Lecture: „A China We Can Talk To?“
2024-04-18 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | KWZ 0.602
18. April 2024, 16:00 – 18:00
KWZ 0.602

Talk summary:
For the past decade or so, in his Reading the China Dream project, David Ownby has been reading and translating the work of Chinese intellectuals who publish in China and in Chinese, not dissidents, but not Party propagandists either. These intellectuals inhabit a world parallel to and at the mercy of the world of Xi Jinping and the Party-State where – like intellectuals elsewhere in the world – they write and publish to try to influence public opinion and perhaps the state on the issues they are allowed to discuss. This world is circumscribed and has shrunk under Xi Jinping, but over the course of 40 years of reform and opening, Chinese intellectual life in China underwent a transformation like that of China’s economy and society; globalization changed the way Chinese intellectuals think and write with the result that, to a surprising degree, Chinese and Western intellectuals now share a common vocabulary and common references. This suggests that a dialogue might be possible with many of China’s thought-leaders, if not with Chinese authorities.
Bio:
David Ownby recently retired from the History Department of the Université of Montréal and is currently a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. His most recent work focuses on intellectual life in contemporary China and he is the founder of the Reading the China Dream website.
Organizers:
Department of East Asian Studies; Sponsored by BMBF

China-Strategien in der Diskussion: Handlungsmöglichkeiten an der Universität Göttingen
2024-04-23 14:00 - 16:00 | Emmy Noether Saal, Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Tagungs- und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Wilhelmsplatz 3, 37073 Göttingen
Diskussionsveranstaltung
China-Strategien in der Diskussion: Handlungsmöglichkeiten für die Kooperation in Forschung und Lehre mit der VR China an der Universität Göttingen
Datum: 23.04.2024
Zeit: 14:00 s.t.-16:00 s.t.
Ort: Emmy Noether Saal, Tagungs- und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Wilhelmsplatz 3, 37073 Göttingen
Die Veranstaltung findet in Präsenz statt. Die Vortragende ist online zugeschaltet.
Wir bitten um Anmeldung unter: https://events.gwdg.de/event/715/
Bitte nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit, Ihre Fragen bereits im Vorfeld einzureichen, indem Sie diese im Anmeldeformular angeben, um sicherzustellen, dass Ihre Anliegen während der Veranstaltung adressiert werden können.
Programm:
14:00 Grußwort
Prof. Dr. Inge Hanewinkel (Vizepräsidentin für Chancengleichheit, Diversität und Internationales)
14:15 Online-Vortrag und Q&A
China Strategien des BMBF, DAAD und der HRK: eine kritische Reflektion
Marijke Wahlers (stellv. Generalsekretärin der Hochschulrektorenkonferenz)
15:00 Diskussionsrunde
Handlungsmöglichkeiten für die Kooperation in Forschung und Lehre mit der VR China an der Universität Göttingen
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Hiltraud Casper-Hehne (Abteilung Interkulturelle Germanistik, Universität Göttingen) & Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider (Ostasiatisches Seminar, Universität Göttingen)
Organisatoren:
Abteilung Interkulturelle Germanistik
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS)
Ostasiatisches Seminar
Weitere Informationen finden Sie unter: https://www.cemeas.de/event/china-strategien-in-der-diskussion-handlungsmoglichkeiten-an-der-universitat-gottingen/

12. Junges Forum zum chinesischen Recht
2024-04-25 10:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Das Deutsch-Chinesische Institut für Rechtswissenschaft der Universität Göttingen stellt im Rahmen seiner Veranstaltung „Junges Forum zum chinesischen Recht“ den Doppelmasterstudiengang „Chinesisches Recht und Rechtsvergleichung“ der Universitäten Göttingen und Nanjing vor. Der Studiengang hat einen Umfang von vier Semestern und ermöglicht den Erwerb von gleich zwei Masterabschlüssen, sodass am Ende die Titel LL.M./LL.M (oec) oder LL.M./M.A. verliehen werden. Das erste Mastersemester findet zur Vorbereitung in Göttingen statt, während das zweite und dritte Semester in Nanjing, China verbracht werden. Im vierten Semester widmen sich die Studierenden ihrer Masterarbeit in Göttingen. Prof. Dr. Benjamin Pißler, Vizedirektor am Deutsch-Chinesischen Institut für Rechtswissenschaft in Nanjing, wird den Teilnehmenden einen spannenden Einblick in die chinesische Rechtsterminologie, insbesondere unter Einsatz von DeepL, bieten. Auch wird es einen Erfahrungsbericht von einer Studentin des Doppelmasterstudiengangs „Chinesisches Recht und Rechtsvergleichung“ geben, um einen persönlichen Eindruck des Studienganges zu vermitteln.Die Veranstaltung findet am 25.04.2024 ab 10 Uhr (s.t.) online als Zoom-Veranstaltung statt.

Zugangslink: https://uni-goettingen.zoom-x.de/j/69644117029?pwd=[REDACTED]

Vortrag: Felix Lee: China, mein Vater und ich: Über den Aufstieg einer Supermacht und was Familie Lee aus Wolfsburg damit zu tun hat
2024-06-13 11:00 - 12:30
Zeit: 13.06.2024, 11:15-12:15
Veranstalter: Alumni der Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät
Veranstaltungsort: Zentrales Hörsaalgebäude (ZHG)

Wir freuen uns, dass wir im Rahmen des Responsible Innovation Summit 2024 folgende Veranstaltung präsentieren können: “China, mein Vater und ich: Über den Aufstieg einer Supermacht und was Familie Lee aus Wolfsburg damit zu tun hat“.

Unser Referent für diese Veranstaltung ist Felix Lee. Geboren 1975 in Wolfsburg, studierte er Soziologie, Volkswirtschaft und Politik und absolvierte die renommierte Berliner Journalistenschule. Von 2003 bis 2022 war er als Wirtschafts- und Politikredakteur für die taz tätig. Ab 2010 verbrachte er neun Jahre als China-Korrespondent in Peking. Derzeit ist er Redakteur bei Table Media und schreibt für China.Table. Sein Buch “China, mein Vater und ich” eroberte die Bestsellerlisten, gewann den Deutschen Wirtschaftsbuchpreis 2023 und war ein Jahr lang unter den Top 10 des manager magazin. Felix Lee lebt und arbeitet in Berlin.
Diese Veranstaltung ist ein bedeutender Schritt in unserer Responsible Innovation Summit 2024-Reihe und bietet einen einzigartigen Einblick in die Beziehung zwischen Deutschland und China sowie in die Entwicklungen einer aufstrebenden Supermacht.
Um an dieser Veranstaltung teilzunehmen, können Sie sich hier registrieren: Teilnehmen

Weitere spannende Veranstaltungen im Rahmen des Responsible Innovation Summit 2024 finden Sie hier: Weitere Veranstaltungen

Wir danken Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs für die Organisation dieser Veranstaltung und freuen uns darauf, Sie bei “China, mein Vater und ich” begrüßen zu dürfen.
Porträtfoto Felix Lee Ⓒ Natascha Zivadinovic : https://www.aufbau-verlage.de/autor-in/felix-lee

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

Global China Conversations #33 How (differently) have Chinese Firms invested in and changed Africa?
2024-06-27 11:00 - 12:00
June 27, 2024, 11-12 [CET]
Place: Online via Zoom – Registration
How (differently) have Chinese Firms invested in and changed Africa?
The Chinese government officially initiated regular dialogues with African countries at the beginning of the 21st century and has since actively encouraged Chinese firms to invest in and do business with Africa. The launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 gave another, and stronger policy boost to Chinese firms’ economic engagement in Africa. Chinese firms with business activities in Africa have, however, often drawn harsh criticism for their allegedly deficient working conditions and severe damage caused to the environment. Who are the Chinese multinationals doing business in Africa? Are they different from their western counterparts and in which aspect are they most differently from each other? How have such differences been further developing over time? What role can policies play here to foster sustainable development in Africa?
Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
The Global China Conversation #33 will be held in English.

