Papers by Lijing Peng
International Public History, 2022
My research looks into the revitalization of Miao origin myths in the West Hunan minority ethnic ... more My research looks into the revitalization of Miao origin myths in the West Hunan minority ethnic autonomous prefecture in China. Based on two years of fieldwork and archival studies, I propose that West Hunan people's active perception and interpretation of origin myths and folklore of the Miao people comprise and emphasize counter-curational practices of restructuring historical narratives. By counter-curation I mean a heuristic to organise practices involving curation and counter-narrativization. I argue that these efforts challenge lineal historical narration by providing counter-curational perspectives. Interpretations of myths and folklore over the issue of Miao identity reveal curations and counter-curations carried out by different institutions and individuals out of various political and social concerns. Overall, the recent revitalization of origin stories about the Heavenly Kings and the various presentations of Miao origin myths demonstrate the fluidity of minority ethnic identity, which combines the construction of linear history (military/political expansion and Sinicization) and the construction of mythic history (conveying principles and morality). My case studies can illustrate counter-curational practices carried out by individuals and local cultural institutions, which leads to restructuring of historical narratives and counter-curational interpretations of minority ethnic cultures.
This dissertation explores the social and linguistic contexts of Shen Congwen's literary work... more This dissertation explores the social and linguistic contexts of Shen Congwen's literary works, with a particular focus on (1) the way his works enriched and stratified nationalist ideology/narratives and (2) the linguistic ideologies, the historical images and the literary images registered as semiotic processes which mediated the Hmong identity formation and differentiation in Xiangxi, China. A range of scholars have demonstrated that the modern novel is one of the main tools for propagating the practices and ideologies of standardized language under nationalism. In this dissertation I examine the nature of the nationalist ideologies embodied in the still very young Modern Mandarin literature. Accordingly I have chosen texts in which collisions of different aesthetic and poetic traditions in Chinese history can be readily observed. Through a detailed analysis of literary devices including the juxtaposition of time-space configurations, the interactions of diversified linguisti...
Responsibilty and Language Practices in Place, eds. Laura Siragusa and Jenanne K. Ferguson (Helsinki: University of Helsinki), 2020
"Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s attenuation of language, the French Nobel Prize laureate Gao Xingji... more "Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s attenuation of language, the French Nobel Prize laureate Gao Xingjian has conducted various language experiments in his literary creations in the past two decades. Gao’s literary works, as Diaspora literature, have received extensive attention from European readers due to their Western modernist literary style, the author’s anti-institution attitude, and the classical Chinese aesthetics pursued in his literary creations. As Dafne Accoroni points out in this volume, language is a cultural medium to negotiate value and life choices within the context of diaspora issues. In this chapter, I examine Gao’s literary language from perspectives of linguistic anthropology and explore the chronotopes and language ideologies embedded in Gao Xingjian’s writings. Gao Xingjian has gone on to explore the idea of the self with all the tools and techniques of twentieth century consciousness. he linguistic aspect of his literary creation connects broadly with the fluidity of identities of people in the cultural frontiers that he came across and constructed. he concept of ‘responsibility’ is innate in his literary creation: to faithfully and creatively depict the human condition and the fluidity of identities under a newly established political regime. he complex literary language provides a nexus for understanding place, semiotics and people, while this creative understanding is very much undermined by utilitarian and political human relations."
L. Zhouxiang (ed.), Chinese National Identity in the Age of Globalisation (Singapore: Palgrave MacMillan), 2020
A decade after Benedict Anderson’s scholarship on nationalism became fundamentally influe... more A decade after Benedict Anderson’s scholarship on nationalism became fundamentally influential in humanities studies, Prasenjit Duara brought forward a new perspective on Anderson’s theory using China as a case study.1 Duara considers that ‘Chinese culturalism’, a hybrid of universal- istic beliefs in the civilising effects of culture found in Confucianism, and a sense of ethnically defined community of the Han Chinese, enabled the peoples of China to imagine their community as a totalising one.2 What then for the non-Han communities in China? What political or cultural criteria do they use to recognise their identities?
Drawing on accounts of military activities, educational institutions and trans-regional commercial networks, the nature and changes of Hmong identity recognition is examined in this chapter by analysing the relationship between indigenous communities (mainly the Hmong ethnic group) and the central Imperial and Republic governments. Multipolar ethnic identities have emerged as a result of negotiating with the central government over issues concerning land use, taxation and the quotas of civil service examination degrees. These various forms of nationhood and ethnicity served as an important foundation and a source of continuous influence in the construction of nationalism in Western Hunan in the final years of the Chinese empire and the subsequent Republican period. At the end of the chapter, new approaches adopted by current generation of scholars are also discussed.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 29(3), 417-435., 2019
Modern Mandarin replaced classical Chinese as a literary language in a very short period due to i... more Modern Mandarin replaced classical Chinese as a literary language in a very short period due to institutional efforts. This article is one of the first attempts to use linguistic anthropology methods to study the relationship between literature and nationalism in early twentieth‐century China. Writing genres and styles are examined to uncover the linguistic ideologies that arose in response to the complex language institutions in the modernization of the Chinese language. Shen Congwen presents a unique voice in a time of literary revolution and emergence of modern Chinese language and literature. In his literary works, collisions of different linguistic ideologies and poetic traditions in Chinese history can be readily observed. Using his works as case studies, the complex power relations of literati, rural people, languages and registers, and ethnicity embedded in this era's literature are examined through the concept of “minor literature.”
