The chapters in this book represent a careful and rigorous selection of papers presented in a workshop conducted on fate in Chinese literature, film and folktale at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany in September 2016. The workshop explored issues of fate in Chinese literature and culture, with papers covering the Chinese manifestations of the concept of fate in both traditional and modern society, particularly in the genres of literature, film and folk narratives. The chapters presented in this volume explore the concepts in terms of their representation in literary imagination and film. Topics dealt with cover the philosophical, religious, sociological and psychoanalytical issues behind the Chinese discourses of fate.
Over the past three decades, scholarship on fate in Chinese culture has grown significantly, particularly in comparison with Western concepts. In addition to the numerous articles published, scholarly books, such as Fortune-Tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society (Richard J. Smith, 1991) and The Magnitude of Ming: Command, Allotment, and Fate in Chinese Culture (edited by Christopher Luke, 2005), have made significant contributions to the subject. However, many literary works and films in Chinese that deal with concepts of fate and prognostication have been left unattended and unnoticed. For this reason, we organized a workshop that allowed scholars from Asia, Europe and North America to explore representations of fate and related concepts in Chinese literature, film and folk narratives.
We would like to thank the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities for sponsoring the research and for organizing the workshop. Colleagues who contributed to the successful organization of the workshop include Petra Hahm, the Administrator of the International Consortium, and Martin Kroher, a postdoctoral fellow there in 2016–2017. We would also like to thank all the participants who contributed to the discussion at the workshop.
Kwok-kan Tam
Michael Lackner
Monika Gaenssbauer
Terry Siu-han Yip
May 2018