Literature
The impulse lectures refer to the following publications:
Ackah et al., (2024), What role for Chinese FDI in Africa? New survey evidence from Ethiopia and Ghana, Kiel Working Paper No. 2268, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, https://www.ifw-kiel.de/de/publikationen/what-role-for-chinese-fdi-in-africa-new-survey-evidence-from-ethiopia-and-ghana-32826/
Bode , E. (2024), The Motives for Chinese and Western Countries’ Sovereign Lending to Africa, Kiel Working Paper No. 2269, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, https://www.ifw-kiel.de/de/publikationen/the-motives-for-chinese-and-western-countries-sovereign-lending-to-africa-32863/.

Speakers:

Holger Görg
Prof. Holger Görg, Ph.D. is Director of the Research Center “International Trade and Investments” at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Professor of International Economics at the university of Kiel. Since 2016 he has been Managing Director of Kiel Centre for Globalization. He is also a Research Fellow at the Tuborg Centre for Globalisation and Firms at Aarhus University, the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy at the University of Nottingham and the IZA in Bonn.

Reginald Yofi Grant
Reginald Yofi Grant is CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center, under the Office of the President of Ghana. He is a council member of the Continental Business Network of the African Union and a board member of the OACP Endowment and Trust Fund. He serves on the Steering Board of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, representing sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, he is actively involved in multiple private and public sector boards and committees.

Hong Zhao
Prof. Hong Zhao is an associate professor at Nankai University in China. She serves as a partner expert at UNIDO in 2024. She obtained her Ph.D. from McGill University in Canada in 2017. Her research interests lie in macroeconomics and environmental economics, and she has published articles in leading journals such as the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Environmental Economics Management, and Energy Economics, among others.

Moderator: Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk is a business journalist with a focus on East Asia. He heads the editorial staff of China. Table, the daily professional briefing for experts in business, science, politics and organizations. Mayer-Kuckuk has worked as a Beijing correspondent for the Handelsblatt and the DuMont Group, and later represented a number of media outlets as a business correspondent at the Bundespressekonferenz in Berlin.
Contact: Moritz Haase (moritz.haase@ifw-kiel.de)

Registration
Please register for this and following Global China Conversations here:
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/de/institut/veranstaltungen/global-china-conversations/anmeldung-zur-veranstaltungsreihe-global-china-conversations/

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Jürgen Trittin und Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik im Gespräch: China und die Neuordnung der Welt
2024-07-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Alfred Hessel Saal, Historisches Gebäude der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek
Podiumsdiskussion: China und die Neuordnung der Welt
Jürgen Trittin & Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik
Datum: 3. Juli 2024
Zeit: 19:00
Ort: Alfred-Hessel-Saal, Historisches Gebäude der SUB, Papendiek 14, 37073 Göttingen
Der Eintritt ist frei!
TeilnehmerInnen:

Jürgen Trittin: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ehemaliges Mitglied des Bundestages und ehemaliger Bundesminister für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit
Prof. i.R. Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: Sinologin und emeritierte Professorin an der Universität Wien

Neue Publikation von Prof. Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Susanne. 2023. China und die Neuordnung der Welt. Brandstätter.
Einführung : Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider (Universität Göttingen)
Moderator: Markus Bickel (Table.Media)
Veranstalter: Ostasiatisches Seminar & Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS)
Die Veranstaltung wird live auf Zoom gestreamt: https://uni-goettingen.zoom-x.de/j/66787439209

Portraitfoto Jürgen Trittin: © Laurence Chaperon, Bild: Generiert mit KI, masterofmoments adobestock
Portraitfoto Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: Christoph Glanzl

Zhang Hanwen (Artist/Filmmaker; Berlin): Defection, Exile, and Utopia: Pan-Asianist Bodies and Legacies
2024-07-05 11:30 - 12:30 | Emmy-Noether-Saal, Tagungs-und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa,, Wilhelmspl. 3, 37073 Göttingen
Zhang Hanwen (Artist/Filmmaker; Berlin)
Defection, Exile, and Utopia: Pan-Asianist Bodies and Legacies
Emmy-Noether Saal, Wilhelmsplatz
5. July (Friday), 11:30-12:30
Abstract:
The artist and filmmaker Zhang Hanwen will present his recent work, “Hostile Landscapes”, a two-channel installation film initiated in 2022, and related research. The project revolves around the true story of Jhu Hyeun-ken (朱贤健/주현건), a North Korean defector imprisoned in the Jilin Prison in Northeast China for illegal border-crossing since 2013. Jhu managed to escape from the prison on October 18th, 2021, with bare hands. After eluding local police and authorities for 40 days, Jhu was ultimately shot in the leg and apprehended near the Fengman Dam and Reservoir, a historically significant location with deep Japanese colonial ties. The presentation will explore notions related to Chinese/Asian identities, and their connections to nationalism and colonialism, within the framework of contemporary and modern East Asian history, navigating the geopolitical shifts of the past and the present.
Speaker:
Zhang Hanwen is an artist and filmmaker originally from Changchun, China, who has been wandering nomadically across Germany lately. Drawing from artistic research and field studies, his work examines specific landscapes, infrastructures, and mundane activities through images and texts, weaving them within a network of local, personal, transnational, historical, and ideological contexts. His recent research revolves around marginalized individuals’ exile, troublesome colonial heritage, and secret society activities against the backdrop of East Asian modern/contemporary history. Zhang holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and has participated in various artist-in-residencies and fellowship programs including the German Chancellor Fellowship (Bonn, 2025), the Braunschweig Projects (Braunschweig, 2023), the Oberhausen Seminar (Oberhausen, 2023), the Fosun Foundation Art Residency (Shanghai, 2021), the BRIClab Video Art Residency (New York, 2020), etc. His work has been exhibited and screened at venues such as the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, the OCAT Institute in Beijing, BY ART MATTERS in Hangzhou, the CACHE Space in Beijing, as well as at film festivals including the Beijing International Short Film Festival and BBC LongShots. In 2020, Zhang’s film “The First Line of China” was awarded the SAH Award for Film and Video.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Vortrag: Die Geschichte des Unterrichts „Chinesisch als Fremdsprache“ in Taiwan
2024-07-11 16:00 - 18:00 | KWZ 0.602
Die Geschichte des Unterrichts „Chinesisch als Fremdsprache“ in Taiwan
Referent: Dr. Chin-Hua Chu, National Taiwan University
Datum und Uhrzeit: 11. Juli 2024, 16:15-17:45 Uhr
Ort: KWZ 0.602
Sprache: Chinesisch-Englisch
Wir laden Sie herzlich zu einem spannenden Vortrag von Dr. Chin-Hua Chu von der National Taiwan University ein. Dr. Chu wird über die Geschichte und Entwicklung des Unterrichts von „Chinesisch als Fremdsprache“ in Taiwan sprechen. Dieser Vortrag bietet eine einzigartige Gelegenheit, mehr über die Methoden und Herausforderungen des Sprachunterrichts in Taiwan zu erfahren.

Lecture: Prof. Song Chen (Bucknell University): Connecting the Dots: Advancing Chinese Historical Studies through Social Network Analysis
2024-07-15 18:00 - 20:00 | KWZ 0.607
Date: July 15, 2024
Time: 18:00
Place: KWZ 0.607
In recent years, an increasing number of scholars have actively explored how social network analysis (SNA) may advance the understanding of Chinese history and literature. These explorations have underscored the pressing need for methodological reflections and the most appropriate subjects for network analysis. Drawing on my research in the areas of prosopography and local religion, this talk discusses the potentials and pitfalls in the application of SNA to historical studies. Using elite marriages in eleventh- and thirteenth-century China as an example, the first part of this talk explores how SNA breaks new ground in prosopographical research, directing attention from the “common background characteristics” of a historical population to the patterned relationships knitting together the members of that population. The second part of this talk addresses the tendency to conflate social networks as a subject of inquiry with social network analysis as a method of data modeling. This confusion often leads to flawed research designs at the onset of a project, skewing data collection and hampering subsequent analyses. It also results in missed opportunities where scholars overlook potential research projects that seem unrelated to SNA but could greatly benefit from its analytical capabilities. As an illustration, insights will be shared from my recent work that employs SNA to unveil patterns in the spatial distribution of temple cults in the Lower Yangzi during the thirteenth century.
Biography:
Song Chen received his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 2011 and is currently an Associate Professor of Chinese History in the Department of East Asian Studies at Bucknell University, USA. His research focuses on Chinese social and cultural history between the eighth and the eighteenth century. For many years his work has focused on the migration and marriage patterns of China’s ruling elite in these centuries. Recently he is expanding the scope of his study to popular religion. He uses digital methods extensively in his teaching and scholarship. He is the inaugural project manager of the China Biographical Database project (CBDB), and has served on the project’s Steering and Executive Committees since 2011. His research combines prosopography, network analysis, and historical GIS. In 2021 and 2022, he co-edited, with Henrike Rudolph and Zhao Wei, two special journal issues that feature cutting-edge digital scholarship in Chinese studies. He has given research talks and taught digital humanities workshops at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, National Taiwan University, Peking University, Tsinghua University (Beijing), Shanghai Normal University, National University of Singapore, among others.

