[Apr 2] Afterlives of Socialist and Leftist Culture: Transnational Movement beyond East Asia

Date: Apr 2, 2026 (Thursday)

Venue: Faculty Lounge, CRT-4.30, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus (HKU)

Registration: https://forms.office.com/r/wJ9ssZ0GLd?origin=lprLink

9:00–10:00     Keynote Lecture (includes a short Q&A)

Introduction to the Conference: Su Yun Kim (HKU)

Revolution and Literature: The Trajectories of Global Socialist Culture

Vladimir Tikhonov (University of Oslo)

10:10–11:50    Panel 1 (Moderated by Su Yun Kim)

Nation and Revolution: The Ideology and Practice of Korean Socialism in the 1930s (민족과 혁명: 식민지 사회주의의 이념과 실천)

Jong-wook Hong (Seoul National University)

Overcoming KAPF: Socialism and Colonial Korean Literature

(카프를 넘어서: 사회주의와 식민지 조선문학)

Jong Hyun Jeong (Inha University)

An Unlikely Trajectory: Literary and Cultural Leftism in Taiwan

Pei-yin Lin (HKU)

Conjunctures of Revolution: Proletarian Literature and International Solidarity in Imperial Japan

Edwin Michielsen (HKU)

<<Lunch break>>

1:00–2:10       Panel 2 (Moderated by Pei-yin Lin)

“We the Ukrainian Peasants”: International Solidarity and the Struggle of Anarchist Poetry in 1930s Japan

Yauheniya Hudziyeva (Waseda University)

Popular Fiction as Leftist Culture: Kim Namch’ŏn and Transwar Korea

Su Yun Kim (HKU)

Confession and Redemption: Yan Lianke’s Appropriation of Dostoevsky’s Exploration of Human Sin in The Four Books

Xiaolu Ma (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

<< Coffee break>>

2:30–4:00       ROUNDTABLE

This conference is supported by the Faculty Conference Support Scheme of the Faculty of Art and the Korean Studies Programme, School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

The conference is open to everyone. Seats are limited, please register at https://forms.office.com/r/wJ9ssZ0GLd?origin=lprLink

For enquiries, please contact Prof. Su Yun Kim at suyunkim@hku.hk