Browsing by Projects - Department "Department of Chinese Language and Literature"

Evidential scholarship (Kaojuxue, 考據學), a discipline centered on textual verification and authentication, flourished in Qing-dynasty China (17th–19th centuries), particularly during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, giving rise to the Qian-Jia Evidential Scholarship 乾嘉考據學 tradition. This intellectual movement later spread to Japan and Korea, dominating East Asian academia for nearly three centuries. Previous studies classify Qian-Jia scholars geographically—e.g., Wu School 吳派 (Hui Dong 惠棟), Wan School 皖派 (Dai Zhen 戴震), and Yangzhou School 揚州學派 (Jiao Xun 焦循). However, such frameworks oversimplify individual contributions and the internal complexity. In response, this project adopts a Sino-Japanese comparative perspective to explore the core characteristics of evidential scholarship.
Jiao Xun (1763–1820) and Yasui Sokken 安井息軒 (1799–1876) represent the pinnacle of mature evidential scholarship, yet their Shangshu 尚書 studies remain understudied. Critiques of the apocryphal Old Text Shangshu 古文尚書 and the forged Kong Zhuan 孔傳 marked the genesis of Qing evidential scholarship, while Shangshu studies mirrored broader trajectories of Qing intellectual history. Consequently, their Shangshu studies have been selected as the focus of this research. This project primarily analyzes research methods and underlying philosophies, aiming to make three breakthroughs:
1. Jiao Xun’s Ambiguous Affiliation. Despite openly admiring Dai Zhen and criticizing Hui Dong’s rigid Han Learning 漢學, Jiao’s Yugong Zhengzhu Shi 禹貢鄭注釋 exclusively upheld Ban Gu 班固, and his Shangshu Bushu 尚書補疏 praised the forged Kong Zhuan. This stance is typical of the Wu School. Crucially, he failed to master the Dai Zhen school’s refined method of “deriving meaning from phonology” 因聲求義.
2. Yasui Sokken’s Hybrid Approach. His Shosetsu Tekiyō 書說摘要 heavily relies on Han scholars and extensively cites Qian-Jia works, irrespective of whether they belong to the Wu or Wan schools. When conflicts arise, he favors Han views—a tendency characteristic of the Wu School. Nonetheless, his scholarship also retains stylistic elements of the Edo tradition.
3. Sino-Japanese Comparative Features. Both scholars share: (1) “Rejecting Song Learning in Favor of Han Learning” 反宋歸漢; (2) “Challenging the Old Text and Exposing the Forged Kong Zhuan” 疑古辨偽; (3) “Evidence-Based Documentary Analysis” 文獻實證. The first two points reflect shared intellectual frameworks, while the third represents evidential scholarship’s most prevalent feature.
However, neither scholar mastered the Wan School’s core method, “deriving meaning from phonology”, which Dai Zhen encapsulated as “Seek rational inference, not rigid adherence” 但宜推求，勿爲株守—termed here “Reason-Based Inference” 理據推求. The essence of this method lies in discerning semantic relationships through phonological systems. This method, alongside cultural and personal factors, distinguishes the internal differences among evidential scholarship schools.
Jiao Xun’s legacy resides in his critical reflection on textual methods and attempts to forge new avenues in Jingxue (經學, Classical Studies), though methodological limitations led to ultimate failure. Although Yasui’s intellectual grasp was less innovative, it did not hinder the further development of evidential scholarship during the Meiji period. The influx of Western knowledge precipitated modern transformations in both countries, yet evidential scholarship successfully integrated with modern disciplines, retaining enduring scholarly relevance.
As an initial phase of broader research on East Asian Shangshu studies, this project will expand to regional comparisons, revealing evidential scholarship’s adaptability across intellectual traditions.

