Editor by Xavier Ortells-Nicolau
En el país de los chinos. Relaciones sino-españolas y cosmopolitismo periférico. 1850-1950, 2023
En el país de los chinos. Relaciones sino-españolas y cosmopolitismo periférico. 1850-1950 ofrece... more En el país de los chinos. Relaciones sino-españolas y cosmopolitismo periférico. 1850-1950 ofrece a los lectores una panorámica de las relaciones entre España y China en los siglos XIX y primera mitad del XX. El volumen contribuye a la historiografía sobre el periodo y pone en valor la diversidad y significación de la presencia española en China.
En el libro se examinan las actividades de diplomáticos, comerciantes y misioneros españoles en la China de la época, se enmarcan sus actividades en de dinámicas transnacionales como la trata y migración de trabajadores chinos o los mercados económicos globales, y se comenta la recepción y representación de la realidad china en la prensa, la literatura y la traducción españolas. También se intercalan cápsulas biográficas de los principales actores en las relaciones sino-españolas.
El volumen culmina las investigaciones sobre el periodo del grupo ALTER de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, que han generado importantes contribuciones académicas. Los autores han buscado motivar y orientar nuevas investigaciones y detallan, al final de cada capítulo, los principales estudios académicos sobre cada tema, así como las fuentes y archivos a tener en consideración. En este sentido, En el país de los chinos, además de una monografía especializada, supone un amplio repertorio de recursos y herramientas que sirve de invitación a nuevas y necesarias investigaciones.
El Temps de les Arts, 2020
En els límits de les ciutats xineses, sempre en expansió, de vegades es recicla material d’enderr... more En els límits de les ciutats xineses, sempre en expansió, de vegades es recicla material d’enderroc per construir afegits i remuntes en edificis que també seran demolits en breu. A més de d’explicar aquest fenòmen arquitectònic i les dinàmiques que l’originen, en aquest article en dos capítols mirem també de proposar, des de la urgència d’una reflexió confinada, el seu valor com a ruïnes del nostre present, dels nostres interiors i potser de la lògica mateixa de les ciutats.
452ºF. Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, Jul 31, 2015
This spring, the star exhibition at the MET Museum in New York, titled China: Through the Looking... more This spring, the star exhibition at the MET Museum in New York, titled China: Through the Looking Glass, has shown haute couture of Chinese inspiration by Dior, Yves Saint Laurent or Alexander McQueen, next to imperial robes, bronzes, porcelains and calligraphies of the museum collection.
A fitting introduction to this monographic, the exhibition tenders a timely contemporary example of Western perceptions of Chinese culture, highlighting a Western relationship with China from the standpoint of the imagination. Along with the tailors and designers exhibited at the MET, China has fueled the imagination of intellectuals, politicians, artists, and most particularly, writers, who have set their texts in fictional Chinas, and created a game of mirrors with other texts, translations and versions. Throughout this process, the significant “China” has concurred with some key developments in world literature, and as the articles here testify, continues to provide inspiration for authors from different literary traditions.
Papers by Xavier Ortells-Nicolau
L'Espill 62, 2022
En el número 62 de la revista L'Espill trobaràs un dossier monogràfic sobre "La Xina del present,... more En el número 62 de la revista L'Espill trobaràs un dossier monogràfic sobre "La Xina del present, el món del futur", amb contribucions de David Martínez-Robles, Carles Prado-Fonts, Javier Borràs Arumí, Carles Brasó Broggi, Irene Masdeu Torruella, Xavier Ortells Nicolau, Jesús Sayols Lara, Manel Ollé i Dai Jinhua.
InterAsia Blog, 2013
outh.html La interrelación de Asia con España se afianza cada vez más. Más allá de los contactos ... more outh.html La interrelación de Asia con España se afianza cada vez más. Más allá de los contactos comerciales y diplomáticos, la circulación de personas se ha incrementado significativamente con el éxodo de profesionales españoles durante los últimos años.
Asian Cinema, 2010
The critical and academic reception of Chinese films has been too often also determined in Wester... more The critical and academic reception of Chinese films has been too often also determined in Western critical and academic circles by their content, giving privilege to politically-loaded subjects. In particular, the reception of the work of the 6th Generation and the independent documentary makers has been particularly fraught with this sort of biased. This paper aims to show how fiction, because of its fictionality, is able to provide richer ways of interpretation and social commentary, as long as we read it as fiction. In this sense, works of fiction that rely on fragmented narratives, visual specularity, or interactive textualities are extremely productive. This paper analyzes the implications of metafiction in the narrative structure of Suzhou River, Taking Linda Hutcheon’s notion of metafiction, namely, “a fiction that includes within itself a commentary on its own narrative and/or linguistic identity” (1980:2), I emphasize the film’s challenge to the mimetic referentiality of the film medium, and argue that the film text directs the audience to the textual/ discursive nature of fiction.