史林／Historical Review, 2017
摘要] 亚美尼亚延绵了逾十个世纪的手稿制作史展现并塑造了其特殊的宗教和文化传统。现存的中世纪 亚美尼亚手稿是一种需要整体理解的符号体系和观看客体，从各个侧面浓缩了亚美尼亚人集体记忆和身份 建构所... more 摘要] 亚美尼亚延绵了逾十个世纪的手稿制作史展现并塑造了其特殊的宗教和文化传统。现存的中世纪 亚美尼亚手稿是一种需要整体理解的符号体系和观看客体，从各个侧面浓缩了亚美尼亚人集体记忆和身份 建构所需的多重要素。本文将聚焦亚美尼亚手稿插绘中一个重要的主题：福音书中的"手势"语言，并通过 对都柏林比替图书馆馆藏亚美尼亚手稿的细读，将"手"的语言置于解经学和图像史背景中去考量，试图从 一种崭新的视角去解读中世纪亚美尼亚图像传统及其背后独特的宗教文化意识。 [关键词] 中世纪，亚美尼亚手稿，图像学，手势语言，宗教史 [作者简介] 包慧怡(复旦大学外文学院讲师) 彭李菁(爱尔兰国立梅努斯大学人类学博士) 亚美尼亚中世纪手稿因其规模和独特的艺术成就享誉于世。亚美尼亚延绵 了逾十个世纪的手稿制作历史展现并塑造了亚美尼亚特殊的宗教和文化传统。 现存的跨越了十个世纪的亚美尼亚手稿并非单纯记录宗教和艺术的载体，其本 身就是一个需要被观看和整体理解的符号和客体，是有意识的文化造物，其文 本安排、语言使用、图像建构以及选料、颜色等等都从各个侧面浓缩了亚美尼 亚人集体记忆和身份建构所需的各个要素。 由于亚美尼亚特殊的历史和政治地理，亦因其宗教(派别)与邻近的政治 体在各个历史时期都迥然相异，理解亚美尼亚中世纪手稿中的宗教符号对理解 这一文明的建构和边界有重要意义。然而目前在圣像学研究领域，还甚少以亚 美尼亚中世纪手稿为对象的研究，中文语境下亚美尼亚图像学的专题研究更是 近乎空白。本文参考了亚美尼亚历史和社会学领域及亚美尼亚手稿研究领域的 众多权威文献，试图对相关的历史和文化背景进行清晰完整的综述。同时，本 文力图为圣像学领域贡献一例以亚美尼亚中世纪手稿宗教符号为研究对象的案 例。研究者长居或曾长居都柏林，有幸对切斯特•比替图书馆 (Chester Beatty Library) 的中世纪手稿馆藏进行长期和近距离的阅读，因此，下文将以历史文 化综述起始，接以比替图书馆馆藏中具有代表性的亚美尼亚彩绘手抄本(编目 以 CBL Arm 开头的手稿)为对象的案例研究。案例研究力图阐释亚美尼亚中世 纪图像传统中一个极为有趣的主题：彩绘福音书中圣父-圣子"神圣之手"的语 言，以福音书作者为代表的"凡人之手"的语言，以及两种"手语"图像之间的互 动。 一. 亚美尼亚历史、宗教、文化背景综述 亚美尼亚的宗教演化史比一般学者和历史学家所描述的复杂得多。不仅基 督教的传播通过不同的地理路径多点传入，而且历史上与东方诸文化和宗教也 有各种各样的互动。这些文化接触和历史演变往往在亚美尼亚手稿绘画上都有 体现。 阿伽唐格洛(Agathangelos)的著作《亚美尼亚人史》叙述了启蒙者圣格列 高利(Gregory the Illuminator)的生平以及亚美尼亚人皈依基督教的历史。 1 根 据这一著作，国王梯里达底三世(Tiridates III)于公元 301 年受洗为基督徒， 亚美尼亚于 301 年接受基督教为国教，成为世界上第一个以基督教为国家信仰 的国家。大约在 302 年，格列高利被梯里达底三世给予卡托利科斯(Catholicos, καθολικός)称号，任命他担任亚美尼亚的国家教会领袖，并由其友人凯撒利亚 主教利奥提乌斯祝圣为主教，之后此职位的继承者也被称为亚美尼亚宗主教。 2 由格列高利创立的亚美尼亚教会也被以他的名字命名为格列高利教会。后来它 成为一个相信基督一性论的教会。格列高利在传播基督教的同时摧毁了异教神 庙，使彼时文化上极为接近伊朗(波斯)的亚美尼亚与包括伊朗(波斯)在内 的东方世界产生了裂痕。 3 亚美尼亚人同时也保存了关于圣德丢(Thaddeus)在更早的使徒时期自美索不 达米亚的埃德萨(Edessa, Ἔδεσσα)前来向他们传教的记忆。尽管圣格列高利 被认作是促使亚美尼亚皈依基督教的人，德丢与巴多罗买(Bartholomew)在传 统上被视为是最早将基督教传入亚美尼亚的人物，因此亚美尼亚教堂被称作亚 美尼亚使徒教会，他们被奉为亚美尼亚的主保圣人。人们建立了圣德丢修道院 (现位于伊朗北部西阿塞拜疆省)与圣巴多罗买修道院(现位于土耳其东南部 凡湖与伊朗中间的凡城省)纪念他们。 4 这一使徒传统是亚美尼亚教会的根基， 它展示了亚美尼亚教会与一些早期伟大的文明中心，如罗马、亚历山大里亚、 安提阿和君士坦丁堡等等的交流和联系。遵循这一使徒传统的基督教派别与遵 循圣格列高利开创的基督教传统的派别在 7 世纪时相互认可，在如今伊朗西阿 1 Agathangelos 活动于 4 至 5 世纪，该人名可能是托名，原意为"好消息" ，即为亚美尼亚带来基督教这一 好消息，参见 History of St. Gregory and the Conversion of Armenia
Drafts by Lijing Peng
Book Reviews by Lijing Peng
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2020
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2017
Caroline Levine, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network. Princeton: Princeton University Press,... more Caroline Levine, Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. 192 pp. ISBN: 9780691160627.
Teaching Documents by Lijing Peng
The Summer School for Ancient Trans-Himalayan Languages (SSATH), hosted by the Centre for Asian S... more The Summer School for Ancient Trans-Himalayan Languages (SSATH), hosted by the Centre for Asian Studies at Trinity College Dublin, is a two-week long summer school that features courses in four ancient languages from the Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) family, and weekend workshops on three more languages. The morning courses will serve as absolute introductions to Old