A diverse programme of cultural activity focusing on China and Brazil, touring across Scotland
Posted by seumasach on January 24, 2013
February, 2013
A diverse programme of cultural activity focusing on China and Brazil, touring across Scotland from 12-20 February 2013
Are you interested in learning more about Chinese culture, including films, textiles, dance and painting? Or perhaps you would like to learn more about Brazilian architecture, music, and literature. For a week, we will be showing films, sharing talks, and presenting demonstrations all with a focus on either China or Brazil. Wherever you are, or wherever you are from, we hope you will come and join us.
Events will be taking place at the Universities of Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Strathclyde and St Andrews.
Details of all our events are below. All events are free. Join us for films, talks, dance,
refreshments.
12 February
University of Stirling
6-9pm, Pathfoot Building E26
6-7:30 Film screening: Domesticas (2001)
Five maids in São Paulo are observed in this episodic, impressionistic film. The women interact with each other, ride busses, work, and have longings: Rai for a husband, Créo for her lost daughter, Roxane for a career in modeling. Quitéria is naive, a gull for thieves. Cida has a husband and also a lover. While each woman gets what she wishes for (more or less), it doesn’t always make things better. As Roxane says, no child sets out to become a maid. But once there, are all other doors closed?
7:30-8 Dr Karen Pena, Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow:
‘Curta, curtada: ‘Micro-genre’ in the Brazilian Short Story, Poem and Film (or What the Tweet Can Do Now)’
8-9 Brazilian music performance by Reginaldo Dias and Bob MacLaren
13 February
University of St. Andrews
1-6pm, Buchanan Lecture Theatre in the Buchanan Building, Union Street,
1-3 Film screening Lula, the Son of Brazil(2009)
Lula, Son of Brazil is a richly produced, deeply moving story of the early years of Brazil’s most beloved president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. As a full-fledged member of the union, Lula found his path to a life in politics. However it wasn’t until he experienced an intense personal transformation following the startling death of his first wife and unborn son, that Lula found the courage and ambition he needed to take full control of his destiny.
3-4 Simone Toji, PGR in Social Anthropology, University of St. Andrews:
‘Developing Brazil: Some Internal Impacts of the Recent Process’
Brazil is being considered one of the ‘promising nations’ of the current world. The talk will focus on some of the changes that led Brazil to be recognized as a relevant player among the developing countries, and the domestic contradictions of this course.
Michele Wisdahl, PGR in Social Anthropology, University of St. Andrews:
‘Realizando os Sonhos: the Emerging Brazilian Middle Class and Private Education’
Given that the Northeast city of Fortaleza is the fifth most unequal city in the world, it makes sense that education and getting into university are critical–particularly for those in Brazil’s much talked-about emerging middle class. Private education is viewed as a means of “realizando os sonhos” (realising one’s dreams). After fifteen months of fieldwork studying (and sometimes avoiding studying) alongside private school students preparing for university entrance exams, I began to better understand “os sonhos” and the high stakes of getting into university. Here I’ll relate these experiences and what they might indicate for Brazil’s future.
5-6 Brazilian music performance by Reginaldo Dias and Bob MacLaren
13 February
University of Strathclyde
6-9 pm, Room GH554, Graham Hills Building
6-7 Jing Han, PhD Student in the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History at the University of Glasgow:
‘Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and White: The Mystery of Colour in Ancient Chinese Costumes’
Talk/demonstration about dyes of Chinese textile
Jing Han is going to speak about the 5 colours in Chinese textile. Starting from the ambiguous records vs. strict regulations related to the 5 colours, the speech will take you back to ancient times with illustrations from ancient Chinese philosophy and from the various imagery that the 5 colours stand for. Pictures of historical portraits and drawings will be presented accompanied by interesting stories. Jing will also show you the ancient wisdom techniques to make the 5 colours, demonstrating live samples of the plants used to extract them, as well as the amazing dyeing effect.
7-9 Dr Philippa Lovatt:
”Unknown Pleasures’: Independent Cinema in Postsocialist China’
Academic paper about film that will follow
Film screening: Unknown Pleasures (2002)
Living in the provincial city of Datong, jobless best friends XiaoJi and Bin Bin have lots of time on their hands. At nineteen, they live for the present, unconcerned about the future and susceptible to the lure of easy money.
