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	"Brain Electricity:" Encountering Hypnotism in Early Twentieth-Century China CEAS China Brown Bag
Date and Time / Wednesday, April 25, 2012 12:00 pm — 1:15 pm Contact / hlee17@stanford.edu Location / Okimoto Conference Room, Encina Hall East, 3rd Floor Sponsor / Center for East Asian Studies	Tie Xiao Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University While now it is often written off as a “pseudo”-scientific hoax, the widespread engagement with hypnotism (cuimian shu) in early twentieth-century China was integral to what was most self-consciously “modern.” Its early practitioners claimed to hold the miraculous cure for the spiritual and bodily ailments of the nation and positioned themselves as part of an enlightened vanguard. The diffusion of the imported psychological knowledge of somnambulism and thought-transference was intrinsically bound up with the contemporary preoccupation with new dimensions of subjectivity and interiority as well as the politics of awakening. This study traces the variegated pathways along which the transposed knowledge of hypnotism acquired meaning in modern China.

Event Details

Return to Event Listings

"Brain Electricity:" Encountering Hypnotism in Early Twentieth-Century China

CEAS China Brown Bag

Date and Time /
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
12:00 pm — 1:15 pm

Contact /
hlee17@stanford.edu

Location /
Okimoto Conference Room,
Encina Hall East, 3rd Floor

Sponsor /

Center for East Asian Studies

Tie Xiao
Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University

While now it is often written off as a “pseudo”-scientific hoax, the widespread engagement with hypnotism (cuimian shu) in early twentieth-century China was integral to what was most self-consciously “modern.” Its early practitioners claimed to hold the miraculous cure for the spiritual and bodily ailments of the nation and positioned themselves as part of an enlightened vanguard. The diffusion of the imported psychological knowledge of somnambulism and thought-transference was intrinsically bound up with the contemporary preoccupation with new dimensions of subjectivity and interiority as well as the politics of awakening. This study traces the variegated pathways along which the transposed knowledge of hypnotism acquired meaning in modern China.