Navigating In-betweenness: Literary and Filmic Border Crossings in the Cultural Sinosphere

Abstract

This special issue stems from a panel presented at the 2024 Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL) conference at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, titled “Behold the Human.” Against the backdrop of rapid global transformations and the rising influence of posthumanist, inhuman, and anti-humanist perspectives, the conference centered on a critical reflection on the concept of the human in literary and cultural discourse, particularly within the contexts of Chinese and comparative literature. Panels addressed a range of issues—including epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic dimensions—examining how conceptions of the human have been constructed, contested, or reimagined across diverse literary forms and media, including classical texts, modern literature, genre fiction, cinema, and digital platforms. Several contributions focused on the human’s entanglement with the non-human and the role of literature in articulating these evolving dynamics. The articles presented in this special issue reflect the discussions and insights generated during a panel titled “More than Human: Transgressions of Human and Non-human Realms in Chinese Literature and Films,” which specifically focused on themes of border transgressions, the concept of the “more-than-human,” and how Chinese-language and related literary and cultural narratives engage with these issues.