Although there is an increasing number of people learning a second language (L2), it is widely accepted that attainment of native pronunciation is unlikely for post-puberty L2 learners. From a more practical point of view, L2 learners and teachers should focus more on the comprehensibility of L2 speech, rather than the accent. One feature of L2 learning is the lack of sufficient exposure to the L2, even in the immigration setting. Thus, the proposed study will examine the effects of various short-term training paradigms on the enhancement of comprehensibility in immigrants’ L2 Cantonese, in the hope of providing effective training methods for immigrants to compensate for a lack of sufficient exposure.
This proposed study has three aims: (1) test the effects of different training methods on L2 comprehensibility enhancement; (2) systematically examine the effects of different training methods on lexical tone production and perception; and (3) combine both acoustic and perceptual measurements for analysis of L2 Cantonese speech. This study will recruit immigrants with no prior knowledge of Cantonese before arriving in Hong Kong and will prepare different training methods to enhance the comprehensibility of their L2 Cantonese. To investigate the training effects, the participants’ performance of various tasks will be tested before and after training sessions.
As the first attempt to systematically investigate the effects of different training methods on Cantonese tone production and perception, this study will provide insight into training effectiveness and advance our theoretical knowledge of L2 speech learning. Furthermore, the results of this research will also inform language teachers of the optimal training method for Cantonese tones, allowing teachers to revise their syllabi and pedagogies when teaching L2 learners of Cantonese.

This research project aims at studying the introduction and appropriation of Latin American literature in Hong Kong in the 1970s through an analysis of such articles in local newspapers and literary journals. The adaptation of Latin American literature has created numerous important literary works and marks a milestone in the development of both Hong Kong literature and the formation of local identity. It is also an important case study which could illuminate the unique advantage of Hong Kong literature regarding the instantaneousness, sensitivity, and vision of the import of foreign literature. Current studies on the relationship of Latin American and Hong Kong literature mostly focuses on the individual adoption of magical realism of certain modernist and postmodernist writers. However, such reception as a phenomenon and how it begins has not been sufficiently investigated, and could not be done so unless the primary materials on local periodicals are combed through.

Before postcolonialism swept through Hong Kong academia, many local writers had already reflected upon relevant issues such as colonial governance, Chinese nationalism, and localness, sometimes by questioning the dominance of “Western” culture, and instead show great interest in “Third World” culture. Latin American countries attract these local writers’ particular interest because of their anti-colonial nationalist movements and literature experiments at that time. Some Hong Kong writers take the initiative of introducing them to local readers, and in doing so, they also redefined Hong Kong in the world order by imagining themselves among the anti-colonial “Third World”.

This proposed study integrates some methods of the translation studies and translingual practice into periodical studies to approach the research objectives. It will contextualize the introduction of Latin American literature in the local periodicals during the 1970s. It will compare how writers from various political and aesthetic stances understand and appropriate them, including the long-ignored translating forces from leftist writers. It will also examine the translingual practice of how these foreign literatures are transformed and integrated with local literature development. It contributes to various key issues in the study of Hong Kong literature, including the specific features of 1970s Hong Kong literature, cultural identity, postcoloniality, the interaction between local and foreign literature, and the relationship between local and global context. It will serve as an important case in the study of periodicals, Hong Kong literature, and literary translation in Hong Kong.

Nowadays an increasing number of people learn a second language (L2); however, accents are commonly found among late L2 learners, even after years of extensive exposure to the L2. Although there may be different accent sources in an L2, non-nativelikeness in L2 pronunciation is generally regarded as having been influenced from the learner’s first language (L1). At the same time, during the process of L2 acquisition, the learner’s L1 may also exhibit alteration due to influence from the L2, which is defined as L1 attrition. Research into L1 attrition and L2 attainment, however, has gone in two separate directions in terms of bilingual language development. Consequently, L1 and L2 interactions remain poorly understood.

Current speech learning models (e.g., Flege & Bohn, 2021) generally suggest a common phonetic/phonological space for L1 and L2 in the bilingual speaker’s mental representation, and they thus assume influences from the L1 to the L2. While some research points to the possibility of bidirectional influences between the L1 and L2 segments, it remains to be explored whether the tonal systems also show interactions of the L1 and L2. This proposed study attempts to associate both L1 attrition and L2 attainment and aims to closely investigate the possible interactions of the L1 and L2 tonal systems in Mandarin-Cantonese bilinguals. As two closely related Chinese dialects, Mandarin and Cantonese are tonal languages, and the differences in their tonal systems provide a natural environment for testing the hypotheses of speech learning models.

