CeMEAS

Lecture: Historical Narrative, Remembrance, and the Ordering of the World: A Historical Approach of China’s Contemporary Presence in Central Asia
2020-01-17 17:00 - 19:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, Heinrich- Düker Weg 14, Göttingen
Lecture: Historical Narrative, Remembrance, and the Ordering of the World: A Historical Approach of China’s Contemporary Presence in Central Asia

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Bart Dessein (Ghent University, Belgium)
Time: January 17, 2020, 17:00 – 19:00
Venue: KWZ, 0.607
Abstract:
China’s imperial history is characterized by the expansion and reduction of zones of Chinese cultural influence. This cultural influence also applies to Central Asia, which was part of China’s zone of cultural influence during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The literature portrays the Tang Emperor as the “Khan” of these regions. The territorial expansion of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) also brought parts of Central Asia into China’s polity, albeit under different political structures. For Europe as well, Central Asia developed into an “intermediate land,” an area inhabited by, among others, descendants of Hellenistic culture brought into the region by Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The Central Asian region was also the link between Europe and the Far East through the presence of Europeans in the Mongolian Empire. In this lecture, the importance of the Chinese ‘One Belt One Road Initiative’ will be discussed against the backdrop of the “historical awareness” of China and Europe.

Lecture: From China to Europe: The Travel of 14th/15th Century Paintings
2020-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 | ZHG
Lecture: From China to Europe: The Travel of 14th/15th Century Paintings

Lecturer: Dr. Kiras Perincek (Bogacizi University, Istanbul)
Time: January 22, 2020, 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: ZHG 1.41
Abstract:
The so-called Mehmet Siyah Kalem paintings, were produced on paper with brush and ink in a Chinese hinterland near Central Asia, during the 14th and 15th centuries. These paintings depicted scenes from folk stories, and they were cut and pasted into two albums in the Aqqoyunlu palace in Tabriz. They are brought by the Ottomans to Istanbul after the conquest of Tabriz at the beginning of the 16th century.
Most of them kept now in Topkapi Palace Library in Istanbul, they reflect the intercultural relations along the Silk Road during the Middle Ages, in terms of both artistic and narrative elements. They consist a case of mobility where the art subject, the artist, the artisanship, the artwork are all mobile during the Middle Ages along the Silk Road. Purchased by European collectors in the 1900s, some pieces traveled also further west from Istanbul.

Lecture: From Confucius to Ashoka. Civilizational Discourse in Contemporary Chinese-Indian Relations
2020-02-04 16:00 | KWZ 0.701
Lecture: From Confucius to Ashoka. Civilizational Discourse in Contemporary Chinese-Indian Relations
Lecturer: Antonina Luszczykiewicz, PhD (Jagiellonian University in Krakow)
Time: 04. Feb. 2020, 16:00 – 18:00
Venue: KWZ 0.701

Abstract:
It is hard to imagine a meeting between Chinese and Indian leaders without any cultural program or context: while Xi Jinping took the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to the famous Terracotta Warriors site in Xi’an, Modi invited him back to a Hindu temple built in the 8th century in Mamallapuram. During these visits both leaders talked about the common Chinese-Indian heritage, as well as the peaceful and tolerant character of their historical relations.
To what extent is this Chinese-Indian „civilizational discourse“ based on facts, and to what extent is it a form of narrative manipulation? What is the meaning behind all these sublime references to civilizational heritage? Who are all these words and gestures really directed at, and what are they supposed to achieve? We cordially invite you to a lecture dedicated to uncovering the hidden meanings of the „civilizational discourse“ in contemporary Chinese-Indian relations.
Short bio:
Antonina Luszczykiewicz, PhD, is a faculty member of the Institute of the Middle and Far East at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her research interests focus on China-India relations. She is also an author of two monographs dedicated to the image of Chinese and Indians in British literature. She is currently working on turning her PhD thesis, devoted to the cultural discourse of the Chinese-Indian Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, into a book.

Lecture: Die Konkurrenz um die Vormachtstellung in der Welt: China und die USA
2020-02-13 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Die Konkurrenz um die Vormachtstellung in der Welt: China und die USA
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Carolin Kautz
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Die alte und die neue Seidenstrasse
2020-02-20 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Die alte und die neue Seidenstrasse
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Dominic Sachsenmaier
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Chinas Unbehagen an der Moderne; fortschrittskritische Stimmen im China des 20. Jahrhunderts
2020-02-27 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Chinas Unbehagen an der Moderne; fortschrittskritische Stimmen im China des 20. Jahrhunderts
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Christentum in China
2020-03-05 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Christentum in China
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Isabel Friedmann
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Magie der chinesischen Medizin
2020-03-12 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Magie der chinesischen Medizin
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Katja Triplett
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Die Georg-August-Universität und China
2020-03-19 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Die Georg-August-Universität und China
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Prof. Dr. Peter Aufgebauer
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Wirtschaftskontakte zu China am Beispiel der Firma Henke Sass-Wolf, Mikrooptik GmbH, Angerstein
2020-03-26 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Wirtschaftskontakte zu China am Beispiel der Firma Henke Sass-Wolf, Mikrooptik GmbH,
Angerstein

