Call for Contribution / Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies 9.1 (2028)
Special Issue : « The Production and Dissemination of Regional Knowledge in Lingnan »
Guest editor : Rubén Almendros (Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica)
The editors of JEACS invite submissions for an upcoming special issue tentatively titled “The Production and Dissemination of Regional Knowledge in Lingnan,” to be published in the first half of 2028.
This special issue welcomes contributions from a wide range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences—including cultural and maritime history, geography, economics, literature, and linguistics—focusing on the ancient, modern, or contemporary Lingnan region, broadly understood as encompassing present-day Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan, as well as Hong Kong and Macao.
Submissions should examine how regional knowledge in the geographically peripheral area of Lingnan has been constructed and transmitted over time, and how it has interacted with, drawn upon, negotiated with, or challenged forms of central cultural and political authority through a variety of textual practices, from antiquity to the present. These may include local gazetteers, encyclopaedic compilations, Cantonese dictionaries, travel writings, fiction, poetry, visual and material culture, and the written production of regional academies, among others.
Contributions may address (but are not limited to) the following topics :
- The historical construction of Lingnan as a cultural and geographic category, including cartography and other spatial representations.
- Cantonese identity, anti-Manchu resistance, and ethnic dynamics within the Lingnan region.
- Intellectual traditions, regional academies, and literati knowledge production in late imperial Guangdong.
- Local gazetteers (difangzhi), encyclopaedias, and print culture as vehicles of regional knowledge.
- Religion, ritual, and local traditions in the formation of regional identity.
- Literary production as an archive of vernacular knowledge : fiction, travel writing, written notes, and classical poetry.
- The emergence and evolution of Cantonese as a written language.
- Translation, mediation, and the circulation of Cantonese texts.
- Maritime networks, the Canton trade system, and cross-cultural encounters with the West.
- Lingnan in transregional and transnational perspectives (e.g., Jiangsu, Fujian, Taiwan, Vietnam).
- Contributors are asked to submit an abstract for discussion with the guest editor via email (ruben.almendros inalco.fr) prior to preparing the full article. Abstracts should be submitted at the earliest convenience and no later than April 30, 2027. Further detail on house style and how to submit will be provided to accepted abstracts.
Final deadline for papers : July 31, 2027. Early submissions are welcome : suitable articles will be sent for peer review upon receipt, with formal acceptances issued on a rolling basis.
Length : Approximately 10,000 words (including bibliography)
Issue-specific enquiries : ruben.almendros inalco.fr