Online Lecture: Institutional and Policy Pathways to Carbon Neutrality in China by 2060
2021-04-01 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Berlin)
Institutional and Policy Pathways to Carbon Neutrality in China by 2060
Valerie J. Karplus (Carnegie Mellon University)
This lecture is part of our new lecture series China’s Economic Rise – Political Transformations in Asia and Beyond
Thursday, April 1, 2021, 1:00-2:00pm CET
ZOOM Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/98853778484

Abstract: President Xi Jinping has announced that China will pursue a goal of net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2060. This talk will examine the evolution of China’s institutions and policies as they relate to carbon management and ask how they will need to further change in order to support the country’s 2060 ambitions. The talk will conclude by discussing the potential for China’s emissions trading system for carbon dioxide, which is currently under development, to contribute to the 2060 goal.
Valerie J. Karplus is a Visiting Associate Professor in Global Economics and Management (GEM) at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Karplus studies resource and environmental management in firms operating in diverse national and industry contexts, with a focus on the role of institutions and management practices in explaining performance. Karplus is an expert on China’s energy system, including technology and business model innovation, energy system governance, and the management of air pollution and climate change. She works with a collaborative team of researchers to study the micro and macro determinants of clean energy transitions in emerging markets, with a focus on China and India. She teaches Entrepreneurship without Borders, New Models for Global Business, and is currently developing a new course, together with Professor Chris Warshaw in Political Science, on Global Energy Markets and Policy.
Source: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/valerie-j-karplus
The lecture series is co-organized and co-sponsored by Göttingen’s Centre for Modern East Asian Studies as well the Kiel Institute China Initiative.
Picture: iStock.com/Maxiphoto

Global China Conversations #3 Making Chinese Foreign Aid Transparent – What is Hidden in Data and Policy Documents?
2021-10-28 13:00 - 14:00
Making Chinese Foreign Aid Transparent – What is Hidden in Data and Policy Documents?

Sprecher
Dr. Bradley Parks, AidData
Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University
Moderator
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs, University of Göttingen, IfW Kiel

Zeit: 28.10.2021, 13:00 -14:00 CET
Anmeldung: Anmeldeformular

Thema
Since the turn of the millennium, China has provided record amounts of development aid and other types of development finance to countries around the globe. However, its grant-giving and lending activities remain intransparent. This is not least due to the institutional complexity of China’s system of foreign aid and the absence of comprehensive reporting systems for development projects. How can we therefore try to piece through the veil of secrecy and complexity? In this third Global China Conversation, Brad Parks and Marina Rudyak will help us unravel some of the underlying processes. Marina Rudyak will guide us through the complexity of the institutional setup and outline what we can learn from official government documents. Brad Parks will offer us a bird’s-eye view of China’s geo-economic strategy before and after the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, by looking at a uniquely comprehensive and granular dataset of international development finance from China that captures 13,427 projects worth $843 billion across 165 countries in every major world region over an 18-year period.

Programm
Die Veranstaltung besteht aus Impulsvorträgen der Sprecher, gefolgt von einer Diskussion.
Die Global China Conversation #3 wird auf Englisch abgehalten.
Literatur
Malik, A., Parks, B., Russell, B., Lin, J., Walsh, K., Solomon, K., Zhang, S., Elston, T., and S. Goodman. (2021). Banking on the Belt and Road: Insights from a new global dataset of 13,427 Chinese development projects. Williamsburg, VA: AidData at William & Mary.
https://www.aiddata.org/publications/banking-on-the-belt-and-road

Sprecher

Dr. Bradley Parks, AidData
Dr. Bradley Parks is the Executive Director of AidData, a research lab at William and Mary. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research has been published in academic and policy journals, including Science, Governance, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Journal of Development Economics, World Development, the National Interest, and China Economic Quarterly. He is the author of three books, including Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press). Dr. Parks is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he works on issues related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University
Marina Rudyak is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Sinology of Heidelberg University. She is the founder of china-aid-blog.com and a member of the Global Diplomacy Lab, the Sino-German Future Bridge, and the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network. She has previously worked with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Beijing as Program Manager of the multi-country project “Regional Economic Cooperation and Integration Asia-China.” Her research interests are Chinese foreign aid and development lending policy with a focus on Africa and Central Asia, as well as the political ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and coded communication in Chinese politics.

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Lecture: Peng Guoxiang: The Understanding and Practice of "Five Religions" in Early 20th Century China. The Works and Views of Feng Bingnan (1888-1956)
2021-11-12 12:00 - 14:00
The Understanding and Practice of “Five Religions” in Early 20th Century China. The Works and Views of Feng Bingnan (1888-1956)
Peng Guoxiang
Zhejiang University

Time: Nov 12, 2021 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
For registration, please use this zoom link.
Abstract:
The so-called “sanjiao tradition (three teachings/religions)” that includes Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism has conventionally been considered as the “Chinese religion” in Chinese history. In addition to the “sanjiao,” however, Christianity and Islam were introduced to China pretty early and also became integral parts of the Chinese religious tradition. In the early 20th century, the concept and practice of “wujiao 五教” rather than “sanjiao” had already been widely accepted by Chinese people, much beyond intellectual circles. This talk introduces the understanding and practice of “wujiao” exemplified by Feng Bingnan, a successful lawyer and businessman renowned and influential in the 1940s but totally forgotten later on and demonstrates that “wujiao” offers a better perspective than “sanjiao” to understand the Chinese religious tradition.