The China Quarterly, 2012
Juan Mencarini Pierotti (1860 – 1939) was a Spanish employee of the Imperial Maritime Customs Ser... more Juan Mencarini Pierotti (1860 – 1939) was a Spanish employee of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service of China from 1881 to 1912 and later a businessman in the import-export sector with base in Shanghai. Parallel to his professional career, Mencarini pioneered in the history of postage stamps in East Asia, contributed to learned societies with articles and lectures, and was reputed among the foreign community of the treaty ports as an accomplished amateur pictorialist photographer. Based on previously unexamined repositories, contemporary press records, and the cataloguing and analysis of over two hundred photographs, this paper analyzes Mencarini’s preserved corpus of photographs as well as his participation in the creation of the first associations of amateur photographers in Shanghai and Fuzhou. Mencarini’s photographs captured human types, examples of craftsmanship and agriculture, and architectural landmarks of the area of Fuzhou, and reveal a generic Western imperialist gaze that articulates visual and textual discourses to support knowledge production and commercial opportunities, leaving room for the exploration of the aesthetics of pictorialism.
Hispanic Research Journal, 2017
Si bien los contactos entre China y España tienen una larga tradición que se remonta a los contac... more Si bien los contactos entre China y España tienen una larga tradición que se remonta a los contactos misionales del siglo XVI, existe un vacío significativo en la historiografía sobre las interrelaciones entre los dos países entre el siglo XIX y la primera mitad del XX. Proyectos de investigación recientes, no obstante, destacan una abundancia de materiales que atestigua una presencia importante de China en la cultura española. En este contexto, el presente artículo contextualiza y analiza la presencia del imaginario visual de China en la España del cambio de siglo. A partir de un análisis de las imágenes y fotografías de China en la cultura popular y la prensa gráfica se destaca la convivencia de una fuerte mediación de fuentes extranjeras, de aproximaciones directas de diplomáticos, misioneros y viajeros españoles, así como de la productividad del desconocimiento y la continuidad de un imaginario exotizador.
Frontiers of Literary Studies in China, 2017
At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent en... more At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent engagement with urban ruins. Painting, performance, film, and photography have turned the rubble of demolition and construction works, an outcome of the vast urban development programs of the past few decades, into a powerful symbol of China's contemporary milieu. Critical and academic approaches to contemporary Chinese art have rightly inquired about the meaning of these ruins, in a process that has also reevaluated the place of these images in the representational traditions of China. Starting with these academic perspectives, this paper situates images of ruination in contemporary Chinese art in dialogue with transnational debates on the meaning and epistemology of the ruin, to argue for an essential element of constructedness in the representations of ruins. Photographic series by Wang Qingsong, Jiang Pengyi, and Yang Yongliang are analyzed as examples of an active appropriation of the process of ruin creation from a critical stance. Recycling urban wasteful rubble into an aesthetic object, these photo artists generate alternative visions of urban development and its consequent demolition and contribute to the negotiation of the meaning of the ruin.
Estudios geográficos, 2017
En las últimas décadas, como parte de la ingente urbanización en China, aparecen en el paisaje ur... more En las últimas décadas, como parte de la ingente urbanización en China, aparecen en el paisaje urbano parcelas derruidas y terrenos baldíos. Este artículo analiza las causas estructurales de la presencia y visibilidad de los espacios de demolición en función del análisis del conglomerado político, legal y económico de China.
Tras una breve descripción del desarrollo de las políticas urbanísticas durante el maoísmo, y de los cambios que conllevó el inicio de las reformas económicas, se desagregan el funcionamiento y actores principales del desarrollo urbanístico, se correlaciona la emergencia de la demolición con una serie de dinámicas, cadenas de autoridad y dependencias entre instituciones y agentes, y se establecen distintos tipos de espacios de demolición. Finalmente, se hacen notar reacciones y respuestas intelectuales y sociales a la demolición.
