中研院民族所

The Social Lives of Keywords for Social Difference
以關鍵詞的社會生活探究社會差異：漢英對比 Race vs. 種族、Culture vs. 文化、Gender/Sexualities vs. 性別

      This two-day international conference focuses on keywords that variously encode social difference, delving into the incommensurabilities which insure that race, culture, gender, and sexuality are experienced differently in different socio-cultural contexts. Attendees from the social sciences and humanities from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the U.S.—all of whom work in both Chinese and English—will come together for productive comparison of keywords that can generate original insights into changing social realities and subjectivities. In the process, we will showcase and expand the methods of the Chinese-English Keywords Project (CEKP). The Chinese-English Keywords Project (CEKP) is a global and growing network of scholars interested in tracking the multivalence and conceptual gaps that emerge when key terms migrate between English and Chinese. As social science and humanities scholars we investigate incommensurability of usages and connotations not as problems to be solved but as windows onto distinct contexts, histories, and social relations.

      The CEKP is fascinated with anecdotes, frustrations, resolutions, and conversations from distinct perspectives and locations. We ask: are we connoting the same things when we use key terms in one language or the other? Conferees aim to reexamine the meanings of keywords through a broad consideration of their heterogeneous meanings in divergent social contexts ranging from everyday usage to media, official, and academic spheres and across Chinese-speaking regions. This conference aims to avoid filtering these meanings primarily through the highly elaborated political stances established in and specific to English-language contexts. For example, is the English “race/culture” binary commensurable with the Chinese terms “zhongzu” (種族) and “wenhua” (文化)? If “race” is not appropriate in a mainland Chinese context for describing “minzu” (民族) difference, and also not appropriate in a Taiwan context for describing “ethnic” (族群) difference, what more do we need to know about “zhongzu” to grasp its connotations in Chinese discourse? Given that “wenhua” has a history of hierarchically indexing levels of education or sophistication, how can it also encompass the more global meaning of distinct and parallel “cultures” within or at the level of nations? And how do both “zhongzu” and “wenhua” relate to the more prevalent terms for “ethnic difference,” “minzu” (民族) and “zuqun” (族群)?

      At the same time, this conference also investigates the social lives of keywords for “xingbie” (性別)，gender, and sexualities. Why is it so difficult to distinguish “gender” from “sexuality” in Chinese? If there is no colloquial Chinese-language way to denote the plural term “sexualities,” what are the implications for identities, conduct, and institutions as lived in regions where Chinese is dominant? What does it tell us about sexuality politics that the English word “gay” has a complex history of being glossed with the communist term “tongzhi” (同志) in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the mainland? Why has “xingbie” (性別) been critiqued as confusing and misleading during the recent rise of anti-LGBTQ conservative campaigns in Taiwan and Hong Kong? Does promotion of the term “zhongxing” (中性) in various Chinese contexts contribute to or challenge the English language sense of gender diversity?

      As theorists of sociocultural process, we want to hear words in context, in all their specificities of usage, and to better understand the contexts themselves, the societal impacts of Chinese and Western semantic interplay and of the discrepancies even between Chinese regions. We are not linguists per se, or philologists, nor are we translators or etymologists. Disaggregating words’ usages into official, scholarly, popular media and vernacular domains, we ask questions about their particular meanings within each domain. We take what we call the “social lives” of keywords as lenses on China and other Chinese-speaking societies, and pursue vibrant accounts that capture heterogeneity between different spheres. Hence, we query how power, authority, dissent, even humor and parody, proliferate meanings rather than standardize them.

      The conference will employ an innovative format designed to promote collaborative knowledge production. The format of the sessions are therefore structured to maximize interactive discussion. Departing from the model of single-author authoritative treatments of keywords and concepts, we aim to build keyword entries together by generating of multiple vignettes and case examples which illustrate heterogonous usage.

Tue-Wed, July 30-31, 2019

Room 2320, 3F, the New Wing, Institute of Ethnology (民族所新館3樓2320會議室)

Derek Sheridan, Ph.D. 謝力登博士 (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
Host/Organizer/Curator (Keyword Session: Race)/Facilitator (Discussion: Gathering Words for Social Difference)

Louisa Schein, Ph.D. 路易莎博士 (Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, USA)
Organizer/Curator (Keyword Session: Culture)/Facilitator (Discussion: Languages of Sexuality)

Ying-Chao Kao, Ph.D 高穎超博士 (Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA)
Organizer/Curator (Keyword Session: 婚（姻)/Facilitator (Discussion: The Social Lives of Keywords for Gender and Sexuality)

• Susan Brownell, Ph.D. 包蘇珊博士 (Professor, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA), Discussant (Keyword Session: Culture)
• Travis Kong, Ph.D. 江紹祺博士 (Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong), Panelist (Roundtable: Languages of Sexuality)/Facilitator (Discussion: Workshopping a Gender and Sexuality Table of Contents)
• Yu Luo, Ph.D. 羅鈺博士 (Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong), Curator (Keyword Session: 原生態）
• Hairong Yan , Ph.D. 嚴海蓉博士 (Associate Professor, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Discussant (Keyword Session: Race)/Panelist (Keywords I am thinking about (農村))
• Yu-Ying Hu, Ph.D. 胡郁盈博士 (Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Gender Studies, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan), Panelist (Roundtable: Keywords I am Thinking About (出櫃))
• Danubak Matalaq, Ph.D. 瑪達拉．達努巴克博士 (Supervisor, Kaohsiung Student Counseling Center), Panelist (Languages of Sexuality)/Discussant (Keywords Session: 原生態）
• Wei-Ting Wu, Ph.D. 伍維婷博士 (Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Gender Studies, Shih Hsin University, Taiwan), Panelist (Roundtable: Keywords I am Thinking About (女權(性)主義)))
• Ta-Wei Chi, Ph.D. 紀大偉博士 (Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Literature, National Chengchi University), Discussant (Keyword Session: 婚(姻))
• Antonia Chao, Ph.D. 趙彥寧博士(Professor, Department of Sociology, Tunghai University), Panelist (Roundtable: Keywords I am Thinking About (文明/文明城市))
• Kerim Friedman, Ph.D. 傅可恩博士 (Associate Professor, Department of Indigenous Cultures, National Dong Hwa University), Panelist (Roundtable: Keywords I am Thinking about (方言/主權))
• Yifeng Cai 蔡一峰 (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Brown University), Panelist (Keywords I am thinking About (圈子), Languages of Sexuality)
• Shu-Li Huang, Ph.D. 黃淑莉博士 (Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan), Panelist (Roundtable: Keywords I am Thinking About (主體))

Online registration is closed. On-site registration is not accepted.

Tao, Hsiao Hsuan 陶曉萱
02-2652-3324, hsiaotao@gate.sinica.edu.tw

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Wednesday, July 31, 2019