China:  In the Pursuit of Happiness
1 December, 2018          
​9:30 am - 11:00 am 
 “If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come”. ​
                                                                                 - Chinese Proverb
​Through popular culture, literature, and film, Dr. Larson investigates the topic of happiness as it was discussed by Chinese citizens and promoted by the state from the 1950's to the present day. In the early history of the People’s Republic of China, there was a strong focus on how and why people should be happy, with many discussions and debates. Post-Mao artists and writers, through their works, have expressed complex views about happiness in the past. We will look at the 1963 debate on happiness in "China Youth", and trace different perspectives and what they mean in the context of Chinese society.  Please come and explore this engaging dialogue. ​​​
About the speaker:  Wendy Larson is Professor Emerita of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Oregon. She received her PhD in Oriental Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. A specialist on modern Chinese literature and film, Prof Larson’s research monographs include From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China (Stanford UP 2009); Women and Writing in Modern China (Stanford UP 1998); and Literary Authority and the Chinese Writer: Ambivalence and Autobiography (Duke UP 1991). Larson translated Wang Meng’s modernist novel Bolshevik Salute (Washington UP 1991), and co-edited two volumes, Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and Cultural Change in Late Imperial and Modern China (Rowman and Littlefield 2005), and Inside Out: Modernism and Postmodernism in Chinese Literary Culture (Aarhus UP 1993). 
For further information on Professor Larson, see here:    https://ebsn.eu/navigation/members/wendy-larson/

​Many thanks to Northwest China Council for their continuing technical support.
​Our educational program series has been developed in collaboration with PSU’s Institute for Asian Studies, and is free and open to the public.​  First Saturday PDX  current full season schedule and descriptions available HERE.  

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