Warum die Firma nach China gegangen ist
Wie das Leben und Arbeiten in Qingdao ist

aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Bernd Wiese (Geschäftsführer), Sven Krause (Prokurist)
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Lecture: Verantwortlich wirtschaften in China: Anpassen, verändern oder verzichten? Ethische Herausforderungen für deutsche Unternehmen
2020-04-02 15:30 - 17:00 | Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, Göttingen, 37073
Vortrag: Verantwortlich wirtschaften in China: Anpassen, verändern oder verzichten? Ethische Herausforderungen für deutsche Unternehmen
aus der Vortragsreihe: Ökumenisches Seminar – Zukunft China – wird die Welt chinesisch?
Referent/in: Dr. Martin von Broock
Zeit: 15:30 – 17:00
Ort: Gemeindesaal St. Jacobi, Jacobikirchhof 2, 37073 Göttingen

Online Lecture Series: "Resilienzen – Über den Umgang des Menschen mit Pandemien und anderen Katastrophen in der Geschichte"
2020-05-06 08:00 - 17:00
Digitale Vorlesungsreihe: “Resilienzen – Über den Umgang des Menschen mit Pandemien und anderen Katastrophen in der Geschichte”
Die Vorlesungen werden als Slidecast am jeweiligen Termin spätestens um 18 Uhr bei stud.ip online gestellt. Bitte melden Sie sich für die Vorlesungsreihe in Stud.IP an, um Zugriff auf die Dateien zu erhalten. Wie in jeder Vorlesungsreihe werden keine Prüfungen abgenommen.
Weitere Informationen finden Sie hier.
Ablaufplan
Einführung

22.4.2020: Arnd Reitemeier Einführung: Vulnerabilität und Resilienz: Gesellschaften und ihre Reaktionen auf Pandemien und Katastrophen

Abschnitt I: Katastrophen und Pandemien – Das Ereignis und die Folgen

29.4.2020: Frank Rexroth Die Große Pest 1348
6.5.2020: Niels Petersen Die große Mandränke 1362
13.5.2020: Otto Gecser Plague, Religion and the Fear of Infection in 15th-c. Perugia
15.5.2020: Dominic Sachsenmaier Die Katastrophen um die Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts – China und die Welt
20.5.2020: Dirk Schumann Die spanische Grippe 1918/1919
27.5.2020: Hartmut Berghoff Hingenommen und Vergessen. Die “Asiatische” Grippepandemie 1957/58

Abschnitt II: Gesellschaftliche Reaktionen, Strategien und Diskurse im Umgang mit Pandemien und Katastrophen

29.5.2020: Heinz-Günther Nesselrath Die Pest im klassischen Athen und ihre historischen und literarischen Folgen
3.6.2020: Philip Knäble Handelssperre, Quarantäne, Reinlichkeit – Der Lock-Down in frühneuzeitlichen Pestordnungen
5.6.2020: Johannes Bergemann Die Pest in Athen – Die Pandemie im 5. Jh. v. Chr. und ihre Folgen für die antike Demokratie. Eine archäologische Perspektive
10.6.2020: Ansgar Schanbacher Epidemien in der frühneuzeitlichen Stadt
12.6.2020: Malte de Vries, Alltag und städtisches Leben in Zeiten der Pest: Das Beispiel Braunschweig (1529–1681)
17.6.2020: Ravi Ahuja Epidemie und soziale Frage: Die Pest in Bombay, 1896–97
24.6.2020: Richard Hölzl Malaria und die Zusammenhänge zwischen Materialität und Kultur in der Geschichtswissenschaft
1.7.2020: Martin Lindner “Waldvolk kämpfe mit dem Boden um dein Sein!” – Germanisch-deutsche “Resilienz” im nationalsozialistischen Propagandafilm Ewiger Wald (1936)
8.7.2020: Katja Wezel Umgang mit dem Trauma des stalinistischen Terrors: Die Massendeportationen der Esten, Letten und Litauer 1941 und 1949
15.7.2020: Eva Klay Katastrophenschutz und Triage im 20. Jahrhundert

Online Lecture: Die Katastrophen um die Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts – China und die Welt (Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier)
2020-05-15 18:00
This lecture is part of the Online Lecture Series “Resilienzen – Über den Umgang des Menschen mit Pandemien und anderen Katastrophen in der Geschichte”.
Please click here for more information on this lecture series.