To fill the gaps in previous research, this proposed study has four aims: 1) to systematically examine the bidirectional influences between an L1 and an L2 in terms of the tonal system; 2) to test whether Mandarin-Cantonese bilinguals show attrition of the L1 in tone production and perception and whether they can have comparable performance with native speakers in L2 tone production and perception; 3) to combine both acoustic and perceptual measurements for the analysis of read speech and spontaneous speech, which is our methodological contribution; and 4) to probe potential non-linguistic factors that may foster phonetic attrition of a native language and phonetic acquisition of a target language. This study will recruit immigrants who spoke Mandarin as the only Chinese dialect before arriving in Hong Kong and speak fluent Cantonese. Another two groups of participants will include native Mandarin speakers with limited exposure to other Chinese dialects and native Cantonese speakers, both of whom will serve as this study’s control groups. The participants will perform various tasks in two experiments. The first experiment is the production of read and spontaneous speech, the data of which will be assessed acoustically and perceptually. For the perception experiment of lexical tones, the participants will be required to complete an identification task and a same-different discrimination task.

As the first attempt to systematically investigate the interactions of the L1 and L2 tonal systems in bilinguals, this study will provide evidence for or against the postulates of current speech learning models and advance our theoretical knowledge of L1 and L2 interactions. The results from this proposed research will also inform language teachers of the particularly challenging Cantonese tones for Mandarin-speaking learners, allowing the teachers to revise their syllabi and pedagogies when they are teaching Mandarin-speaking learners of Cantonese. Furthermore, this research will provide immediate research opportunities to undergraduate students, better preparing them for their future academic and career development.

The late Qing dynasty is marked by a series of crises that necessitated national salvation and reforms. While most scholarly focus on this period revolves around the responses of intellectuals known throughout the state, there is relatively less attention paid to classical literary works written during this time, particularly poetry and prose from local regions. This project aims to address this gap by conducting a case study on Jiang Fengchen 江逢辰 (1859–1900), a renowned poet, lyricist, and painter born in Huizhou, Guangdong. In 1892, Jiang passed the imperial examination and briefly held an official position in the Ministry of Revenue in Shanxi. Despite his brief tenure as an official, he spent most of his life in his hometown, often considered part of the Lingnan region. Through the study of Jiang’s poems, this project seeks to examine how a local literati shapes and contributes to the cultural landscape of a specific area.
This project aims to contribute in the following three aspects. Firstly, it seeks to demonstrate how Jiang’s work contributes to the creation of a sense of place. By looking at a series of poems about local landmarks, the project aims to examine how Jiang’s discursive expressions contribute to the establishment of a local identity by creating sites imbued with cultural memory. Jiang used multiple imageries to conceptualize each of these sites. Under Jiang’s formulation, the landmarks were no longer scenic spots but sites laden with symbolic meaning that needed to be decoded with respect to social context. Another rhetorical device Jiang employed is writing about the sites visited by the renowned 11th-century literary figure Su Shi 蘇軾 (1037–1101). By drawing attention to this region’s unique cultural heritage, Jiang’s writings on these landmarks create a concrete sense of local identity.
Jiang not only pays homage to Su Shi by visiting the sites Su Shi frequented but also endeavors to emulate Su’s poetic style, composing verses in harmony with Su Shi’s works. This intertextuality warrants closer scrutiny as it sheds light on how Su Shi’s influence resonated among late Qing poets. Traditionally, literary histories have often focused on the Tong-Guang School poets, a group of writers dedicated to blending the beauty of traditional poetic imagination with scholarly learning. Jiang’s poems provide an alternative perspective for understanding late Qing poetry, particularly the prominence of Song poetry in Lingnan. Through the case study of Jiang’s poems, this project aims to recognize the intricate cultural factors contributing to regional poetic trends.
Lastly, Jiang’s poems frequently express admiration for the lifestyle of the Song literati, encompassing an appreciation for paintings, calligraphy, and art. This specific reminiscence of the culture in the Song dynasty is not only a sentiment expressed by him but also a common trend among a group of poets and scholars who interacted with Jiang. Through an investigation of Jiang’s extensive social network, this project aims to examine how the artistic community of poets was reminiscent of the Song dynasty. This project will demonstrate that their collective nostalgia for the Song is a response to the sociopolitical changes of the time.
A case study of Jiang Fengchen is long overdue, with his poetry collection, Jiang Xiaotong yiji, remaining unpublished since its initial release in the 19the century, resulting in a lack of related research to date. To address this gap, the PI is currently engaged in editing and publishing the collection, utilizing the original copy held by the Institute of Oriental Culture at the University of Tokyo. Jiang Xiaotong yiji embodies Lingnan culture, regional characteristics, and historical significance in late Qing China. The project’s findings, to be published in peer-reviewed journals, promise substantial contributions to the study of late Qing Lingnan literature, Chinese literary history, and the emergence of regional culture and identity. These contributions will prove beneficial for institutions teaching courses on literary history and Lingnan culture.

