What Explains the Impact of Popular Chinese Fiction from the Period After the Foundation of the PRC?

Lena Henningsen

Certain fictional texts written during the seventeen years after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and before the Cultural Revolution are seen as influential and popular over time. In her research project presented in this video LENA HENNINGSEN investigates which factors lead to said popularity, which normative elements are contained in the texts and how they are constructed. She explains how descriptions of everyday actions of the protagonists are codes for underlying normative values and thus provide insights about the early years of the PRC.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10078

Researcher

Lena Henningsen is Junior Professor at the Institute of Chinese Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Univerity Freiburg. She received her PhD from Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg where she was a member of the excellency cluster „Asia and Europe in a Global Context“. Henningsen’s research interests are Chinese literature from the 20th and 21st century, popular culture as well as imitation and plagiarism in China. She received a Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange-Grant for excellet female junior researchers with children and won the Young Scholar Award of he European Association of Chinese Studies. She is a member of the Young Academy at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She participates in Fast Track: Excellence and Leadership Skills for Outstanding Women in Science by the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung. Lena Henningsen is Junior Professor at the Institute of Chinese Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-Univerity Freiburg. She received her PhD from Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg where she was a member of the excellency cluster „Asia and Europe in a Global Context“. Henningsen’s research interests are Chinese literature from the 20th and 21st century, popular culture as well as imitation and plagiarism in China. She received a Brigitte-Schlieben-Lange-Grant for excellet female junior researchers with children and won the Young Scholar Award of he European Association of Chinese Studies. She is a member of the Young Academy at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. She participates in Fast Track: Excellence and Leadership Skills for Outstanding Women in Science by the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung.

Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)

Founded in the 15th century, the University of Freiburg has a long-standing reputation of excellence in academic teaching and research. Among the most renowned university members were the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, the economist Walter Eucken, and such Nobel Prize winners as Hans Spemann, Hermann Staudinger, Georg von Hevesy, Friedrich August von Hayek and George Köhler. Today, with its mixture of traditional subjects and modern technology, the University of Freiburg is flourishing more than ever. The university and its hospital employ more than 19,000 staff members. Organized according to the classical model of a comprehensive university, it provides 25,000 students with a broad range of subjects – from applied information technology, the entire spectrum of medical specialities and natural sciences to the fields of humanities and social sciences. Freiburg’s research and teaching policies aim to overcome the barriers between individual disciplines to create opportunities for new perspectives on complex problems. By supporting collaborative research projects across boundaries and implementing centers of knowledge and interdisciplinary graduate colleges, the university provides the disciplines an effective means by which to benefit from each other’s knowledge. An added benefit that comes with such flexibility is an increased international interest for our university: We are pleased to have a significant number of scientists and students from all over the world, whose culture-specific views of scientific procedures and research approaches enrich the dialog with their German counterparts. 16% of the student body are from foreign countries. The general international exchange of scientific results and experiences also plays an important role at the University of Freiburg. More than 300 partner universities and programs on five continents, together with the alumni association, form a first-class international network. (Source: University of Freiburg)

Original Publication

Tastes of Revolution, Change and Love: Codes of Consumption in Fiction from New China

Lena Henningsen

Published in 2015