BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Department of Asian Studies//NONSGML Events//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/ X-WR-CALDESC:Department of Asian Studies - Events BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20211026T0126Z-1635211574.0642-EO-53489-18@10.19.146.15 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTAMP:20240328T220737Z CREATED:20211022T201152Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211022T205019Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20131002T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20131002T210000 SUMMARY: 2013/14 Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lecture: with Professor Pai Hsien- yung DESCRIPTION: The 2013/14 Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lecture with Professor Pai Hsien-yung (University of California\, Santa Barbara) Lecture: Father and the Republic Father and the Republic is a photobiography devoted to the l ife and career of the late General Pai Ch’ung-hsi (Bai Chongxi\; 1893–1966) . General Pai’s career both paralleled and profoundly influenced the histor y of […] X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:
The 2
013/14 Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lecture
with Professo
r Pai Hsien-yung (University of California\, Santa Barbara)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v25CcQhA4rY&list=PLhA05Qf-09xAM Yj1FeIu5pAY05KeBArzN&index=7[/embed]
Father and the Republ ic is a photobiography devoted to the life and career of the late Gener al Pai Ch’ung-hsi (Bai Chongxi\; 1893–1966). General Pai’s career both para lleled and profoundly influenced the history of the Republic of China: As a n eighteen-year-old military cadet in 1911\, he joined a “Dare-to-Die” corp s that marched to Wuhan to take part in the Wuchang Uprising and helped ove rthrow the Qing dynasty (1644–1912)\; in 1928\, as Chiang Kai-shek’s one-ti me Chief of Staff\, General Pai fought his way into Beijing and brought the Northern Expedition to a successful conclusion\; in 1938\, as Commander of the Republic’s armies in northern China\, he gave the Japanese Army\, at t he Battle of Taierzhuang\, what was later called “the worst defeat it had s uffered in modern times”\; and in the winter of 1939\, as commander of forc es in Guangxi\, General Pai was instrumental in wiping out one of Japan’s e lite units.
During the Civil War\, after routing the army led by Lin Biao (1907–71) in 1946\, General Pai argued for the pursuit and destruction of the retreating Communist forces. But\, under the pressure of General Ge orge Marshall\, Chiang Kai-shek ordered a ceasefire\, thus allowing the Com munist Army to recover Manchuria and\, in time\, conquer mainland China. In 1949\, General Pai commanded the Nationalists’ last operational forces on the mainland before withdrawing to Taiwan\, where the Republican government ’s standoff against Communist China continues to this day.
General Pa i was immensely popular in China during the war and was recognized as the m ost brilliant military strategist of his generation\, a distinction exempli fied by his nickname “Little Zhuge” (a reference to the fabled strategist Z huge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period). But his military career was overs hadowed by a long and complicated relationship with Chiang Kai-shek\, who r esented his brilliance and kept him under constant surveillance after the R epublic’s retreat to Taiwan.
Father and the Republic includes nearly six hundred photographs (many appearing in public for the first time ) that serve to illustrate the public career and family life of General Pai from the 1920s to his days in Taiwan. As a witness to the birth of the fir st republic in Asia\, Pai Ch’ung-hsi felt an unwavering sense of loyalty to it and chose to stay on in the Republic’s last foothold in China. General Pai was also a devout Muslim\, and his death in 1966 was honored with a sta te funeral held in accordance with Muslim customs.
Wednesday\
, October 2nd\, 2013
7:00pm-9:00pm (Pacific Time)
Old Au
ditorium\, 6344 Memorial Road\, Vancouver\, BC
Free & open to the public. Registration is now closed.
Sunday\, Septemb
er 29th\, 2013
2:30pm (Pacific Time)
Richmond Public Lib
rary (Brighouse)\, 7700 Minoru Gate\, Richmond
Free & open to the public. Registration is now closed.
Monday\, September 30th\, 20
13
4:00pm (Pacific Time)
Asian Centre Auditorium\, UBC\,
1871 West Mall\, Vancouver
Free & open to the public. Registr ation is now closed.
Thursday\, October 3rd\, 2013
2:30pm (Pacific Tim
e)
Asian Centre Auditorium\, UBC\, 1871 West Mall\, Vancouver
[caption id="attachment_53492" align="alignright" width="176"] Dr. Pai H sien-yung of University of California\, Santa Barbara. [/caption]
< p>About the SpeakerSon of the prominent military ge neral Pai Ch’ung-hsi (Bai Chongxi)\, Pai Hsien-yung grew up in Guilin\, Shanghai\, and Hong Kong during the war years of th e 1930s and 1940s. His family eventually resettled in Taiwan\, where he rec eived the remainder of his early schooling. Pai Hsien-yung is a graduate of the National Taiwan University (1961)\, where he co-founded the literary j ournal Xian dai wen xue (Modern Literature). The journal laun ched the modern literary movement in Taiwan and subsequently had a great im pact on both Hong Kong and China. In 1965\, Pai received a master’s degree in fine arts with a specialization in creative writing from the famed Write r’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. That same year\, he joined the facu lty of the University of California at Santa Barbara\, where he remained ac tive as a teacher\, creative writer\, and scholar until his retirement in 1 994.
Pai Hsien-yung is recognized as one of the most important modern Chinese fiction writers. His works\, comprising several dozen volumes\, in clude short story collections\, novels\, screenplays\, and critical essays\ ; among his more notable works are Taibei ren (Taipei People) \, Nie zi (Crystal Boys)\, Niuyue ke (New Yorkers i>)\, and the stage play You yuan jing meng (Wandering in the Gar den\, Waking from a Dream). His fiction\, set against the backdrop of t he great national dramas and tragedies that mark the history of twentieth-c entury China\, explores\, among other topics\, problems of Chinese identity \, migration and nostalgia\, and sexuality. Ever innovative and daring\, hi s works examine a startling range of subjects and lifestyles\, from the “la st aristocrats” of displaced mainlander Chinese in Taiwan and Manhattan in the 1950s and 1960s to the homosexual youth counterculture of Taipei in the 1980s. His novels and short stories have been adapted into full-length fil ms\, television series\, and stage plays\; and his fiction has been transla ted into English\, French\, German\, Italian\, Dutch\, and Japanese. In add ition to his other creative activities\, Pai Hsien-yung has become a leadin g promoter of the revival of Kunqu opera\, and his own production of the si xteenth-century drama “The Peony Pavilion” has been performed more than two hundred times worldwide\, winning high critical acclaim.
His most re cent endeavor has been the completion of a photobiography of his father\, < i>Fu qin yu Min guo (Father and the Republic)\, which was publis hed simultaneously in Taiwan\, Hong Kong\, and mainland China in 2012. The publication of the book was a major milestone\, which the noted historian D iana Lary has called “a harbinger that a serious reconsideration of China’s history of revolution can be discussed in public… [and that] a clearer und erstanding of modern Chinese history [can be achieved].”
The Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lectures are made possible by the generous support of Messrs. Alex and Chi Shum Watt in honour of their mother\, the late Mrs . Wat\, and her passion for Chinese literature and culture. Please visit th e full lecture list here.
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