Digital Lecture: Hingenommen und Vergessen. Die "Asiatische" Grippepandemie 1957/58 (Prof. Hartmut Berghoff)
2020-05-27 18:00
This lecture is part of the Digital Lecture Series “Resilienzen – Über den Umgang des Menschen mit Pandemien und anderen Katastrophen in der Geschichte”.
Please click here for more information on this lecture series.

Virtuelle Ringvorlesung: Resilienzen – Über den Umgang des Menschen mit Pandemien und anderen Katastrophen in der Geschichte
2020-06-05 18:00 - 2020-07-16 19:00 | StudIP & Youtube
Zu der Vorlesungsreihe tragen viele Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus dem Seminar für Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte, dem Institut für Historische Landesforschung, dem Althistorischen Seminar, dem Seminar für Klassische Philologie, dem Institut für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, dem Ostasiatischen Seminar und dem Center für Modern Indian Studies bei und berichten vielfach aus ihren aktuell laufenden Forschungen
Die Vorlesungen werden als Slidecast am jeweiligen Termin spätestens um 18 Uhr bei stud.ip online gestellt. Bitte melden Sie sich für die Vorlesungsreihe in Stud.IP an, um Zugriff auf die Dateien zu erhalten. Wie in jeder Vorlesungsreihe werden keine Prüfungen abgenommen.
Ablaufplan
Einführung

22.4.2020: Arnd Reitemeier Einführung: Vulnerabilität und Resilienz: Gesellschaften und ihre Reaktionen auf Pandemien und Katastrophen

Abschnitt I: Katastrophen und Pandemien – Das Ereignis und die Folgen

29.4.2020: Frank Rexroth Die Große Pest 1348
6.5.2020: Niels Petersen Die große Mandränke 1362
13.5.2020: Otto Gecser Plague, Religion and the Fear of Infection in 15th-c. Perugia
15.5.2020: Dominic Sachsenmaier Die Katastrophen um die Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts – China und die Welt
20.5.2020: Dirk Schumann Die “Spanische Grippe“ 1918/19 – eine verdeckte Katastrophe
27.5.2020: Hartmut Berghoff Hingenommen und Vergessen. Die “Asiatische” Grippepandemie 1957/58

Abschnitt II: Gesellschaftliche Reaktionen, Strategien und Diskurse im Umgang mit Pandemien und Katastrophen

29.5.2020: Heinz-Günther Nesselrath Die Pest im klassischen Athen und ihre historischen und literarischen Folgen
3.6.2020: Philip Knäble Handelssperre, Quarantäne, Reinlichkeit – Der Lock-Down in frühneuzeitlichen Pestordnungen
5.6.2020: Johannes Bergemann Die Pest in Athen – Die Pandemie im 5. Jh. v. Chr. und ihre Folgen für die antike Demokratie. Eine archäologische Perspektive
10.6.2020: Ansgar Schanbacher Epidemien in der frühneuzeitlichen Stadt
12.6.2020: Malte de Vries, Alltag und städtisches Leben in Zeiten der Pest: Das Beispiel Braunschweig (1529–1681)
17.6.2020: Ravi Ahuja Epidemie und soziale Frage: Die Pest in Bombay, 1896–97
24.6.2020: Richard Hölzl Malaria und die Zusammenhänge zwischen Materialität und Kultur in der Geschichtswissenschaft
1.7.2020: Martin Lindner “Waldvolk kämpfe mit dem Boden um dein Sein!” – Germanisch-deutsche “Resilienz” im nationalsozialistischen Propagandafilm Ewiger Wald (1936)
8.7.2020: Katja Wezel Umgang mit dem Trauma des stalinistischen Terrors: Die Massendeportationen der Esten, Letten und Litauer 1941 und 1949
15.7.2020: Eva Klay Katastrophenschutz und Triage im 20. Jahrhundert

Die Vorträge können Sie sich auch hier auf Youtube ansehen.

Virtuelle Ringvorlesung - Ein Virus verändert die Welt
2020-06-09 18:15 - 2020-07-26 19:00 | Zoom & Youtube
Jeden Dienstag um 18.15 Uhr und damit zu unserer regulären Ringvorlesungs-Zeit laden wir Sie zu unserem Ringvorlesungs-Live-Stream ein. In den kommenden Wochen wird es dabei um verschiedene Themen gehen.
Mit einem informativen und anschaulichen Vortrag präsentieren unsere Referent*innen in einem rund 20-minütigen Vortrag ihre Themen. Anschließend haben Sie für weitere 10 Minuten die Gelegenheit, miteinander ins Gespräch zu kommen und eventuelle Rückfragen zu klären.
Mehr Informationen hier.

