Talk by Ya-Ping Chen, Director of Graduate Institute of Dance, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Room 160, Kaufman Hall
The period of 1980s to mid 1990s witnessed a “revolt of the body” in the arts of Taiwan, a phenomenon echoing the physical protests shaking up the politico-social status quo of the martial law era (1949-1987) and its authoritarian residues (1987-1992). Recent researches in neuroscience and cognition as well as the renewed interest in the discourse of empathy shed new light on the above historical period. They provide a way of understanding the underlying corporeal and psychological resonances between the seemingly independent and yet deeply intertwined events of the time on the one hand. On the other hand, they also illuminate to us why those artistic creations and political events from two decades ago are not behind us but are still highly relevant to the world we are experiencing today. In the current era described by sociologist Saskia Sassen as the age of “expulsions” (Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity of Global Economy), what are the possibilities and limitations of embodied empathy in artistic creation and its politicalsocietal efficacy? Examples discussed will include visual arts, theatre performance and environmental dance.
Dr. Ya-Ping Chen is a dance critic and historian, associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Dance, Taipei National University of the Arts. She receives her PhD in Performance Studies, NYU. She is the author of Enquiry into Subjectivity: Modernity, History, Taiwan Contemporary Dance (2011) and recipient of the Taiwan Cultural Award--Critics Award in 2009.
* Ya-Ping Chen’s lecture is co-sponsored by UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA Center for Chinese Studies and the Taiwan Academy/Spotlight Taiwan Project.
Sponsor(s): World Arts & Cultures/Dance, the Taiwan Academy