Over three years, Yanfeng Li walked the Qinling-Bashan mountains along the Han River valley, capturing images of fast disappearing rural temples, houses, people and lifestyles. What he saw is recorded in a trilogy called Distant Hills and Ancient Trails. The first volume of the trilogy, Notes from Walking the Qinling Mountains was published in 2017 to public and critical acclaim, and the second, A Search for Goddesses of the Han River, is being edited for publication. Dr. Li will share photos and stories of his unique experiences, and introduce two popular terms in contemporary Chinese creative writing: “walking literature 行走文学” and “onsite-ism 在场主义.”

Speaker:

Yanfeng Li received his MA and Ph.D degrees with a Chinese literature focus from the UH Department of EALL, graduating in 2005. Subsequently, he taught Chinese language at the University of Pennsylvania and Chinese literature at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he also served as Academic Director for the CIEE Shanghai Center. Currently, he is a contracted writer for regional culture studies for the Commercial Press, and a member of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. He started publishing short stories in 1998, while still a graduate student at UH. He has published dozens of short stories and essays in the Shanghai Literature Monthly 上海文学, Literary Weekly 文 学报, Wenhui Daily 文汇报, Jiefang Daily 解放日报, Border Literature 边疆文学, etc. A short story Belle and Grace was published in the fall 2018 issue of Renditions, the well-recognized Chinese literature translation journal of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Co-Sponsors:

Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures

Lu Xun Cultural Foundation (鲁迅文化基金会) based in Shanghai.