The 15th Göttingen East Asia Research Salon
2020-07-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Zoom
The 15th Göttingen East Asia Research Salon:
Closer to the self while far from home: A longitudinal study about the experiences of students from People’s Republic of China in Germany

Please RSVP for the event via Ms Kara Blumenthal at assist@cemeas.uni-goettingen.de.
Presenter:
Lili Jiang (University of Göttingen, Department of East Asian Studies)

Commentators:
Dr. Jesús Pineda (Scientific coordinator and researcher, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
Dr. Sascha Klotzbücher (Acting Chair, Society and Economy of China, University of Göttingen)
Moderator:
Katja Pessl (Centre for Modern East Asian Studies)

Time: Tuesday, 07.07.2020, 6 pm (c.t.) – 7:30 pm
Venue: Online via Zoom

Abstract:
This dissertation explores the changes in Chinese master students’ identity and their sense of belonging during the years of their stay in Germany. The main purpose is to understand how they perceive their attachment to China politically, culturally and ethnically and how the perception gradually changed after their experiences in Germany, where they have learnt and developed different strategies to negotiate their identity and belonging. The study applies a combination of longitudinal method and the method of the biographical narrative interview which tracks 25 Chinese students’ lived experiences and processes of their change from their first semester until after they graduate from Germany, in order to capture critical moments of their transitions. The dissertation provides longitudinal evidence to reveal the complex and multilayered nature of the changing progress of these students’ identity and also supports that students’ transcultural experiences in Germany which helped them “unlearn” a normalized concept of “Chineseness” assisted them to go beyond their state-bound national loyalty and postulate a potential transcultural position in today’s world.

Short Bio:
I was born in Deyang, Sichuan and obtained both my bachelor’s and master’s degree at Sichuan University. I studied applied linguistics and bilingual education in Chengdu, New York, Uppsala and Goettingen. Before coming to Goettingen for my PhD program, I taught Chinese to international students at Sichuan University and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu.

Online Lecture: Affective pedagogic spaces in contemporary China
2020-07-14 18:00 - 19:30
Lecturer: Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney)
Time: 14. July. 2020, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Zoom

Through the influence of psychotherapeutic expertise and popular entertainment, pedagogic programs for “self-improvement” in China today define positive affect as a key aspect of learning. In this talk, based on participant observations in the city of Jinan, I describe how workshops for interpersonal skills produce interactive spaces that spark enthusiasm and optimism in participants. These pedagogies draw on the current primacy of “positive energy” (zheng nengliang) in Chinese education, media, and politics. I will discuss how these interactive spaces resemble group interactions from the communist period, while today positive affect is positioned more as an endpoint in separation from ordinary life and collective enterprises.
Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney) is a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow of Anthropology at the University of Cologne. He studies social change in China by focusing on perceptions of personhood and emotions. His main sites of enquiry have been pedagogic practices of self-improvement and psychotherapy. His work has been published in Anthropology and Asian Studies journals.

Zoom Access:
Topic: Affective Pedagogic Spaces in Contemporary China, Gil Hizi (PhD University of Sydney)
Time: 14.Jul.2020 06:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rom, Stockholm, Wien
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/92606540714?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting-ID: 926 0654 0714
Passwort: [REDACTED]

Picture: MartaZ* , Positivity , https://flic.kr/p/egg74u
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Lecture: Weaponizing medicine: China’s disease prevention and the “military-civil fusion” in medical research
2020-07-15 17:00 - 18:30
Weaponizing medicine: China’s disease prevention and the “military-civil fusion” in medical research
Sascha Klotzbücher (University of Göttingen)
Time: July 15, 2020 5pm
Venue: Zoom-Meeting
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/93597507671?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 935 9750 7671
Passwort: [REDACTED]
Abstract
Since 2016, the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the strategy of “military-civil fusion” of research (Kania 2019) (军民融合). However, this cooperation between military academies and civil universities or research institutes is not new. This lecture aims to discuss the overseen or hidden link and connection to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its warfare for the institutionalization of disease control in China with case studies from the Korean War to the recent outbreak of Covid-19 epidemics.
I will discuss two different qualities of this militarization of disease control and medicine: First, disease control is organized in a procedural logic and along with the script of warfare and it mainly implemented by agents of warfare. The fight against an “American virus” during the Korean War, the strive to eliminate transmitting animals during several health campaigns, the SARS in 2003 and Covid-19 epidemics are examples how disease control is organized in the logic of battle when military logistics and organization patterns temporarily take the lead and establish new forms of control and distribution.
The second dimension of the militarization of the medical field is how “Military Academies” initiate and supervise joint medical projects with “civil” research institutes and universities. The best-documented example of this military-civic fusion is the noble price laureate Tu Youyou and her involvement in the “Project 523” against malaria in the 1970s.
Today, the Communist Party has restructured its science institutions and scientists to explore new forms of warfare with “life-controlling power” (制生权) or brain/ -controlling power” (制脑权). For this aim, the PLA seeks to integrate certain strategically important scientific disciplines (nanotech, neuroscience, genetics, AI) and their research into its military strategies. However, in contrast to Tu Youyou’s studies conducted in an exclusive Chinese context, today’s weaponization of science intends to create research platforms with international scholars for innovation and knowledge transfer of their usable data, techniques, and output. I will analyze these mechanisms based on the French-Chinese cooperation in one of the labs of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the current search for vaccines against Covid-19 in commercial start-ups with a military background.
Sascha Klotzbücher is the Acting Chair for “Society and Economy of China” at the University of Göttingen. His research interests are health governance and memory of the Cultural Revolution. Related publication to the topic of the talk is the article “’Embedded Research’ in Collaborative Fieldwork” in the Journal of Chinese Current Affairs and his Ph.D. thesis on rural health care in the People’s Republic. His recent publication is a monograph on the transgenerational transmission of the Cultural Revolution in families (Lange Schatten der Kulturrevolution: Eine transgenerationale Perspektive auf Politik und Emotion in der Volksrepublik China“. Psychosozial-Verlag, 2019).