Vortrag: Prof. Sun Lixin: Die „Konfuziusgesellschaft“ und der kulturelle Austausch zwischen China und Deutschland
2024-10-16 16:00 - 18:00 | KWZ 0.610
Die „Konfuziusgesellschaft“ und der kulturelle Austausch zwischen China und Deutschland
Prof. Sun Lixin (Shandong University)
Zeit: 16.10.24, 16-18 Uhr
Ort: KWZ 0.610
Von der Masse der christlichen Missionare, die im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert nach China kamen, hob sich Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930), ein deutscher Missionar des Allgemeinen evangelisch-protestantischen Missionsvereins, auf bemerkenswerte Weise ab. Als „intimer Schüler“ des berühmten deutschen religiösen Sozialisten Christoph Blumhardt taufte Wilhelm in China keine Chinesen. Für das chinesische Volk, das unter der Knute des Imperialismus litt, war Wilhelm voller Sympathie. Auch zeigte er großes Interesse an chinesischer Geschichte und Kultur. Aus einer auf Christus zentrierten religiösen Sichtweise, nahm er eine neue Missionsmethode an, deren Hauptinhalt darin bestand, sich „auf das einfache Leben nach christlichen Grundsätzen zu beschränken, durch Schule und Hospital zu wirken, mit den Menschen zusammenzuleben und ihnen innerlich nahe zu kommen“. Durch den engen Kontakt mit allen Bereichen der chinesischen Gesellschaft und seinen persönlichen Erfahrungen mit der chinesischen Kultur lernte Wilhelm nicht nur allmählich den spirituellen Ursprung des harmonischen Lebens der Chinesen kennen, sondern entwickelte auch eine innige Bewunderung für Konfuzius. Er gründete zusammen mit einigen ehemaligen Adligen und Ministern der Qing Dynastie 1913 in Qingdao die „Konfuziusgesellschaft“. Diese Gesellschaft war weder eine retro-orientierte Institution noch eine rein akademische Einrichtung. Die Gründung der „Konfuziusgesellschaft“ basierte auf der konkreten Praxis der missionarischen Idee von Wilhelm, die versuchte, durch Übersetzungen, Vorträge und wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen Anknüpfung und Zusammenarbeit auf geistigem Gebiet zwischen Ost und West zu bewirken. Bei der Förderung des kulturellen Austauschs zwischen China und Deutschland hat die Gründung der Konfuziusgesellschaft eine äußerst wichtige Rolle gespielt.
Prof. Sun Lixin
Sun Lixin ist Professor für Weltgeschichte an der Shandong-Universität in Jinan, China. In seiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeit konzentriert er sich auf die Neuere Geschichte Deutschlands und Zeitgeschichte, mit einer Vielzahl von Publikationen u.a. zur politischen Geschichte, Kulturgeschichte, Geschichte der Geschichtsschreibung und den deutsch-chinesischen Beziehungen. Wichtige Veröffentlichungen sind: Das Chinabild der deutschen protestantischen Missionare des 19. Jahrhunderts – Eine Fallstudie zum Problem interkultureller Begegnung und Wahrnehmung (Marburg 2002), Abhandlungen über die Geschichte der deutsch-chinesischen Beziehungen in der Neuzeit (Beijing 2014), Studien zur Geschichtsschreibung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der historiographischen Kontroverse um die NS-Frage (mit Meng Zhongjie u. Fan Dingliang, Beijing 2018) und Allgemeine Geschichte Deutschlands · Band II: Das Zeitalter des gespaltenen Glaubens (Nanjing 2019).

Veranstalter:

Bild:青岛礼贤书院大门 (Richard Wilhelm School Tsingtau), Public Domain (China, Taiwan). Abridged link: https://s.gwdg.de/qUl8xA

Dr. Austin Strange: The Political Logics of Chinese Global Infrastructure
2024-11-11 18:00 - 19:30 | ZHG 004
The Political Logics of Chinese Global Infrastructure

Date: November 11, 2024, 18:00-19:30
Location: ZHG 004

Abstract: Infrastructure is a major component of China’s presence in global development and is also central to larger debates about China’s evolving roles in the world economy and international politics. This talk will present a comprehensive account of major, Chinese government-financed infrastructure projects across the Global South since 1949 to the present day. New historical and contemporary datasets show Chinese global infrastructure’s distinctiveness in terms of its historical tenacity and massive contemporary scope. The data include hundreds of 20th-century overseas infrastructure projects that predate contemporary China’s infrastructure spree during the Going Out strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative. These projects and their underlying political logics suggest that global infrastructure will remain a crucial component of China’s role in international development even as the BRI evolves toward smaller, more sustainable, and digital infrastructure forms. The talk will also feature new findings from analyses of observational and experimental data on how overseas infrastructure projects relate to China’s international influence.

Bio: Austin Strange is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. He teaches and researches international relations, international development, and Chinese foreign policy. He is the author of Chinese Global Infrastructure (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and co-author of Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Austin’s research has appeared or is forthcoming in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Conflict Resolution, among others. In 2022 Austin was awarded the University of Hong Kong’s Early Career Teaching Award. From 2023-2025 he is a fellow in the National Committee on United States-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program, and previously he was a fellow at the Wilson Center and the Columbia-Harvard China and the World Program. Austin earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Zhejiang University, and a B.A. from College of William and Mary.

Lecture: Prof. Mei Li Inouye (Stanford University): Soviet Dramatic Theory on a Shanghai Stage: Stanislavski, Zhang Min, and the Shanghai Amateur Dramatist Association
2025-01-27 16:00 - 18:00
Soviet Dramatic Theory on a Shanghai Stage: Stanislavski, Zhang Min, and the Shanghai Amateur Dramatist Association

Time: January, 27 from 4-6 pm
Venue: KWZ 1.601

Abstract:​ References to Stanislavski are commonplace in the historiography of Chinese socialist theater and cinema. Scholars have largely focused on translations of Stanislavski into Chinese as the starting point for Stanislavski in China, crediting director and actor Zheng Junli 郑君里(1911–1969) with the first translation of Stanislavski’s An Actor’s Works in 1943. However, Zheng Junli was not the only translator of An Actor’s Works. First introduced to Stanislavski by director and theater scholar Zhang Min at the Shanghai Amateur Dramatists Association during the 1930s, Zheng Junli worked as an actor under Zhang Min’s directorship and co-translated An Actor’s Works with him. This paper explores Chinese modern dramatists’ early reception and experiments with Stanislavski by attending to the elements of Stanislavski’s theories that received the most attention in practice. It demonstrates that Stanislavski’s system was a familiar system within acting and film circles prior to its translation and how the practice and circulation of Stanislavski within the elite circles of modern dramatist practitioners laid the ground for its widespread acceptance in the 1950s in the domains of both theater and cinema prior to being banned in the 1960s. This paper concludes with considerations of the effects of those experiments on actors and actresses who acted in those productions and who participated in the banning of Stanislavski in the 1960s.
Bio:Mei Li Inouye is an assistant professor of Chinese at Centre College with a Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from Stanford University. Her research interests include transnational exchange, gender politics, performance and remix studies in modern Chinese literature, theater, and visual culture. Her book project, “Performing Jiang Qing (1914-1991): Gender, Performance, and Power in Modern China,” examines the most powerful, visible, and reviled woman in the history of modern China as a cultural remix and durational performance that can help us understand the interplay of gender, performance, media, and power in the worlds she inhabited and the scholarship that has tried to understand those worlds. Her scholarship has been supported by a CLIR-Mellon Fellowship, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Her article, “Marketing Jiang Qing: Revolutionary, Modern Girl, and Dangerous Woman in Left-wing Cinema,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Chinese Cinemas. Her article, “Soviet Dramatic Theory and Dramas on Stage in 1930s Shanghai,” can be found in the fall 2022 issue (5.2) of International Comparative Literature.

