My public engagement activities seek to involve interaction with a diverse and broad audience through two-way engagement. The aim is not only to disseminate results of my research findings but also allow my research to be shaped through new and alternative perspectives.
Royal Asiatic Society’s “Extraordinary Endeavours”: at the Brunei Gallery
(2023)
I co-curated “Extraordinary Endeavours: Celebrating 200 Years of Communication, Collaboration, and Dissemination.” This exhibition celebrated the Royal Asiatic Society’s bicentenary by tracing broad developments of Asian Studies in Britain since 1823. The focus highlighted the importance of Asian teachers, translators, and artists in British scholars’ encounters and explorations of Asia.
Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London
12 October – 15 December 2023
Press Release found here.
I have written several blogs promoting the exhibition by focussing on one or several of the objects on display. The blogs are posted on the Royal Asiatic Society’s website.
On Risāla i-Shaṭranj or Chess Treatise, found here.
On Sir Richard Burton’s Arabian Nights, found here.
On the photography collection, found here.
On The Laws and Procedures of the Great Qīng Dynasty and the Latin-Chinese Dictionary, found here.
New Books Network Podcast
(2023)
Interview with Dr. Elizabeth Allyn Woock (Palacký University). We discussed my book, Cartooning China: Punch, Power, & Politics in the Victorian Era (Routledge, 2022) by exploring a wide array of topics including cartoons, China, empire in the late nineteenth century, and what it meant to be a Victorian ‘gentleman imperialist’.
Listen via New Books Network here.
Listen via Apple Podcasts here.
Listen via Spotify here.
Listen via Player FM here.
China’s 1800s Material and Visual Culture at the British Museum
(2023)
In 1895, Isabella Bird Bishop undertook an extensive journey in China. Her adventures as an intrepid Victorian traveller has attracted a lot of attention but little has been written about the Chinese men that Bird employed as guides, servants, and interpreter. This paper focuses on Bird’s written and visual representation of the Chinese men she hired, especially in her descriptions and comments found in book, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond. The aim is to investigate the ways in which she navigated the complexities of a foreign culture while translating her experiences for her British audience, engaging both cultures through the prisms of her own frameworks of understanding.
A version of this talk was first given at the University of Iceland in March 2023. The talk at the British Museum was given in June 2023 in conjunction with the exhibition “China’s Hidden Century.” The programme is found here.
The Engaging Race Project
2020-2022
The Engaging Race Project welcomed stories from all, independent of colour, culture, or ethnic origin. This project provided a space to share thoughts and experiences; it was, in other words, a forum to facilitate discussion, to inspire dialogue, reflection as well as a deeper understanding and awareness of race and cultural diversity.
Thank you to all who participated (in order of submission): Youfeng Shen, Anita Siu, Jiayi Li, Emile de Bruijn, John Cloake, Marek Yildizlar, Yen Ooi, Tim Chamberlain, Eleanor Veness, Parise Carmichael-Murphy, Kristian Agustin, Georgia Sitara, and to those who wish to remain anonymous.
BBC Witness History: The Enduring Legend of Fu Manchu
(2021)
The evil criminal mastermind Fu Manchu was a recurring character in Hollywood films for decades. He epitomised racist stereotypes about China and the Chinese which shaped popular thinking in the West. I gave a talk at the BBC which explored the idea of ‘Chineseness’ in the fictional Fu Manchu character. The talk with Vincent Dowd and Sir Christopher Frayling was released on 3 November 2021.
Listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1x8g
Chinese Paper Money Workshop: at the British Museum
(2019)
In May 2019, I assisted Dr. Helen Wang, Curator of East Asian Coins, Medals, and Money at the British Museum organise a closed workshop on Chinese paper money. This was a specialist workshop looking at current research from the 1850s to the present and brought together an array of experts, including scholars, curators, and bankers.
Programme and abstracts here.
Visualising Asia: Deciphering ‘Otherness’ in Visual and Material Cultures
(2018)
In September 2018, I organised a conference with Dr. Irene González-López (Birkbeck, University of London). The conference invited discussions on the differing ways ‘otherness’ has been used in both Asian and non-Asian societies through visuals. The aim was to bring together an array of visualities from across disciplines in order to reflect on their importance in knowledge production and circulation within and across cultures and societies.
Conference programme here.
Visual Protest: Art and Militancy in the Suffrage Campaign
(2018)
As part of Birkbeck Arts Week, I co-organised a panel with Dr. Flore Janssen (University of Utrecht). Our speakers focused on discussions around militant suffragettes’ public demonstrations, which often deployed the visual arts. Exploring their campaigns, Gillian Murphy (Women’s Library, LSE) introduced the Artists’ Suffrage League, while Monica Walker (Old Operating Theatre Museum) investigated links between art and militancy through the defacing of the Rokeby Venus.
Arts Week 2018 programme here.
Picturing Militancy in the Digital Age: Wikipedia Workshop and Edit-a-thon
(2018)
In March 2018, I co-organised an edit-a-thon at the School of Arts, Birkbeck, University of London. It was run as a drop-in session, open to all, with introductory talks and workshop tutors available in person as well as online via Twitter and email. This was in connection with the upcoming exhibition ‘Deeds Not Words: Who Got the Vote in 1918?’, based at SOAS, University of London and the Cartoon Museum.
More information about the event here.
Deeds Not Words: Who Got the Vote in 1918?
Cartooning Women and the Vote in ‘Punch’ Exhibition
(2018)
In 2018, I co-organised an exhibition with Dr. Flore Janssen (University of Utrecht) to coincide with celebrations marking Vote100 in the United Kingdom. The exhibition was displayed at the Wolfson Gallery in SOAS University Library and a video version was played at The Cartoon Museum in London.
We were approached by Susan Croft and Irene Cockroft of Suffrage Arts, who incorporated our exhibition boards into ‘A Stone’s Throw from Westminster’, which was on display at the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre at the Holborn Library.
Visualising China, 1840-1940:
Stereotypes, Myth-Making, and Cross-cultural Strategies
(2017)
In 2017, I co-organised a roundtable with Dr. Wendy Gan (University of Hong Kong) for the Association of Asian Studies annual conference. Using a variety of visual media from the popular press, personal photographic archives, and travel writing, our roundtable examines the representation of China and the Chinese by authors from America, Britain, Brazil, and from the extraterritorial treaty ports of Fuzhou and Shanghai. We were concerned with the circulation of texts and images of China, the interplay of fact and fantasy, and the ideological dimensions of cross-cultural representations.
Glass Lantern Slides of China at the Royal Asiatic Society, London
(2017)
The Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) of London houses a collection of 200 glass lantern slides of China depicting a diverse range of topics such as architectural buildings, topographical features, famous historical figures as well as a variety of daily activities. My time with this collection was spent cataloguing and digitising the slides.
To read my blog post on the slides, visit Royal Asiatic Society online, here. To read the subsequent article, see details on publication page, found here. To view the slides, see “China Glass Slides” on the Royal Asiatic Society Photographic Collection website, found here.