POSTHUMANS
  • HOME
  • ABOUT US
  • COMMITTEE
  • COMMUNITY
  • Policy
  • NEWS
    • NEWS ARCHIVE
  • WORLD POSTHUMAN NETWORKS
    • RED LATINOAMERICANA DE POSTHUMANISMO
    • INDIAN POSTHUMANISM NETWORK
    • RETE ITALIANA POSTUMANA
    • POSTHUMAN ART NETWORK
    • WORLD SOCIETY OF POSTHUMAN STUDIES
    • Posthuman Chinese Forum
    • AUSTRALASIAN POSTHUMANITIES
    • Pakistan Posthuman Network
  • GLOBAL SYMPOSIUMS
    • CONFERENCE SERIES
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2020
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2018
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2016
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2015
  • NY POSTHUMAN RESEARCH GROUP
  • POSTHUMAN FORUMS
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • FORUM Covid
  • NEWSLETTER
    • LATEST EDITION
  • BLOG
  • COURSE "THE POSTHUMAN"
  • VLOG AND PODCAST
    • VLOG
    • PODCAST
  • CONTACTS
  • LINKS
  • CREDITS
  • HOME
  • ABOUT US
  • COMMITTEE
  • COMMUNITY
  • Policy
  • NEWS
    • NEWS ARCHIVE
  • WORLD POSTHUMAN NETWORKS
    • RED LATINOAMERICANA DE POSTHUMANISMO
    • INDIAN POSTHUMANISM NETWORK
    • RETE ITALIANA POSTUMANA
    • POSTHUMAN ART NETWORK
    • WORLD SOCIETY OF POSTHUMAN STUDIES
    • Posthuman Chinese Forum
    • AUSTRALASIAN POSTHUMANITIES
    • Pakistan Posthuman Network
  • GLOBAL SYMPOSIUMS
    • CONFERENCE SERIES
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2020
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2018
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2016
    • NYU SYMPOSIUM 2015
  • NY POSTHUMAN RESEARCH GROUP
  • POSTHUMAN FORUMS
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • FORUM Covid
  • NEWSLETTER
    • LATEST EDITION
  • BLOG
  • COURSE "THE POSTHUMAN"
  • VLOG AND PODCAST
    • VLOG
    • PODCAST
  • CONTACTS
  • LINKS
  • CREDITS
POSTHUMANS

Posthuman Chinese BLOG

since 2020

THE POSTHUMAN IN RURAL CHINA:CRISES, VALUES, POSSIBILITIES

9/21/2020

0 Comments

 
Author: Chiarina Chen
Bio: 
Chiarina Chen is a New York based curator and is the founder, creative director at Negation. She has a background in criminal psychology and art history, and her current projects explore the posthuman condition and subjectivity. 

When I saw the theme of the posthuman and China, my instinct was one word, “FINALLY, largely because I was born in China and have grown up in a family which holds many Chinese traditional values, especially my father's side, the family of Chen. Such roots, or at least a very crucial part of these roots, have been traveled to me ever since living abroad. I came from a psychology and art background, and I am now a curator who explores creative practices in the field of Posthumanism. I am currently also translating a book about the posthuman into Chinese. I felt that encountering the posthuman was inevitable. Standing on the crossroads between the 4th industrial revolution and the 6th extinction, we, the human and non-human beings on earth, are experiencing multiple crises propelled by the rapid-expanding cognitive capitalism. We need to revisit ourselves as a species,  while rethinking the humanist ideal of man, in addition to individuality. Has man always been defined like this, especially with regards to his relations to the others and the universe? The answer is no. Thus we need more ways or narratives, more paths of history writings, situated in different spaces and times, to show what we are and what we can become. 

Perhaps due to the influence of the postcolonial and feminist theorists, I initially deeply resonated with African Ubuntu philosophy, especially when looking at it through the lens of Posthumanism. Such exploration kept leading me back to my origin, too—the spirituality, the interconnectedness, the regional perspectives. When thinking of Posthumanism in China, some questions are worth raising. China is geographically and conceptually big, and to avoid over-generalized enormous ideas, how should we situate ourselves? What are the subjects? What are the current conditions and praxes? What kind of cartographies can we trace or produce?

