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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261013T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261013T200000
DTSTAMP:20261002T110948Z
CREATED:20260804T115001Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261002T110948Z
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SUMMARY:Pei-Yin Lin: Literary Leftism in Colonial Taiwan: The Cases of Lai He\, Yang Kui\, and Lü Heruo
DESCRIPTION:About the Talk\nThis talk analyses three diverse leftist pursuits of colonial Taiwanese writers\, including Lai He’s (1894-1943) transition from nationalism to a more class-informed reflection of colonial reality\, Yang Kui’s (1906-1985) consistent prioritisation of class difference over the coloniser/colonised dichotomy\, and Lü Heruo’s (1914-1951) shift from a critic of colonial modernity to a radical leftist right after 1945. It argues that despite their different trajectories and dispositions\, they shared a commitment to a realist style deeply ingrained in Taiwanese society and lives of its people during Japanese colonial era\, with China exerting a crucial influence on their perspectives of Taiwan’s circumstances. \nAbout the Speaker\nPei-yin LIN is Associate Professor at the School of Chinese\, HKU\, with a PhD from SOAS. She has taught at the University of Cambridge and the National University of Singapore. Her research centres on modern Chinese literature and culture. In 2020\, she was appointed Chair of Taiwan Studies at Leiden\, and she was a Harvard Yenching Visiting Scholar in 2015–2016. She has authored two monographs: Colonial Taiwan (2017) and Gender and Ethnicity in Taiwanese Literature (2021)\, and has edited several books\, including her latest\, An Unlikely Trajectory: Literary and Cultural Leftism in Taiwan (2026). \n  \nFree and open to all. \nTo join online\, please register here.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/lectures-event/pei-yin-li/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Pei-yin-Lin-cover.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261014T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261014T203000
DTSTAMP:20260811T102838Z
CREATED:20260804T115416Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260811T102838Z
UID:25298-1792002600-1792009800@royalasiaticsociety.org
SUMMARY:Performing Beauty Film Screening
DESCRIPTION:About the film\nPerforming Beauty | سماع قلم is a documentary in seven movements exploring the aesthetic\, spiritual\, and cultural significance of the Persian calligraphic script Nasta‘līq. Blending evocative imagery\, poetry\, and the voices of artists\, scholars\, and designers\, the film traces Nasta‘līq’s unfolding from its origins in Persian verse to its enduring presence in contemporary art and design. Structured as a visual poem rather than a linear narrative\, the film invites viewers to experience calligraphy as presence — rhythmical\, layered\, and contemplative — revealing how a script born of poetry became a symbol of cultural identity\, beauty\, and resilience. \nPerforming Beauty has had previous screenings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York\, Khaneh Cinema in Tehran and Goldman Sachs Americas Muslim Forum in both New York and Dallas. \nAbout the director\nMehran Haghighi is an Iranian-American filmmaker\, producer\, and co-founder of Homa Films. He is dedicated to creating films that explore the artistic\, cultural\, historical\, and spiritual heritage of the Persian and Persianate world for international audiences. \nHis producing credits include the acclaimed feature films Djomeh\, winner of the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000\, and Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul. He also produced the documentary Of Kings and Paintings\, which explores the visual culture of Qajar Iran and is widely used by museums\, libraries\, and universities. \nHis latest film\, Performing Beauty | سماع قلم\, examines the story\, aesthetics\, and contemporary life of Persian Nasta’liq calligraphy. \n\nPraise for Performing Beauty\n“A visually meditative experience.” – Video Librarian \n“The art form as actively negotiated.” – EMRO \n  \nFree and open to all. \nPlease note\, this event is in-person only and will not be available online.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/lectures-event/performing-beauty-film-screening/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Performing_Beauty_Publicity_Image.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T200000
DTSTAMP:20261002T110911Z
CREATED:20260825T133044Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261002T110911Z
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SUMMARY:Mughals in Bombay? Border-making and itinerant belonging in a colonial port city
