An examination of the origin of the name "hollyhock" and its cultural connotations reveals that it is a native flower of Shu, southwest China. Its morphological characteristics, growth habits, and variety of colors are well documented in classical Chinese literature. As hollyhocks are planted overseas, their cultural status flows and elevates, embodying the idea of 'blooming inside the wall, more fragrant outside the wall.' The variation in the connotations of hollyhock across different civilizations exemplifies the dynamic flow of mutual appreciation among multiple cultures. This study revisits Euro-Asian encounters through the lens of hollyhock as a cultural clue, highlighting the themes of equal communication and cultural intermingling.

Rooted in protest against caste-based discrimination, overt and subtle, historical and mutating forms –Dalit literature from India provides a valuable archive of voices of lived-experience. An archive that represents over more than 160 millions of downtrodden population that is spread across the Indian subcontinent. Emanating from at the bottom of the social hierarchy, these voices preserve these cries and protests comparable to that of Slave narratives in the USA.

The first generation of Dalit writers from Maharashtra, (the home state of B.R. Ambedkar, the torch bearer of Dalit rights during Colonial India, and after independence) founded Dalit Panther Movement in 1972. Inspired by Black Panthers movement and their intellectual struggle, the founding members of Dalit Panthers would go on to provide a strong foundation for Dalit literature, as it is known today. Often rejected by the aesthetic tools rooted in upper caste poetics, Dalit literature attains its life from protest– against the very foundation of Classic Indian aesthetics of Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram (the true, the holy, the beautiful) as Sharankumar Limbale postulates.

However, I argue that it is not just an archive of Dalit protest, but “the Protest” that intersects with the voices of protests around the world. This juncture provides a fertile ground for examining Black-Dalit comparative and shared poetic discourse against the “Hegemonic” aesthetics. The presentation also argues in relevance of this converged spatio-temporal literary examination.

The proposed paper is comparative and synthesizing in nature. Presented considerations will be based on research on the literature after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and contemporary nonviolent resistance strategies. In my presentation, I would like to focus on novels that explore (centrally or otherwise) various forms of passive resistance and inconspicuous protests in the workplace. Since they are rarely concentrated on putting pressure on an employer, it may lead us to question their nature. Nowadays, it seems that this field should be expanded to include slightly different issues – reaching essentially to questions about the condition of the subject in general, changing attitudes to work (Great Resignation, quiet quitting, the FIRE, lazy girl job, tang ping, etc.) and the possibilities, effectiveness, and significance of protest in the contemporary world. I propose an analysis that frames Bartleby, The Scrivener (1853) by Herman Melville as a general point of reference for further interpretations of selected novels. I suggest understanding the protagonist’s quiet and pertinacious protest primarily as a disturbance against a workplace in general, deconstructing force in an established, rational, and productive world. Although inconspicuous and perplexing in its meaning, Bartleby’s protest is open and evident. It forces us to question the limits of resistance. The proposed presentation is based on well-known literature on nonviolent protest (among others: Gene Sharp, Helen Fox, James C. Scott, Kurt Schock, Stellan Vinthagen). Additionally, my presentations will use resources exploring the problem of exhaustion, burnout, and subjective passivity in contemporary culture. For instance, I will provide references to Gilles Deleuze’s The Exhausted, various works by Wolfgang Streeck, The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han as well as generation-oriented studies such Can’t Even. How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen. My presentation will focus on contemporary European, American, and Asian novels focused on young, female protagonists. In the selected novels we might recognize a recurring pattern of avoidance in the workplace or even against the workplace. The variety of strategies used in the novels will allow for showing the complexity of the titular dilemma and its cross-cultural differences. In the analysis, I propose to preliminary include such novels as The New Me by Halle Butler, There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami, Insatiable by Daisy Buchanan, My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. I would propose to understand these novels with direct reference to various strategies of resistance, questioning the uses they make of the work-to-rule and passive resistance. I will ultimately ask what transformations of the subject can we recognize in the inconspicuous protest, avoidance and passivity that occurs in the workplace.

Zhao Chuan is a Chinese "social theatre" advocate and director. In his theatrical evolution from The World Factory(2014) to Homeland(2024), significant societal shifts, such as the 2018 Shenzhen Jasic Incident and the Blank Paper Movement during the pandemic, underscore the limitations and potential of collective action in contemporary China.

The World Factory (2014) uses a documentary theater approach to expose labor exploitation in the context of China’s capitalist expansion, invoking intellectual debates and embodying the spirit of a “social theater.” Yet, subsequent events, such as the Jasic Incident, in which factory workers and students advocating for union rights faced suppression, reveal the real challenges of mobilizing public resistance within China's tightening political sphere.

Homeland (2024) moves inward, emphasizing personal migration stories and everyday life challenges rather than overt social critique. During the COVID-19 pandemic, collective frustration and grief intensified under strict lockdown policies, sparking the Blank Paper Movement. Citizens gathered, holding blank sheets of paper as a silent protest against censorship and pandemic restrictions. This symbolic gesture illustrates the shift in public expression from direct demands to more subdued yet resonant forms of dissent—a shift mirrored in Zhao’s own artistic transition.

Through Homeland, Zhao explores how individual life stories and shared emotional experiences can foster a new kind of public engagement, suggesting that while traditional avenues for collective action may be restricted, the potential for social cohesion remains. The essay ultimately argues that while Zhao’s theater reflects a decline in visible social critique, it gestures toward a resilient, empathy-driven civil sphere that resonates powerfully in a society where collective action is increasingly complex.