Mystical Creatures in Translation and Transformation: Morphing and Animals in Chinese Culture and Media

Date & Time:
July 15, 2026 |10:00-18:00
July 16, 2026 | 9:30-11:30

Venue:
July 15, 2026 |LT4, Cheng Yu Tung Building, CUHK
July 16, 2026 |209A, Cheng Yu Tung Building, CUHK

Co-convenors: Prof. Jia Tan & Prof. Sophie Ling-chia Wei

July 15 Day 1

Opening Remarks and Group Photo

Panel 1: Mystical Creatures

1. Title: From Tortoise to Cross: Translating Kouei 龜 as a Mystical Creature in Jesuit Figurist Exegesis
Speaker: Sophie Ling-chia Wei, Chinese University of Hong Kong
2. Title: Re-assessing Chinese Knowledge of “the Handy Works of God”: S. Wells Williams’ Translation of Siling 四灵 in the “Notice of Natural History” Series
Speaker: Siyang Shuai, East China Normal University
3. Title: From Flying Dragon 飛龍 to the Winged Dragon: Dragons, Monsters, and Natural History in Jesuit Cartography from Ricci to Verbiest
Speaker: Fangyi Cheng, Sun Yat-sen University
4. Title: Lions with Flowery Balls: Translations and Transformations of a Sichuanese Vernacular Embroidery Motif
Speaker: Cory Willmott, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Panel 2: Digital Animals

1. Title: The Queer Animal: Sexuality and Species in Chinese Animation
Speaker: Daisy Du, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2. Title: Mischievous Monkeys and Eternal Snakes: Mystical Creatures in Translation and Transformation
Speaker: Liang Luo, George Mason University
3. Title:The Monkey that Raps and Rocks: AI Wukong and Translingual Practice in the Digital Age
Speaker: Kiu-wai Chu, Nanyang Technological University

Panel 3: Animality and Fantasy

1. Title: Enchanted Animals on the Digital Screens: Rethinking yao in Chinese Fantasy Media (fox)
Speaker: Jia Tan, Chinese University of Hong Kong
2. Title: Spider-Woman Archetype, Myth, Goddess: Nüwa
Speaker: Zhange Ni, Virginia Tech
3. Title: Return My Rhinoceros!: Meditative Translation of Eco-Grief and the Transformation of the Human Subject through Gong’an Practice
Speaker: Chia-ju Chang, Brooklyn College, CUNY

July 16 Day 2

Panel 4 Ecology, Elements, and Animals

1. Title: Interspecies Fabulation: Reimagining Extinction with the Formosan Clouded Leopard
Speaker: Dingru Huang, University of Minnesota
2. Title: Chinese Shuihu (Water Tiger) in the Making of the Kappa (River Boy) Legend in Edo Japan
Speaker: Benjamin Wai‑ming Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong
3. Title: From Tiger to Shark: The Marine Folklore on Animal Inter-Transformation in Late Imperial South China
Speaker: Richard Yu-Cheng Shih, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Co-organisers: Department of Translation, CUHK; Centre for Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK

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