We are cordially inviting you to join a graduate workshop titled Caricature and Comics in a Global Context: Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Algeria, China, and Taiwan to be held on 22 July 2025 between 8:45 and 18:30 at the Seminarraum Werkstatt in Albert-Ueberle-Weg 3-5.

We especially invite scholars and students to the keynote lecture, delivered by ChinaComx Visiting Scholar Ivan Gomes (Federal University of Goiás) at 14:00, see below for poster and abstract.

For the full conference program, click here.

In Search of Brazilian Culture through Post-Mao China: Notes on an Illustrated Report by the Brazilian Cartoonist Henfil (1977-1980)

In 1977, Brazilian cartoonist Henfil undertook a two-week visit to China, an experience he documented in a series of newspaper articles that were subsequently compiled into a book. Henfil na China (antes da Coca-Cola) constitutes not only a rare moment of an active engagement between the Brazilian and Chinese comics traditions but is also part of a broader historical context marked by Latin American intellectual and artistic engagements with China. Additionally, the work reflects the transnational ambitions of a number of Brazilian cartoonists who, during the military dictatorship (1964–1985), sought to establish international networks as a means of cultural and political resistance. This presentation offers a preliminary investigation into these themes, drawing on concepts such as transnationalism in comics and world literature to situate Henfil’s production within the Brazilian comics culture of the 1970s - a field shaped by efforts to navigate a print market constrained by censorship and authoritarian control. I argue that Henfil na China embodies a condition of transit by challenging conventional categorizations, as it brings together cartoons, illustrations, photographs, and travel writing within a single hybrid format.

The workshop is co-organized by ChinaComx PI, Lena Henningsen, and Anna Kollatz, the co-PI of the research project “Wo ist der Witz? Karikaturen als Kommunikationssphäre im spät- und postosmanischen Kontext”.