La revisió del passat recent ha estat un dels temes més sovintejats en la producció cultural i ar... more La revisió del passat recent ha estat un dels temes més sovintejats en la producció cultural i artística xinesa de les darreres dècades. Amb l'inici de la reforma i obertura política i econòmica a finals dels anys setanta, un cert relaxament en el control de la producció cultural afavorí que els artistes examinessin els aspectes més dramàtics de la Revolució Cultural des d'una òptica ja no revolucionària i ideològica, sinó humanista i subjectiva. Entre els casos emblemàtics trobem la novel·la il·lustrada Auró (Feng, Chen Yiming, Liu Yulian, Li Bin, 1979) o l'oli Un dia d'un mes del 1968 de Cheng Conglin (1968 nian X yue X ri xue, 1979), obres innovadores tant en el camp artístic, amb una renovada mirada realista i subjectiva, com el social, en posar l'èmfasi en l'experiència humana per sobre dels imperatius ideològics. En destacar la realitat sagnant dels conflictes entre diferents faccions de Guàrdies Rojos, aquestes i d'altres obres visibilitzaren el sofriment i dolor que les grans aventures revolucionàries comportaren, i que el sotmetiment de la producció artística a la ideologia havia ocultat.
En 1989, el movimiento estudiantil de la plaza de Tian’anmen y la publicación de la traducción al... more En 1989, el movimiento estudiantil de la plaza de Tian’anmen y la publicación de la traducción al inglés de The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, de Jürgen Habermas, dirigieron el interés de numerosos académicos hacia las estructuras sociales de la China de la reforma, las formas incipientes de la esfera pública y de participación social al margen del control del Estado. El presente artículo ofrece un itinerario a través de algunas de las contribuciones más prominentes de la academia anglófona, a fin de destacar sus principales temas y dificultades teóricas.
TransAsia Photography Review, May 2015
It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider the arguments and reasons for contemporary views... more It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider the arguments and reasons for contemporary views on “nature,” but they offer the context for an examination of vernacular notions of idyllic nature in the work of some of the most prominent contemporary photographers from China. What follows, then, is a discussion in which the photographers Wang Qingsong, Yang Yongliang, and Zhang Kechun, going beyond what Roetz terms the “cliché of ‘harmony’ between man and nature in China” (2010, 200), offer layered visualizations of landscapes and natural settings in dialogue with intellectual and aesthetic notions of the pastoral retreat. In so doing, these photographic works activate entry points for current discussions about contemporary visual culture from the standpoint of eco-aesthetics and ecocriticism.
In reform era China, demolition and rubble have become unavoidable presence in most major cities.... more In reform era China, demolition and rubble have become unavoidable presence in most major cities. Reifying “the menace to the city and its memory” (Yomi Braester), demolition has attracted many artists and filmmakers, who have incorporated it in their works. This dissertation contributes to recent studies of the ruin imaginary in Chinese art and visual culture, and to the emerging body of literature on Chinese photography with an analysis of experimental photographers who have engaged with urban demolition.
The predominance of the theme of urban demolition responds, first and foremost, to the fact that urban rubble has been ubiquitous, enduring and highly visible. In this sense, this dissertation sketches the institutional and legal framework regulating land development in China, to account for the particular dynamics responsible to the emergence and visibility of ruinous landscapes. At the same time, the focus on artistic experimentalism serves to focus on the ways in which the different artists have transformed demolition sites into ruins, going beyond a documentary or activist depiction of demolition. In this sense, the dissertation also partakes in the current transdisciplinar revision of ruins studies, which foregrounds the constructedness of ruins as a discourse and critical category.
The dissertation examines over 40 photographic series spanning from the early 1990s to the present, detects their aesthetic and discursive strategies, and divides them in different chapters according to their chronological sequence, and the commonalities in their approach to demolition. In addition to the immediate context of contemporary photography from China, the dissertation also explores the connections of contemporary photographic projects with the long aesthetical tradition around the ruin, and in particular with pioneering photo-conceptualist artists of the post-war period who rekindled its artistic value in tune with the contemporary context of mass-production and consumption.
After analyzing the different photographic works, the dissertation highlights conceptualism, performativity, and digital technologies as the main strategies for the creation of ruins. It also posits a temporal evolution in the style and attitude of the artists, with an exploration of the newest photographic works on demolition concurrent with the writing of this work.
