Guo TING

This talk examines how the concept of ai (love) as an affective notion has been introduced, adapted and engineered for the building and rebuilding of a modern nation. I will look into the different adaptations and usages of ai by China’s political leaders, in order to reveal the versatile nature of love as a critical mechanism within modern Chinese politics. Rather than studying love in the private realm such as romance, relationship, and family, this project studies love as a public discourse, and political discourse to be more precise, for it is the very word ai that has been more commonly adopted as a political discourse, including aiguo (patriotism), you’ai (friendship) and re’ai (ardent love).