Comparative Aesthetics Conference - Media Reports

The conference was reported in a range of media outlets in China, including:

1. Guangming Daily (its digital version) – a national daily targeting intellectuals. Its print version has a daily circulation of over a million copies.
2. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) online news – CASS has the largest concentration of researchers (3200) with 31 research institutes and 45 research centres.
3. Chinese Society for the Anthropology of Art website.
4. Chinese Writers Association website.
5. Chinese Art – the major national newspaper on art and literature.

Below is the abbreviated translation of the Guangming Daily report (other outlets' reports are broadly similar).

The Ninth International Forum on Marxist Aesthetics was Held

Durham, United Kingdom and Hangzhou, China - both cities celebrated the opening of the Ninth International Forum on Marxist Aesthetics. Themed as ‘Comparative Aesthetics in Transnational Perspective’, the conference is co-organised by the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University and College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University. The conference, held both online and offline, attracted more than 60 senior scholars from Europe, China, North America and Australia.

Panel themes of the conference include ‘Comparative Studies of Chinese Aesthetic Modernity’, ‘Marx’s Late Aesthetics’, ‘Conflict and Conversation: From an Aesthetic Modernity Perspective’, ‘Aesthetic Governance and Comparative Modernities’, ‘The Function of Critique: A Comparative Study’ and ‘Comparative Fashion Studies’.

The opening ceremony was chaired by Dr Qing Cao from Durham University. In her speech, Professor Claire O’Malley, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Durham University, highlighted the established academic partnership between Durham University and Zhejiang University. Prof Lianzhen He, Vice President of Zhejiang University, said the conference demonstrates the efforts by scholars to work together to build a shared community of the world. It also shows the unique role of arts and humanities that can transcend geographical limitations. In her speech, Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Durham University, points to the importance of cross-lingual and cross-cultural studies between the two universities. Durham University is committed to high-quality research in arts and humanities. Scholarly work on Marxist aesthetics and other subjects facilitates a deeper understanding of the complexities of the modern world, using various conceptual tools. Professor Jonathan Long, Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures of Durham University, underlines the much neglected significance of Marxist aesthetics in studying today’s world saturated with diverse voices and medias.

(Guo Chao, He Xinyu, The Guangming Daily)