PENG Guoxiang is Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese philosophy, intellectual history and religions at Zhejiang University, China. Before moving to Zhejiang University, he was Professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University. He was the 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North (Library of Congress, USA) and was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2009 (Humboldt Foundation, Germany). He has been a visiting Professor or research fellow in numerous institutions such as Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, University of Frankfurt am Main, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, University of Hawaii, Harvard-Yenching Institute, National Taiwan University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore.
His publications include The Unfolding of the Innate Good Knowing: Wang Ji and the Yangming Learning in Mid-Late Ming (2003, 2005, 2015), Confucian Tradition: Between Religion and Humanism (2007, 2019), Confucian Tradition and Chinese Philosophy: Retrospect and Prospect in a New Century (2009), Confucian Tradition from Classical Period to Its Contemporary Transformation: Speculation and Interpretation (2012), Revision and New Discovery: Historical Study of Pre-Modern Confucianism from Northern Song till Early Qing Dynasty (2013, 2015), Reconstruction of This Culture of Ours: Confucianism and Contemporary World (2013, 2018, 2019), This-worldly Concern of the Wise: The Political and Social Thought of Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) (2016), The Methodology of Doing Chinese Philosophy (2020) as well as numerous articles.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Global China Conversations #4 „Innovation Made in China“ – How effective is Beijing's innovation policy?
2021-11-25 11:00 - 12:00
„Innovation Made in China“ – How effective is Beijing’s innovation policy?

Speaker
Dr. Philipp Böing, ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research
Wolfgang Krieger, Federation of German Industries (BDI e.V.)
Time: 25.11.2021, 11.00 – 12:00
Please register here.
Topic
With its 14th Five-Year Plan, the Chinese government is focusing on a more innovation-based economy, aiming at becoming the world leader in science and technology by 2050. The Chinese state plays a central role in this endeavor. It drafts development plans for key industries, predefines technology paths, provides targeted subsidies, and coordinates scientific and economic players. Nevertheless, the outcome of government innovation policy sometimes remains open: Subsidy abuse has been widespread in the past and stands in the way of efficient use of government subsidies. Subsidies were often misused to cross-subsidize non-R&D-related investments, which can lower production costs and distort competition in international markets. Does the 14th Five-Year Plan succeed in further improving the conception and implementation of China’s innovation policy? Can productivity increase and economic growth be expected because of “Innovation Made in China”? And what impact will this have on German companies?
In the fourth Global China Conversation, Wolfgang Krieger from the Federation of German Industries will give us an insight into the underlying conditions of Chinese Innovation and industry subsidies, before Philipp Böing from the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research will take a closer look at Chinese R&D subsidies.
Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion. Participants have the opportunity of direct exchange with the speakers in digital break-out rooms.
Global China Conversation #4 will take place in German.

Literature
The impulse lectures refer to the following publications:
ZEW Discussion Paper: Misappropriation of R&D Subsidies: Estimating Treatment Effects With One-Sided Non-compliance
ZEW Expert Brief: A New China Shock? The Untold Story of China’s R&D Subsidies

Speakers

© Philipp Böing

Dr. Philipp Böing
Dr. Philipp Böing is a Senior Researcher at ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim. His research interests include policy evaluation, patent indicators, productivity and import competition. With an empirical focus on China and its rise in the global economy, he has in-depth expertise on Chinese data and institutions. Dr. Böing has regularly provided policy advice, including to the World Bank, the OECD, and the German Expert Commission on Research and Innovation (EFI). He worked for two years as a Visiting Professor at Peking University and is also a Research Affiliate at IZA – Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn and Fellow of Tsinghua University in Beijing.

© Wolfgang Krieger

Wolfgang Krieger
Wolfgang Krieger is Deputy Chief Representative of the Federation of German Industries (BDI e.V.) in China. He majored in East Asian Studies and Economics at the University of Cologne. His work focuses on the regulatory environment in China, as well as the economic relations between the EU and China.

Moderation

© Felix Lee

Felix Lee
Felix Lee is economics editor of taz, responsible for trade and global economy. Between 2012 and 2019, he was China correspondent for taz, Zeit Online, Die Presse, Luxemburger Wort and the Funke Group.

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China.Table Professional Briefing ist das Leitmedium für Entscheider in Politik, Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Werktäglich News und Analysen über politische und technologische Entwicklungen in China und die Beziehungen zu Europa.
Jetzt unverbindlich für 30 Tage testen: deutsche Version kostenlos testen – englische Version kostenlos testen

Lecture: Leigh Jenco: The Ming-Qing Transition as a Philosophical Problem
2021-12-03 16:00 - 18:00
The Ming-Qing Transition as a Philosophical Problem
Leigh Jenco
Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics, Department of Government

Dec 3, 2021 04:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
For registration, please use this zoom link.
Abstract:
The transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty was not experienced as a sharp break for those who lived through it, but it has come to stand in the minds of later Chinese literati as nothing less than an existential crisis for Chinese identity—both driving and driven by a shift in intellectual perspective that emerged in the early years of Qing consolidation. Many educated literati retrospectively blamed the fall of the Ming on the abstruse philosophizing that preoccupied followers of Wang Yangming, a sixteenth-century statesman, frontier general and philosopher whose rejection of state-sponsored Confucian orthodoxy rode a wave of interest in metaphysical speculation about the sources of moral knowledge. In its place—just as the government policy adapted from an inward-looking, Han-dominated state to a cosmopolitan, expansionist inner Asian empire—seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literati turned their attention to the historical and philological verification of classic texts, inaugurating the “evidential learning” (kaozheng) that twentieth-century Chinese reformers would see as proof of an indigenous, modern “scientific spirit.” In this paper I argue that such divisions obscure from view the extent to which the Manchu victory and the territorial consolidation that followed continued the strong parallels that marked both Chinese and European societies in early modernity. There are thus important philosophical consequences for periodizing the Chinese early modern period as an abrupt transition from “Ming to Qing” or “philosophy to philology”. I use my current research to offer examples of these consequences. Specifically, I argue that characterizing this time period in terms of a rupture between dynasties, rather than as a more general epoch of early modernity, leaves us unable to assess philosophically the ways in which ideas and practices thematized by scholars of Yangming learning enabled particular kinds of discourse about human difference to take shape, and in turn how empirical information about human kinds generated by Ming-era territorial expansion, travel and commerce was fed back into philosophical thinking about moral possibility and the textual tradition that articulated it.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Global China Conversations #5 Reshaping Global Industrial Chains: Options for China
2021-12-16 11:00 - 12:00
Reshaping Global Industrial Chains: Options for China

