Our PI, Lena Henningsen, will take part in a roundtable session during this years’ AAS annual conference in Columbus, Ohio.

Titled “On Copying: An Interdisciplinary Conversation”, the roundtable brings together Eugenia Lean, Columbia University; Winnie Wong, University of California, Berkeley; Lena Henningsen, Heidelberg University; Kaijun Chen, Brown University; and Yuan Yi, Concordia University; and is to be chaired by Jacob Eyferth, University of Chicago.

Join the conversation on Friday, March 14, during the 9:00 AM–10:30 AM session at Hyatt, Fayette, 2nd Floor (Panel 2-018)!

Abstract:

The practice of copying, broadly defined, has drawn scholarly interests from an array of disciplines in the China field as China emerges as a powerful economy while at the same time achieving notoriety as the “quintessential copycat.” Instead of holding onto its conventional definition, mostly informed by the contemporary IPR regime, recent scholars have problematized the notion of copying itself by historicizing its varying practices in different fields. STS scholars recast copying (or tinkering or prototyping) as a serious technological endeavor with emphasis on its experimental nature; art historians redefine imitation as transformative artistic work; and literary scholars approach hand-copying as a way of rewriting where the boundary between authors and readers remains fluid. Some historians, on the other hand, challenge the assumption about the lenient attitude toward copying in Chinese culture while others question the entrenched link between China and copying by demonstrating that it was not a uniquely Chinese practice. All these studies call for a more nuanced approach to the history of copying in China and beyond with attention to its temporal changes in different social and cultural contexts. This roundtable session presents discussants who have addressed these issues in their respective fields, providing an interdisciplinary forum to discuss this highly contested (and often politically charged) subject.

Click here for the conference program in PDF, or head over to the conference’s website for more information.