Title: Chinese Anime: The Junctive Geopolitics of Regional Media 

Speaker: Professor Thomas Lamarre, University of Chicago, USA 

Moderator: Professor Baryon Posadas, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HK

Format: 40-50 minutes’ lecture, followed by around 30 minutes’ Q & A 

Time: 9:30-11am, May 22, 2024 (Wed, Hong Kong Time)

Location: This lecture was changed to Zoom only. Please ignore the physical building and room number in the poster.  

Zoom ID: 953 3208 9304

Password: ACASSHSS

Abstract: 

The very idea of “Chinese anime” raises a geopolitical eyebrow.  What does it mean for a putatively Chinese phenomenon to mesh with the materiality of media forms associated with contents industries that are typically characterized as “Japanese” or “global”?  What exactly is meant by “Chinese” and “anime” anyway?  The phenomenon of Chinese anime encourages a thorough reconsideration not only of forms of animation but also of the geopolitical forms that are summoned when trying to account for the national, regional, and global circulation of contemporary media forms.  Through an inquiry into the modes of production, circulation, and reception of some fairly popular Chinese anime series such as Tong Ling Fei (Psychic Princess, 2018-2019) and Quanzhi Gaoshou (King’s Avatar, 2017; 2020) as well as some decidedly less popular series such as Lixiang jingqu (Evil or Live, 2017), I wish to explore how the phenomenon of Chinese anime forces us to rethink both the materiality of anime and the materiality of its putative Chineseness in a regional and global context.  The inquiry begins with a demonstration of the “junctive” materiality of Chinese anime.  The guiding question is: to what extent does thinking Chinese anime in terms of junctive materiality offer an alternative understanding of the geopolitics of media in East Asia?

Bio:

Thomas Lamarre teaches in the Departments of Cinema and Media Studies and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization at the University of Chicago.  Recent publications include The Anime Ecology (2018) and the translation of Isabelle Stengers’s Making Sense in Common (2023).