You are cordially invited to a Conference organized by The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University. Details of the Conference are as follows:

Conference Committee

• Chair: Dr. Richard Xiaying XU

• Co-Chairs: Dr. Serene Runping Zhu, Dr. Ada Luyang Li

I. Conference Theme

The Literary World in Chinese Tourism: Landscapes, Narratives, and Cultural Imagination

II. Conference Aims

Literature and tourism in China are inherently interconnected concepts. However, when international visitors travel to China, they often admire the visual spectacles of sites like West Lake, the Great Wall, or the Li River, yet they frequently struggle to access the profound cultural and literary contexts that lend these places deep resonance within the Chinese consciousness. This "Literary World in Chinese Tourism" conference aims to bridge this gap by exploring the fundamental synergy between China's physical geography and its literary imagination. Tourist destinations in China are not merely physical locations; they are, fundamentally, textual spaces. They are continuously constructed and reconstructed through centuries of literary creation—from classical poetry and folklore to modern fiction and martial arts epics. Understanding West Lake may require familiarity with Su Shi or Legend of the White Snake; exploring Shanghai's cultural map can benefit from reading Eileen Chang, Wang Anyi, and Jin Yucheng; while imagining Hua Mountain is inextricably linked to Jin Yong's martial arts universe.

Currently, much of the scholarship in this research field is written in Chinese for a Chinese readership. There is a relative scarcity of works that anchor their discussion in specific tourist destinations and explore these themes for an international audience. This conference aims to address this significant gap. Hosted by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU), the conference is scheduled for December 20, 2025, in Zhuhai. We hereby announce the call for papers and sincerely welcome active participation and submissions from domestic and international experts, scholars, and young researchers.

III. Suggested Topics

• Aesthetic Conceptions with Chinese Characteristics. e.g., The 'Misty Rain' aesthetic of West Lake; the role of the shanshui (山水) tradition in landscape appreciation.

• Rivers and Lakes on the Map: China's Waterways and Famous Mountains in Wuxia Fiction. e.g., The martial arts world and its real locations in Jin Yong's      The Legend of the Condor Heroes(Hua Mountain, Peach Blossom      Island); the poetic geography in the novels of Gu Long and Liang Yusheng.

• City and Memory: The Urban in Modern and Contemporary Literature. e.g., Shanghai as depicted by Eileen Chang, Wang Anyi, and Jin Yucheng; Beijing's hutongs in the novels of Lao She and Lin Huiyin; Guangzhou and Nanjing in the works      of Ge Liang, etc.

• Ancient Cities as Living Texts: History, Nostalgia, and Tourism. e.g., The literary construction of Xi'an, Pingyao, Lijiang; tensions between historical authenticity and commercial nostalgia, e.g., Ma Boyong's Chang'an, Yunnan in Lei Pingyang's poetry, etc.

• Ethnically Diverse Voices: Representations of Ethnic Minorities in Travel Literature. e.g., Depictions of Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang in travel writing, folk story collections, and fiction, such as the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia portrayed by writers like Li Juan and Chi Zijian.

• Other related topics…

IV. Submission, Review, and Publication

Scholars are kindly requested to submit one Chinese abstract (500 words) and one English abstract (500 words), along with a brief biography (approximately 100 words). The abstract should be anonymized for double-blind peer review by domestic and international experts. Personal information should be provided only in the biography file. Upon acceptance of the paper, the conference organizers will send a formal invitation letter to the author(s).

• Conference  Languages: Chinese and English

• Abstract Submission Deadline: November 30, 2025

• Notification of Acceptance: December 8, 2025

• Publication: Selected conference papers will be considered for inclusion in an English-language edited volume, planned for publication with a leading international publisher such as Routledge or Springer, aimed at international dissemination. High-quality papers written in Chinese can, if needed, be translated into English for publication by translation students from our university's Applied Translation Studies program.

• Submission Email: Ms. Cui: clairemqcui@bnbu.edu.cn

• Email Subject Line Format: "Submission + Author Name + Affiliation"

• Conference Contacts:Ms. Cui: clairemqcui@bnbu.edu.cn