Asian Cinema, Fall/Winter 2010, Vol. 21 Issue 2, p.285
The critical and academic reception of Chinese films has been too often also determined in Wester... more The critical and academic reception of Chinese films has been too often also determined in Western critical and academic circles by their content, giving privilege to politically-loaded subjects. In particular, the reception of the work of the 6th Generation and the independent documentary makers has been particularly fraught with this sort of biased. This paper aims to show how fiction, because of its fictionality, is able to provide richer ways of interpretation and social commentary, as long as we read it as fiction. In this sense, works of fiction that rely on fragmented narratives, visual specularity, or interactive textualities are extremely productive. This paper analyzes the implications of metafiction in the narrative structure of Suzhou River, Taking Linda Hutcheon’s notion of metafiction, namely, “a fiction that includes within itself a commentary on its own narrative and/or linguistic identity” (1980:2), I emphasize the film’s challenge to the mimetic referentiality of the film medium, and argue that the film text directs the audience to the textual/ discursive nature of fiction.
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Editor by Xavier Ortells-Nicolau
En el libro se examinan las actividades de diplomáticos, comerciantes y misioneros españoles en la China de la época, se enmarcan sus actividades en de dinámicas transnacionales como la trata y migración de trabajadores chinos o los mercados económicos globales, y se comenta la recepción y representación de la realidad china en la prensa, la literatura y la traducción españolas. También se intercalan cápsulas biográficas de los principales actores en las relaciones sino-españolas.
El volumen culmina las investigaciones sobre el periodo del grupo ALTER de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, que han generado importantes contribuciones académicas. Los autores han buscado motivar y orientar nuevas investigaciones y detallan, al final de cada capítulo, los principales estudios académicos sobre cada tema, así como las fuentes y archivos a tener en consideración. En este sentido, En el país de los chinos, además de una monografía especializada, supone un amplio repertorio de recursos y herramientas que sirve de invitación a nuevas y necesarias investigaciones.
A fitting introduction to this monographic, the exhibition tenders a timely contemporary example of Western perceptions of Chinese culture, highlighting a Western relationship with China from the standpoint of the imagination. Along with the tailors and designers exhibited at the MET, China has fueled the imagination of intellectuals, politicians, artists, and most particularly, writers, who have set their texts in fictional Chinas, and created a game of mirrors with other texts, translations and versions. Throughout this process, the significant “China” has concurred with some key developments in world literature, and as the articles here testify, continues to provide inspiration for authors from different literary traditions.
Papers by Xavier Ortells-Nicolau
Tras una breve descripción del desarrollo de las políticas urbanísticas durante el maoísmo, y de los cambios que conllevó el inicio de las reformas económicas, se desagregan el funcionamiento y actores principales del desarrollo urbanístico, se correlaciona la emergencia de la demolición con una serie de dinámicas, cadenas de autoridad y dependencias entre instituciones y agentes, y se establecen distintos tipos de espacios de demolición. Finalmente, se hacen notar reacciones y respuestas intelectuales y sociales a la demolición.
The predominance of the theme of urban demolition responds, first and foremost, to the fact that urban rubble has been ubiquitous, enduring and highly visible. In this sense, this dissertation sketches the institutional and legal framework regulating land development in China, to account for the particular dynamics responsible to the emergence and visibility of ruinous landscapes. At the same time, the focus on artistic experimentalism serves to focus on the ways in which the different artists have transformed demolition sites into ruins, going beyond a documentary or activist depiction of demolition. In this sense, the dissertation also partakes in the current transdisciplinar revision of ruins studies, which foregrounds the constructedness of ruins as a discourse and critical category.
The dissertation examines over 40 photographic series spanning from the early 1990s to the present, detects their aesthetic and discursive strategies, and divides them in different chapters according to their chronological sequence, and the commonalities in their approach to demolition. In addition to the immediate context of contemporary photography from China, the dissertation also explores the connections of contemporary photographic projects with the long aesthetical tradition around the ruin, and in particular with pioneering photo-conceptualist artists of the post-war period who rekindled its artistic value in tune with the contemporary context of mass-production and consumption.
After analyzing the different photographic works, the dissertation highlights conceptualism, performativity, and digital technologies as the main strategies for the creation of ruins. It also posits a temporal evolution in the style and attitude of the artists, with an exploration of the newest photographic works on demolition concurrent with the writing of this work.
En el libro se examinan las actividades de diplomáticos, comerciantes y misioneros españoles en la China de la época, se enmarcan sus actividades en de dinámicas transnacionales como la trata y migración de trabajadores chinos o los mercados económicos globales, y se comenta la recepción y representación de la realidad china en la prensa, la literatura y la traducción españolas. También se intercalan cápsulas biográficas de los principales actores en las relaciones sino-españolas.