Lecture: Writing World History in a Global Historical Context: Perspectives on Meiji Japan and Contemporary Taiwan
2025-04-29 18:00 - 20:00 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
Writing World History in a Global Historical Context: Perspectives on Meiji Japan and Contemporary Taiwan
Prof. Mu-chou Poo (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
29. April (Tuesday), 18:00-20:00

Abstract:
This talk will address two issues: the unique situation of Japanese learning of Western history and civilization in the mid-Nineteenth Century (Meiji Period), and the development of World History textbook writing as a response/reaction to the political process in contemporary Taiwan. For Japan, I will concentrate on the writing of ancient Western history, in particular the ancient Near East, as this period touches upon the origin of human civilization, which was of vital importance in terms of political, cultural, and religious implications to Japan’s effort of nation building. For Taiwan, the more liberal new national standard textbooks of mid-1980’s sought to debunk the old frame of textbook writing, and to introduce new concepts in history education; the decentralized textbooks of the late-1990’s were involved in the struggle of identity politics, and took a more conservative turn in terms of writing style and interpretation.
Speaker:
Mu-chou Poo (PhD in Egyptology, Johns Hopkins 1984), is adjunct Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He had worked as a Research Fellow at Academia Sinica, Taipei, from 1984-2009, and Chair Professor of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009-2023, and taught at various places, including Columbia, UCLA, and Grinnell College. Research interests include religion and society in ancient Egypt and China. Major publications include Burial and the Idea of Life and Death: Essay on Ancient Chinese Religion (Taipei, 1993); Wine and Wine Offering in the Religion of Ancient Egypt (London: Kegan Paul, 1995); In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion (Albany: SUNY, 1998); Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China (Albany: SUNY, 2005). (Ed.) Rethinking Ghosts in World Religions (Leiden: Brill, 2009). Old Society, New Belief, Religious Transformation of China and Rome, ca. 1st-6th Centuries. Ed. With H. A. Drake and Lisa Raphals, (Oxford University Press, 2017), Daily Life in Ancient China (Cambridge U Press, 2018), Ghosts and Religious Life in Early China (Cambridge U Press, 2022), and The Netherworld in Ancient Egypt and China: An Imagined Paradise (London: Bloomsbury, 2023)
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

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Lecture: Should Children be Carefree? A Chinese and Global Debate
2025-05-06 18:00 - 20:00 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
Should Children be Carefree? A Chinese and Global Debate
Prof. Hsiung Ping-Chen (Secretary General, CIPSH)

PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
6. May (Tuesday), 18:15-19:45
Abstract:
Recognized as signs of modernity, children, free roaming, have been referred to as a best representatives for a progressive society. Historically in China, however, as early as the Song Dynasty, unique attention to children at play in arts and children’s health in traditional pediatrics prevailed, as Neo-Confucian philosophers continued to debate whether they ought to be left carefree. Illustrated with Chinese paintings and medical texts, this lecture will trace a thousand years of ebbs and flows of such concerns and interests on the nature of childhood. To reflect also on a contention and obsession with how to lessen burdens for today’s schoolers too, in creating a child friendly environment that connects contemporary China with the rest of the world. The talk intends to offer a public occasion to argue and deliberate on this never-ending tug of war over whether or how children should be set free.
Speaker:
Professor Hsiung Ping-chen is a distinguished scholar and academic leader in the humanities, with a multifaceted career across renowned international institutions. She holds a PhD in History from Brown University and an MSc from the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research spans childhood studies, gender and family history, and health humanities, with a particular focus on Late Imperial and Modern China. She also engages with comparative cultural and social history, public health, and the intellectual history of Russia. Professor Hsiung has published extensively on the history of Chinese pediatrics, the cultural memory of childhood, and the evolution of health practices in Chinese society. Since 2020, Professor Hsiung has served as Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH), and she was re-elected to this position in 2023. Among other academic distinctions, she also holds the UNESCO Co-Chair in “Global Asia” at McGill University and the CIPSH Chair in “New Humanities” at the University of California, Irvine. She is also the founder of the Asian New Humanities Network and has held key leadership positions at institutions such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Director of the Research Institute for the Humanities.

Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

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Lecture: Journey to the East (and Back): China and “Western Esotericism” from Reception History to Global Religious Studies
2025-05-08 18:00 - 19:30 | KWZ 0.603, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14
Journey to the East (and Back): China and “Western Esotericism” from Reception History to Global Religious Studies
Davide Marino (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Date: May 8, 2025
Time: 18:00 – 19:30
Place: KWZ 0.603
Abstract:
This presentation examines the intricate and multifaceted relationship between Chinese spiritual culture(s) and the field of “Western Esotericism.” For centuries, the East, and particularly China, was regarded by Europeans as a repository of superior spiritual knowledge, a realm of profound wisdom that seemed inaccessible to the West. This perception of the East as a mystical and enigmatic source of ancient wisdom persisted across various periods of European intellectual history, with China holding a particularly prominent place in Western imagination. Beginning in the early modern period, and reaching its peak during the colonial era, Western thinkers found abundant inspiration in Chinese religions, philosophies, and cultural practices and these elements were integrated into the evolving spiritual and philosophical discourses of the time, ultimately becoming essential components of the eclectic mix of ideas now known as “Western Esotericism.” China was not simply “received” or passively absorbed into Western thought; rather, various Chinese intellectuals, spiritual leaders, and cultural movements became active participants in a global esoteric discourse that transcended geographical boundaries and facilitated the exchange of ideas. This dynamic of intellectual and spiritual exchange is even more pronounced in contemporary times. While in “the West,” Chinese cultural elements such as Chinese medicine, the Daodejing, and the notion of qi have become widely embraced as staples of global post-confessional spirituality, “Western Esotericism” is increasingly being discussed, reinterpreted, and adapted in the People’s Republic, both in commercial contexts and within academic discourse. This growing interest reflects a reciprocal flow of ideas that continues to shape global spiritual trends. Although often overlooked by Western scholars, Chinese perspectives on “Western Esotericism” present a challenge to traditional diffusionist models, which tend to view the flow of ideas as a one-way process. Instead, these Chinese perspectives reveal a more complex and circular flow of ideas, which calls into question the conventional notion of one-way reception (whether “from East to West” or “from West to East”). China did not merely provide raw material for Western thinkers to appropriate and adapt for their own purposes; rather, Chinese cultural and spiritual traditions actively shaped and influenced the trajectory of global discourses on esotericism. Likewise, contemporary Chinese discourses on “Western Esotericism” are increasingly framed around both domestic issues—such as the role and necessity of regulating religion in Chinese society—and international debates on religion, science, and public health. Thus, this presentation advocates for a global and interdisciplinary approach to the study of esotericism—one that recognizes the entangled and reciprocal histories of “China” and “the West,” and acknowledges their shared responsibility in shaping the development of modern and postmodern alternative religious trajectories.
Davide Marino, PhD
Davide Marino specializes in the interplay between East Asian religions, particularly Chinese, and European Esotericism, with a focus on Traditionalism. His Ph.D. thesis, which received the CUHK Young Scholars Thesis Award in 2023, examined the influence of Chinese and Vietnamese religious concepts on the works of Albert de Pouvourville and René Guénon. More recently, he has been investigating the intersection of politics and esotericism in both China and Europe.
Organizers:
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Image: Image: Gauthier Delecroix, Spirituality CC BY 2.0, https://flic.kr/p/MxGNDj

