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qUCL 'The Memory Police and the Queer Feminist Writer: Theory, Pedagogy, and Becoming in Hong Kong'

12 October 2022, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm

memory police book cover and photo of Dr Grace Ting

In this in-person talk, Grace En-Yi Ting builds upon a broader understanding of Ogawa’s oeuvre while taking up the novel to reflect upon her own lived experiences of gender, race, and queerness. With respondents comparative literary scholar Dr. Nozomi Uematsu (University of Sheffield), Hong Kong writer Yin Lo and Student Union LGBQ+ Officer Angel Ma.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Institute of Advanced Studies

Location

IAS Forum and online, via Zoom
G17, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT

What might a work of Japanese literature say about Hong Kong? Ogawa Yōko’s The Memory Police is a novel about the disappearance of words, memories, and people on an unnamed island, portraying the disintegration of voices and bodies. While comparisons have been drawn between the novel and Hong Kong today, a queer feminist perspective sheds light upon the relationship between women’s voices and bodies, acts of reading and writing, and what it means to live through the end of the world.

In her talk, Grace En-Yi Ting builds upon a broader understanding of Ogawa’s oeuvre while taking up the novel to reflect upon her own lived experiences of gender, race, and queerness, particularly found in recent engagement with pedagogy in Hong Kong classrooms. If Ogawa’s novel suggests the power of words, what does it mean specifically to “translate” queer women of color feminisms across linguistic and cultural boundaries in difficult times? What are the words that help us carry on, and in what languages do we find them? Moving between English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Cantonese, this talk situates Japanese literature within multilingual spaces of injury and loss, translation and citation in Sinophone and Asian American contexts.

With respondents comparative literary scholar Dr. Nozomi Uematsu (University of Sheffield), Hong Kong writer Yin Lo and Student Union LGBQ+ Officer Angel Ma.

All welcome, free to attend this hybrid event; in person at IAS Forum, G17, South Wing, or via Zoom). Please select the appropriate ticket when registering at https://qucl-memory-police.eventbrite.co.uk and adhere to qUCL's Code of Conduct

About the Speaker

Dr Grace En-Yi Ting

Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at University of Hong Kong

She specializes in queer and feminist approaches to Japanese literature and popular culture. Other work deals with race and gender in the academy and transnational discourses of queerness and translation across Japanese, Sinophone, and Asian American literary contexts. Her recent article “Ekuni Kaori’s Tears in the Night: The Brilliance of Queer Readings for Japanese Literary Studies” (2021) received Honorable Mention for the Kenneth B. Pyle Prize for Best Article in the Journal of Japanese Studies.

More about Dr Grace En-Yi Ting