In the past few decades, China has been growing rapidly more than ever. However, the surging GDP does not accurately represent development. Under the influence of modernization, urbanization, and globalization, the country has gone through a series of conflicts and transformations. On the one hand, we see continuing advancement in technology and aggressive progression; on the other hand, there's a growing need to search and “return” to Chinese ancient wisdom and spirituality. This reflects the fact that, over decades of impacts from western society, people are critical of the modern value systems and have an urge to search for an alternative path to revisit their lives and relations to others. Thus, posthumanist ideas could be explored not only in aspects such as technology, material embodiment, and embedment, but also in relation to the ongoing complex condition and traditional epistemologies and cosmologies. And of course, exploring tradition or the ancient does not mean going “back,” but reflects a non-linear reactivation, breaking from the linear history written mostly by the West. 

Not too long after returning to the States from Africa, I was introduced to a rural resurrection art project in a village called XuCun, in Shanxi Province, China. I immediately took it. Several aspects of this project interested me: it took place in the rural parts of China and aimed at rebuilding the village, not through a “progressive” approach, but a by a path that revitalizes its “past,” reactivating its value systems while integrating contemporary forms. Rurality is a crucial source to Chinese culture and spirituality, and I'll explain why. 

As Descola nicely puts it, the binary distinction of human/non-human has been foundational to European thought since the Enlightenment, and many cultures on earth do not adopt this partition. For example, Viveiros de Castro pointed out the strength in Amerindian perspectivism, which posits a “multi-natural” continuum across all species. The idea of Ubuntu in African tribal culture, for example, sees humans, nature, ancestors, and non-human entities as interconnected, and one exists because others exist. In ancient China, the human is not an exclusive species under the dualistic frame, either. Human, non-human, ancestors, and nature are interconnected linkages. Chinese philosophy has always been about “Becoming,” which is highly different from the classic western  idea of “Being,” but more in tune with posthumanist monistic views of continually changing and becoming, as theorist Li Zehou argues in his famous article, “‘WU’ as the Core Source of Unique Chinese Traditional Cultural.” The word “Wu” is written as “巫,” and is similar to “magic,” which many sociologists such as James Frazer and Max Weber have highlighted. Li Zehou points out ancient Wu’s role in understanding the cosmos, nature, and crucial roles in channeling human activities into multi-relations. He emphasizes how Wu later merged with Taoism, and how it was further incorporated and rationalized into Li, or the Ritual Thought, The Confusion 礼. The Confusion Ritual is more recent and closely related to modern history, and was quite dominant before the cultural revolution. These sources, rituals, and activities have been preserved in the rural parts of China for thousands of years. 

Unlike many western countries, the idea of urbanization has been very recent and fresh in the past century. For thousands of years, people lived in a rural-city continuum. The city acted as the realm of careers and workers, and the rural preserved spirituality and family in the long term. People kept returning to the countryside to reach a balance. However, hundreds of years of modernization wiped out villages and almost all traditional value systems, which were once preserved in the rural. They were later labeled as the “Poor,” or the “Underdeveloped.” As the spiritual sources were cut off and the rural ruined, people were forced to move to the city, which later became the megacity. Thus, it’s a more complex issue than a migrated population; it is a spiritual and cultural crisis, too.  

XuCun is an ordinary village. Damaged, too. The pattern of the village, which resides next to Taihang mountain, is a Phoenix,. There are concrete new buildings as well as old, northern style houses. Luckily, many key places are still kept in place, and some traditional rituals are ongoing, carried by the young generation. When I joined the XuCun Village Project, many didn’t understand why I'd explore something that was “abandoned.” There are several trends toward villages nowadays. Big developers lead one, and the way to operate is to further tear down the original villages, build brand new modern facilities, and attract people from big cities to invest. Such methods seem to bring economic effects on the surface but in fact have deepened the village’s damage. The XuCun project started as a research project, led by a group of artists, architects, and critics, and gradually developed into a long-term cultural resurrection project which engaged the villagers. My role is to lead the creative projects, to conceive of ways to engage with communities, and to incorporate more contemporary energies and practices. Our aim is not to replace the village with modern values, but to restore the remaining traditional elements and gradually construct the rest by merging both traditional and contemporary modes. The process is open and can be very creative. That is to say, it is not our goal to “dig out” cultural relics, nor to go “back” and live in the past, but to preserve the remaining fragments and activate them through new thinking and methodologies. In this sense, it is not to chase what’s “next” either. 

