A Centre for Media History research team participated in the “Transnational Media History: Harbor Cities and Communication Workshop”, Sept. 25-27, 2019, held at Fudan University, Shanghai.

This event was hosted by The Center for Information and Communication Studies, Fudan University, in association with The Research Center for Media History, Hamburg University, and the Centre for Media History, Macquarie University. This is the second event in the Transnational Media History Trilateral project between our three centres and universities. Prof. Huang Dan, Director, CICS, Fudan University; A/Prof. Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Director, Center for Media History, Hamburg University; and Dr Virginia Madsen, Director, Centre for Media History, Macquarie University gave addresses at the opening ceremony with the Vice Chancellor of Fudan University.

Prof. Huang Dan, Director, CICS, Fudan University

The CMH team gave individual papers during the workshop held over the next two days:

• “Port city soundings Hamburg, Shanghai, Sydney: we begin their story ‘on ground level, with footsteps’” (Virginia Madsen, Macquarie University)
• “Sydney: a media city” (Bridget Griffen-Foley, Macquarie University)
• “Excavating representations of Sydney as a Port city” (Justine Lloyd, Macquarie University)
• “Hollywood, Exile and New Types of Pictures: Günther Anders’s Transnational Media Theory” (Christopher John Müller, Macquarie University)

Former MMCCS PhD student and graduate James Yi Guo also attended, and presented “’Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown’: The Campaign of China’s Movie Queen, 1933-34”. Guo is now a lecturer at Chongqing University, China, as well as Honorary member of the CMH, Macquarie.

From left to right: (top row) Chris Müller, Philipp Seuferling
(bottom row) Justine Lloyd, Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Virginia Madsen, Bridget Griffen-Foley, Regina Siemß

Hans-Ulrich Wagner and Virginia Madsen further presented their paper “Harbor Cities and Communication” during the event “We are the city: Dialogue with Artists” at Green Hill, a new arts precinct development in Shanghai.

This event featured local artists and others in conversation on “Public art and public participation”, and was introduced by Wang Yun, Chief editor of City Column, The Paper and Shi Hantao, an Independent Curator. Other guests included the Journalist Shen Jianwen, and the Economist, Liang Jie. Yin Yi, a Sound Artist, and Huang Song, a prominent Art Critic also spoke.

The partnership between the three universities and groups continues into 2020 as we collaborate on a research project. A meeting was held on the final day chaired by co-lead of the project A/Prof. Hans-Ulrich Wagner.