MEDIA & VIOLENCE - A Transnational Perspective

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 18:23:19 +0000

Lesson Module by Keren Wang, updated 4 Nov 2025.

This lesson module examines the contested and ambivalent relationship between media and violence from historical and transnational perspectives.

1. Violence as Ritual & Power: Historical and Global Perspectives

Let's open this session with a reference from Greek mythology: consider the telltale of Prometheus, whose theft of fire from the Olympian gods for humanity’s benefit inadvertently brought both civilization and destruction. Like Prometheus’s fire, the development of media technology simultaneously brings enlightenment and cataclysm.

1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice

The history of the development of writing technology overlaps with the history of war propaganda and human sacrifice.^[1] As early as the Narmer Palette, one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts ever found from circa 3200 BCE depicting scenes of conquest and violence:

Similarly, during the height of the Chinese Bronze Age, also known as the Shang dynasty (c. 1250–1046 BC) produced ritual bronze artifacts at monumental proportions -- such as the 833 kg (1,836 lbs) Houmuwu Ding -- one of the heaviest bronze vessel from the ancient world -- and the 13-foot (3.96 m) tall Sanxingdui bronze tree (c. 1200 BC):

"Constitutional Dynamics in China-Taiwan Relations: A Historical and Comparative Analysis" Presentation at Emory International Law Review Symposium on Disputed Territories Across the Globe, 13 April 2024

Fri, 03 May 2024 19:34:56 +0000

I would like to start by extending my heartfelt gratitude to Angelica Paquette, Editor-in-Chief of the Emory International Law Review, and Grayson Walker for their outstanding organization of this special symposium on Disputed Territories across the Globe: A Future of Peace or Change, and particularly this panel on China-Taiwan relations. A special thank you to Hallie Ludsin from Emory’s Center for International and Comparative Law for her valuable insights as our panel respondent today. I’m also grateful to see Professor Larry Catá Backer among us and would like to acknowledge Professor Martha Albertson Fineman for her invaluable guidance on my comparative and critical-legal research. My work is further supported by the American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship, for which I am profoundly thankful.

Class slides for Social Movements and Social Change (Emory, FA23)

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:20:56 +0000

Class teaching slides for CHN 375W Chinese Political Thought at Emory University, fall 2023

Section on social movements and social change in modern China:

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Class slides - The Hundred Schools of Thought (Chinese Political Thought)

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:08:46 +0000

Class PowerPoint slides for CHN375W: Chinese Political Thought/Propaganda (Emory University, Fall 2023): covering the historical evolution and contemporary implications of “The Hundred Schools of Thought” in Chinese governance and political practices.

New Publication Announcement: The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution - Communication Law Review

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 12:05:16 +0000

Happy to announce the publication of my co-authored article with Dr. Tomonori Teraoka - “The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process” - on the latest issue of Communication Law Review. Our article presents an interdisciplinary, multilingual collaborative effort to critically examine Japanese constitutional discourse at both domestic and transnational levels.

Abstract: Our article examines the issue of constitutional legitimacy in the post-WWII Japanese legal system. Our analysis proceeds from the judicial rhetoric of postwar Japan, focusing primarily on the state of judicial review and executive legislative practices throughout the Japanese postwar constitutionalization process. The aim of our rhetorical analysis is to identify the main points of discursive tensions as manifested in Japanese judiciary and legislative norms. Although the postwar Japanese constitution provides a judicial review process and separation of powers like its American counterpart, their implementation is constrained by the legislative usurpation of the executive branch and judicial passivity of the Japanese Supreme Court. Whereas the written language in the postwar Japanese constitution adheres to the prevailing transnational dóxa for a democratic rule-of-law society, we find many key constitutional elements are not internationalized within the operational modality of Japanese judicial rhetoric.

Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order: presentation at Penn State Law

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 16:39:47 +0000

“Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order,” presented at International Conference: New International Trade and Investment Rules between Globalization and Anti-Globalization, Penn State University, University Park, PA (April 22, 2017)

倬彼雲漢昭回于天

王曰於乎何辜今之人

天降喪亂饑饉薦臻

靡神不舉靡愛斯牲

圭璧既卒寧莫我聽

Majestic is that Milky Way, brightly afloat in the firmament of the heaven.

The King said, O! What crime is chargeable on us now?

That Heaven thus sends down death and disorder, unrelenting famine and hunger grapple us!

Comparative on Keren Wang