To me, exploring Posthumanism in China does not linearly look “forward” nor “next,” but perhaps responds with a question: “Have we always been posthuman?” XuCun is an example of where we might locate ourselves when dealing with issues and crises of modern China, thus opening spaces for critical and creative explorations in the field of Posthumanism—full of challenges, but with possibilities, too.
0 Comments

Translation Into Mandarin

8/14/2020

0 Comments

 
Author: Selina Tang

I had no idea how much trouble I’d bump into when I first learned that this translation project was my mission-to-be-accomplished. My previous experience in translating was not limited: I had been working as a translator for many occasions and mostly it was between Mandarin and English, but none of those experiences included anything that requires rigorous language like this one. 

I had my first problem on the very first line of the title: “Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism, and New Materialisms” - how do I translate these terms into Mandarin, I asked myself. Moving on, “‘posthuman’ has become an umbrella term… movements”. And how do I translate the “movement” here? I had thought that the real difficulty was to understand the article, and underestimated the difficulty of the re-articulation part. It was the moment when I realized that being fluent in a language doesn’t make you a good writer in that language.

Our languages have limitations, and somehow they somewhat make up for each other’s deficiencies. There are things that can be easily said in one word in one language but can only be indirectly described in another. Emotions, for example. There is a word in Chinese, 委屈, which directly describes that feeling you feel when you are wronged by someone. Implications, for example. Some words have implications only fluent speakers can fully understand. Why are certain words derogatory slurs, or why do certain words have certain connotations in that specific context? In Chinese, both “sex” and “gender” can be translated as “性别”, and the difference between them would be completely overlooked without us putting on a lengthy sentence to explain. Sense and reference (in the Frege sense), for example. While two phrases can have the same referent, they can differ in sense. However, in translation, both phrases are sometimes translated into the referent for the sake of clarity and simplicity. 

Another major obstacle that I had was with sentence structures. Sentence structures differ, which sometimes makes literal translations rather confusing, and for an academic paper, the less confusion the better. The difficulty that I had was that both sentence structures made sense in my head. When I read my own Chinese translation, I tended to focus on the meanings instead of the confusing sentence structures. I wouldn't have recognized the wrongness coming out of my keyboard if it weren't for the reviewers (shout out to Chiarina Chen, Yuan Yi, and Andrew Zhang). 

Posthumanism is a philosophy that integrates humans and technology, the past and the future, tradition and non-tradition, and it is a topic that we should be talking about more in China. I did some research online to make sure that I got the terms translated correctly, and, during my research, I found that while there were some discussions about Posthumanism in China, there were not enough discussions about Posthumanism in Chinese. I hope my translation of Professor Ferrando’s paper can help, though certainly limited, with the development of Posthumanism in China, and can make the process easier for someone who wishes to learn more about this philosophy. We have so much we can contribute to Posthumanism as Chinese: our traditional values versus our modern values, our rapidly developing society and technology within the past 100 years, and the more and more frequent discussions of Posthumanism-related topics on our social media. Our voices can add so much to the already aspiringly existing content of Posthumanism, and I cannot wait to help it grow.