The proposed research takes an innovative and critical approach to the study of print culture and poetics in the Edo period (1603–1867) in Japan. This project will focus on how Selection of Tang Poetry [Tangshi xuan 唐詩選], an anthology of Tang poetry attributed to Li Panlong 李攀龍 (1514–1570, a member of the literati in the Ming dynasty), circulated in Japan in the pre-modern era after being shipped directly from China. Selection of Tang Poetry was one of the most reprinted literary anthologies of the period, and was the topic of zealous discussions by the Ancient Rhetoric School [kobunji gaku 古文辞学] in Japan. The book provided numerous literary models for the contemporary poet to follow, and was regarded as a crucial guidebook at a time when the publishing industries of Japan were flourishing. Through primarily a case study of the circulation of the anthology, this project also seeks to bring together the study of literary criticism, book history, reading history, and print culture. In recent years, East Asian classics written in the Sinitic script have drawn a lot of scholarly attention. Using reprints of Selection of Tang Poetry as a point of departure, this project seeks to introduce a comparative framework and examine how publications in the East Asian cultural sphere-shaped various interpretations of this text. Literary anthologies are one of the most important forms of literary criticism. They shed light on the interaction between elite and popular culture. While established literati often use anthologies to show their poetry preferences, these anthologies enjoy a readership that reaches beyond any single community. Selection of Tang Poetry is an excellent subject for study, since numerous publishers have sought to advocate their own perceptions of poetry through editing. In order to ensure the popularity of their publications, these publishers frequently provided annotations and illustrations when they reprinted the anthology. Thus, in studying the circulation of Selection of Tang Poetry, this project investigates how literary criticism and commercial printing interacted with one another from the 16th to the 18th century. This project will begin by juxtaposing different versions of Selection of Tang Poetry printed in the Edo period. It will shed light on the poetics advocated by various literati and the text of commentaries appropriated by the publishers, as well as how the poetic ideas from different discourses and text resources were manifested in the various reprints of this literary anthology. In addition, this case study will allow us to evaluate the significance of print in both China and Japan, and re-examine any cultural similarities and differences.

This project critically examines the reception of Western science fiction (sci-fi) in 1980s Hong Kong, revealing how it reflected and shaped local cultural identity. It shows that Hong Kong writers were drawn to sci-fi for its critique of imperialism and its ability to create “alternative realities”, which fostered critical dialogue about political and cultural dominance. This interest aligned with emerging ideas of cosmopolitanism. This project employs theories of aesthetic reception, cultural translation and magazine studies to achieve two objectives. First, by analyzing over 200 translations and essays from key Hong Kong literary magazines, the study demonstrates how Western sci-fi was actively integrated into Hong Kong’s literary field, especially how the influential authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick were reinterpreted within the aforementioned context by the translators and editors. Second, the research illustrates how Western sci-fi challenged traditional boundaries between lowbrow and highbrow literature, contributing to the broadening of Hong Kong writers’ cultural vision. Ultimately, the project offers a deeper understanding of how Western genres influenced local literary practices and contributed to the articulation of Hong Kong’s evolving cultural identity during the 1980s.

This proposed study aims to investigate and examine settlement towns built on the north-eastern steppe of Inner Mongolia in Khitan-Liao (907–1125) with a focus on those recorded as ‘Touxia’ (投下). The impact of these settlement towns was felt not only by their contemporary social, political, and economic structures, but by later Chinese dynasties, as well. They had subsequent impact on the governance of diverse ethnicities and the development of agriculture and animal husbandry societies, and on the connections and interactions between China and Eurasia.

