Talk by Ping Zhu on The Fetish Against Fetish

The Fetish Against Fetish

Speaker
Ping Zhu
Professor of Transnational Chinese / Sinophone Literary, Film, and Media Studies at UC San Diego and the Editor in Chief of Chinese Literature and Thought Today.

January 21, 2026 @ 3:00PM-5:00PM
Humanities Gateway 1010

In socialist China, the work of ordinary laborers was alchemized into a potent fetish, fusing psychoanalytic disavowal with revolutionary fervor to forge a collective identity amid persistent hierarchies. Through stories and films centered on ordinary people, this talk examines how this "fetish against fetish" simultaneously reinforced ideological unity and challenged capitalist alienation, turning mundane rhythms of labor into a dynamic engine of social transformation.