Prof. KWONG Ho Yee Connie

Professor Connie Kwong obtained her BA and MPhil in Chinese Language and Literature from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She subsequently pursued advanced studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), where she received a PhD in French and Comparative Literature. In addition, she has earned a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Vincennes Saint-Denis (Paris VIII). Since 2006, she has held a faculty position at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2014, Professor Kwong served as a visiting professor (enseignant-chercheur) at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in France, and in 2019, she was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Professor Kwong’s primary research interests lie in Twentieth-century Chinese literature, literary theories and criticism, comparative literature, translation and transcultural studies. Her inaugural monograph, published in French in 2011 and entitled Du Langage au Silence: L’évolution de la critique littéraire au XXème siècle, investigates the development of literary theories in Europe and their translatability across diverse cultural landscapes during the Twentieth century. In 2017, she published her second monograph, Fanal Obscur: Chinese Modernists and European Leftist Literature and Art. This study spans the transformative period from the Chinese Great Revolution in 1927 to the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. It examines the intricate relationships between Chinese modernist literature and European leftist literary and artistic movements, unveiling the complex and hybrid nature of Chinese literary modernity during a tumultuous historical epoch. Her more recent publication, Shuttling between East and West: The Transcultural Dialogue of Contemporary and Modern Chinese Literature (2019), focuses on deconstructing the binary oppositions commonly associated with Eastern and Western dichotomies in literary studies. The book scrutinises how Chinese writers redefine their urban, literary, and cultural identities against a backdrop where such dichotomies are prevalent, thus contributing to a more nuanced understanding of global literary discourse.

Professor Kwong has made significant contributions to the field through her editorial work. In 2014, she compiled, edited, and annotated Dai Wangshu’s Literary Translation Works in Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and in 2024, she released Across Eurasia: Translation and Selection of Resistance Literature from Hong Kong Newspapers, 1937-1945. These collections shed light on source materials that were previously overlooked, thus providing a more nuanced and heterogeneous picture of Chinese modernist literature and its engagement with European literary currents during significant historical periods. The recovery of these voices, and the contextualization of the transnational exchange of ideas within a transcultural framework, serve to enhance our comprehension of literary interactions across continents during periods of conflict.

Twentieth-century Chinese Literature / Modern Literary Theories and Criticism / Comparative Literature / Translation and Transcultural Studies

Monographs and Edited Books

• Du Langage au silence: l’évolution de la critique littéraire au XXème siècle [From Language to Silence: The Evolution of Literary Criticism in the 20th Century], Paris: L’Harmattan, coll. « Critiques littéraires », 2011 (Reprinted in 2013, 2014 and 2020), 250 pages.
• （Edited）Dai Wangshu’s Literary Translations in Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War (戰火下的詩情：抗日戰爭時期戴望舒在港的文學翻譯), with annotations and critical introduction. Hong Kong: Commercial Press (HK) Limited, 2014, iii+424 pages.
• Fanal Obscur: Chinese Modernists and European Leftist Literature (黑暗的明燈：中國現代派與歐洲左翼文藝), Hong Kong: Commercial Press (HK) Limited, 2017, viii+360 pages.
• Shuttling between East and West: Transcultural Dialogue of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature (互為東西：中國現當代文學的跨文化對話), Beijing: Zonghua Book Company, 2019, v+300 pages.
• （Edited）Across Eurasia: Translation and Selection of Resistance Literature from Hong Kong Newspapers, 1937-1945 (跨越歐亞：香港報刊中抗戰文藝資料翻譯與選輯，1937-1945). Hong Kong: Chung Hwa Book Company (Hong Kong) Limited, 2024, 974 pages.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

• “The Translatability of Literary Theory: Structuralist Narratology and Chinese Literary Studies,” Tamkang Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol.29 (2007.3): 39-60.
• “Shanghai against Hong Kong: Reading of Modern Girl, Love in a Fallen City and Passion and Love in Hong Kong” (上海跟香港的「對立」──讀《時代姑娘》、《傾城之戀》和《香港情與愛》), Modern Chinese Literature Studies (中國現代文學研究叢刊), 2007(4): 236-259. Reprinted in Research on Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature (人大複印資料《中國現代、當代文學研究》全文轉載), 2007(10): 164-173.

• “Juxtaposition and Contradiction of Two Conceptions of Avant-garde: The Literary Inclination of the Literary Magazine Xin Wenyi (La Nouvelle littérature)” (兩種先鋒性理念的並置與矛盾──論《新文藝》雜誌的文藝傾向), Journal of Chinese Studies (中國文化研究所學報), No. 51 (2010.7): 285-316. [Link] 

• “Russian-Soviet Literature, Francophone Leftists, and Chinese Modernists: Translating and Transmitting Benjamin Goriély’s Les Poètes dans la révolution russe” (俄蘇文學、法語左翼與中國現代派：論高力里《俄羅斯革命中的詩人們》的生成、翻譯與傳播), Journal of Chinese Studies (中國文化研究所學報), No. 61 (2015.7): 245-282. [Link] 

• “Shuttling between East and West: Ye Si, Hong Kong Literature and Modern Chinese Literature from the Perspectives of German and French Scholars” (互為東西——德法學者視野下的也斯、香港文學與中國現代文學), Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies (清華學報), Vol.49, No.1 (2019.3): 151-185. [Link] 

• “The Left-wing Internationalism in the Context of European and Asian Wars: Barbusse’s Le Feu and Its Chinese Translation by Ye Ling-feng” (跨越歐亞戰爭語境的左翼國際主義——論巴比塞《火線》及葉靈鳳的中文翻譯), Journal of Chinese Studies (中國文化研究所學報), No. 69 (2019.7): 155-195. [Link] 

• “Transnational Literature and Art of Resistance: A Study of Orienta Kuriero (1938-39), a Hong Kong Esperanto Magazine” 超越國族的抗戰文藝——論香港世界語雜誌《遠東使者》 (Orienta Kuriero, 1938-39), Modern Chinese Literature (中國現代文學), Vol. 44 (2023.12): 75-106. [Link]

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