http://openhumanitiespress.org/books/download/Dolphijn-van-der-Tuin_2013_New-Materialism.pdf

csgchku Past Events

The People I’ve Slept With: A Film Screening and Q&A

Speaker:  Quentin Lee
Moderator: Dr Alvin Wong, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU

“The People I’ve Slept With” (2009) is a sexy romantic comedy about a young promiscuous woman who must find her baby daddy. The movie features an all star Asian American cast such as Karin Anna Cheung (Better Luck Tomorrow), Wilson Cruz (My So-called Life), Archie Kao (Zhou Xun’s ex-husband, CSI), Lynn Chen (Saving Face), Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat) and the legendary James Shigeta (Flower Drum Sung) in his last feature.

About the director:
“The People I’ve Slept With” is Los Angeles based Hong Kong born filmmaker Quentin Lee’s fifth feature that initially played high profile film festivals such as Hawaii, Golden Horse and Sao Paolo before being released theatrically in North America and on Netflix. “The People I’ve Slept With” Is now streaming worldwide via Amazon and Tubi.TV.

Date: Wednesday 22 May 2019

Time: 4-6 PM

Venue: 2.42, 2/F, Sir Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

All are welcome.

For general enquiries, please contact Christine Vicera at viceracn@hku.hk

csgchku Past Events

Finding Kukan: A Film Screening, Commentary and Audience Q&A with Dir. Robin Lung

In the award-winning documentary Finding KUKAN, director Robin Lung investigates the compelling story of Hawaiʻi born Li Ling-Ai, the uncredited producer of KUKAN. KUKAN is a landmark color documentary about World War II China that received an Academy Award in 1942 before becoming “lost” for decades. In Finding KUKAN, Lung discovers a badly damaged print of KUKAN and pieces together the inspirational tale behind Li and her cameraman Rey Scott. Robin Lung will present the full 75-minute documentary Finding KUKAN (in English with Chinese subtitles), speak about her 8-year-long filmmaking journey, and answer questions from the audience.

About Robin Lung:

Robin Lung is a 4th generation Chinese American from Hawaiʻi with an 18-year history of bringing untold minority and womenʻs stories to film. A Stanford University and Hunter College graduate, she became a filmmaker after successful careers in book publishing and higher education. Lung made her directorial debut with Washington Place: Hawai‘i’s First Home, a 30-minute documentary for PBS Hawai‘i about the legacy of Hawaiʻi’s Queen Lili‘uokalani and her personal home. She was the associate producer for the national PBS documentary Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, and producer/director of the feature documentary FindingKUKAN, which was selected to be broadcasted nationally on PBS World’s America ReFramed series and has won multiple awards at film festivals across America.

Date: Monday 20 May 2019

Time: 2:30-4:30pm

Venue: 2.42, 2/F, Sir Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU