ASERN at the 20th and 21st French and Francophone Studies Conference

Organized by ASERN members Elizabeth Collins and Howie Tam, and including papers by Leslie Barnes and Catherine Nguyen, this panel spanned cultures and continents, exploring connections, perspectives, and solidarities among francophone Asian writers, filmmakers, artists, and activists in the Francosphere today. What might it mean to be “Asian” in the francophone world, and how are these questions considered in literature, cinema, bandes-dessinées, digital media, and other aesthetic forms? How have events such as the defence of universalist republicanism  in the aftermath of the death of Samuel Paty and the rise of anti-Asian racism and violence in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic sharpened this focus? 

Asian in the Francosphere? Views on Transcultural Literature, Film, and Media:

• Xinyi Tan (Coastal Carolina University): “Thinking beyond the French-Francophone dichotomy: the literary identities of François Cheng, Ying Chen, Shan Sa, and Kim Thúy” 
• Howie Tam (Harvard University): “Diasporic Return and Search for Worldly Home in Anna Moï’s L’année du cochon de feu“
• Xiaofan Amy Li (University College London): ”East Asia and Francophone Writing”  
• Elizabeth Collins (University of Pennsylvania): ”‘#AsiatiquesDeFrance’: Confronting Anti-Asian Racism in Contemporary France through Digital Media”
• Leslie Barnes (Australian National University) ”Smoke and Mirrors: Sex Work and Rithy Panh’s Cinematic Image” 
• Catherine Nguyen (Harvard University): ”Drawing Little Wars in Marcelino Truong’s Graphic Memoirs” 
• Haiqi Zhou (University of California, Los Angeles): ”Frédéric Chau: (Dis)Appearance of the Chinese Community in French Cinema”