(Film Certificate: 12)
14 February
University of Dundee
6-9pm, 2G11 Dalhousie (Lecture Theatre 4)
6-7:30 Film screening Waste Land (2009)
Documentary about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. Waste Land is a record of one of his most elaborate projects, an installation in ‘Jardim Gramacho’, one of the largest rubbish dumps in the world, located in a poor district on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
7:30-8:15 Dr. Fernando Lannes Fernandes, Senior Lecturer in Inequalities, University of Dundee/Pedro Germano Leal, PhD Candidate in Literary Theory and Visual Culture, Stirling Maxwell Centre, University of Glasgow:
‘Brazil beyond stereotypes. An exploration of images and imaginations about the idea of ‘being Brazilian’’
This talk aims to explore some aspects around the idea of ‘being Brazilian’. It will be made through the lenses of ‘a foreign view’ of two Brazilian living abroad. Our idea is to develop a ‘soft’ talk in a essayistic format where we feel free to explore the images and imaginations about Brazil that are present in the most common stereotypes about the country.
8:15-9 Brazilian music performance by Reginaldo Dias and Bob MacLaren
18 February
University of Glasgow
6-9pm, Andrew Stewart Cinema and Performance Studio
6-7:30 Film screening: Waste Land (2009)
Documentary about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz. Waste Land is a record of one of his most elaborate projects, an installation in ‘Jardim Gramacho’, one of the largest rubbish dumps in the world, located in a poor district on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
7:30-8 Dr Karen Pena, Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow:
‘Curta, Curtada: ‘Micro-genre’ in the Brazilian Short Story, Poem and Film (or What the Tweet Can Do Now)’
8-9 Demonstration and Capoeira taster session by Capoeira Senzala Group at the Performance Studio
19 February
University of Edinburgh
6-9pm, 7.18 David Hume Tower
6-7:30 Film Screening: Domesticas (2001)
Five maids in São Paulo are observed in this episodic, impressionistic film. The women interact with each other, ride busses, work, and have longings: Rai for a husband, Créo for her lost daughter, Roxane for a career in modeling. Quitéria is naive, a gull for thieves. Cida has a husband and also a lover. While each woman gets what she wishes for (more or less), it doesn’t always make things better. As Roxane says, no child sets out to become a maid. But once there, are all other doors closed?
7:30-8:15 Richard J. Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures, University of Edinburgh:
‘Brazil’s Modern Architecture’
Academic paper
From 1930 to 1960 Brazil engaged in series of large-scale modernisation projects in which modernist architecture played a criticalrole. The key symbol of the process was Brasilia, a new capital built fromscratch in the country’s interior, inaugurated in 1960. This lectureexplores architecture’s role in this project of national modernisation, aswell as the contradictions inherent in its realisation. The lecture also considers the legacy of this modernisation, and what it means in Brazil now.
8:15-9 Brazilian music performance by Reginaldo Dias and Bob MacLaren
19 February
University of Edinburgh
6-9 pm, Language and Humanities Centre Screening Room
6-7 Meiyi Chen, MSc Dance Science & Education University of Edinburgh, and
Ji Zheng, PhD in Film Studies University of Edinburgh:
’Dancing Spring Festival and Visual Chinese New Year’
As Chinese New Year is close to the event, Meiyi and Ji from Edinburgh Chinese Cultural Association (ECCA) will give a talk about Chinese festival dances and then demonstrate New Year’s icons, ornaments and symbols.
7-9 Francesca Kaufman, PhD Candidate Chinese Studies
‘Screening Ermo: Rural Desires and Divides in 1990′s China’
Academic paper about the following film
Film Screening: Ermo (1994)
Establishing a link to to the Chinese New Year topic, the film alludes to the respective festivities. Ermo lives in a village in northern Hebei province and works night and day on the family’s handmade noodle business. Her neighbours, Blindman and his wife, have a television. This is a source of envy for Ermo who determines to buy a television with the biggest screen available by whatever means necessary.
(Film Certificate: 15)
20 February
University of Glasgow
6-9 pm, Andrew Stewart Cinema and Room 408 at Gilmorehill Centre
Calligraphy is a special category in China’s world of fine arts and one of the most challenging Chinese art forms for a foreigner to appreciate or master. Calligraphy, or shufa, is one of the four basic skills and disciplines of the Chinese literati. This event will be dedicated to Chinese calligraphy, hosting an academic paper, followed by a workshop where people will have the chance to experience Chinese calligraphy and brush painting.
6-6.45 Andrew Stewart Cinema: Prof Nick Pearce, Richmond Chair of Fine Arts (History of Art), University of Glasgow:
‘Chinese Painting and Calligraphy: Mind over Matter?’
Academic paper
6.45-9 Room 408: Chinese Calligraphy workshop by the Ricefield Organisation , conducted by Chi Zhang
You can check Chi Zhang’s work here:
In These New Times 
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