Join us for a HYBRID event with our visiting scholar, Baiheng Qian, from Sun Yat-sen University in China.
About the Speaker:
Baiheng Qian is a PhD candidate in Classical Chinese Literature at Sun Yat-sen University(Guangzhou), China. Her research interests include Ming-Qing literature and gender studies in late imperial China, with a particular focus on ci poetry of the Ming dynasty.
About the Talk
This talk examines women’s ci (詞)—often translated as “lyric,” a fixed-tone poetic form distinct from modern song lyrics—in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty(1522-1644). By exploring the dynamic interplay of morality and sentiment in women’s ci poems, this talk illuminates how the female poets both responded to and helped shape the cultural transformation of late Ming China. While much scholarly attention has been given to women’s literary creativity during the Ming-Qing transition and the flourishing High Qing(1683-1839), the mid-to-late Ming period was in fact a formative moment when female ci poets first established a sustained presence within the lyric tradition. This era was marked by political stagnation at court, the precarious livelihoods of impoverished scholar-officials, and the rise of an increasingly commercialized urban culture fueled by the influx of silver and the expansion of the marketplace. These conditions fostered both hedonistic indulgence and moral rigor—two poles that defined the cultural landscape of late Ming China. Within this context, women’s ci writing was not merely a vehicle of personal expression but also a reflection of broader cultural tensions: between secular pleasure and moral discipline, and between the private intimacy of the boudoir and the public circulation of print.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free speech and academic freedom are foundational to our university’s missions of discovery and exploration. Questioning ideas, posing alternative opinions and presenting different perspectives is how we create knowledge and help everyone to have more meaningful engagement with the world around them. Hosting an event does not imply or signify the university’s endorsement, sponsorship, approval or disapproval of the views expressed in the event.