[Event Cancellation] Lecture: Network Ties, Social Capital, and Multilateral Cooperation
2025-05-12 16:15 - 17:30 | ZHG 005
We regret to inform you that the lecture:
Network Ties, Social Capital, and Multilateral Cooperation
has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Should the event be rescheduled in the future, we will update the information accordingly.
Thank you for your understanding and continued interest.
—
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS)
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
23.04.2025

Network Ties, Social Capital, and Multilateral Cooperation
Christina Davis (Harvard University)
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Room: ZHG 005 16:15 – 17:30
Lecture: May 12, 2025

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Christina L. Davis
Christina L. Davis is the Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics in the Department of Government and Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University. During academic year 2024-25 she will be on leave at Oxford University (affiliated to Queen’s College) as the Centenary Visiting Professor in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Her research interests include the politics and foreign policy of Japan, East Asia, and the study of international organizations with a focus on trade policy. Her research has been published in leading political science journals. She is the author of Food Fights Over Free Trade: How International Institutions Promote Agricultural Trade Liberalization (Princeton University Press 2003), and Why Adjudicate? Enforcing Trade Rules in the WTO (Princeton University Press 2012, winner of the international law best book award of the International Studies Association, Ohira Memorial Prize, and co-winner of Chadwick Alger Prize). Her latest book, Discriminatory Clubs: The Geopolitics of International Organizations, was released by Princeton University Press in July 2023. Currently she is working on several projects on the evolving trade order and economic sanctions. Education: AB in East Asian Studies, Harvard 1993; Ph.D. in Political Science, Harvard 2001.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/cldavis/home

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Organizers:
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS), Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, http://www.cemeas.de
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Department for International Relations, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen,Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, https://lehrstuhlib.uni-goettingen.de
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Chair of Development Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/614556.h
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Image: Image created using AI-generated content powered by DALL·E via ChatGPT by OpenAI

Lecture: Towards a New World Order: Reading Zhao Tingyang’s Tianxia in Light of the Japanese Experience
2025-05-13 18:00 - 20:00 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
Towards a New World Order: Reading Zhao Tingyang’s Tianxia in Light of the Japanese Experience

Prof. Viren Murthy (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21

13. May (Tuesday), 18:15–19:45

Abstract:
Today in the midst of a global pandemic, we are constantly confronted with the inability of national governments to create the conditions for human flourishing. In this context, the recent attempts from Chinese Confucianists to envision a new world order could point the way to a more sustainable future. This global gesture in recent Confucian theory overlaps with recent trends in Marxism. For example, Jacques Bidet has written of an incipient world-state (état-monde), which could potentially go against the capitalist world order. From its inception, Marxism has been interested in a global movement to overcome capitalism. But tianxia theorists seem to proceed from the opposite direction of Marxism. Put simply, while Marxists explain philosophical theories by relating them to social and historical structures, Confucian tianxia theorists proceed from philosophy to history and politics. Recently, Marxists have questioned the Confucian tianxia approach and contend that such theories are merely an ideology to legitimate Chinese capitalism and the imperialist tendency of the contemporary Chinese government. In response to such criticisms, I attempt to synthesize Marxism and tianxia theory by focusing on the contemporary Chinese thinker, Zhao Tingyang. With respect to imperialism, one of the key issues concerns how Zhao envisions the unity of a world as encompassing the many, without negating their particularity. I deal with this ideal philosophically, making comparisons to Hegel’s conception and also to thinkers in interwar Japan, which was imperialist. I claim that Zhang can avoid the pitfall of the Japanese path, only if he places the problems of capitalism at the center of his theory. In short, one will not be able to achieve a non-imperialist global unity that respects multiplicity without overcoming global capitalism.

Speaker:

My work probes the historical conditions for the possibility of philosophy and politics in the modern world and in East Asia in particular. I am generally interested in the attempts of East Asian intellectuals to resist modernity through reviving premodern philosophies and religions, such as Buddhism. My first book, The Political Philosophy of Zhang Taiyan: The Resistance of Consciousness, shows how in early 20th century China, Zhang Taiyan, drew on Consciousness-Only (Yogācāra) Buddhism to formulate a theory of revolution. In particular, the book explains how this seemingly ancient body of knowledge is reformulated as China was incorporated into the global capitalist system of nation-states.

In June 2022, I published The Politics of Time in China and Japan: Back to the Future (Routledge), which is a collection of essays that explore how Chinese and Japanese intellectuals mobilize traditional texts to create a better future. They produce what I call “back to the future” narratives, in which they conjure the past to envision a world beyond global capitalism. These narratives are nationalistic but unlike in England and the United States, this nationalism is connected to anti-imperialism and resistance to global inequality. I suggest that such inequality also divides Europe, which enables comparisons between Germany and Asian nations, all of whom saw themselves as being marginalized.

My third monograph Pan-Asianism and Legacy of the Chinese Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2023) shows how intellectuals in China and Japan promoted unity among weak Asian nations to resist Western domination. To promote such unity, pan-Asianists struggled against Eurocentric visions of history articulated by philosophers such as Hegel, who argued that the Orient had to follow the West. At the same time, these thinkers appropriated Hegel’s criticisms of abstract individualism. I contend that Japanese and Chinese pan-Asianists drew on elements of both Asian and Western culture to posit a world beyond narrow self-interest, capitalism, and imperialism. The legacy of pan-Asianism is complex given that Japan employed this ideology to promote imperialism. Consequently, postwar Japanese pan-Asianists had to confront the problem of war memory. Postwar pan-Asianists tried to show that a healthy transnationalism was both possible and necessary to struggle against Western imperialism.

My present project concerns how East Asian intellectuals drew on G.W.F Hegel to uncover logics to Chinese and Japanese history, which culminate in a new world order inspired by their respective cultures. In addition to the above projects connected to East Asia, I am also involved in a project on South Indian Classical Music and Tamil Identity, which also explores issues of how traditions have been reconstituted by capitalist modernity. I have also been interested in how Marxists in (primarily in the North Atlantic) have drawn on Jewish Messianism to confront capitalist modernity.

Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

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Akademie im Gespräch - Was bewegt China?
2025-05-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Altes Rathaus Göttingen
Was bewegt China?

14. Mai 2025
Altes Rathaus Göttingen, 18.15 Uhr

Diskussionsveranstaltung der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen in Kooperation mit der Stadt Göttingen.
Sprecher:
Andreas Fuchs, Entwicklungsökonom
Dominic Sachsenmaier, Globalhistoriker
In unserem Zeitalter großer Umbrüche richten sich immer mehr Augen auf China. Längst ist klar, dass Fragen zur künftigen globalen Ordnung auch Chinas Stellung in der Welt betreffen.
Welche Rolle spielt die neue Großmacht in den Krisen unserer Zeit, und wie wirken sich diese auf Europa aus? Auf welchen Gebieten lässt sich ein globaler Machtzuwachs Chinas beobachten, und wo zeigt das chinesische System Schwächen und Risse? Wie werden sich die Beziehungen Chinas zu Europa und zu anderen Teilen der Welt verändern?
Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (NAWG)

