International Academic Exchange Office

The 43th session of the “Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series,” organized by the Institute of International Education and the Tan Lark Sye Institute, New Era University College (NEUC) is now open for registration. This lecture features Associate Professor Dr. Josh Stenberg from the University of Sydney. He will examine Indonesian narratives in 1950s Chinese reportage literature through the lens of New China's cultural politics. Around the time of the Bandung Conference in 1955, the strengthening of Sino-Indonesian diplomatic ties prompted writers in mainland China to turn their attention to Indonesia. Despite fluctuations in the bilateral relationship, Chinese literary circles portrayed Indonesia as a potential socialist ally within the Third World, reflecting a distinctive spirit of internationalist idealism. Works by authors such as Sima Wensen and Zhou Erfu combined ethnographic observation with ideological messaging. These texts expressed solidarity with anti-imperialist struggles while projecting China’s revolutionary experience onto a broader global context. Prof. Dr. Stenberg will analyze how this literary production shaped China’s revolutionary imagination of the Global South and examine the narrative strategies it employed, particularly how the emphasis on political solidarity often obscured Indonesia’s internal diversity and complexity.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Josh Stenberg (Chinese Studies Dept., University of Sydney)

Josh Stenberg is Associate Professor in Chinese Studies and Deputy Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and a recipient of the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award as well as Fulbright and International Institute for Asian Studies fellowships. Recent books include academic monographs Minority Stages: Sino-Indonesian Performance and Public Display (University of Hawaii Press, 2019; Asian Studies Association of Australia Early Career Book Prize, Honorable Mention), Liyuanxi: Chinese ‘Pear Garden’ Theatre (Methuen Drama, 2022) and the edited and annotated Kunqu Masters on Chinese Theatrical Practice (Anthem, 2022, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Translation Prize, Honorable Mention). Two books are forthcoming: the edited volume Beyond State-Centric Soft Power: Actors and Arenas in Sino-Indonesian Cultural Encounters and a co-authored monograph titled Self-Translation and the Modern Chinese Literary World. He is also an award-winning translator of contemporary Chinese-language poetry and drama.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Siew Wen Jia (Department Chinese Language and Literature, NEUC)

Dr. Siew Wen Jia is Assistant Professor from Department of Chinese Language and Literature NEUC. Her scholarly interests included Chinese Modern Literature, Mahua/Nanyang Literature and 19th and 20th Centuries Literature and Culture. She graduated with first-class honours in 2014 from the University of Malaya’s Chinese Studies. She received a Master of Literature from Peking University in 2017. She has been a part of the “China Studies Programme” (Ph.D. in China Fellowship) since 2017, and in 2022, she graduated from Peking University with a doctorate in Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature. Her doctoral dissertation title is “Nanyang Memories and Cross-border Networks: The Foreign Land, Imperialism and Wartime from the Returner’s Perspective”, the other academic works include “Modern Epic’ and Anti-Japanese War in Burma-Yunnan: Centered on Du Yunxie’s Forty Poems and other essays” (2023) , “Drifting Experience and Colonial Cracks: Centered on AI WU’s Heading South and the Travel to the Sea/Island in Wandering Miscellaneous Records” (2019) and “Dong GuoSheng’ in the Ju-Xing Monthly Magazine: A series of Zhou ZuoRen’s Articles Written during His Imprisonment (1947-1949)” (2018).

Date: 13 August 2025 (Wednesday)

Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Venue: ZOOM (ID & password will be sent to your mobile number and email)

Registration Form: https://bit.ly/3seNHqc

Registration is free. Please complete your registration by Tuesday, 12 August 2025.