Center for East Asian Studies
China Brown Bag
Yiqun Zhou, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages, Stanford University
This talk will examine the role of religion in shaping two distinctive patterns of sociability in ancient China and Greece (ca. 10th-4th centuries BCE). Comparisons and contrasts will be made between the forms, spaces, and ideologies of the religious festivitie--from household feasts to public festivals--in the two traditions. Whereas the sacrificial banquet in honor of ancestors epitomized the ideal Chinese familial and sociopolitical order, the festivals that featured athletic and musical contests were at the center of Greek religious life and served as important institutions for the expression of Greek civic ideology. This key difference points to the distinct ways in which human bonds were formed, cultivated, and celebrated in the two ancient societies.
Yiqun Zhou received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Chicago in 2004. Her major research interests include Chinese and comparative family and women's history, early Chinese literature and history, Chinese religion, and China-Greece comparative studies. Before coming to Stanford, she taught at Valparaiso University (Indiana). She is currently revising her dissertation, "Kin and Companions: Gender and Sociability in Ancient China and Greece" in preparation for publication.