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Theme: 11. ‘Pan-Africanism’, ‘Bandung Spirit’, ‘Global South’ Futures and the New World Order
Emily Wilcox
William & Mary, United States
Emily Wilcox
William & Mary, United States
Emily Wilcox
William & Mary, United States
Fang Wan
Yanshan University, China
Tings Chak
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, China
Delinda Collier
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, United States
Revolutionary Third Worldism is a project that seeks to enhance collaboration and mutual understanding among formerly colonized peoples while challenging colonial hierarchies and seeking to deconstruct the entire colonial global system that undergirds them. This panel inquires into the cultural dimensions of this project of revolutionary Third Worldism at the nexus of two of its key architects and agents—China and Africa. The authors focus on two modalities of cultural production: writing and performing arts. In each case, the authors use close analysis of cultural texts and events to highlight the ways in which Chinese and African cultural producers challenged colonial systems through their creative practice. Fang Wan takes up the representation of landscapes in two works of fiction—China’s Agricultural Cooperative Novel Great Changes Across the Land (Shanxiang jubian) and Tanzania’s Ujamaa novel Snake Skin (Gamba la nyoka)—arguing that both articulate a new vision of colonial landscapes that directly challenges Western-centric modes of colonial landscape narration. Tings Chak excavates theories of national liberation expressed in the writings of two of the most important leaders of revolutionary Third Worldism: Amílcar Cabral (1924-1973) and Mao Zedong (1893-1973). Emily Wilcox examines Chinese accounts of the first performing arts exchanges between the People’s Republic of China and various African countries, demonstrating how these accounts represent Black dancing bodies in ways that upend and challenge racist stereotypes common in Western dance criticism. Yucong Hao delves into the experiences of Chinese performing artists who worked to embody African dance during different historical periods, revealing the ways in which Revolutionary Third Worldism transformed over time and eventually produced new modes of diverging corporeal engagements and performances. Taken together, the four papers offer concrete examples of revolutionary Third Worldism as a cultural and artistic practice that connected artists, writers, and performers in China and communities across the African continent. The papers demonstrate specific ways in which literary production and performance activities generate new knowledge and ideas, as well as new embodied experiences and representations of the natural world, people, and society. Through their analysis, the authors help us to better understand how new modes of culture and art work to deconstruct colonial hierarchies in thought and practice. This panel is organized in relation to two other panels under the title “Afro-Asian Solidarities in Arts and Culture,” to be followed by a roundtable that initiates a conversation across the three panels.
Presenter: Emily Wilcox – William & Mary
Presenter: Fang Wan – Yanshan University
Presenter: Tings Chak – Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Presenter: Delinda J. Collier – School of the Art Institute of Chicago