Talk - Bodies of Control: Women, Reproduction, and State Power in Chinese Dystopias
This talk examines how Chinese dystopian narratives interrogate the entanglements of gender, reproduction, and authoritarian power. From historical practices that curtailed women’s autonomy to contemporary policies governing family life, such works reveal how women’s bodies become contested sites of political negotiation and social anxiety. Reproductive labour emerges as a domain where personal freedom collides with state imperatives, exposing the emotional and physical burdens of coerced compliance, social stigma, and systemic inequality. By magnifying real-world anxieties within dystopian frameworks, these stories underscore the persistence of cultural expectations that continue to define women through marriage and motherhood, alongside the traumatic legacies of reproductive regulation. They invite us to reflect on how literature illuminates the human cost of subordinating individual autonomy to collective agendas, and how dystopia, in heightening such tensions, functions both as a critique of the present and a forewarning of what lies ahead.
Tamara Lai-Ming Ho, Honorary Researcher at the University of Toronto and Editor-in-Chief of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, discusses bodies of control in Chinese dystopias on Thursday 23 Oct 12:30pm at KCL Strand campus.
This is an in-person event. Registration is required.
NB This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee all ticket holders a place. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. Those without tickets will not be admitted.
About the speaker
Tammy Lai-Ming Ho is a Hong Kong-born poet, translator, scholar, and former tenured professor of English literature. She is the editor-in-chief of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, the first English editor of Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, and a founding co-editor of Hong Kong Studies, currently the only peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to research on Hong Kong affairs. Tammy's first collection of poetry was Hula Hooping (Chameleon, 2015), for which she won the Young Artist Award in Literary Arts presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. Her first short-story collection Her Name Upon the Strand (Delere Press), her second poetry collection Too Too Too Too (Math Paper Press), and chapbook An Extraterrestrial in Hong Kong (Musical Stone) were published in 2018. She is also the author of the academic volume Neo-Victorian Cannibalism (Palgrave, 2019) and she has published widely on Hong Kong literature and culture.
Please contact lauchina@kcl.ac.uk if you have any questions or specific participatory requirements.
