The year 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the passing of the world-renowned Danish fairy tale writer, Hans Christian Andersen. In commemoration of this, we are delighted to announce an international conference to be held in the city of Hong Kong in the early summer of 2025.

Andersen’s legacy has transcended time and culture, inspiring filmmakers and cultural creators for over two hundred years. His stories are beloved not only by children but have also been a wellspring for cultural reinvention worldwide. In East Asia, Andersen has enjoyed warm reception for more than a century, with most of his stories translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, and adapted into comics and films. These tales are cherished as children’s literature for their perceived universal values and morals. Yet, beneath these values and morals lie profound notions of truth, self-identity, and individuality, challenging traditional East Asian concepts of selfhood. Andersen represents new values for East Asian modernity, as seen in the wide circulation of his stories in animated films in Japan and Korea, and the technological representations of culture in the digital age. Thus, the Tokyo Andersen Park, Shanghai Andersen Cultural Paradise, and Qingdao Andersen Park are hubs of cultural reimaginations in the twenty-first century.

The same reach and significance hold true in the West. Since their early circulation in Western Europe, Andersen’s works have traversed boundaries, taking on new forms in adaptations and remediations. Disney’s reinterpretations of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Snow Queen” have been among the company’s most significant blockbusters, introducing Andersen’s fairy tales to a global audience in a fresh guise. Meanwhile, authors, playwrights, and visual artists continue to draw inspiration from Andersen’s texts in their creative endeavors.

Since its inception in the early 20th century, the classical philological and biographical research into Andersen has been supplemented with the addition of several theoretical approaches. Scholars have applied Marxist literary theory, feminism, queer theory, deconstruction, and postcolonialism to analyse Andersen’s texts. Studies have explored the reception and circulation of Andersen from the perspectives of media and technology history. His roots in European Romanticism and influence on modernity have been illuminated, and his pedagogical and educational potentials have been examined. Most recently, scholars have employed perspectives from cultural studies, world literature, ecocriticism, translation studies, genetic criticism, and digital humanities to delve into Andersen’s creative processes, the creation of his texts, and their multifaceted reception and continued relevance both in Denmark and across other cultural and social contexts.

With the conference “Hans Christian Andersen: Life and Afterlife,” we aim to shed light on Andersen – the person, the texts, and the reception – from as many perspectives as possible.

Interested scholars and advanced postgraduate students are invited to submit abstracts of 300 words with a bio of 150 words to the contact persons of the conference. Accepted papers will be presented at the conference. Deadline for submission of abstracts is 15 October 2024. Announcement of the proposals accepted will be made no later than 1 December 2024.  

Instructions on Abstract Submissions

Please submit your abstract and bio to: Kwok-kan Tam (kktam@hsu.edu.hk), or Torsten Bøgh Thomsen (tbt@sdu.dk). Please include the following information at the top of the page: (1) full name and title; (2) institutional affiliation (if any), position and email address; (3) 3‒4 keywords describing the presentation; and (4) audio-visual requirements (if any).

Contact Persons for Abstract and Paper Submission

Prof Kwok-kan Tam, Dean of Humanities and Social Science, HSUHK (Email: kktam@hsu.edu.hk)
Dr Torsten Bøgh Thomsen, Head of the Hans Christian Andersen Centre, SDU (Email: tbt@sdu.dk)

Main Theme of the Conference

Hans Christian Andersen: Life and Afterlife

Sub-Themes

Andersen and world literature

Local and global receptions of Andersen

Death and immortality in the texts of Andersen

Andersen in translation

Andersen in adaptation and remediation

Andersen’s visual art

New theoretical approaches to Andersen

Andersen in pedagogy and education

Andersen and contemporary art and literature

Andersen and digital humanities

Appropriation and intertextuality in Andersen’s works

Creative processes of Andersen

Philological and historical perspectives on Andersen

Other themes that are relevant to the main theme of Hans Christian Andersen

Registration Method

Please complete the online registration form for registration.

Conference Event Fee

Please note that no refunds will be provided if the participant is unable to attend the event or any portion of the event. Your conference registration will only become effective upon receipt of full payment of the registration fee. No refunds can be processed after the payment has been settled.

Participants are responsible for arranging and covering all costs for their own travel and accommodation. There are three conference hotels available for participants. Participants are responsible for reserving their room directly with the hotel of their choice.

• Alva Hotel by Royal

• Courtyard by Marriott Sha Tin Hong Kong 

• Regal Riverside Hotel Sha Tin Hong Kong 

More hotel options can be found at Hong Kong Tourism Board’s website.

Visa Requirements

Visa to Hong Kong and Macao is not required for participants holding European and American passports. However, visa is required for participants visiting China after the conference. Participants from mainland China need a permit to enter Hong Kong. Visitors from other countries should check with their local consulates.

Visit Visa / Entry Permit Requirements for Hong Kong

Full papers each of 5,000‒6,000 words, in Chicago (author-date) style with in-text citation (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html), British spelling and with no more than 10 photo illustrations or tables, are expected to be submitted by 1 September 2025 for review. Selected papers will be published in a volume by an academic press.

Kwok-kan Tam, HSUHK

Anna Tso, HSUHK

Sun Jian, Fudan U

Jacob Bøggild, SDU

Ane Grum-Schwensen, SDU

Torsten Bøgh Thomsen, SDU