Picture: Report of the International Scientific Commission for the Investigation of the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in Korea and China (ISC), 1952

Video: Fractured Mirror: New Revolutionary History (新革命史) and the Search for China’s Future
2020-10-01 08:00 - 2020-10-31 17:00
The online presentation “Fractured Mirror: New Revolutionary History (新革命史) and the Search for China’s Future” of Prof. Dr. Timothy Cheek from University of British Columbia is now here available on youtube.

Conference Keynote of “Whither China?”, October 1st, 2020

“Whither China?” requires, of course, a clear sense of “whence China?” Chinese historiography over the past century or more has continued to contribute to this retrospective assessment and prospective speculation. Any assessment of Chinese historiography perforce reprises many of the central themes in the work of Dr. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik: the internationalization of the study of Chinese history (both inside China and outside), the centrality of politics and morality in Chinese historiography, and the search today for a new master narrative. I follow these themes in the case of recent Chinese historiography that has been reconsidering China’s Twentieth Century revolutions, what is often referred to as “New Revolutionary History” (新革命史). I see three important worlds of conversation about China’s recent past: the official 官方, the academic 学术, and the social 民间. Xi Jinping has led an official Party effort to re-assert an orthodox reading of “the first thirty years and the second thirty years” of the PRC. Scholars in PRC universities have produced a wide range of empirical and theoretical studies, many of which seek a scientific understanding of China’s revolutionary past. Increasingly, independent scholars, artists, and activists have availed themselves of the new media (from convenient video recording to the internet) to offer unofficial readings of this history from which to draw their own meaning. Each seeks to shape the collective memory of “China,” yet different official policies, different academic schools, and different communities across China’s continental-sized society offer distinct, often different and sometimes conflicting narratives. As both Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik and Arif Dirlik have noted for historical universality, any comprehensive Chinese history must be a sum of these particularities. Timothy Cheek is Director of the Institute of Asian Research and Louis Cha Chair Professor of Chinese Research at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and Department of History at the University of British Columbia. His research, teaching and translating focus on the recent history of China, especially the Chinese Communist Party and intellectual debate in China. https://sppga.ubc.ca/profile/timothy-… Co-oganized by the Department of East Asian Studies/Sinology (University of Vienna) https://sinologie.univie.ac.at/ & the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (University of Göttingen) http://www.cemeas.de. Prof. Timothy Cheek’s lecture is the public keynote of „Whither China?“ 中國的未來與未來在中國, a conference taking place October 2-3, 2020 at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna. Conference program: https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1111122

Zoom Lecture: Infectious Extremism: How the Chinese government normalises its campaign of internment in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
2020-12-17 18:00 - 19:30
The Department of Asian Studies at UCC (University College Cork) and the Centre of Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen would like to invite you to the following online lecture:

Dr David O’Brien, Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
“Infectious Extremism: How the Chinese government normalises its campaign of internment in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region”
Thursday 17 December, 6:00-7:30 pm, CET