Speaker
Dr Qiyuan Xu, Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)
Prof. Dr. Rolf J. Langhammer, Former Vice-President, Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Time: 16.12.2021, 11.00 – 12:00
Please register here.
Topic
The current highly specialized and interconnected global industrial chains are highly vulnerable to global risks such as the intensifying trade protectionism and the covid-19 pandemic. This has induced policymakers in many countries in the world to explore the possibilities to restructure their countries’ industrial chains, emphasizing the need for more local and regional inputs to better ensure national economic self-sufficiency. China as the world export champion was responsible for almost 15% of global exports of goods in 2020, almost the same as the corresponding shares of the USA (8.1%) and Germany (7.8%) combined. Meanwhile, China’s position in the global value chain is facing many challenges and uncertainties. What options does China have to restructure and strengthen its industrial chains? How may China’s decisions affect the future development of the global industrial chains? How can other global players such as the European Union deal with the challenges caused and grasp the opportunities that have arisen in the evolving global industrial chains?
Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
The Global China Conversation #5 will be held in English.

Literature
The impulse lectures refer to the following publications:
CASS-IWEP & CF40 Forum Report (2021), Reshaping Global Industrial Chinas: Options for China: Executive Summary (in Chinese)
Seric, A., Görg, H., Liu, W.-H., and Windisch, M. (2021), Risk, Resilience, and Recalibration in Global Value Chains, VOXEU
Felbermayr, G., Gans, S., Mahlkow, H., and Sandkamp, A. (2021), Decoupling Europe, Kiel Policy Brief No. 153
Görg, H., Lay, J., Pahl, S., Seric, A., Steglich, F., and Yaroshenko, L. (2021) Multilateral Coordination and Exchange for Sustainable Global Value Chains, T20 Policy Brief

Speaker

© Qiyuan Xu

Dr Qiyuan Xu
Dr Qiyuan Xu is Deputy Director at the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP) at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He is also General Secretary at the Research Center for International Finance at CASS. In the past, he also took up the role of advisor to the international collaboration department in China’s Ministry of Finance. Xu also sits in the work team of Global Macroeconomy in IWEP. This work team issues a quarterly report on the world economy, and he has been responsible for the research on China’s economy and macro policies since 2012. Since 2019, he has headed the research group of China Finance 40 Forum that is China’s currently most influential think tank platform in finance. Xu has published 60 academic papers, hundreds of columns mostly published in leading media in Chinese but also in Financial Times, Financial World in English.

© Kiel Institute / Studio 23

Prof. Dr. Rolf J. Langhammer
Prof. Dr. Rolf J. Langhammer was Vice-President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy from October 1997 until August 2012 and Professor at the Kiel Institute. He retired from the Vice-Presidency on August 31, 2012 but continues to work at the Institute. From April 2003 to September 2004, he served as Acting President. From July 1995 to November 2005, he headed the Research Department “Development Economics and Global Integration” at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Prof. Langhammer has served as consultant to a number of international institutions (EU, World Bank, OECD, UNIDO, ADB), as well as to the German ministries of economic affairs and economic co-operation.

Moderator

© Christina Kloodt / Kiel Institute

Dr Wan-Hsin Liu
Dr Wan-Hsin Liu is a Senior Researcher in the Research Centers “International Trade and Investment” and “Innovation and International Competition” at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Since 2016, she has also been a Coordinator at the Kiel Centre for Globalization. She is a member of the Kiel Globalization and Transformation Science, an interdisciplinary research cluster at the Kiel University. Her research focuses on the development and consequences of direct investment and global supply chains, as well as the determinants of innovation activities with a focus on China.

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Lecture: Peter Zarrow: The Utopian Impulse and Chinese Political Modernity
2021-12-17 16:00 - 18:00
The Utopian Impulse and Chinese Political Modernity
Peter Zarrow
Department of History, University of Connecticut, Hartford, USA

Time: Dec 17, 2021 04:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
For registration, please use this zoom link.

This paper discusses the role played by utopian “moves” that were made by political thinkers in the late Qing and Republican periods to build a new more or less democratic and socialist nation. An analysis of four case studies—Kang Youwei, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi—reveals distinct but overlapping visions of political modernity. On one level, these were blurry visions of political modernity directly and indirectly derived from Western discourses, particularly those of the Enlightenment. But on another level, Chinese thinkers can be read as making dialogic contributions to evolving notions of political modernity in cosmopolitan spaces across the twentieth century and beyond.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Federico Brusadelli: Self-government (zizhi) in China from the late Qing to the Republic: a contested concept in the search for political modernity
2022-01-28 12:00 - 14:00
Self-government (zizhi) in China from the late Qing to the Republic: a contested concept in the search for political modernity
Federico Brusadelli
University of Naples “L’Orientale”

Jan 28, 2022 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
For registration, please use this zoom link.
Abstract
This talk will look at how the concept of zizhi 自治 (self-government) was (re) articulated in late imperial and early republican China (1898-1928), either to strengthen and “modernize” the Manchu Empire or to build federal/republican counternarratives to the traditional system. From the late Qing official Huang Zunxian 黄遵宪 (who praised the Japanese system of provincial governance as pivotal in the Meiji State-building process) to the Republican governor of Guangdong Cheng Jionming 陈炯明 and his Jeffersonian inspiration of a bottom-up reconstruction of China in the 1920s – including the “provincial patriots” of the 1910s -, prominent individuals and organized networks or movements will be observed in their attempts at redefining the relationship between the “State” and the “local”.
A survey of how the same concept of “local self-government” was variously translated, adapted, and circulated through the use of multiple historical or “foreign” references (in the methodological framework of Begriffsgeschichte), will reveal contrasting, and often competing, political blueprints for the construction of a (differently conceived) “modern” China.