Veranstalter

Pint of Science Festival 2025: Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs
2025-05-19
Pint of Science Festival 2025: Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs (Universität Göttingen, CeMEAS)
Datum: 7:00 – 9:00 PM, Montag, 19. Mai 2025
Ort: Duke Pub, Mühlenstraße 4, 37073, Göttingen
Link: https://pintofscience.com/
Title: Chinas Entwicklungsprojekte im Globalen Süden: Was sind die wirtschaftlichen und politischen Folgen?
Abstract: Chinas Entwicklungsprojekte in aller Welt gewinnen rasant an Bedeutung. Viele Beobachter sehen in dieser Entwicklung eine Bedrohung für die bisher von den USA, Europa und Japan dominierte internationale Entwicklungsfinanzierung. Andere loben Peking für die großen Entwicklungschancen, die sich ergeben haben. Dieser Vortrag gibt einen Überblick über aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zu den internationalen Entwicklungsprojekten Chinas und geht folgenden Fragen nach: Was bestimmt den Umfang der chinesischen Entwicklungshilfe und anderer staatlicher Infrastrukturprojekte? In welchen Ländern, Provinzen und Sektoren ist China besonders aktiv und warum? Welche Auswirkungen haben die Entwicklungsaktivitäten Pekings auf Wachstum, gute Regierungsführung, Konflikte und andere Entwicklungsindikatoren in den Empfängerländern? Welchen geopolitischen Herausforderungen entstehen für Europa hier in den gegenwärtigen “Zeitenwendezeiten”?
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs ist Professor für Entwicklungsökonomik und Direktor des Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS). Er ist außerdem Forscher am Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft und leitet dort die Kiel Institute China Initiative. Seine Forschung untersucht Handels-, Investitions- und Entwicklungspolitik mit quantitativen Methoden und einen besonderen Fokus auf China und andere aufstrebende Schwellenländer. Er ist einer der Autoren des Buchs “Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program”, das Chinas Entwicklungsprojekte in alller Welt umfassend analysiert. Seit Januar 2025 leitet er das Forschungsvorhaben “Tapping Innovative Data Sources to Analyze the Impact of Authoritarian States on Global Development”, das von der VolkswagenStiftung gefördert wird.

Der Vortrag findet in deutscher Sprache statt und richtet sich an ein breites, auch nicht-akademisches Publikum.
Bleiben Sie dran – weitere Informationen zur Uhrzeit und zum Veranstaltungsort folgen in Kürze.

Lecture: The Great Transformation of International Order and the Future of Chinese Economy
2025-05-27 18:00 - 19:30 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
The Great Transformation of International Order and the Future of Chinese Economy

Prof. Gao Bai (Duke University)

PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
27. May (Tuesday), 18:15-19:45

Abstract:
The international order established after World War II is currently experiencing a profound transformation. Many Chinese use 百年未有之大变局 （major changes unseen in a century）to describe the current situation.
What are the driving forces behind this great transformation?
In his newly published book titled 《把脉：全球巨变与中国经济》（Taking A Pulse：Global Transformation and the Chinese economy）, Bai Gao uses three long cycles of history, which include the pendulum movement of globalization, the cycle of hegemonic expansions, and technological revolution, to explain the drastic changes occurring in the international economic order and their profound impacts on the Chinese economy.
Bai Gao demonstrates that since China’s reform and opening up, the dynamics of development of the Chinese economy have changed twice, first to the world factory model focusing on external circulation by promoting export, and then shifted to a supply-side demand model emphasizing internal circulation sustained by government spending in infrastructure construction and private investment in real estate. With low birth rate and ageing population and mounting debts of local governments, these old strategies can no longer sustain economic growth. Bai Gao predicts a new model for the Chinese economy in the 21st century: 休养生息（rest and recuperate）by developing strong social protection programs, and 强筋壮骨 （strengthen muscles and bones）by upgrading industries and developing international competitiveness.
Speaker:
Gao Bai is a lifelong professor of sociology at Duke University. Professor Gao Bai graduated from Peking University in the 1980s and received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. In 1994, he graduated from the Department of Sociology of Princeton University and received a doctorate in sociology.
Professor Gao Bai’s main research fields include economics and society, comparative history sociology, organizational theory, comparative political economy, international political economy and globalization.
Professor Gao Bai has been teaching at Duke University since graduation; has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Tokyo, the Department of Economics of the University of One Bridge, the School of International Business and Law of Yokohama National University, the Tokyo University of Economics and the Max Planck Institute of Social Studies in Cologne, Germany; has been a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Meiji University and Jacob University in Bremen, Germany, as a self-strengthening professor at the University of Shanghai and a lecture professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; and has been the director and chief expert of the China High Speed Railway Development Strategy Research Center at Southwest Jiaotong University since June 2014.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Gab es außereuropäische Kolonialreiche? Theoretisch-konzeptuelle Überlegungen am Beispiel des Qingreichs (1636-1912)
2025-06-02 16:00 - 17:30 | KWZ 0.607
Gab es außereuropäische Kolonialreiche? Theoretisch-konzeptuelle Überlegungen am Beispiel des Qingreichs (1636-1912)

Zeit: 16.00-17:30, 2. Juni 2025
Ort: KWZ 0.607, Göttingen
Vortrag: Julia C. Schneider

Abstract
Seit etwas mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten findet man in der historischen Forschung vermehrt die Konzeptualisierung des Qingreichs und anderer außereuropäischer Reiche wie des osmanischen und des russischen Reichs als Kolonialreiche. Parallel zu den europäischen imperialistischen Kolonialreichen und -staaten der frühen Neuzeit, so die These, hätten sie in eroberten Gebieten koloniale Projekte durchgeführt und Siedlungskolonialismus unterstützt.
In meinem Vortrag stelle ich diese These auf den Prüfstand, indem ich am Fall der manjurischen Qingdynastie zeige, warum der Begriff Kolonialreich und verwandte Begriffe in den Empire studies verwendet werden, was ihre Verwendung mit Postkolonialismus zu tun hat und warum sie aus meiner Sicht letztlich unzutreffend sind.

CV: Julia C. Schneider ist Professorin für Sinologie an der Universität Hamburg. Von 2019 bis 2024 war sie Lecturer bzw. Senior Lecturer für chinesische Geschichte am University College Cork (Irland). Nach einem Magister in klassischer Sinologie (Heidelberg) hat sie an den Universitäten Gent und Göttingen in Sinologie promoviert (Cotutelle).
Julia C. Schneider befasst sich vor allem mit Ideengeschichte. Ihr inhaltlicher Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf chinesischen Diskurses zu nicht-chinesischen Gesellschaften bezüglich Nationalismus, Historiographie und Zensur, ihr zeitlicher Fokus auf der späten Kaiser- und Republikzeit sowie den Ming- und Qingdynastien. Darüberhinaus hat sie ein Interesse für die Manjuristik.

Lecture: Guerrilla Practice and the Cultural Conjury of Cooperation in Wartime China, 1937-1945
2025-06-03 18:00 - 19:30 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
Guerrilla Practice and the Cultural Conjury of Cooperation in Wartime China, 1937-1945

Dr. Harlan Chambers (University of Göttingen)
PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
3. June (Tuesday), 18:15-19:45

Abstract:
Within the long, global history of modern guerrilla warfare and related practices of “small wars,” revolutionaries and scholars alike have regarded Mao Zedong’s texts on guerrilla war as formative to post WWII liberation struggles. In this talk, I will argue that beyond Mao’s famous texts on military strategy, the “guerrilla” as it was developed in China’s War to Resist Japan articulated a cultural and philosophical project to forge a new logic of political-economic development. Progressive thinkers and creative writers working amongst guerrilla zones narrated “guerrilla practices” as those of cooperative construction, a non-exploitive form of economic organization that rejected the extractive economics of fascism that were engendered by Japanese invasion and Nationalist hegemony.
First, I will examine how Chinese thinkers staged and debated the guerrilla in 1930s China, particularly in light of Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). By analyzing international developments, progressive thinkers not only formulated the guerrilla as a project of social reconstruction but interrogated it as a philosophical problem for thinking world history. The second part builds upon these formulations of the guerrilla to understand the particular “guerrilla practices” of the late 1930s, which extend beyond Mao’s famous military tactics to encompass forms of cooperative economic construction in the base areas of northern China. I show that, by the early 1940s, guerrilla zones’ economic practices also integrated culture workers as essential for developing their particular forms of cooperative labor. Considering several cultural creations from these guerrilla zones, particularly around the Jin-Cha-Ji base area, I will argue that cultural works conjured a new logic of cooperatively organized economic production, formative to the guerrilla project.
Speaker:
Harlan Chambers completed his Ph.D. in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at Columbia University in 2022 and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Illinois Wesleyan University before joining the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen in 2024. As an interdisciplinary scholar of Chinese culture and history, as well as feminist and critical theory, his research interrogates the role of cultural practices in processes of social transformation, integrating archival research with analyses of cultural texts. Harlan is part of a research team exploring the history of conceptions of world order at the University of Göttingen.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Image Disclaimer:
This promotional poster was generated using OpenAI’s ChatGPT (DALL·E) for non-commercial academic purposes.

