From Yellow Peril to Yellowface: the Cultural Politics of the Chinese Diaspora in Britain – Oxford, 8/5/17, 5pm

Should you happen to be Oxford this Monday, an event on Chinese in Britain with Anne Witchard and Daniel York….

From Yellow Peril to Yellowface: the Cultural Politics of the Chinese Diaspora in Britain
2017/05/08 Monday 5pm Lecture Theatre 1, China Centre, St Hugh’s College

Starting from this Trinity term, the Oxford Chinese Studies Society will host a series of public events on global Chinese culture, through which we hope to engage more with Chinese cultural workers from all over the world in the fields of literature, film, theatre and more. In this first event in the series, we have invited Chinese-British playwright/actor Daniel York and literary scholar Dr. Anne Witchard to talk about the cultural politics of the Chinese diaspora in Britain. This event will be of interest to those of you who work on East-West relations, race and colonialism, Asian diaspora and identity politics in general. Each speaker will talk for around 15 minutes and we will leave plenty of time for Q & A and discussions.

Dr. Anne Witchard: “The Chinese Girl”’: Sinophilia and the Construction of Modernist Femininities in 1920s London

Anne Witchard is Reader in the Department of English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster. She is one of the leading scholars in the studies of Sino-British connections in modern literature. Her publications include Thomas Burke’s Dark Chinoiserie: Limehouse Nights and the Queer Spell of Chinatown (Ashgate, 2007), Lao She in London (Hong Kong University Press, 2012) and England’s Yellow Peril: Sinophobia and the Great War (Penguin, 2014). She is editor of London Gothic: Place, Space and the Gothic Imagination (with Lawrence Phillips) (Continuum, 2010) and Modernism and British Chinoiserie (Edinburgh University Press, 2015).

Daniel York: Protest and Performance: The Lie of British East Asian Invisibility in the Arts

Daniel York is a successful scriptwriter, director and actor who is passionate about championing equal rights for creative East Asians. His plays and theatre works in London include Song Of Four Seasons, Fake Chinaman In Rehab, The Fu Manchu Complex. As an actor, his feature films include Rogue Trader, The Beach (directed by Danny Boyle) opposite Leonardo Di Caprio and the action film Doom starring The Rock.