0 Comments

calligraphy

7/11/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Translation: Posthuman Chinese Forum

Description: This title should be read from right to left, one character after another. It means Post (super) (first two characters) Human (third and fourth characters) China (fifth and sixth) Forum (last two characters). The very tiny marks in the bottom lefthand corner are my personal name marker. It was carved into a stone, onto which I then put on a bit paint and pushed onto the paper to leave a signature. I used "super human" instead of "post human" because not only do they have similar meanings, but “super” more accurately articulates my beliefs about this topic. A “posthuman” era, to me, would be the time of the cyborg, enabling humans to improve at certain skills, and potentially even master the word “perfection” one day. Lastly, the types of calligraphy I use are cursive and regular. The speed with which technological advances are made could only be captured by the essence of cursive calligraphy. Additionally, Posthumanism covers a wide breadth of topics and generates many skeptics and critics, so it is also a subject of carefulness, hence why the regular type is also used. 
Artist: Frances (Yifan) Zhang
​

Bio: My name is Frances (Yifan) Zhang, a student majoring in Psychology at New York University. I started my journey with calligraphy at age five and have continued ever since. I founded the first Chinese Calligraphy Club at Ulink College of Shanghai and lead a team of 60 calligraphy lovers to create our own artworks. We also organized fundraisers by selling our artworks. As a fan of Western culture, and by spending more time in the United States, the overwhelming nature of assimilation threatened to wash away what I was inherited with. But whenever I am holding my brush and facing that thin slice of white paper, I start to find the feeling of home and pride.

Surprisingly, I am also a great fan of hip-hop music and produce hip-hop music beats in my free time. Hip-hop music and calligraphy can be viewed as being on opposite ends of a spectrum, with one so vibrant and the other very peaceful. But I find a balance, a grey area to hold both properties within me. They say fire and water cannot mix, but I find the differences more meaningful when they encounter each other, whether it be two completely different cultures, races, hobbies, attitudes, or even living things and robots; I find such encounters very beautiful.

I am also the creator of the logo for the Posthuman Chinese Forum.

My experience when creating them:  The artworks were created with the aid of technology  since I was playing background music from my phone at the time. My lamplight was on to assist me seeing things more clearly. Even the final presentation of all these artworks required technology because I took their pictures on my phone, scanned them, edited them, and finally presented them on a digital platform. Needless to say, technology was present in the creation of my artworks, which represent the sense of ancient China. I think calligraphy work is in essence a great fit for Posthumanism. When we combine the human now with the human from the past, we see the evolution of our current calligraphy styles. Then, when we move forward into the future, our calligraphy works pave the way for future developments. 

My creation process is very spontaneous. I let the brush guide me rather than organize everything beforehand. I respect the brush, paper, and ink. The feeling of nature guiding me into the future is the key of all the calligraphy artworks I have created. 

Posthumanism  is indeed a very complicated topic that is not understood by, or even widely available to,  the public in China. But calligraphy, an artform which already has centuries of history, has been well understood by the Chinese public, including myself. The free flow of pace through these artworks has always been the origin of calligraphy creations. It is more than a human taking control of the brush, and is instead about using the brush as an innovation while creating artworks. 
0 Comments

    DISCLAIMER

    ​We do not endorse any specific view or opinion expressed in the Forum. 
    We believe in freedom of expression and in building bridges pluralistically and respectfully.​
    ​Thanks for your interest. ​Peace, Visions and Much Appreciation

    SUBMISSIONS
    We welcome entries offering a posthuman perspective on topics related to China, intended extensively as: Chinese cultures, heritages, ethnicities, languages, science and technology, society, artificial intelligence, engineering, design, philosophies, biodiversity, ecology, geography, economies, traditional and non-traditional medicines, religions, rituals, arts, martial arts, food, materials (such as jade, silk incense etc.), just to mention a few.
    - Entries can be short and long (no more than 2.000 words).
    ​- All types of writing style are accepted, as well as videos and images.
     
    - Content must be non-offensive and respectful. 
    - 
    Language: Mandarin and Cantonese, among others (in this case, please add a short abstract in English); English (in this case, please add a short abstract in Mandarine and/or Cantonese). 
    If you are interested, please send us your entry at NYposthuman[at]gmail.com adding in the title of the email: "Entry - Blog Posthuman Chinese". Our editors will revise your material and contact you in a timely manner. Thanks.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.