2023 Annual Conference of the Special Committee on Sino-African Language and Cultural Comparative Studies and Symposium on “African and African Diasporic Literature in the 21st Century: Reflections on and Prospects for Globalization”
Date and Venue: 24–26 November 2023, Kunming, Yunnan, China
Brief Summary
Held at the School of Foreign Languages of Yunnan University in Kunming, the 2023 Annual Conference of the Special Committee on Sino-African Language and Cultural Comparative Studies focused on the theme “African and African Diasporic Literature in the 21st Century: Reflections on and Prospects for Globalization.” Jointly organized by the School of Foreign Languages of Yunnan University and the African and African American Literature Institute of Hangzhou Dianzi University, the conference brought together more than one hundred scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students from over forty universities across China. It also received support from several major academic journals and publishing institutions in the field.
The conference was held against a broader intellectual background in which African and African diasporic literature has become increasingly important for understanding ethnicity, migration, cultural memory, and the uneven realities of globalization. Participants emphasized that such literature not only crosses geographical and cultural boundaries, but also reveals structural inequalities embedded in global modernity, promotes critical reflection on historical legacies, and opens up new possibilities for intercultural dialogue. In this sense, the conference highlighted African and African diasporic literary studies as a vital field through which scholars may rethink globalization and imagine post-globalization futures.
At the opening ceremony, speakers introduced Yunnan University’s longstanding engagement with African studies, including its role in China-Africa think tank cooperation and regional and country studies. They also reviewed the development of the Special Committee, describing it as the first secondary academic association in China specifically devoted to Sino-African language and cultural exchange and African diasporic literature. The Committee’s mission, as emphasized at the conference, is to serve national and international needs, strengthen disciplinary discourse, and promote mutual learning between Chinese and African civilizations.
The keynote and panel sessions showcased major new research in the field. Discussions addressed such topics as globalization and African/African diasporic writers and texts, African language change and language policy, the global circulation of African arts, coloniality and decolonization in African education, Chinese perspectives on African literary history, African and African diasporic literature in relation to world literature, and representations of China in African and diasporic writing. More than one hundred papers were presented. Through lively exchange among senior scholars and younger researchers, the conference further consolidated academic dialogue in this area and demonstrated the growing importance of African and African diasporic literary studies in contemporary Chinese scholarship.
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