DESCRIPTION:This lecture is part of the Royal Asiatic Society’s Maritime Asia Series \nAbout the Talk\nThis is a talk about Persianate Bombay\, a city that is not commonly seen as a part of the Persianate world or era\, or as a border city. I argue that Bombay was both- Persianate and a border city- in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As larger numbers of migrants arrived from the ports of the Persian Gulf following the steam revolution of the nineteenth century\, Bombay’s administrators sought to criminalise itinerancy and reify the borders of the Raj by sorting “desirables” from “undesirables”. Amidst these state processes of border-making and fixing people in space through property and taxation\, Persian itinerants built diverse professions and overlapping orders of social belonging as Mughals (Shias) and Iranis (Zoroastrians)\, tied by shared norms of Persianate adab. As the city transitioned from being an ocean-facing port city to a nation-facing mill city\, so did the norms of belonging and the notions of space embedded in its neighbourhoods. \nAbout the Speaker\nTania Bhattacharyya is Assistant Professor of the History of Capitalism at the University of Warwick. She is a historian of migration\, urbanity and labour in the British Empire and specializes in the study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean. Her book manuscript Ocean Bombay: Space\, itinerancy and community in a colonial port city\, 1839-1945 is currently under review with Columbia University Press. It tells the story of colonial Bombay as it transitioned from an ocean-facing port city to a nation-facing mill city by following itinerants who traversed the routes between Zanzibar\, Aden\, Bushire and Bombay and studying the communities and neighbourhoods that formed at the interstices of these networks in Bombay. \n  \nFree and open to all. \nTo join over Zoom\, please register here.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/lectures-event/mughals-in-bombay-border-making-and-itinerant-belonging-in-an-imperial-port-city/
LOCATION:Royal Asiatic Society Lecture Theatre\, 14 Stephenson Way\, London\, NW1 2HD\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:RAS Lectures & Events
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Mughal-Masjid-1.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261029T183000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261029T200000
DTSTAMP:20260916T085242Z
CREATED:20260916T085242Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260916T085242Z
UID:25449-1793298600-1793304000@royalasiaticsociety.org
SUMMARY:Book Launch: The Art of Drinking Chocolate: Coconut Cups and Other Marvels from the New World
DESCRIPTION:About The Book\nJoin us for the launch of the new book The Art of Drinking Chocolate: Coconut Cups and Other Marvels from the New World\, published by Oxbow Books in September. This richly illustrated journey into the history of chocolate explores a fascinating and largely forgotten aspect of the ritual of drinking it: the use of coconuts and gourds\, often mounted in silver\, as luxurious drinking vessels. This tradition emerged in the Americas in the sixteenth century and endured for more than four centuries\, bringing together Indigenous practices\, Asian materials\, European craftsmanship and changing ideas about luxury and consumption. \nThe presentation will also uncover the remarkable cultural history of the coconut\, a fruit prized for its extraordinary versatility\, providing water and food as well as fibre for rope\, fuel and natural vessels for drinking. Despite its strong association with the Caribbean today\, the coconut was introduced to parts of the Americas from the Philippines in the sixteenth century\, becoming part of a remarkable story of trans-Pacific exchange. We will discover the extraordinary beliefs and stories of coconuts\, and their magical properties. Such ideas shaped the ways in which coconut-shell chocolate cups were understood\, used and valued. Some were believed to protect their owners against poison or to possess prophylactic and magical powers. \nThe event will surely deliver lively exploration of the intersections between food history\, material culture\, global trade\, ritual and belief at the dawn of the early modern “Age of Wonders”. Following these remarkable objects across oceans and cultures reveals complex histories of exchange between Asia\, the Americas and Europe\, while illuminating changing attitudes towards luxury\, consumption\, magic and the natural world.
URL:https://royalasiaticsociety.org/lectures-event/book-launch-the-art-of-drinking-chocolate-coconut-cups-and-other-marvels-from-the-new-world/
CATEGORIES:Book Launch,RAS Lectures & Events
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