HICCS 2025

Paul Manfredi is Professor of Chinese, Chair of the Languages and Literatures Department, and Chair of Chinese Studies Program at Pacific Lutheran University. He earned his PhD (2001) in East Asian Languages and Cultures and a dual-MA  (1997) in East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature from Indiana University. His research concerns modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture, specifically the relationship between modern and contemporary poetry and visual art. He is the author of Modern Poetry in China: A Visual-Verbal Dynamic (Cambria, 2014), the curator of the Ekphrastic Assimilations international art and poetry project (VALA and Seattle Asian Art Museum, 2016), and the co-editor (with Christopher Lupke) of Chinese Poetic Modernisms (Brill, 2019), as well as numerous articles appearing in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese, and Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art among other publications. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, as well as numerous state and local culture-related organizations.

Title:
Contemporary Literati: Poet-artists in China Today

Abstract:
This presentation will explore the work of a group of poet-artists who are sometimes collectively named the “shipai” 诗派 (“poet’s group”), and who have been regularly exhibiting their visual art works in group shows since around the year 2010. More specifically, I am examining the relationship between this group and some of their classical precedents in the literati tradition. Broadly speaking, the literati tradition continues to find new expression in contemporary China, and the work of these poet-artists is a good case in point. As China grows more culturally influential in the global context going forward, understanding how ancient traditions are reformed and elaborated into more recent aesthetic trends is important. Beyond this, examining this particular group of artists who work in poetic and visual realms helps us to better understand some essential dynamics of Chinese cultural production of the past three decades, specifically in terms of the impact of market capitalism on creative work. Artists featured in this discussion include Yan Li 严力, Mang Ke 芒克, Lv De'an 吕德安, Luo Qing 罗青, Yu Xiang 宇向, Chu Yu 楚雨, and others.