Events at Reed

Roy Chan, assistant professor of Chinese literature at the University of Oregon, explains why the relationship between Russia/the Soviet Union and China offers an instructive site for literary examination. What common geopolitical and historical forces motivated both countries’ search for a new literature? How did these literatures’ engagement with Russia and China’s mutual fascination reveal a larger concern about their common place in a new modern world order? Moving on to a specific example, the talk will turn to the depiction of Russians in Zeng Pu’s late-Qing novel Flowers in a Sea of Sin (Nie hai hua), first published shortly after the Russo-Japanese War. Chan will highlight the role of visuality as the central metaphor for modern knowledge. The novel’s depiction of Chinese diplomatic engagements with the Russians emphasize the supposed necessity of an accurate visual knowledge of the world and China’s new place in it. However, the novel cleverly suggests that visuality is not nearly as transparent as assumed—what can be seen carries its own deceptions, and what appears can induce blindness alongside revelation. Chan holds a PhD in comparative literature from University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Russian and comparative literature from the University of Washington. He has taught at the College of William and Mary, and was a Harvard University Fairbank Center An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow in Chinese Studies. Sponsored by the Division of Literature and Languages and the Dean for Institutional Diversity.