However, what were these towns known as Touxia and what does the term actually mean? This remains a mystery today. The term Touxia first appeared in historical records for the Khitan-Liao, followed by historical literature of the Mongolian-Yuan, and then disappeared suddenly from all later historical Chinese documents. Wang Guowei (王國維) first traced the etymology of Touxia in 1923, attracting sustained scholarly interest ever since in China and overseas. After almost a century of study, researchers generally have concluded that residents in Touxia were Han and other agricultural peoples captured in wars by the Khitan royal family and aristocracy, and these settlement towns are believed to be a unique system independent from the local prefecture and county systems of the empire. However, there are many doubts about this conception of Touxia, including its origin, governance, operation, and development, which has made it one of the major outstanding unsettled mysteries of the Khitan-Liao history.

As the main source of data for the study of Khitan-Liao – Liao Shi (遼史), one of the official twenty-four histories of China – is known for its crudeness, simplicity, and errors, the study of Touxia faces a serious lack of information. In particular, due to the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual coexistence across the vast territory of Khitan-Liao, the study of Touxia faces a distinct ethnolinguistic issue, which makes using only the interpretation of Liao Shi especially unreliable. To solve these problems, this proposed research will collect and analyze multi-source data from the perspectives of history, ethnology, linguistics, and archaeology.

To study Touxia, this project will consist of three stages. The first stage is mainly a visit of historical sites and local museums in the area where Touxia were located – eastern Inner Mongolia and western Liaoning today – to collect and inspect data including stele inscriptions, unearthed archaeological material, gazetteers and other historical records. The second stage is the analysis, starting with the comparison and cross-verification of all available data both newly collected and previously concerned or underestimated by other studies. The study will then examine Touxia from its linguistical origin, etymology, and semantics to its physical emergence, population composition, governance structure, and financial and military relations to the central government at different times of the dynasty. On this basis, the third and final stage of the project will organize and present the new material and associated insights into the Khitan-Liao history. Expected outputs include new arguments on the interpretation of Touxia and a conceptual framework of the local political and administrative institutions of Khitan-Liao through the case of Touxia. Based on collected evidence, the study will contribute to discussion of the centralized and decentralized paradigms of the political systems of that time, to systematic study of the political structure and power order of the empire, and to a juxtaposition between Khitan-Liao and its successors – Jurchen-Jin and Mongolian-Yuan. As the emergence of settlement towns in the steppe region was an innovative practice of the nomadic regime, this proposed study will offer new insights not only for the Khistan-Liao, but also for its influence on subsequent dynasties in pre-modern China and Inner Asia. The study will also have theoretical and practical implications for modern times, particularly in providing historical references for the coexistence and governance of diverse ethnic groups, as well as the process of urbanization in societies.

This project will investigate the translation of Third World literature in communist periodicals during the Cold War era in Hong Kong. The research period is set to be from 1948 to 1969 and will cover four periodicals under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the period, including two newspapers, Wen Wei Po (文匯報) and Ta Kung Pao (大公報), and two magazines, Literature Century (文藝世紀, 1957–1969) and Hai Guang Literature (海光文藝, 1966–67). It will be the first of its kind to apprehend the complete scenario of translations in communist periodicals in Hong Kong. It will utilize methodologies of periodical studies, translation studies, world literature studies, as well as knowledge of Hong Kong history and literature to explore the global outlook of communist periodicals and the characteristics of their translation. It aims to recognize their contribution to Hong Kong literature and their production of world literature, while also focusing on the agency of the Hong Kong leftists.
The project will examine how Hong Kong communist periodicals turned to Third World literature in the 1960s. It will establish the differences in translation direction between the 1950s and 1960s. “Third Worldism” arose after the Bandung Conference in 1955, where literary translations among Third World countries were initiated globally. China caught on to this trend and focused on Third World literature in the 1960s. This project will investigate if Hong Kong communist periodicals followed this trend, and if so, how it manifested. The focus will be on whether there were similarities and differences in the translation practices between the communist periodicals in Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and the transnational translation magazines of Afro-Asian Writers’ Bureau (AAWB) and Afro-Asian Writers Association (AAWA), all of which devoted much effort to translating the Third World in the decolonizing postwar world. It will also analyze how Hong Kong communist periodicals constructed a leftist repertoire of world literature as opposed to the right-wing, US-funded literary translation that consisted primarily of Anglo-American and European works. Case studies of Asian and Latin American literature will be identified to explore how the translation manifested Hong Kong’s connection within the region from the cultural network of communism. The “South-South” connection between Hong Kong and the Third World will demonstrate how “minor world literature” was circulated in the Sinophone region, and also contest to Hong Kong’s value as a case study in rising world literature studies.