Riding to the hotel from the airport, one of my Wuhan friends informed me that Dalian is reputed to be the cleanest city in China. The place reminds me a great deal of California. If Santa Barbara, where Anna and I live, had allowed super high-rises, it would look something like Dalian. The city is situated on a sea, and so has much the oceanic aspect I've grown used to, with the rising hills just outside town. Thanks to its location, the peninsula has been much contested through the ages, occupied at times by Britain, Russia and Japan. My American friends will remember Port Arthur from their history classes. Also like Santa Barbara, Dalian suffered a massive oil spill, back in 2010.
But we were there for literature. One of the great things for me was witnessing my former students from Central China Normal University moving into the profession and delivering papers. I was there to speak of Brenda Marie Osbey and poetics, a short piece that will be in a book on Osbey edited by the tireless John Lowe. I was a bit surprised that we heard so little of Chinese ethnic literature; however, next year's conference is to be hosted by a "University of Nationalities" which is a center for Chinese ethnic studies.
No comments:
Post a Comment