Federico Brusadelli is Lecturer in Chinese History and International History of East Asia at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where he completed his PhD in 2016 with a dissertation on the Chinese philosopher Kang Youwei.
From 2017 to 2020 he was Researcher in Sinology at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). In 2020/2021 he was Visiting Fellow at the European Institute for Chinese Studies in Paris. His current research project adopts a “conceptual history” approach to the study of Chinese federalist movements in the late-imperial and republican periods.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
.
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Global China Conversations #6 40 Years of Poverty Reduction in China: What are the Challenges?
2022-02-03 15:00 - 16:00
40 Years of Poverty Reduction in China: What are the Challenges?

Speaker
Branko Milanovic, Senior Scholar, Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality at the City University of New York
Martin Raiser, Country Director for China and Mongolia and Director for Korea, World Bank
Time: 03.02.2021, 15.00 – 16:00
Please register here.

Topic
China has achieved remarkable success in reducing absolute poverty over the last four decades. The size and speed of the decrease are without precedent. Nevertheless, while real incomes were rising, real inequality was rising too. How can China counter rising inequality? Is “common prosperity” as propagated by President Xi achievable? What (global) economic risks arise from China’s political system, which, it is argued, makes the country more vulnerable to corruption and could also make it more susceptible to social unrest during recessions? In our sixth Global China Conversation, we will look back at the drivers behind 40 successful years of poverty alleviation in China, discuss the challenges of rising inequality, and provide an outlook on potential global economic risks.

Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
Global China Conversation #6 will be held in English.

Literature
The impulse lectures refer to the following publications:

Lugo, M., Niu, C. and Yemtsov, R. (2021) Rural Poverty Reduction and Economic Transformation in China – A Decomposition Approach, Policy Research Working Paper No. 9849, World Bank Group
Merotto, D. and Jiang, H. (2021) What was the Impact of Creating Better Jobs for More People in China’s Economic Transformation? What we Know and Questions for Further Investigation, Jobs Working Paper No.62, World Bank Group
Branko M. (2021) China’s Inequality Will Lead It to a Stark Choice, Foreign Affairs

Speakers

Branko Milanović
Branko Milanovic is Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality at the City University of New York. Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in pre-industrial societies. He has published articles on these topics in The Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, and Journal of Economic Literature among others. He is author of Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (2016) which received the 2017 Bruno Kreisky Prize and 2018 Hans Matthöfer Prize. Branko was awarded (jointly with Mariana Mazzucato) the 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Knowledge. His most recent book Capitalism, Alone was published in 2019 and was translated in fifteen languages.

Martin Raiser
Martin Raiser is the World Bank’s Country Director for China and Mongolia, and Director for Korea. Mr. Raiser is leading a team that is managing an evolving partnership with China, a growing program of support to Mongolia, and a deepening knowledge partnership with Korea focused on innovation and technology. Mr. Raiser previously led the Bank’s programs in Brazil, Turkey, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Mr. Raiser holds a doctorate degree in Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany, and degrees in Economics and Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Raiser worked for the Kiel Institute of World Economics and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He is a regular contributor to policy discussions on China and development issues and has published numerous articles and several books.

Moderator

Andreas Fuchs
Andreas Fuchs is Professor of Development Economics, Director of the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen, and Director of the Kiel Institute China Initiative. His research analyzes trade, investment and development policies with quantitative methods and a special focus on China and other emerging economies. He also investigates the political economy of natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and non-militarized conflicts.

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Lecture: Maruyama Masao's Research on Intellectual History as seen by Chinese scholars
2022-02-11 12:00 - 13:00
Maruyama Masao’s Research on Intellectual History as seen by Chinese scholars
Xu Jilin
East China Normal University

Feb 11, 2022 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
For registration, please use this zoom link.
Lecture and discussion will be in Chinese

Abstract
Maruyama Masao is the most influential post-war Japanese intellectual historian. He transcends the dichotomy between Eastern and Western thought, uncovering the “insistent bass” in the “ancient layers” of Japanese thought and examining how it has recreated the universality of modern Japanese thought. He views the study of the history of thought as an “art of representation” similar to the performance of music, in which re-creation is achieved within the confines of a text. He relativizes universal thought in a specific historical context, presenting the richness and diversity of thought itself.

Xu Jilin is a modern Chinese intellectual historian and chair professor of history at East China Normal University in Shanghai, as well as Executive Deputy Director of the China Institute of Modern Thought and Culture, and Specially Appointed Zijiang Scholar. He is also a member of the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Federation and the Chinese History Society.
He has worked as visiting scholar or guest professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the National University of Australia, the National University of Singapore and Harvard University, as well as Aichi University, Tokyo University, Academia Sinica, University of British Columbia, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on Chinese intellectuals and Shanghai urban culture.
His publications include (but are not limited to) Public Communication of Modern Chinese Intellectuals (co-author, 2008) and How the Enlightenment was Reborn (2011), Rethinking China’s Rise: A Liberal Critique (2018); The Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment in Contemporary China (2011), and Ten Essays on Chinese Intellectuals (2003), which won the first Wenjin Award from the National Library in 2005. Some of his writings have been translated into English.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
.
.
Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Global China Conversations #7 How do investment screenings affect (Chinese) direct investment?
2022-02-17 11:00 - 12:00
How do investment screenings affect (Chinese) direct investment?

Speaker
Dr. Alexander Honrath, Head of the European China Desk of Eversheds Sutherlands
Dr. Joachim Pohl, OECD Investment Division
Time: 17.02.2022, 11.00 – 12:00
Please register here.

Topic
For some years now, foreign direct investment in private companies has been subject to state control in many European countries. The screening of mergers and acquisitions above a certain size, in specific sectors, and often depending on the investor’s proximity to a foreign state, is officially justified on the grounds of protecting public order. In the public debate, the rapid increase of Chinese investments in Europe until 2016 is viewed as one of the main reasons for the introduction of investment screenings, the expansion of the number of controlled economic sectors, and the introduction of the new intra-European coordination. In the seventh Global China Conversation, our speakers analyze these developments detailed above and explain the importance of investment screenings in practice. We also discuss the consequences of investment audits on (Chinese) direct investments in European companies and undesirable side effects on the economy.

Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
Global China Conversation #7 will be held in German.

Speakers

Dr. Alexander Honrath
Alexander Honrath is Partner at Eversheds Sutherland in Munich, Head of the European China Desk of Eversheds Sutherlands, one of the largest law firms in the world. He is regularly advising Chinese clients on their take-overs of German companies and their expansion strategies in Europe. Among his Asian clients are large Chinese corporates, state-owned enterprises and governmental institutions. He is frequently invited on international conferences to speak about Sino-German transactions and IPOs and is in exchange with Chinese institutions. He is further involved in Asian-European capital markets transactions, e.g. he advised on the first IPO of a German company at the regulated market in Hong Kong. Prior to his engagement at Eversheds Sutherland, he worked as investment banker in two large banks in the capital market business.

Dr. Joachim Pohl
Joachim Pohl is policy analyst in the OECD Investment Division. He joined the OECD in 2003. In his earlier roles in the Organisation’s Anti-Corruption Division, he analysed governance and anti-corruption policies in developing countries in Asia, monitored compliance under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, and coordinated the Asian Development Bank/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific.
Before joining the OECD, Mr. Pohl taught constitutional and administrative law at Humboldt University Berlin and MGLU Moscow. He holds a PhD in law from Humboldt-University and a master’s degree in political science from the University of Bordeaux.

Moderation

Dr. Vera Eichenauer
Dr. Vera Eichenauer is an economist at the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at the ETH Zurich. She is interested in economic policy and questions of international economic governance. Her current research includes Europe’s handling of China’s economic presence and influence through economic policy measures. She received her PhD in Economics from the University of Heidelberg in 2016 and her master’s degree in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris.

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Global China Conversations #8 EU-China-Handelskonflikte und der Fall Litauen: Welche Rolle spielt die WTO?
2022-03-24 11:00 - 12:00
EU-China-Handelskonflikte und der Fall Litauen: Welche Rolle spielt die WTO?

Sprecher:
Christian Hederer, Technischen Hochschule Wildau
Jürgen Matthes, Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft (IW)
Zeit: 24.03.2021, 11:00 – 12:00 CET
Anmeldung: Anmeldeformular

Thema
Chinas Handelssanktionen gegen Litauen haben für viel Aufsehen gesorgt. Die EU hat auf die aus ihrer Sicht „diskriminierenden Handelspraktiken“ mit der Einleitung eines Verfahrens gegen die Volksrepublik vor der Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) reagiert. Das zeigt, wie ernst die Europäer den Konflikt nehmen. Die Auseinandersetzung wirft grundsätzliche Fragen auf: Erleben wir gerade den Anfang vom Ende der globalen Handelsordnung? Zerfällt die Welt (wieder) in konkurrierende Wirtschaftsblöcke? Oder kann das auf Regeln basierte System des Welthandels sogar gestärkt aus der Kontroverse hervorgehen? Diese und weitere Fragen wollen wir in unserer achten Global China Conversation mit unseren Sprechern erörtern.
Programm
Die Veranstaltung besteht aus Impulsvorträgen der Sprecher gefolgt von einer Diskussion.
Die Global China Conversation #8 wird auf Deutsch abgehalten.

Literatur

Die Impulsvorträge nehmen Bezug auf folgende Veröffentlichung:
Matthes, Jürgen und Fritsch, Manuel, Auswirkungen der Sanktionen Chinas gegen Litauen auf die EU

Speaker

© Uwe Voelkner / FOX

Prof. Dr. Christian Hederer, LL.M.
Christian Hederer ist Professor für Volkswirtschaftslehre, insbesondere Internationale Wirtschaftspolitik an der Technischen Hochschule Wildau. Vor dem Antritt seiner Professur war er für insgesamt 12 Jahre am österreichischen Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und der Ständigen Vertretung Österreichs bei der OECD in Paris tätig, zuletzt mit einem Schwerpunkt auf internationalem Handel und Investitionen. Er promovierte in Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universität Witten/Herdecke und erwarb einen LL.M.-Abschluss in internationalem Handel- und Investitionsrecht an der University of Ottawa.

© Uta Wagner

Jürgen Matthes
Jürgen Matthes ist Leiter des Kompetenzfelds Internationale Wirtschaftsordnung und Konjunktur am Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft Köln. Er hat Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universität Dortmund und der Dublin City University studiert. Sein Forschungsschwerpunkt liegt auf den ökonomischen Aspekten der Globalisierung.

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Lecture: China's Fragmented Modernity
2022-04-22 12:00 - 14:00 | KWZ & ONLINE, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
China’s Fragmented Modernity
Kai Vogelsang, Universität Hamburg

April 22, 2022, 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 0.610 (Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

When modern concepts and institutions entered China in the early 20th century, they met a society which was quite unlike its European and American counterparts. While functional differentiation, especially in the cities, did make its appearance, Chinese society was still characterized by a fragmentary substructure made up of so many families, lineages, and personal networks. This paper will introduce the concept of segmentary society and present some preliminary thoughts on how this social structure affected the formation of Chinese modernity: the concepts of a public vs. private sphere, the individual, social classes, and others.
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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Push and Pull: Toward a Taylorian Theory of Alternative Modernities
2022-05-06 16:00 - 18:00 | Zoom
Push and Pull: Toward a Taylorian Theory of Alternative Modernities
Justin Ritzinger, Associate Professor of Religious Studies,
University of Miami

