17 October 2017
When the Past is More Than Just a Scarce Resource: A Reflection on the Ethnography of Space, Place, and Hope in Urban Shanghai
20 October 2017
International Workshop on Urban Ethnography in China: Theory and Practice
In his talk on October 17, Dr. Non Arkaraprasertkul (Senior Lecturer in Urbanism, Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney) discussed the role of "heritage" as a tool in the hands of Shanghai's local residents that helps subvert the classic understanding of gentrification.  Despite modification in the Mao era, the lane houses known as lilong are one of the few surviving parts of Shanghai's semi-colonial legacy and carry significant cultural cache with outsiders. Apart from a bearer of memory, heritage is used by local residents to generate cultural capital and subsequently guard against economic insecurity.

On a separate occasion, Dr. Arkaraprasertkul and other experts from Ethnography, Anthropology and China Studies convened to exchange views on how to theorize and practice urban ethnography in China. The workshop took place on October 20, and featured individual presentations from Dr. Arkaraprasertkul,  Prof. Matthew Gutmann (Brown University),  Prof. Hsuan Ying Huang (CUHK), Prof. Andrew Kipnis (The Australian National University) and Prof. Minhua Ling (CUHK). Prof. Edward Akintola Hubbard (Utrecht University) served as discussant. The workshop aimed at incorporating traditional beliefs and cultural soft power in analysing urban China, and employing an ethnographical lens as a way to enrich the field of contemporary China studies and enhance interdisciplinary contributions.

19 October 2017
'Is Your Daughter Leftover?': Gender Equality and China's Recent History            
Prof. Matthew Gutmann, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Brown International Advanced Research Institutes at Brown University, tackled the much debated term of shengnu (剩女, left-over women). Given the central position that egalitarianism held in the People's Republic of China up until recent decades (婦女能頂半邊天) as well as increasing levels of female educational attainment, Prof. Gutmann attempted to glean whether there is any profound reason for the proliferation of the term and its use even in official publications.