This lecture by Prof. Eva Kit Wah Man will start with personal notes before theoretical discussion\, which format confirms her beliefs tha t the real drive to philosophy and art is better to be concrete\, existenti al\, connecting to people\, with emotion and they should address to real li fe issues. This explains her alternative approach in opening this speech wi th the subject “What Does Comparative Philosophy Mean to a Female Chinese S cholar Like Me?”.

Followed by her personal notes \, Prof. Man will share her reflections on Confucian living framework and c omparative philosophy. Life experience brings a much better understanding i n feminist discourses and their conversations with Confucianism\, when she contrasted them from the philosophical level to the social and political le vels. Comparative philosophy is also sensible for doing philosophy for it i s simply a good strategy to consider a wide range of enduring and respected ideas. In this address\, she demonstrates her agreement with the above pre mises from her study approach to the subject\, bodies in China\, using Chin ese philosophy and feminist reflections as frames of reference.

The t heoretical discussion will start from some of the conceptual models that fe minist scholars propose\, which seek to displace Platonic dualism and emanc ipate concepts of the body from Cartesian mechanistic models or metaphors. Prof. Man explores how the Chinese philosophical ideas offered by Confucian s and Daoists may provide an alternative body ontology to the critical prac tices of feminists. She will then share her research on case studies of fem ale aesthetical representations in classical Chinese works such as The Book of Songs and contemporary body art in China. These representation s demonstrate an intertwining relationship among the body\, sexuality\, aes thetics and gendered roles in their social environments. These case studies are also living illustrations of the connections\, dynamics and transforma tions of the homogenous and the heterogenous China.

The lecture is or ganized by the Department of Asian Studies\, and co-sponsored by UBC Centre for Chinese Research.

Date & Time:
Monday\, May 16 | 4:00pm - 5:30pm (PDT)
Location: C. K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research\, Room 120\, 1855 West Mall\, Vancouver
This talk will be presented in English.
Free & open to the public. Registration is required via the form below.

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Guest Speaker

Professor Eva Kit Wah Man is currently the Director of Film Academy and Chair Profes sor in Humanities of Hong Kong Baptist University. She publishes widely in comparative aesthetics\, comparative philosophy\, woman studies\, feminist philosophy\, cultural studies\, art and cultural criticism. She was a Fulbr ight scholar conducted research at the University of California\, Berkeley\ , and was named AMUW Endowed Woman Chair Professor of the 100th Anniversary of Marquette University\, USA. She was awarded Outstanding Contributions t o Public Services by the HKSAR.

Moderator

Professor Alison Bailey is an assistant professor of the Department of Asian Studies\, Universi ty of British Columbia. She researches and teaches pre-modern Chinese liter ature. Her research focuses on aspects of violence and emotions in late imp erial China\, premodern law\, and filial revenge.

Discussant

Professor Sun era Thobani is a professor of the Department of Asian Studies\ , University of British Columbia. Her scholarship is located at the interse ction of the Social Sciences and Humanities. She studies and works on criti cal race\, postcolonial\, transnational and feminist theory\; South Asian w omen’s\, gender and sexuality studies\; representations of Islam and Muslim s in South Asian and Western media\; South Asian Diasporic Films\; Muslim W omen\, Islamophobia and the war on terror\; intersectionality\, social move ments and critical social theory\; colonialism\, indigeneity and racial vio lence\; and globalization\, citizenship and migration.

Should you have any questions\, please contact the Department of Asian Studies at Asian.Studies@ubc.ca.