May 6, 2022, 4 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
Religion occupies a vexed position in many visions of modernity. It stands as the embodiment of “tradition,” of the nonmodern, of the irrational. It is thus presumed to be condemned to a shrinking sphere of social and cultural life. This has typically been construed as a “challenge” to which religion must “adapt” lest it face extinction. This adaptation typically includes demythologization, rationalization, and social engagement. Such understandings of modernization, which I term “push models,” are useful but insufficient. They fail to account not only for religion’s continuing hold on the hearts of many but also the inspiration modernity gave to many modernizing figures. This talk will offer a counterbalancing “pull model,” drawing upon the account of moral frameworks in Sources of the Self to develop a Taylorian theory of the formulation of alternative modernities. Illustrated with reference to developments in religion in Republican China, this theory may offer new angles for understanding this process in other areas of cultures as well.
Justin Ritzinger is associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami. He received his PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard in 2010. His work focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism. He is the author of a monograph on the reinvention of the cult of Maitreya, entitled Anarchy in the Pure Land, and articles dealing with eschatology, engagements with evolutionary theory, and international monastic exchange, as well as tourist development in the contemporary People’s Republic. He is currently working on an ethnographic study of a blue-collar lay Buddhist group in Taiwan. At the University of Miami, Ritzinger teaches courses in Asian religions.
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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Conservative Radicalism: Watsuji Tetsuro’s Critique of Civil Society and Its Implications for Chinese Intellectual History
2022-05-20 12:00 - 14:00 | KWZ & ONLINE, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Conservative Radicalism: Watsuji Tetsuro’s Critique of Civil Society and Its Implications for Chinese Intellectual History
Viren Murthy, Associate Professor of History,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

May 20, 2022, 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 0.610 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the Meiji state quickly modernized, Japanese intellectuals confronted the atomization and alienation associated with new forms of labor in civil society. Unlike in the family, where affective bonds govern human action, in civil society, people ventured into the world as purposive individuals entering into wage-contracts, which forced them into a means-end relationship. While scholars have dealt with attempts to overcome modernity twentieth century Japan, few have focused on the how the ideal of the family served as a trope to reconcile the antagonism between the individual and the community. The Japanese philosopher, Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960) critically drew on Hegel’s conception of the family to attack civil society. While his critique is clearly conservative, I argue that his position overlaps with leftist treatments of modern alienation and reveals the contradictions between spheres of the family and civil society. Watsuji develops his position in an essay written in the 1930s on the city, where he translates the civil society (bürgerliche Gesellschaft) as “interest society (rieki shakai)”, a sphere where people pursue personal gain. In response to this, he advocates rekindling to older forms of society, where work and family are not so clearly severed. Towards the end of my presentation, I examine the implications of Watsuji’s critique of urban life for the study of Chinese intellectual history. Specifically, in both contexts, my study suggests that we at times blur the lines between radical and conservative because they often have a similar object of critique, namely capitalism, which they each grasp with varying degrees of success.
Viren Murthy teaches transnational Asian History and researches Chinese and Japanese intellectual history in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Understanding the Alienated Self: The Interest in and Problematization of the Village in the Post May-Fourth Period 认识被化外的自我：后五四时期对乡村的关注和农村的问题化
2022-05-27 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Understanding the Alienated Self: The Interest in and Problematization of the Village in the Post May-Fourth Period 认识被化外的自我：后五四时期对乡村的关注和农村的问题化
Luo Zhitian 罗志田 (Distinguished Professor), History Department, Sichuan University
May 27, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
The lecture will be held in Chinese.
乡村曾被视为中国社会与文化的基础，在近代改称“农村”后，逐渐被认为出了问题。农村怎样成为“问题”及其所成的“问题”本身，既伴随着中国现代性展开的进程，也因其间的“现代”眼光所生成。这背后的一个要因，是城市的兴起和城乡的对立。由于城市被视为国家的主体，原来作为广土众民代表的乡村逐渐沦为化外，不复能表述自己。在五四后出现一种读书人想要了解自己国家的倾向，先是开始关注已近于未知的农村，观感褒贬参半；接着是被关注者逐渐问题化，见解贬多于褒；最后是问题化的农村升级为“破产”或“崩溃”，表述以贬为主。其间一个重要特点，是一些人因缺乏了解而把常态看成变态，甚至把国家整体的危难移植到农村身上。

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Building a New Chinese State from the Northwest: The Proposal of Liu Guangfen (1843-1903)
2022-06-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Building a New Chinese State from the Northwest: The Proposal of Liu Guangfen (1843-1903)
Ong Chang Woei 王昌偉 (Professor of Chinese Studies), Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore

June 3, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

In the beginning of his book Origins of the Modern Chinese State, Kuhn asks, “What is Chinese about China’s modern state?” The answer, Kuhn explains, is not to be found by supposing that there some distinctive cultural qualities that will ensure that “China will always be China.” Rather, it is to be found by probing how the Chinese in the recent past dealt with what he calls “constitutional issues” that had already presented themselves before the West made its impact felt. Using Liu Guangfen 劉光蕡 (1843-1903) as a case study, I would like to ask a follow-up question: “What is northwestern about China’s modern state?” My assumption is that whatever “Chinese” problems that existed could be better understood if we take the regional perceptions of such problems into consideration. In this talk, I will demonstrate that Liu Guangfen’s vision of building a modern Chinese state allows us to examine how the concern over nation-state building was shaped by regional experiences. I will also try to show that by studying a particular regional version of “Chinese” nation-state, we can learn something important about the dynamics that shape the quest for a strong nation-state in modern China in general.
Chang Woei ONG is Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore. He specializes in the intellectual history of middle period China and is the author of Men of Letters within the Passes: Guanzhong Literati in Chinese History, 907-1911 (2008) and Li Mengyang, the North-South Divide and Literati Learning in Ming China (2016), both published by Harvard University Asia Center.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: The Creativeness of Modern Chinese Conservative Thinkers 王汎森: 近代保守思想家的創造性
2022-06-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
The Creativeness of Modern Chinese Conservative Thinkers 王汎森: 近代保守思想家的創造性
Wang Fan-sen 王汎森 (Academician, Distinguished Research Fellow), Institute for History and Philology, Academia Sinica

June 10, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
The lecture will be held in Chinese.