Lecture: ‘Contesting the Liberal Script? The AIIB and World Bank in Development Finance.’
2025-06-11 13:00 - 14:00 | Raum 1.110 THEO
Lecture: ‘Contesting the Liberal Script? The AIIB and World Bank in Development Finance.’
Date: 11.06.2025
Time: 13:00 – 14:00
Place: Raum 1.110 THEO

Soo Yeon Kim
Associate Professor, Pacific Affairs School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia
Soo Yeon Kim

Abstract: Does the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), formed through China’s initiative, contest the liberal script on development finance led by existing international financial institutions? This paper engages the important debate on the shape and trajectory of the liberal international order where China is increasingly playing a prominent role. The research problem focuses on how the AIIB conducts development finance and to whether they are aligned with the US-led World Bank. The analysis utilizes quantitative text analysis to examine project documents from the AIIB and World Bank, leveraging the rich textual dimension of their funding activities. The paper advances the argument that the AIIB’s funding priorities align with those of the World Bank, due to overlapping mandates, many co-financed projects, and China’s motivation for leading the formation of the AIIB. The analysis finds that the AIIB does not contest and is largely aligned with the liberal script of development finance in its funded projects. Project documents indicate overlap in how the AIIB and World Bank conduct lending and prioritize development objectives, including the application of equivalent environmental and social frameworks. The findings also indicate an emerging of a division of labor between the AIIB and World Bank. AIIB funding favors infrastructure projects that enhance connectivity in the transport and energy sectors, while World Bank funding emphasizes education, social policy, and other areas related to human development. The AIIB may well be expanding the “liberal script” of development finance, one that is tailored to the infrastructural needs of the Asian region.

Organizers:
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS), Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, http://www.cemeas.de
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Chair of International Relations, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen,Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, Prof. Anja Jetschke https://lehrstuhlib.uni-goettingen.de
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Chair of Development Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 3, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, Prof. Andreas Fuchs https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/614556.h

Chinesischsprachige Filmwochen Göttingen 2025: Schüler:innen-Vorführung: White Snake
2025-06-20 13:30 - 16:00 | Kino Lumière, Göttingen
Chinesischsprachige Filmwochen Göttingen 2025

Schüler:innen-Vorführung im Kino Lumière – White Snake《白蛇：缘起》
Freitag, 20. Juni 2025
Beginn: 13:30 Uhr
Kino Lumière, Göttingen
Eintritt frei – Anmeldung bis zum 18.06.2025 an: goechaf@uni-goettingen.de
Film in deutscher Synchronisation | FSK ab 12 Jahren
Im Rahmen der diesjährigen Filmreihe „Von Wurzeln und Flügeln: Sprachen und Kulturen auf dem Weg zum Erwachsenwerden“ laden wir herzlich zur Sondervorstellung des chinesischen Animationsfilms White Snake – Die Legende der weißen Schlange (《白蛇：缘起》) ein.
Dieser visuell beeindruckende Film erzählt eine zeitlose Geschichte über erste Liebe, Mut und das Anderssein – ein cineastisches Erlebnis für junge Menschen und alle Interessierten!

Im Anschluss: Filmgespräch mit Prof. Dr. Tao Zhang
Themen: Othering | Zugehörigkeit | Antidiskriminierung
(Professur Fachdidaktik Chinesisch als Fremdsprache, Universität Göttingen)
Wir freuen uns auf zahlreiche Teilnahme und einen inspirierenden Austausch im Kino! Bitte gerne an interessierte Kolleg:innen und Schüler:innen weiterleiten.

Lecture: From Theory to Practice: Enhancing Inclusive L2 Chinese Language Teaching at U.S. Universities through Multimedia Pedagogy
2025-06-25 16:00 - 17:30 | KWZ 3.601
From Theory to Practice: Enhancing Inclusive L2 Chinese Language Teaching at U.S. Universities through Multimedia Pedagogy

Time: 16:00-17:30, 25.06.2025
Place: KWZ 3.601
Language:

Talk: Chinese
Handout: English & Chinese
Q&A: Bilingual (English / Chinese)

Speaker:
Dr. Yongli Li
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf / College of the Holy Cross (USA)

Over the past two decades, shifting geopolitics, rapid technological advancements, and growing scholarship on decolonialization in applied linguistics have challenged conventional language teaching pedagogies within higher education. Transforming an inclusive, culturally sustaining, and long-term motivating pedagogy has become the center of recent scholarship. Inclusiveness in L2 language classrooms in higher education means respecting linguistically and culturally diverse students, and creating curricula and pedagogies that promote equity and raise awareness of social justice in classroom. What are the multifaceted dimensions of inclusiveness in Chinese language teaching in higher education? How can we enhance inclusive excellence when teaching diverse learners through task-based language learning and the strategic use of multimedia? In this talk, I will discuss recent English-language scholarship on inclusiveness in language teaching and reflect on my experiences teaching Chinese at the university level in the U.S. The talk will be followed by a Q&A session featuring discussions on classroom task design and sharing of teaching experiences in Europe and the U.S.

讲座题目:美国大学中文二语课堂中的包容性教学与多媒体应用
过去二十年中，全球地缘政治的变化、数字媒体和人工智能技术的日新月异，以及应用语言学领域中去殖民化研究的不断深入，都对高等教育中传统的语言教学法提出了挑战。如何对现有的二语教学法进行革新，使其成为更具有包容性、文化持续性和长期激励性的教学法已成为近年来学术研究的重点之一。高等教育二语教学课堂的包容性教学，不仅意味着尊重语言及文化背景多元化的学生，创建具有平等性的课堂，更意指在教学大纲和课堂活动设计中激发批判性多元文化主义的思考及提高学生社会正义意识的实践。此次讲座中，将首先讨论近期英文文献中关于中文二语教学包容性的学术研究成果，并以美国大学中文二语教学课堂实践为例，探讨教学中的包容性概念，并着重分享多媒体在二语教学中的应用及其对促进包容性教学的作用。

Short bio Yongli Li is Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at College of the Holy Cross in the U.S. She specializes in Chinese film history, urban cinema and media industry. She has published in academic journals, including Transnational Screens, Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images, Chinese Literature Today. In addition to her reseaerch on Chinese media, she has taught Chinese language courses at universities in California, New York and Massachusetts. During the 2024-2025 academic year, she also holds a visiting assistant professor position at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf.

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️ This lecture is part of the Chinese-Language Film Weeks 2025. For the full program and more information, please visit the overview page.

Lecture: History on Sale: Unofficial Archive Markets in Contemporary China
2025-07-01 18:00 - 19:30 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
History on Sale: Unofficial Archive Markets in Contemporary China

Dr. Yi Lu (Assistant Professor of History, Dartmouth College)

PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21

1. July (Tuesday), 18:15–19:45

Abstract:

For the past four decades, the study of contemporary China has been significantly shaped by an informal market in de-accessioned government archives. My research examines how state records have been transformed into both street commodities and scholarly resources, proposing a theory of knowledge recycling through a material economy lens. In this presentation, I explore how individuals on the margins of Chinese society, including waste recyclers, have repurposed discarded paper ephemera to create a counter-archive of knowledge. From Beijing’s Panjiayuan flea market to online platforms like Kongfuzi.com, and through various forms of indigenous classification and private museums, their cultural entrepreneurship has forged connections between a global network of scholars and collectors. This phenomenon has not only reshaped the field of contemporary Chinese history but also raised some unsettling questions about the practice and ethics of knowledge production: Who is a historian? What constitutes an archive? And what happens to history as a field when historians write with what they can buy?

Speaker:

Dr. Yi Lu is a historian of modern China, with particular interests in the history of information, material culture, and digital humanities. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College and working on his first book project, The Dustbin of History: Making History in Modern China.

Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Lecture: Semi-Governmentalism: The Guild Socialists’ Reform Proposals in the Socialist Debates
2025-07-08 16:00 - 18:00 | VG 2.105
Semi-Governmentalism: The Guild Socialists’ Reform Proposals in the Socialist Debates

Zhou Yuefeng (Sichuan University)
Time: 08 July 2025 (Tuesday), 16:00–18:00
Room: VG 2.105
Language: Chinese
Abstract:
Originating in Britain, Guild Socialism was one strand of socialist thought that gained popularity in China during the May Fourth period and served as an important intellectual resource for addressing the political situation of the time. Those influenced by it actively participated in the debates on socialism. However, existing research has largely portrayed them as opponents of Marxism, emphasizing their non-communist stance while overlooking their broader vision for societal reform. In response to the emerging discourse surrounding the ideas of a “strong government” and a “good government” in the public sphere during the socialist debates, figures influenced by Guild Socialism—such as Zhang Dongsun, Lan Gongwu, Xu Liuji, and Guo Mengliang—voiced sustained opposition. They not only rejected early communists’ proposals to achieve socialism through a strong state, but also remained wary of idealized conceptions of an “omnipotent” or “benevolent” government. Instead, they advocated for a gradual strengthening of social forces and the balance of state power through a combination of occupational and regional self-governance. Their ultimate goal was a “semi-government” or a “dual-government” model—an ideal of minimal government. Yet, within an era that favored immediate action, this gradualist, society-oriented socialism was often dismissed as non-socialist or even anti-socialist. Ironically, it was the socialism advocating for a strong state that became recognized as the “orthodox” form of socialism.
Bio: Prof. Dr. Zhou Yuefeng holds a Professorship in Chinese History at Sichuan University. He is the author of Alternative New Culture Movement: The Cultural Activities of Liang Qichao’s Circle and the Intellectuals around the May Fourth Movement (Peking University Press, 2023). He has published articles on Modern Chinese intellectual history in peer-reviewed journals, including Historical Research, Modern Chinese History Studies, Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History Academia Sinica, Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), etc. He serves as the vice president of Sun Yat-Sen Research Association and the vice chief director of “Data Platform of Chinese Modern history”. He is also an elected member of the “Centre for the Study of Modern Chinese Thought” at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

半政府主义：社会主义论战中基尔特主义者的改造构想
周月峰（四川大学历史文化学院）
时间：2025年7月8日（星期二），16:00–18:00
地点：VG 2.105
语言：中文
摘要：起源于英国的基尔特社会主义是社会主义流派之一，曾在五四时期流行于中国，成为时人应对时局的重要思想资源。受其影响者曾深度参与社会主义论战，然而既有研究多将其视为马克思主义的对立者，看到的多是其非共产主义的面相，而忽视他们应对时局的整体构想。面对社会主义论战前后舆论界新兴的“强政府”与“好政府”思潮，当时受基尔特社会主义影响的张东荪、蓝公武、徐六几、郭梦良等人曾有持续反对。他们不仅反对早期共产主义者以“强政府”为手段实现社会主义的主张，在理想国家形态上也警惕“万能政府”、“好政府”的设想，而是希望通过逐渐发展社会力量，以职业自治与区域自治相结合的方式制衡政府，最终实现“半政府”、“两个政府”的小政府理想。然而，在当时倾向立刻行动的时代思潮中，这一倾向“社会”的渐进式社会主义，被视为了非社会主义或反社会主义，反而是主张“强政府”的社会主义，成了社会主义的“正统”。
简介：周月峰教授现任四川大学中国历史教授，著有《另一场新文化运动：五四前后“梁启超系”再造新文明的努力》（北京大学出版社，2023）。他在《历史研究》、《近代史研究》、《中央研究院近代史研究所集刊》、《清华大学学报（哲学社会科学版）》等同行评审期刊发表多篇关于中国近代思想史的学术论文。现任孙中山研究会副会长、“中国近代史数据平台”副主任，同时也是中国社会科学院“近代中国思想研究中心”特邀研究员。

Lecture: A Multispecies Conquest of Zomia: The British Raj, the Elephant Paths, and the Panthay Mule Caravans in the Chin-Lushai Hills
2025-07-08 18:00 - 19:30 | PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21
A Multispecies Conquest of Zomia: The British Raj, the Elephant Paths, and the Panthay Mule Caravans in the Chin-Lushai Hills

Prof. Cao Yin (Peking University)

PH 20. Hörsaal der Philosophischen Fakultät, Humboldtallee 19/21

8. July (Tuesday), 18:15–19:45

Abstract:

Since the 1850s, the British Raj sought to control the Chin-Lushai Hills, which lie between India and Burma. However, the region’s harsh terrain and climate rendered British occupation nearly impossible. The encounter between the colonial authorities, wild elephants, and the Panthay mule caravans marked a turning point. By following wild elephant migratory corridors and relying on the infrastructures of the Panthay mule caravans, the Raj overcame the logistical challenges that had previously hindered its efforts. This study argues that the non-Western knowledge upon which the British relied for their conquest of the hills in northeastern India and northern Burma was not purely locally rooted or indigenous. Rather, it had been shaped through the mobilities of migratory elephants and itinerant Panthay traders, who developed their understandings of the region through movement and translocal engagements. The British annexation of the Chin-Lushai Hills thus represents only one chapter in a longer, multispecies history of conquest and entanglement in this frontier zone.

Speaker:

Cao Yin is an associate professor in the department of history at Peking University. He is a scholar of modern South Asian history, global history, and India-China relations. He is the author of Chinese Sojourners in Wartime Raj, 1942-45 (Oxford University Press, 2022) and From Policemen to Revolutionaries: A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai, 1885-1945 (Brill, 2017). He is a recipient of the Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers affiliated with the University of Göttingen. While in Göttingen, he is developing a book manuscript that explores the more-than-human dimensions of colonial expansion across the India-Burma-China borderlands in the 19th century.

Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Abend der Filmsongs – Gesang & Gespräch
2025-07-19 18:00 - 21:00 | KWZ 0.608
Abend der Filmsongs – Gesang & Gespräch
Ein besonderes Highlight der chinesischsprachigen Filmwoche 2025
Datum: Samstag, 19. Juli 2025
Uhrzeit: 18:00–ca. 21:00 Uhr
Ort: KWZ 0.608, Universität Göttingen
Sprachen: Deutsch & Chinesisch
Eintritt frei | Keine Anmeldung erforderlich
Im Rahmen der chinesischsprachigen Filmwoche 2025 laden wir herzlich zu einem besonderen Abend ein, der Film und Musik auf kreative Weise miteinander verbindet: dem „Abend der Filmsongs“.
Nach der gemeinsamen Filmsichtung von Xiao Wu (1997, Regie: Jia Zhangke) möchten wir mit allen Interessierten in die musikalische Welt chinesischer Filme eintauchen. Zahlreiche chinesische Filme nutzen Musik als zentrales Ausdrucksmittel für Emotionen, gesellschaftliche Veränderungen und persönliche Geschichten. Der Abend bietet die Gelegenheit, diese Lieder gemeinsam zu hören, zu übersetzen, zu reflektieren – und natürlich mitzusingen!
Was Sie erwartet:

Eine kurze Einführung zu ausgewählten Liedern aus chinesischen Filmklassikern
Vergleich verschiedener Versionen (Original, Cover, Karaoke)
Gemeinsames Übersetzen und Diskutieren prägnanter Textstellen
Offene KTV-Runde: Singen ausdrücklich erwünscht, aber ohne Druck!

Bringen Sie gerne auch eigene Lieblingslieder aus chinesischen Filmen mit.
Für Snacks und Getränke ist gesorgt – zusätzliche Mitbringsel willkommen!
Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an alle – mit oder ohne Chinesischkenntnisse, mit oder ohne musikalische Erfahrung. Im Mittelpunkt steht das gemeinsame Erleben von Musik als kultureller Brücke.
Organisation:
Prof. Dr. Tao Zhang (Ostasiatisches Seminar)
Katja Pessl (CeMEAS)
