About the Event
From the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, changes in mass media, transportation, and communication technologies provided unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurially minded men and women in Asia. Come hear cultural historians Christopher Rea and Nicolai Volland discuss the rise of modern Chinese “cultural entrepreneurs,” business people who risked financial well-being and reputation by investing in multiple cultural enterprises to build cultural, social, or economic capital.
Drawing on their recent book, The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65, Rea and Volland will trace the emergence of three distinct archetypes of cultural entrepreneur: the cultural personality, the tycoon, and collective enterprises. These include the likes of Lü Bicheng, a famous classical poet, who parlayed her literary prestige into a career as the principal of a Beijing girls’ school and then used her business fortune to build a high-profile persona as a glamorous foreign correspondent; Aw Boon Haw, the “tiger” behind the Tiger Brand of pharmaceuticals; and the Shaw Brothers, ethnic Chinese filmmakers and exhibitors who drew thousands of people out each night to watch movies in Singapore and British Malaya. Their conversation with Dr Kai Ostwald will delve into the conditions that lead to the rise of modern Chinese cultural entrepreneurship, and consider its resurgence in recent decades.
About the Speakers
Christopher Rea is Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Director of the Centre for Chinese Research at UBC.
Nicolai Volland is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University.
Kai Ostwald is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Southeast Asian Research at UBC.
Please RSVP here.
Read The Business of Culture: Cultural Entrepreneurs in China and Southeast Asia, 1900-65 (UBC Press, 2015) online via the UBC Library website. Paperback copies are also available at UBC Press, 2029 West Mall, UBC campus.