近代中國保守思想家中至少可以區分成兩類，第一類是本能地反對任何改變現狀的思想，第二類是回到一個重要的思想基盤（如宋明理學、大乘佛學）上戰鬥。在這次演講中，我想討論第二類思想家，以宋育仁（1859-1931）、熊十力（1885-1968）、唐文治（1865-1954）、劉咸炘（1896-1932）、錢穆（1895-1990）等人為例，討論一個思想史上的問題：當晚清以來的新派一直在變的時候，反對或批評他們的人，其實也一直在變換他們的言論，同時也變換他們對傳統的解釋，以便對應挑戰。
此外，我在比較仔細地審視他們的思路之後，認為他們不只是「回到本來」的樣子，而是有一個微妙的新創過程。譬如他們有時候會用「提高一格法」，把儒家思想，尤其是宋明理學，作一種新的調整、詮釋。借用卡夫卡的話：「當你凝視深淵時，深淵也在凝視你」。

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Chinese Intellectuals’ Rethinking of Science, Religion and Superstition in the 20th Century: From Yan Fu, Liang Qichao to New Confucians
2022-06-17 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Chinese Intellectuals’ Rethinking of Science, Religion and Superstition in the 20th Century: From Yan Fu, Liang Qichao to New Confucians
Huang Ko-wu 黃克武
(Academician, Distinguished Research Fellow)
Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica

June 17, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
This lecture will be held in Chinese.

Late Qing and early Republican China has been regarded as a “secularized” age that ended “the era of classical learning” and opened the door to an empirical, scientific search for knowledge. With the progress of secularization, science gradually established its authoritative status. Thinkers of the May Fourth period, such as Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu, held science in high esteem and emphasized a clear-cut definition of science and superstition. To them, religions were superstitions that needed to be eliminated. This led to many debates. There were two famous debates in the early Republican period. One was the spiritualism debate and the other was the science and metaphysics debate. The latter was influenced by the former in terms of vocabulary and issues. This lecture will describe these two debates and use Yan Fu and Liang Qichao as two examples to illustrate their views on science, religion and superstition. Their views had a very complex origin. They attempted to rely on traditional spiritual resources to bridge East and West in order to build the moral and intellectual foundation needed for a modern state. New Confucians such as Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan inherited the legacy of Yan and Liang. They resisted May Fourth scientism and anti-traditionalism, and thought more deeply about the serious issue of how Chinese tradition and Western modernity should converge.
清末民初的中國常常被認為是一個「世俗化」的過程，它結束了「經學時代」，開啟了經驗主義的科學時代。本講座以嚴復與梁啟超對科學、宗教與迷信等觀念的思索，來反省近代中國世俗化的問題。嚴復與梁啟超是近代中國引介民主與科學的先驅。嚴復所翻譯的《天演論》帶來了一個新的宇宙觀，而梁啟超受到嚴復影響，也對新學的引介發揮重要的作用。五四時期新舊人物均受到嚴、梁的影響，然而嚴、梁卻走出一條與五四新文化運動的支持者，如胡適與陳獨秀等人不同的思路。他們不主張科學與宗教（即迷信）的矛盾，反而強調，科學有其限度、宗教有其價值，而科學與宗教的發展將導致迷信的衰微。這一套想法一方面源自於赫胥黎的「不可知論」，另一方面則由於他們以易經與佛教來詮釋新的宇宙觀，並肯定「孝」的宗教意義。這一種以傳統思想資源來貫通中西的想法為港台新儒家，如熊十力、唐君毅和牟宗三等所繼承。他們極力抵制五四科學主義和反傳統主義，更深入地思考中國傳統和西方現代應該如何融合的嚴肅問題。
Dr. Max K. W. Huang was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1957. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History from Nation Taiwan Normal University. He subsequently pursued his studies in the United Kingdom and the United States, receiving a second master’s degree from Oxford University and his Ph. D degree from Stanford University. He is a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica. His major fields are Ming-Qing studies and Modern Chinese intellectual history. He has published ten books and more than 100 articles. Dr. Huang’s most recent book is Yan Fu: The Man Who Enlightened China with His Pen (筆醒山河：中國近代啟蒙人嚴復, 廣西師範大學出版社，2022年).

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: What is to be Done? Literature and History in China's Revolutionary Twentieth-Century
2022-06-24 10:00 - 12:00 | KWZ 0.607
What is to be Done? Literature and History in China’s Revolutionary Twentieth-Century
Rebecca Karl
Professor of History, New York University

June 24, 2022, 10:00 AM (GMT +2) in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 0.607 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

This talk will address the problem of literary and historical narrative in China’s twentieth century. Revolutionary time is a particular kind of time, requiring different kinds of narrative. In an analytical pass through a century of narrativizations/re-narrativizations, the talk will examine how successive revolutionaries and writers attempted to answer the constantly posed and re-posed radical question of “what is to be done” (shto delats? 怎么办?).

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Modern Alienation and its Antidotes: Strategies from Early 20th Chinese Buddhist Intellectuals
2022-07-01 10:00 - 12:00 | KWZ 2.739, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Modern Alienation and its Antidotes: Strategies from Early 20th Chinese Buddhist Intellectuals
Eyal Aviv
Assistant Professor of Religion, Department of Religion, George Washington University

July 01, 2022, 10:00 AM (GMT +2) in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 2.739 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

Intellectuals, such as Nietzsche, Weber, and Adorno, described modernity as a period of alienation resulting from the collapse of pre-modern social and political structures and the disintegration of shared values. Alienation leaves the individual disconnected from organic relational networks from which humans derive a sense of meaning. But is alienation an inevitable side effect of modernity? In this talk, I will explore the examples of some leading Chinese Buddhist intellectuals in the modern period and argue that far from being alienated, Chinese Buddhists seized the significant changes of the period as an opportunity to transform Buddhism and adapt it to the new era. While they were aware of China’s predicament after the collapse of the imperial world order and the spread of colonialism, still, they approached it in an engaged and constructive spirit. In the talk, I will reflect on what prevents alienation from occurring and why not all modernisms were born alike.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
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Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Heavenly Principle and the Trends of the Times: Some Thoughts on Confucianism
2022-07-08 10:00 - 12:00
Heavenly Principle and the Trends of the Times: Some Thoughts on Confucianism
Wang Hui
Professor of History, Tsinghua University

