Feng Guo

Thesis title: Reinventing the Frontier: the Northwest in Modern Chinese Media (1931-1945)

Biography

Background

I am a PhD candidate in Chinese Studies at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. I obtained an MA in Chinese Culture with Distinction and then an MPhil degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before pursuing my PhD at Edinburgh, I worked as Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and then the University of Hong Kong, participating in a wide range of teaching and research projects on Chinese history, literature, and culture. I am working on my PhD project tentatively titled "Reinventing the Frontier: the Northwest in Modern Chinese Mass Media (1931-1945)," which has been awarded grants and scholarships from European Association for Chinese Studies, Lo Chia-luen International Sinology Chair, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation.

Qualifications

PhD candidate, the University of Edinburgh

M.Phil (Modern Chinese Literature), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

M.A. in Chinese Culture (with distinction), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University 

Bachelor of Management, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics

Research summary

I am enthusiastic about exploring the intricate interactions between cultural expressions - especially literature and visual culture - and socio-political changes of modern China. My current research interests lie in two aspects:

1. The "borderland" (bianjiang) in modern and contemporary Chinese cultural landscape

2. Travel writings and spatial narratives within a transnational and transcultural context

In addition, I am also fascinated by literature and popular culture in contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong

Current research interests

Print culture of Republican China; Frontier history of modern China; Travel culture in Sinophone area

Past research interests

My past research focused on the urban imagination in contemporary Taiwanese fiction, Taiwan nativist literature (xiangtu wenxue) in the 1970s, and Hong Kong fiction.

Conference details

  • "The Borderland as the National Landscape: Nature and Animals of the Northwest in Wartime Chinese Paintings." EACS Biennial Conference, Tallinn: Tallinn University, Aug. 27-30 2024.
  • “Redrawing National Landscape: The Northwest in Wartime Chinese Paintings.” “Land in China: the Sixteenth Graduate Seminar on Modern and Contemporary China,” Hong Kong: the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Jan. 4-5 2024.
  • “Reconstructing the Origin of Chinese National Culture: Art-Archaeology and Exhibitions on the Northwest Cultural Relics (1930s-1940s).” “International Young Scholar Workshop on Modern Chinese Literature,” Taipei: National Taiwan University, Dec. 19 2023.
  • "Capturing the 'Internal Others': the Northwest Non-Han Ethnicities in Republican Chinese Photography." BACS, Oxford University, Aug. 31 - Sep. 1 2022.
  • "Tourism, Patriotism, and Transnational Modernity: Nanyang/Southeast Asia in China Traveler during the Republican Period." Literature and the Sea: ACCL Biennial Conference, online/National Taiwan University, June 22-24 2022.
  • “Rediscovering the 'Internal Others': the Northwest Photography in Republican Chinese Media.” Photo Workshop: Photography as Knowledge (Re-)Production in Twentieth-Century East Asia, online/Heidelberg University, Germany, Feb. 17-19 2022.
  • “Wartime Hong Kong in the Writings of Mainland Chinese Intellectuals (1937-1941).” On the Road: The Second International Conference on Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 28-29 2019.

Invited speaker

  • Invited talk, “Redrawing the Frontier: Ethnographical Photography and Landscape Paintings in China’s Northwest during the 1930s-1940s.” Taipei: National Chengchi University, 29 November 2023.

Organiser

Panel organiser: "Visualising the Nation: The Role of Imagery in Modern China's Transformation." EACS Biennial Conference, Tallinn University, Aug. 27-30 2024.

Chinese Studies PhD Work-in-progress Workshop, the University of Edinburgh/Zoom, June 25 2021.

Papers delivered

Publications:

1.  “Taipei Narration from the New Generation of Urban Immigrants: A Study of Zhong Wenyin’s Lonely River and Wu Mingyi’s The Magician on the Skywalk.” Studies in Chinese Literature, issue 47 (2019): 151-179.

DOI： 10.29419/SICL.201902_(47).0005 

2. “‘Chilsu and Mansu’: A Transcultural Film Adaptation of Huang Chunming’s Two Painters,” in Li Rui-teng, ed. Ting Shuo Du Xie Huang Chun-ming. Yilan: Yilan County Cultural Affairs Bureau, 2016.

Translation:

(English to Chinese) 探究創傷、內疚和情感的譜系. Ruth Leys Marlene Goldman, “Navigating the Genealogies of Trauma, Guilt, and Affect: An Interview with Ruth Leys.” International Aesthetics 外國美學 Vol.39 (2023).

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