From 11 to 13 April 2024 we organize in Geneva a Symposium about the promotion of Chinese culture and arts in the decades 1930-1950 by, and around, the Geneva Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale.This symposium aims at being an opportunity for exchange and discussion among 16 specialists to shed light on the Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale and on the circumstances and context of its action. The main focus is on the promotion of Chinese arts: painting, literature, music, theatre and opera.

Presentation

The topics covered reflect the three axes of our call for contributions and the extraordinary range of subjects touched upon by the Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale in its unique endeavor to “show” China to the world. Conceived and run by the Chinese, the BSI is a rare, if not unique, example of a non-Western cultural diplomacy institution installed in a Western country between 1930 and 1950. It anticipates modern cultural centers. Our symposium aims to rethink together the circumstances and strategies of this dissemination enterprise.

Les thématiques abordées reprennent les trois axes de notre appel à contribution ; elles reflètent l’extraordinaire palette de sujets touchés par la Bibliothèque Sino-International dans son entreprise unique de « donner à voir » la Chine au monde. Conçue et gérée par des Chinois, la Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale constitue un cas rare, voire unique entre 1930 et 1950, d’institution de diplomatie culturelle installée en occident par un pays non-occidental. Elle préfigure les centres culturels moderne. Notre symposium entend repenser collectivement les circonstances et les stratégies de cette entreprise de diffusion.

Program

Day 1 – Thursday 11 April 2024

13:30 – 14:00 :Welcome and opening

• Mme Béatrice ZAWODNIK, Director, Geneva Haute école de musique
• Prof. Xavier BOUVIER, Geneva Haute école de musique

14:00 – 17:00 : Session 1 : The Sino-International Library

• Prof. Xavier BOUVIER – Geneva Haute école de musique : Representing “persons and things Chinese” : an introduction to the Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale. :
• Prof. Marianne BASTID BRUGUIÈRE : Une quête obstinée d’universalité: Li Shizeng, sa bibliothèque Sino-internationale et la coopération culturelle mondiale, 1932-1973.
• Lic. Alfredo Alzugarat – Archivos literarios, Biblioteca Nacional de Uruguay. : La Biblioteca Sino-International en Uruguay :
• Dr. Jennifer Y. CHANG 張曉筠 – National Chengchi University, Taipei. : Visualizing Nationhood and Multilateral Diplomacy at the Bibliothèque Sino-Internationale (1933-1951).

20:00: Film Screening: Love and Duty (1931)

Directed by Bu Wancang and starring Ruan Lingyu and Jin Yan, the 1931 film Love and Duty 恋爱与义务was long considered lost, before its 1990s rediscovery in the BSI holdings in Montevideo. Wonderfully restored by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, the film was almost immediately hailed as one of the greatest Chinese silent films.

The screening will be accompanied by musicians from HEM Silk and Bamboo Ensemble.

Day 2 – Friday 12 April 2024

09:00 – 12:30: Session 2 : People

• Prof. Marie BOUCHEZ – Université Gustave Eiffel : Autour de Li Yuying : réseaux intellectuels franco-chinois et engagements :
• Dr. Claire Hui-Chen LIAO, Université Paris Sorbonne et HEM : De Miroir de la Chine 中華鏡 à la revue Chine 中國新聞. Louis Laloy et ses amis chinois dans la diffusion de la culture chinoise en Europe :
• Dr. LEI QIANG 雷強 – National Library of China, Beijing : Hu Tienshe, Xiao Yu, and the Sino-International Library :
• Prof. MI Tian 宓田 – Nankai University : Marcela de Juan: a “New Woman” out of the old China : 黄玛赛：一位走出旧中国的“新女性”
• Mme Colette GIRARD – Université de Fribourg : Parcours d’étudiants Chinois à Fribourg

14:00-17:00: Session 3 : Theater and Films

• Prof. CHEN Jun 陳均 – Beijing University, School of Arts : 中国国际图书馆的戏曲跨文化实践 = Cross-cultural practice of Chinese Opera at the Sino-International Library :
• Prof. Xavier BOUVIER – Geneva Haute école de musique : La BSI et la diffusion du théâtre chinois
• Prof. LO Shih-Lung – 羅仕龍 – Tsinghua University, Taipei. : À la recherche de l’ouvrage perdu de Song Chunfang, ou un « sens du temps » de la littérature chinoise contemporaine :
• Prof. Cyril CORDOBA – Université de Fribourg : Ombres électriques sur la Suisse : La diffusion de films chinois sur les écrans helvétiques.

20:00: Concert : An evening at the BSI

Chinese Musical and Theatrical performances in Europe, 1920-1950

This concert draws its program from musical and theatrical performances that took place at the time of the BSI and in the period immediately preceding it : The 1928 performance in Frankfurt, the 1929 concert at Musée Guimet, the conferences of Xiao Shuxian and the theatrical performances of La Lavandière, an adaptation of浣纱记 by Louis Laloy.

Musicians from the HEM

Day 3 : Saturday 13 April 2024

9:00-12:00: Session 4 : Visual arts and Music

• Mgr. Michaela Pejčochová Ph.D. – National Gallery in Prague : Liu Haisu and modern Chinese ink painting in Interwar Period Europe
• Prof. Joys Cheung 張海欣 – Taiwan Normal University : Locating the elusive folk/populaire in modern Chinese art song culture, 1920s-1930s.
• Prof. CHEN Guanchen 陳廣琛 – Emory University, USA. : Excavating the Chinese Overtones of Art Deco: The Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes.
• Dr. Pascale BUGNON – Université de Genève and Haute école de musique de Genève : “A Truthful Picture of the Chinese Reality” : The Sino-International Library’s China Illustrated magazine (1935-1937) :

12:00-14:00: Farewell Session

20:00: Film Screening : Yulan, the destiny of a Chinese schoolgirl (1929-1930)

This film is an adaptation of a feature film shot by an operator from the Berliner Missionsfilm-Genossenschaft (Berlin Mission Film Department) set up at the request of the Basel Missions. It tells the story of Yulan, a Chinese student forced by her family to marry a young man who turns out to be an inveterate gambler. Yulan is one of the ‘possessions’ he pawns and, after another losing game, she is forced to surrender herself to a new ‘husband’. But she prefers to run away and take refuge at the Mission, then convert and become a missionary herself. During a tour of the countryside, Yulan finds her husband, who has fallen into total desolation, and brings him to the Mission.