Religion in Asia: The Politics of Laughter

About the Talk

Crossing the political divide of 1949, this talk examines the political uses of laughter and ridicule in Maoist campaigns against “feudal superstition.” Specifically, it analyzes how the Maoist revolution selectively appropriated gendered tropes and rhetorical strategies from China’s imperial past and repurposed them for new political ends. In propelling the Party from its rural base to national victory, Maoist propaganda not only mobilized class hatred through arts and literature steeped in “blood and tears.” It also transformed laughter into a critical medium for engaging rural audiences and promoting Communist ideals of modernity. The persistence and transformation of traditional tropes and rhetorical strategies thus reveal a complex relationship between revolutionary rupture and cultural continuity. They invite us to reconsider the relationship between tradition and modernity across established historical frameworks.

Free lunch will be offered at this talk. Doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes before the start time.

The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact the Sigur Center at gsigur@gwu.edu. Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.

About the Speaker

Xiaofei Kang holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history from Columbia University (2000). She teaches courses on religions in East Asia, and her research focuses on gender, ethnicity, and Chinese religions in traditional and modern China. She is the author of The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2006). She co-authored (with Donald S. Sutton) Contesting the Yellow Dragon: Ethnicity, Religion and the State in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland (Brill, 2016), and co-edited (with Jia Jinhua and Ping Yao) Gendering Chinese Religion: Subject, Identity and Body (SUNY Press, 2014). Her recent book, Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in Chinese Communist Propaganda (Oxford, 2023) examines the intertwined discourses of religion, gender and the Chinese Communist revolution.