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Date
Time
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Venue
Brunei Gallery Building, SOAS University of London
Room
Room BG01
Event type
Seminar

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Filial revenge in the Chinese context is defined as the ritual duty of killing of a parent’s (usually the father’s) murderer by a son or daughter who then gives him/herself up to the authorities for legal sanction. 

This act of revenge is endorsed in Confucian discourses on filial piety and ritual as well as popular culture but is simultaneously considered to be a threat to the state that must be contained. This problematic yet valorized ancient and perennial act of violence (frequently involving decapitation and, on occasion, ritual cannibalism) became a cultural paradigm still invoked today, as a 2017 case attests. 

In this talk, Dr Alison Bailey will trace the contested ritual and legal dilemma that filial revenge has represented to the state over centuries and the public sympathy it aroused and continues to arouse through examining the 1592 case of Wang Tingshi, who killed his father’s murderers in an act of filial revenge and was celebrated for doing so.

Image credit: Bird Liang via Unsplash

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C.D. Alison Bailey is former director of the Centre for Chinese Research and Assistant Professor of Premodern Chinese Literature at the University of British Columbia. A graduate in BA Chinese at SOAS, she lived and worked in China and taught at Cornell and SOAS before joining UBC. 

Her research focuses on revenge, legal history, and emotions in late imperial China and her book, A Shield for a Pillow: A Cultural History of Filial Revenge in China, is close to completion.

  • Chair: Dr Desmond Cheung, Lecturer in Chinese Studies, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Registration

This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Please note that seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. 

This event is taking place on campus and will not be recorded or live-streamed.

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