July 08, 2022, 10:00 AM (GMT +2) in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

Between the 1920s and the 1940s, first Naitō Torajirō and then Miyazaki Ichisada introduced several important propositions regarding the Tang to Song transition, capitalism during the Song Dynasty, and East Asian early modernity. Since then, despite constant controversy, revision, and improvement, one Kyoto School proposition has garnered universal acclaim: there is a basic difference between the Tang and Song, and the Song Dynasty deserves special status in history. In the fields of Chinese intellectual history or philosophy, some of the characteristics of the Confucianism of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties (and especially the School of Principle of the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi) have been of use to modern Confucian scholars as a reference for understanding the early modern in Chinese or East Asian history. Follow this trend, the basic principles of Confucianism are not only organized into the European philosophical categories of ontology and epistemology, but also into such historical categories as: an inward turn, rationalization, and secularization. So, was there an early modern in Chinese history, or how to interpret China and its “modernity”? This talk will take the establishment of the concept of heavenly principle as a clue to address the above issues.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
.
Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: From Mentorship to Comradeship: Irving Babbitt, The Critical Review, and Conservative Globalism in Republican China
2022-07-15 10:00 - 12:00 | KWZ 0.609, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073, Germany
From Mentorship to Comradeship: Irving Babbitt, The Critical Review, and Conservative Globalism in Republican China
Kuo Ya-pei
Assistant Professor, Center for International Relations Research, University of Groningen

July 15, 2022, 10:00 AM (GMT +2) in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 0.609 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.

Since the late 19th century, the “East vs West” dichotomy has been the predominant framework for understanding Chinese civilization and its place in the world. This talk focuses on The Critical Review (Xueheng 學衡), a “conservative” platform launched in 1922, and its effort to overcome this dichotomy. As many modern scholars have pointed out, those who were associated with the journal, such as Wu Mi and Mei Guangdi, held a globalist agenda with a conviction in cultural commonality across the East-West divide. This talk elucidates the particularist dimension of their globalist position. In spite of the apparent disparity between the East and the West, these intellectuals believed that regional civilizations contain certain shared, universal elements. The undeniable particularity of each cultural system thereby presents no barrier to the advancement of history. Rather, they argued that manifesting local specifics was a vehicle contributing to the modern quest for the universal. Through the notion of a diffused locus of the universal, The Critical Review relativized the West’s place in the modern world. The second half of the talk reconsiders Mei Guangdi and Wu Mi’s indebtedness to their American “mentor” Irving Babbitt. While Babbitt’s hermeneutic method and historical outlook left an imprint on the intellectual lives of his Chinese students, Wu and Mei were cognizant of their own as well as Babbitt’s particularity. Their globalism rendered both Prograssive-Era America and post-revolutionary China as parallels that could learn from each other but held neither to be the absolute paragon of human progress. Revering Babbitt, Mei and Wu wittingly deviated from his teachings in formulating their interpretations of Chinese culture. They epitomized an especially sober kind of student of the West, a kind that utilized the knowledge of the West to nurture their own cultural acumen, without idolizing the West as an object of emulation.

This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
.
Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg

Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Sponsor:

Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
.
Image: sung ming whang: Early saturday morning in color, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/6E5PXd

Lecture: Sitting in a Well, Looking at the Sky
2024-06-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Seminar Room 4, Institute for Sports Science
Sitting in a Well, Looking at the Sky
Daniel Mroz, PhD

13.6.2024
Seminar Room 4, Institute for Sports Science
Zuò jǐng guān tiān坐井觀天is an idiomatic saying derived from a story in the Zhuāngzǐ 莊子, a lighthearted Chinese philosophical work that presents funny and irreverent fables, allegories, and parables, which teasingly subvert any possibility of certain perception and judgement.
In one of these tales, a frog who lived in a dilapidated well celebrated his dominion over his tiny home, inviting a tortoise from the eastern ocean in for a visit. The sea tortoise was too large to fit itself into the well, and from outside told the frog about its own vasty ocean home, which was so hard for the little frog to imagine, that his mind scattered in all directions in astonishment, beside himself in his puniness (trans. Ziporyn, 2022: 140).
The saying zuò jǐng guān tiān has been my guide in the writing of my forthcoming book, Resonant Space: Religion, Theatre, and the Chinese Martial Arts. Each chapter is conceived of as a different well, revealing a different patch of sky to the frog who sits below.
In this presentation I shall examine the views from two different wells: the link between choreographed martial movement training and religious rituals, and the relationship between martial movement training and the development of spatial perception in the performing arts.
Ziporyn, B. trans. (2020). Zhuangzi: The Complete Works. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett.
Daniel Mroz, PhD
Daniel Mroz teaches acting and directing for the stage in the Department of Theatre at the University of Ottawa. He has directed original theatre for festivals in Canada and the United States and has taught actors, directors, dancers and choreographers in North America, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Turkey, and China. He also works as a dramaturg and facilitator for contemporary dancers, most recently with Canadian choreographer and dancer Katherine Ng. Daniel’s research focusses on the use of Chinese martial arts in contemporary theatre and dance. He contributes regularly to Martial Arts Studies, a new research area that he has helped to establish in collaboration with colleagues from around the world

This lecture is part of our lecture series 2024/2025:
Current Debates in Martial Arts Studies: Inter- and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Combative Movement Cultures (SoSe 2024, WiSe 2024/25)

Institut für Sportwissenschaften/Hochschulsport/Centre for Modern East Asian Studies
