By Zu (Zuo Rui) Gan, Class of 2025
On the 3rd of November, the Meanings, Identities and Communities Cluster hosted Dr. Dandan Chen as the keynote speaker for the CSCC Annual Conference. Dr. Chen received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. She is currently Professor of History in the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York, and has been teaching in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society since 2013.
Dr. Chen started her talk, Temporality and Spatiality:“ Global Jiangnan” as Theoretical and Historical Framework, by introducing the multiple frameworks she utilized in her research. She introduced the framework of “Global Jiangnan,” emphasizing the need to focus on Jiangnan rather than the general notion of the “South” to ensure a more detailed analysis. By focussing on Jiangnan rather than the ubiquitous “South”, Dr. Chen hoped to go beyond a regional history and introduce elements of the global. By focussing on Jiangnan as more than a regional and geographical space, Dr. Chen redirects our view of Jiangnan as a cultural space that is constantly negotiated between different parties from within and without Jiangnan. As an example, Dr. Chen brought up the economic history of Jiangnan. The Jiangnan region saw an influx of trade and workers in the 16th century as long distance trade grew. As a result, the culture of Jiangnan transcended geographical boundaries.
Moreover, this framework of focussing on Jiangnan as a whole subverts the barriers between the pre-modern and modern, creating a cohesive narrative and view of the history of Jiangnan. Dr. Chen contrasted this idea of Global Jiangnan to the Global South, where Global Jiangnan incorporates the premodern and modern eras while the latter gravitates towards analysis of contemporary times.
It was also very enlightening when Dr. Chen shed light on the historical roots of Jiangnan’s cultural image as being a place of elegance and refinement. Although Jiangnan is now conceptualized as an area of refinement and elegance, the Jiangnan area did not always embody this view. Dr. Chen highlights two turning points in the history of Jiangnan that created this current day vision of Jiangnan. Dr. Chen pointed to 2 major events that helped shaped this current day narrative. The first was during the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, around 307 AD. During this period many literati and elites migrated from the North to Jiangnan, bringing with them their culture and shaping the Jiangnan culture to what it is known today. Another turning point was during the Northern Song Dynasty, when the ethnic Han’s power base moved to Hangzhou. While the culture of Jiangnan was undoubtedly negotiated and reconstructed throughout centuries, and the process of change took immense time, these markers in history signaled the formation of elegant Jiangnan culture.
Dr. Chen’s talk about Jiangnan piqued the interests of many, especially since DKU itself is located in the Jiangnan region. During the final minutes of her talk, Dr. Chen answered questions about the relationship of contemporary Jiangnan with the emergence of Alibaba as well as Global Jiangnan as seen through the establishment of DKU.