According to official Chinese government figures 1.3 million people per year, mostly from the Uyghur ethnic group, have been sent for compulsory ‘vocational and educational’ training in the Xinjiang region. A huge network of camps has been set up where those who are deemed to have ‘wrong ideas’ and ‘bad ideology’ are held without trial in what the authorities claim is an attempt to turn them away from potential extremism and to make them ‘better citizens’. This talk will examine how extremism and separatism are likened to a disease from which the ‘normal, healthy’ population needs to be ‘quarantined’. Rather than framing such threats as ideological attacks upon a political order, the danger is presented as a threat to the general population, and one which conversely situates part of that population (ostensibly ‘extremists’ and ‘terrorists’ but in practice largely members of particular ethnic groups) as culpable for posing this threat. This enables the government to situate itself as the pastoral guardian of the general population, responsible for keeping them safe by any measures and therefore normalise a campaign which has been condemned internationally as the most serious human rights abuse in the world today.
Dr David O’Brien obtained his PhD from UCC and is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of East Asian Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. He researches ethnic identity in Xinjiang, a region he has lived in and been travelling to for almost 20 years.
https://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/poa/de/team/obrien.shtml

Please register by writing to: assist@cemeas.uni-goettingen.de (end of registration, December 15).
Anyone who registers will receive a Zoom link to watch the event and use the Q & A feature.

Hidden Dragon? Chinese Influence at the World Bank
2021-02-03 14:30 - 16:00
Hidden Dragon? Chinese Influence at the World Bank
Erasmus Kersting (Villanova University)
Abstract:
In this paper, we consider an alternate explanation for China’s continued interest in World Bank loans: borrower influence. As a bureaucracy and as a bank, the World Bank relies both on repayment of its outstanding loans and on a predictable pipeline of new lending. As a major client, China might prefer informal influence to formal influence (i.e., increased vote share) since key elements of the World Bank agenda – conditionality, transparency, indigenous rights – sit poorly with China’s own domestic record and non-interference approach to foreign policy. The paper examines how China has been treated by the World Bank and whether there is statistical evidence of China having informal influence over World Bank decisions.
cege research seminar
Wednesday, February 3rd from 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm, CET
In order to participate, please log in using the following link:
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/92920198042?pwd=[REDACTED]
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cege – Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Resear
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/60864.html
Contact: Mattheus Brenig ( mattheus.brenig[at]wiwi.uni-goettingen.de)

Joint Zoom Lecture: Making the World Safe for Dictatorship: Authoritarian Image Management in Contemporary China and North Korea
2021-03-04 16:00 - 17:30
Making the World Safe for Dictatorship: Authoritarian Image Management in Contemporary China and North Korea

Dr Alexander Dukalskis, School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin, Ireland
Date: Thursday, 4 March 2021
Time: 3:00-4:30 pm (Dublin time)/16:00-17:30 (CET)
Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwsc-2sqj4jGN1IjSpNxZbsvyuIxEGI9MHP
Organizers:
Department of Asian Studies at UCC and the Centre of Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen

Authoritarian states work hard to manage their images abroad. They invest in foreign-facing media, hire public relations firms, tout their popular celebrities, and showcase their successes to elite and popular foreign audiences. However, there is a dark side to these efforts that is sometimes overlooked. Authoritarian states try to obscure or censor bad news about their governments and often discredit their critics abroad. In extreme cases, authoritarian states intimidate, physically attack, or even murder their opponents overseas. This talk will be about how authoritarian states manage their image abroad using both “promotional” tactics of persuasion and “obstructive” tactics of repression. Dukalskis will look at the tactics that authoritarian states use for image management and the ways in which their strategies vary from one state to another. After providing an overview of the argument, the lecture will examine in detail two cases of authoritarian image management. First, it will discuss the global and multifaceted image management of contemporary China, ranging from controlling the narrative by clamping down on foreign correspondents, to Beijing’s external propaganda, to its attempts to silence critics abroad. Second, the lecture will widen its temporal scope to explore North Korea’s efforts since the 1950s up to today to craft an appealing image of itself among the ethnic Korean population in Japan. The lecture, based on the author’s forthcoming book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship, will draw on a diverse array of data, including interviews, cross-national data on extraterritorial repression, examination of public relations filings with the United States government, analysis of authoritarian propaganda, media frequency analysis, and speeches and statements by authoritarian leaders.

Alexander Dukalskis is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. He is also a 2020-21 Woodrow Wilson Center China Fellow and an associate editor at Communist & Post-Communist Studies. His research and teaching interests include authoritarianism, Asian politics, and human rights. His work has been published in several leading journals, including Government & Opposition, Review of International Studies, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Peace Research, and Democratization. His first book, The Authoritarian Public Sphere: Legitimation and Autocratic Power in North Korea, Burma, and China, was published in 2017. His second book Making the World Safe for Dictatorship, will be published by Oxford University Press in April 2021.

