Shinseinen Workshop 2009: University of Sydney

The Shinseinen Workshop, 3-4 December 2008, The University of Sydney

Shinseinen: entertainment or enlightenment?

The common consensus is that the Shinseien is an entertainment journal including detective stories. Our aim is to challenge this norm as our preliminary investigations reveal otherwise. We will explore the intellectual vigour so apparent in the Shinseinen, yet hidden behind the masks of entertainment genres targeting the youth population of the 1920s and 1930s. The Shinseinen developed their interests with a wide range of genres, manga, fashion, film, fiction and lecture series on topical issues of the time, through which the contributors poured their efforts to civilize the minds of the youth.