JOINT EVENT The Hopkins China Forum and RAS
7.00 pm – Doors Open
7.15 pm – Lecture
8.00 pm – Q&A
8.30 pm – Mixer/Live Jazz
In the last decade China has in an extraordinary way turned itself into an exemplary case of what the French theorist Guy Debord calls the "society of the spectacle", even though Debord's original theorizatuon is almost half-forgotten in today's Anglophine critical inquiry. This talk starts with a radical re-formulation of Debord's thesis on the "spectacular" society from an insightful angle introduced by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Then it offers a detailed analysis of recent Chinese socio-cultural-artistic phenomenon from the "Double-Eleven festival" (shuang shiyi jie), to online dating website "Century Matchmaker " (shiji jiayuan), to the local fashion brand Vancl, with the aim of revealing the political consequences of China's "spectacular turn".
Wu Guanjun is Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics at East China Normal University, one of China’s leading scholars in critical theory and political philosophy, and a key figure in China’s new generation of public intellectuals. He earned his PhD at Monash University, and has made his name in part by introducing and leading high-level Chinese discussions of the works of Slavoj Žižek, Giorgio Agamben and Jacques Lacan. A prolific writer of books, articles and poems, his most recent effort, The Great Dragon Fantasy: A Lacanian Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Thought (2014), has earned praise from leading scholars in China and abroad. In addition to teaching courses in critical theory and political philosophy at ECNU, he has played a leading role in developing and lecturing in the history of Chinese political thought with the ECNU-partnered New York University-Shanghai program. Prior to joining ECNU, he worked closely with the late, distinguished professor, Deng Zhenglai, as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Fudan University.