Talk of a Transforming City

Surprising her local audience with a lecture in fluent Chinese, NYU Shanghai Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow Lena Scheen introduced listeners at the Pudong Public Library to her new book, Shanghai Literature Imaginings: A City in Transformation. Chancellor Yu joined Director Zhang of the Pudong Library, NYU Shanghai Library Director Charling Fagan and Scheen’s father to help launch the new faculty lecture series on February 27.

With a packed audience, Scheen talked about what she learned from interacting with famous contemporary Shanghai writers such as Wang Anyi and Chen Danyan -- delving into the relationship between their own backgrounds and the Shanghai constructed in their minds.

Scheen, (whose research focuses on the 1990s - a period of rapid change after the opening of the Pudong New District as an Special Economic Zone) explained how, as a European who lived in a place that experienced minimal change over hundreds of years, the speed of urbanization in China -- especially in Shanghai -- fueled her curiosity for further research.

This collaboration with the Pudong Library is a part of NYU Shanghai’s effort to extend its academic resources to the local community, creating opportunities to interact with each other.

(Text by: Jasmine Zhu)