Inaugural lecture Mr Prof O.J. Moore: Facts, fictions and attitudes: Common tactics for representing China

Prof. Oliver Moore’s thinking, research and teaching are linked by his interest in how China has long been and still is represented. Those representations may be authored by individuals, groups and institutions in China, or they may be the external representations of public opinion, European academe, and global media. Because the mainsprings of his work are art and literature, social and cultural history, he considers frequently how facts and fictions variously condemn or enhance each other’s status.

Moore is interested in both. A fiction, which can be materialized, for instance, as a model aircraft carrier to display in an art gallery, is not unrelated to the social, political and military facts of launching the real thing onto the ocean. Yet, while facts, according to distinguished journalists, are “sacred”, most research exercises seldom elevate fictions to the same status.

And, what scholarly enquiry might disregard as insufficiently factual or excessively fictional, might offer valuable insights into attitudes, otherwise lost, hidden or deliberately ignored. These are three stations along one circuit that are all useful for understanding China’s representations in cultural criticism, history and current affairs, and more broadly in our various engagements with her society and politics today.

More information

• Inaugural lecture: Mr Prof O.J. Moore
• Title: Facts, fictions and attitudes: Common tactics for representing China
• Chair: Chinese Language and Culture
• Faculty: Arts
• Register at the latest one week in advance by returning the replycard or by filling in the registration form