Shengyu Wang, Ph.D. Candidate
The Department of Comparative Literature, University of Chicago
Chinese Classical Tales in Picture Books: A Study of Wang Tao (1828-1897)’s Songyin tales in Relation to the Tongwen Press’ Illustrated Editions of Pu Songling (1640-1715)’s Liaozhai zhiyi
Originally a European invention, lithographical printing revolutionized the mechanical reproduction of images in China after it first became widely used for commercial publishing in Shanghai during the 1870s. This paper examines some outstanding examples of late-19th century lithography-printed Chinese classical tales as emblems of a new entertainment-oriented print culture and discusses their fundamental differences, in terms of medium, format, readership, and interpretative framework, from woodblock-printed collections of classical tales produced in an earlier period. Based on my research at the Shanghai library, this paper explores for the first time the correlation between the emergence of a visual tradition associated with the Liaozhai zhiyi and a growing body of texts that were (mis)identified as the Hou Liaozhai (Tales after the Liaozhai), with the aim of proposing a new approach to the study of the last flurry of Liaozhai imitations at the end of the Chinese empire.
All sessions will take place in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center (CWAC) Room 156
Friday 4:30-6:30pm
Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact tingtingxu@uchicago.edu
