Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year! Hope this email finds you well. Apologies for
cross-posting, and please circulate the following talk information and
poster to colleagues who are interested.


*Situating Wu Hsiu-Ching's Song of the Reed (2014): Documentary Ethics and
the “Comfort Women” Genre*---A research talk by Prof. Chris Berry at the
Center for Gender and Media Studies at NingboTech University

Date/Time:  *9am on Jan. 7th, 2022 (Fri. London time); 5pm on Jan 7th, 2022
(Fri. Beijing Time)*

*Registration is required via*:
*https://www.eventbrite.com/e/situating-wu-hsiu-chings-song-of-the-reed-2014-by-prof-chris-berry-registration-223185262127?fbclid=IwAR0Zn0Hc63WH-Wo_0znO5eFisXzF7XFIs3iZqIqXyB9qa9yyBaEAVW-cYzE
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/situating-wu-hsiu-chings-song-of-the-reed-2014-by-prof-chris-berry-registration-223185262127?fbclid=IwAR0Zn0Hc63WH-Wo_0znO5eFisXzF7XFIs3iZqIqXyB9qa9yyBaEAVW-cYzE>*

*Talk Information:*

Song of the Reed (蘆葦之歌, 2015) is a documentary film directed by Wu
Hsiu-Ching (吳秀菁) and completed in 2014. It marks the Chinese-language
world’s growing participation in the spread of films about the former sex
slaves of the Japanese imperial army referred to as “comfort women.” In
this case, the focus is on women in Taiwan. How should we understand this
film? This paper argues that placing Song of the Reed in an intertextual
and transnational genealogy of so-called “comfort women” films can
illuminate its ethical contribution to the depiction of the survivors. It
traces the proliferation of fiction and documentary films about the
so-called “comfort women.” From the long absence of such films and the
initial representations in the form of prostitution melodramas, the paper
argues that ethics has become an ever greater concern in the design and
reception of these films, and especially documentary films. It locates a
tension between two overlapping aims – the push for political recognition
of the “comfort women” and the concern for their well-being – and locates
Song of the Reed as an effort to maximize the therapeutic benefit of the
filmmaking process itself.


*Speaker Bio: *

*Prof. Chris Berry* is Professor of Film Studies at King's College, London,
UK

(https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/professor-chris-berry).


*Discussant/Chair Bios: *

*Prof. Hongwei Bao (discussant of the event) *is Associate Professor in
Media Studies and Director of the Center for Contemporary East Asian
Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies at
the University of Nottingham, UK.

*Prof. Jamie J. Zhao (chair of the event) *is an Honorary Professor and the
Director of the Center for Gender and Media Studies in the Department of
Journalism and Communication at NingboTech University, PRC.


[image: Chris0107TalkPoster.jpg]

Best,

Jamie

*Dr. Jing (Jamie) Zhao 赵婧博士 *

*Professor and Director of the Center for Gender and Media Studies *

*Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication *
*School of Media and Law*

*NingboTech University (Previously known as Zhejiang University NIT)*


*PhD in Film and TV Studies, The University of Warwick, UK*

*PhD in Gender Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HKSAR*

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