Tibetan, Tangut, and Classical Newar. In the afternoon, courses with different content geared toward those looking for a more intensive course experience will be available for the three aforementioned languages, with an additional course on Old Chinese excavated documents and historical phonology. These courses will run for ten days over the course of two weeks. On both Saturdays, there will be additional supplementary workshops on Yi, Old Meitei, and Old Burmese. As a general rule, courses will be open to every one of all education levels. However, for some of the intensive courses, some background in Sanskrit or another ancient Asian language would be beneficial. This summer school will be of interest to those in the fields of Historical Linguistics, Descriptive Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Palaeography, Religious Studies, Buddhist Studies, (Asian) History, and Ancient Literature. The instructors will include scholars both from Trinity College Dublin and from other institutions around the world. As such, this summer school will serve as a great opportunity to meet and connect with specialists in the fields mentioned above.
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Papers by Lijing Peng
Drawing on accounts of military activities, educational institutions and trans-regional commercial networks, the nature and changes of Hmong identity recognition is examined in this chapter by analysing the relationship between indigenous communities (mainly the Hmong ethnic group) and the central Imperial and Republic governments. Multipolar ethnic identities have emerged as a result of negotiating with the central government over issues concerning land use, taxation and the quotas of civil service examination degrees. These various forms of nationhood and ethnicity served as an important foundation and a source of continuous influence in the construction of nationalism in Western Hunan in the final years of the Chinese empire and the subsequent Republican period. At the end of the chapter, new approaches adopted by current generation of scholars are also discussed.
Drafts by Lijing Peng
Book Reviews by Lijing Peng
Teaching Documents by Lijing Peng
Drawing on accounts of military activities, educational institutions and trans-regional commercial networks, the nature and changes of Hmong identity recognition is examined in this chapter by analysing the relationship between indigenous communities (mainly the Hmong ethnic group) and the central Imperial and Republic governments. Multipolar ethnic identities have emerged as a result of negotiating with the central government over issues concerning land use, taxation and the quotas of civil service examination degrees. These various forms of nationhood and ethnicity served as an important foundation and a source of continuous influence in the construction of nationalism in Western Hunan in the final years of the Chinese empire and the subsequent Republican period. At the end of the chapter, new approaches adopted by current generation of scholars are also discussed.