Picture: Roman Harak: North Korea - View from China. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
https://flic.kr/p/apZtik

2021 Taiwan Lecture: Health and History in the Sinophone World
2021-05-10 11:00 - 12:00
Emergency Medical Services Evolution in Taiwan: Lessons learned from the past century
Prof. Frank Fuh-yuan Shih, National Taiwan University Hospital

Date and Time: Monday, 10th May 11:00 am -12:00 pm CET (s.t.)
Venue: Zoom
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/98204442429?pwd=[REDACTED]
Password: [REDACTED]
Abstract: In this lecture, we will discuss another representative China-born medical expert, Dr. Yang Wen-ta’s experience for viewing the establishment and mechanism of the Americanized emergency care system of Taiwan during the KMT Authoritarian era. Dr. Yang Wen-ta, a notable Taiwanese medical expert, had served in Taiwanese military medical system for many years. As an alumnus of the Peking Union Medical College, Yang’s medical education background proves the strong connection of the medical system between modern China and the USA. Furthermore, as a mainland emigrant medical elite who has been to Taiwan with the retreat of the Nationalist Government, Yang played quite a significant role in the construction of the military medical institution, which shows how Mainland military medicine profoundly influenced and changed Taiwan’s local emergency care system under the KMT rule during the Martial Law time.
Prof. Frank Fuh-yuan Shih is Adjunct Assistant Professor, Doctor, and Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the National Taiwan University Hospital.

2021 Taiwan Lecture: Health and History in the Sinophone World
2021-05-17 11:00 - 12:00
COVID-19 Pandemic <Apocalypto> for Health Humanities
Professors Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen, National Taiwan University

Date and Time: Monday, 17th May 11:00 am -12:00 pm CET (s.t.)
Venue: Zoom
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/98204442429?pwd=[REDACTED]
Password: [REDACTED]
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge impact on human life. The adversity for human does not actually come from this emerging pathogen-SARS-CoV-2-but is probably due to untactful policies and inequitable philosophy that have been already existed before COVID-19. The catastrophe of COVID-19 pandemic is “revelation” for humanities like “A Great civilization is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within” says Will Durant, an American writer, historian, and philosopher. This metaphor has been witnessed in scenarios of containment measures (including lockdown, quarantine and isolation, and social distancing) and uneven distribution of vaccine and delivery of therapy during COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen works at the Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University.

Lecture: China’s Foreign Policy: Interests, Ambitions, and Conceptions of World Order
2021-05-19 18:00 - 20:00
Wednesday, May 19, 6pm-8pm (CET)
Dr. Pascal Abb
Senior researcher, Leibniz-Institut, Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
Zoom link: https://s.gwdg.de/We1Gsj

Image by Tofeiku. License: CC-BY-SA-4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_China_Sea_-_Sulu_Sea_Simpang_Mengayau.jpg

Lecture: Nationalism and the Crisis of Modernity
2021-06-03 18:00 - 20:00
Presenter: Prasenjit Duara
Date: June 3, 6-8 pm (CEST)

Join Zoom Meeting:
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Meeting ID: 974 9488 9145
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This lecture is presented within the framework of the Joint Center for Advanced Studies project “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China” as part of the project “Conceptions of World Order and Their Social Carrier Groups”.
Abstract
“Whether or not there is a direct causal relationship, nationalism is at the heart of all the crises in the modern world and becomes entangled in its effects. As the fundamental source of authority for all modes of governance in the world, we are beholden to its capacity to resolve these cascading crises. I have long argued that its core confessional and anarchic constitutive form does not afford this capaciousness. It is plain to see this in how the WHO is being hampered in the present pandemic by powerful national interests. “I argue that the nation form is the ‘epistemic engine’ driving the globally circulatory and doxic Enlightenment ideal of the conquest of nature and perpetual growth that sustains the runaway technosphere. The cascading crises that we have already witnessed in this century – financial, economic, epidemic and climatological—are rooted significantly in this technosphere. At the same time, we will have to find our way through and out of these forms to secure a sustainable planet. Drawing from a paradigm of ‘oceanic temporality’ to grasp counter-finalities generated by the epistemic engine I explore the interstitial spaces and counter-flows of social movements that are seeking to develop a post-Enlightenment and a planetary, rather than a global, cosmology.”
About Prasenjit Duara
Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University. He was born and educated in India and received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was previously Professor and Chair of the Dept of History and Chair of the Committee on Chinese Studies at the University of Chicago (1991-2008). Subsequently, he became Raffles Professor of Humanities and Director, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore (2008-2015). In 1988, he published Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 (Stanford Univ Press) which won the Fairbank Prize of the AHA and the Levenson Prize of the AAS, USA. Among his other books are Rescuing History from the Nation (U Chicago 1995), Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (Rowman 2003) and most recently, The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge 2014).

