[Book Talk] Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan

Emerging Research on Modern East Asian Literature

Speaker:

Jon L. Pitt, Associate Professor of Japanese Environmental Humanities in the East Asian

Studies Department at the University of California, Irvine

Moderator:

Edwin Michielsen, Japanese Studies, HKU

Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026

Time: November 12 (Thursday) 9:30-11:00 am (HK Time) // 10:30 am (Japan, Korea Time) // November 11 (Wed) 5:30-7:00 pm (PST)

Venue: on Zoom

Registration link: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=110058

All are welcome. Registration is required.

Jon L. Pitt will discuss his book Botanical Imagination, which explores the complicated legacy and enduring lure of plant life in modern Japanese literature and media. Using critical plant studies, Botanical Imagination examines an unlikely group of writers and filmmakers in modern Japan, finding in their works a desire to "become botanical" in both content and form. Botanical Imagination is the first book-length attempt to bring the plant humanities into the study of Japanese media, and vice versa. Pitt will discuss his research and writing process and highlight key concepts that he develops in the book.  

Jon L. Pitt is Associate Professor of Japanese Environmental Humanities in the East Asian Studies Department at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan (Cornell University Press, 2025) and the translator of Hiromi Ito’s Tree Spirits Grass Spirits (Nightboat Books, 2023). He is the current Director of the Environmental Humanities Research Center at the University of California, Irvine, and an Associate Editor of the open access plant humanities journal Plant Perspectives.

The series is coordinated by Prof. Su Yun Kim (suyunkim@hku.hk), Prof. Pei-yin Lin (pylin@hku.hk), and Prof. Alvin Wong (akhwong@hku.hk), and is supported by the School of Chinese, School of Humanities, and School of Modern Languages and Cultures. For further details, visit www.meal.hku.hk.