Project description DEENESFRITPL Analysing comics’ role in the People’s Republic of China Comics culture in the People’s Republic of China aligned with the national, economic and political schemes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This culture, known as lianhuanhua, literally ‘linked images’, is understudied. With this in mind, the ERC-funded ChinaComx project will study comics culture in China, analysing its production, distribution and contribution to the nation-building project, covering developments since the late 1940s. The project also aims to investigate how comics have played a role in creating a new socialist man and contributed to the continued legitimacy of the CCP. It studies how propaganda affects citizens through literary and film adaptations, analysing text–image relations, narrative qualities and visual language influenced by traditional Chinese art. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Comics Culture in the People’s Republic of China (ChinaComx) sets out to investigate the intellectual, political, social, historical, and transcultural dimensions of a medium still heavily understudied: lianhuanhua, literally “linked images.” It studies them as a medium from the People’s Republic of China and its place within the larger Chinese and global comics culture. Studying the conditions of comic art’s production, distribution and consumption, the project sheds light on how comics contribute to the project of nation building, to the creation of a new socialist man and to the continued legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In addition, it investigates how these at times highly propagandistic texts were read by ordinary citizens. In clearly circumscribed case studies, the project analyzes large amounts of literary and filmic adaptations, the conventions of text-image relations (and the breaking of these conventions), narrative qualities, as well as the visual language which is very much indebted to other visual forms of art, including traditional Chinese visual art, cartoons, propaganda posters, photography and movies. With its focus on practices and meaning making, ChinaComx moreover delves into the changing global cultural, political and economic connections within the socialist cultural sphere, within the Greater China region, East Asia and beyond, tracing distinct and changing relationships of domestic and foreign elements. The case studies cover developments since the late 1940s to the present and situate concrete phenomena within larger developments and traditions. In providing more knowledge about comic culture from China and in contributing to theoretical debates, ChinaComx aims to delineate the term „lianhuanhua“ as a distinct genre and area of academic research that bears specific characteristics, being embedded in a particular context of origin, yet, changing across time and space as Japanese manga or Franco-Belgian bandes desinnées. Fields of science humanitiesartsvisual artshumanitiesartsmodern and contemporary artcinematographysocial sciencespolitical sciencesgovernment systems Keywords Comics media studies modern and contemporary China Chinese culture literature and politics propaganda Programme(s) HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2022-COG - ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS Call for proposal ERC-2022-COG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants Host institution RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG Net EU contribution € 2 000 000,00 Address SEMINARSTRASSE 2 69117 Heidelberg Germany See on map Region Baden-Württemberg Karlsruhe Heidelberg, Stadtkreis Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 000 000,00 Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all RUPRECHT-KARLS-UNIVERSITAET HEIDELBERG Germany Net EU contribution € 2 000 000,00 Address SEMINARSTRASSE 2 69117 Heidelberg See on map Region Baden-Württemberg Karlsruhe Heidelberg, Stadtkreis Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 000 000,00