El volumen culmina las investigaciones sobre el periodo del grupo ALTER de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, que han generado importantes contribuciones académicas. Los autores han buscado motivar y orientar nuevas investigaciones y detallan, al final de cada capítulo, los principales estudios académicos sobre cada tema, así como las fuentes y archivos a tener en consideración. En este sentido, En el país de los chinos, además de una monografía especializada, supone un amplio repertorio de recursos y herramientas que sirve de invitación a nuevas y necesarias investigaciones.
A fitting introduction to this monographic, the exhibition tenders a timely contemporary example of Western perceptions of Chinese culture, highlighting a Western relationship with China from the standpoint of the imagination. Along with the tailors and designers exhibited at the MET, China has fueled the imagination of intellectuals, politicians, artists, and most particularly, writers, who have set their texts in fictional Chinas, and created a game of mirrors with other texts, translations and versions. Throughout this process, the significant “China” has concurred with some key developments in world literature, and as the articles here testify, continues to provide inspiration for authors from different literary traditions.
Tras una breve descripción del desarrollo de las políticas urbanísticas durante el maoísmo, y de los cambios que conllevó el inicio de las reformas económicas, se desagregan el funcionamiento y actores principales del desarrollo urbanístico, se correlaciona la emergencia de la demolición con una serie de dinámicas, cadenas de autoridad y dependencias entre instituciones y agentes, y se establecen distintos tipos de espacios de demolición. Finalmente, se hacen notar reacciones y respuestas intelectuales y sociales a la demolición.
The predominance of the theme of urban demolition responds, first and foremost, to the fact that urban rubble has been ubiquitous, enduring and highly visible. In this sense, this dissertation sketches the institutional and legal framework regulating land development in China, to account for the particular dynamics responsible to the emergence and visibility of ruinous landscapes. At the same time, the focus on artistic experimentalism serves to focus on the ways in which the different artists have transformed demolition sites into ruins, going beyond a documentary or activist depiction of demolition. In this sense, the dissertation also partakes in the current transdisciplinar revision of ruins studies, which foregrounds the constructedness of ruins as a discourse and critical category.
The dissertation examines over 40 photographic series spanning from the early 1990s to the present, detects their aesthetic and discursive strategies, and divides them in different chapters according to their chronological sequence, and the commonalities in their approach to demolition. In addition to the immediate context of contemporary photography from China, the dissertation also explores the connections of contemporary photographic projects with the long aesthetical tradition around the ruin, and in particular with pioneering photo-conceptualist artists of the post-war period who rekindled its artistic value in tune with the contemporary context of mass-production and consumption.
After analyzing the different photographic works, the dissertation highlights conceptualism, performativity, and digital technologies as the main strategies for the creation of ruins. It also posits a temporal evolution in the style and attitude of the artists, with an exploration of the newest photographic works on demolition concurrent with the writing of this work.
Diferentes académicos han analizado como estas ruinas urbanas han sido representada por artistas plásticos (Wu Hung, 2012), cineastas (Zhang Zhen, 2007) y escritores (Robin Visser, 2010). En un itinerario inverso, y a partir de casos del cine y el teatro, Yomi Braester (2010) ha señalado la contribución de algunos de estos artistas en visualizar, y así generar, las nuevas realidades urbanas.
Integrada en el estudio del fenómeno de la demolición, y participando de estos debates, esta presentación ofrece una panorámica representativa de las manifestaciones, visualizaciones y usos de la imaginería de la ruina en el panorama artístico e intelectual, contextualizada en el desarrollo de los distintos planes de renovación urbana y sus efectos. El resultado es un mapa transversal de las interrelaciones entre cultura, economía y sociedad alrededor de la ruina (feixu), que se revela como un lugar crucial desde el que comprender la sociedad china post-1989.
references on Catalan literature from early 20th century to today. We consider the meaning and
function of these sinical drifts, their presence in versions and indirect translations of Chinese
poetry, or as poetic or narrative themes, and their influence as inspiration for philosophical or
spiritual positions.
El Archivo una iniciativa del grupo de investigación ALTER (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) en el marco del proyecto "Interacciones entre España y China en la era contemporánea" (MICINN HAR2012-34823).
The China-Spain Archive s an open-access, digital archive that brings together textual and visual documents on the interactions between Spain and China between the mid-19th century and mid-20th century of interest for the academic community and the general public.
The Archive is a work in progress created by the research group ALTER at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science of Innovation (project HAR2012-34823, 2013-2016).