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How did people converse when they shared a written language—but not a spoken one?
We are delighted to invite you to the hybrid guest lecture:
“Between ‘I Wrote’ and ‘He Replied’: The Making of Brush Talk in Chosŏn–Qing Encounters” by Ivana Gubic
Date and Time: September 23, 9:00 sharp–10:20
Venue: University of Copenhagen, South Campus, room 10.3.28 (check https://humanities.ku.dk/contact/howtofindus/ )
Online: Zoom - check link above
When Chosŏn travellers met people in Qing China, writing in Literary Sinitic could make conversation possible even when they did not share a spoken language.
Yŏnhaengnok (Records of Travel to Beijing) often preserve these fascinating brush talks in a deceptively orderly manner: “I wrote,” “he replied,” “I asked again.”
But what actually happened between these turns?
Looking beyond the neat textual record, this lecture approaches brush talk not simply as a source of information, but as a practice situated between speaking and writing. It explores the conditions and mechanics that made brush talk possible, the practical and social negotiations through which it unfolded, the emotions and relationships it could produce, and the ways in which these fleeting encounters were later transformed into texts—and imagined anew.
Ivana Gubić is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Zagreb. She received her PhD from Ruhr University Bochum with a dissertation entitled Conversations in Hong Taeyong’s Records of Travel to Beijing, 1765–1766. She also holds BA and MA degrees in Chinese Language and Literature from Central China Normal University in Wuhan.
Everyone is warmly welcome!