Wochen der Hoffnung - Die Pekinger Studentenbewegung
2021-06-08 16:00 - 18:00
Wochen der Hoffnung – Die Pekinger Studentenbewegung
2.-31.Mai 1989“
Erlebnisbericht von Helmut Opletal
8. Juni 2021, 16:00 – 18:00 (CET)
Zoom-Link: https://s.gwdg.de/5tnkdO
Anfang Mai 1989 fuhr Helmut Opletal im Auftrag des ORF nach Peking, um über den historischen China-Besuch des sowjetischen Staats- und Parteichefs Michail Gorbatschow zu berichten. Schließlich verbrachte er vier Wochen in China, und nicht Gorbatschow, sondern die Studentenproteste wurden zum Schwerpunkt seiner Berichterstattung. In dieser Zeit (2.-31. Mai 1989) entstanden in den Wochen vor der Niederschlagung der Bewegung hunderte persönliche Fotos. Es sind keine Bilder der Panzer und tragischen Ereignisse von Anfang Juni, sondern Szenen voller Zuversicht und Hoffnung vor allem junger Menschen auf mehr Freiheit, Demokratie und einen nachhaltigen gesellschaftlichen Wandel.
Die Fotos dieser Präsentation und zahlreiche weitere finden Sie unter https://photos.app.goo.gl/Kws7c5kuc763Lks38.
Dr. Helmut OPLETAL, Jg. 1952, studierte an der Universität Wien Publizistik, Politikwissenschaft und Sinologie. 1973 gehörte er zu den ersten österreichischen Austauschstudenten in China, zwischen 1976 und 2009 war er Redakteur und Reporter für den ORF, 1980-85 auch China-Korrespondent mehrerer deutschsprachiger Zeitungen. Seit 2002 ist Opletal als Lehrbeauftragter, Gastprofessor und Projektmitarbeiter am Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften der Universität Wien tätig.
Veranstalter: Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Ostasiatisches Seminar an der Universität Göttingen, Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften – Sinologie an der Universität Wien

Image: Helmut Opletal, “Demokratie - unser gemeinsames Ideal“ (Helmut Opletal auf dem Tian’anmen-Platz, Mai 1989)

Lecture: China’s Ambitions in East Asia: Implications for Security and Stability
2021-06-15 16:00 - 18:00 | Zoom
Tuesday, June 15, 4pm-6pm (CET)
Helena Legarda
Senior analyst, Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies, Berlin
Zoom link: https://s.gwdg.de/MQZZWW

Image by Tofeiku. License: CC-BY-SA-4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_China_Sea_-_Sulu_Sea_Simpang_Mengayau.jpg

The 17th Göttingen East Asia Research Salon
2021-06-22 18:00 - 20:00
100 Years of CCP History – 100 Jahre KPCh History in three keys: The Cultural Revolution as event, memory, and theory
Research Salon & Discussion
Time: June 22, 2021, 6-8 p.m. (CEST)
Zoom link: https://s.gwdg.de/6OYGsF

Looking at 100 years of CCP history, the Cultural Revolution emerges as a key event in post-49 history. The idea is that understanding the Cultural Revolution is crucial to understanding both the Maoist period and the post-Maoist period of CCP history. In no socialist country has the leader of the Communist Party dared to mobilize the population against the Party, and to some degree, it is still a mystery that the CCP survived this attack. Mr Cui Jinke, doctoral student from the University of Vienna, will introduce insights from his doctoral project on factionalism in CCP history, and Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik as well as Sascha Klotzbücher will discuss his findings in the context of research strategies that focus on memory and theoretical approaches to explaining the Cultural Revolution.

Presenter: Cui Jinke (University of Vienna)
Moderator: Sascha Klotzbücher (University of Göttingen)
Discussants: Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (University of Vienna) &
Felix Wemheuer (University of Cologne)

Pancake and Ladder: Inside Local Factional Politics during the Cultural Revolution
Cui Jinke (University of Vienna)
The Cultural Revolution (CR), known as the Ten Years of Chaos, is the most sustained and intensive factional struggle in the 100-year history of the Chinese Communist Party. However, the official party history records tend to be silent and vague on the content of factional politics, especially when it comes to the local levels of the political process. Moreover, the lack of local sources makes it more difficult to analyze its variety outside the center. On the local level, do the factional conflicts occur inside the rebel groups, or between the rebels and the conservatives supported by the army? Is it a game of “the winner takes it all”, or is it a “balance of power” game? By analyzing the primary sources from the process, oral history records, and local chronicles from Shandong province, this presentation will show that policy reversals have repeatedly occurred in the process of local factional politics (called turn over pancakes翻烙饼 during the CR). A typical factional circle starts with a crisis initiated as a result for a certain central political agenda. Then a specific group is mobilized to attack selected targets. When the crisis rises to a certain level, the campaign initiator intervenes on behalf of the criticized target and offers a way out. This tactic is described as “setting aladder架梯子“. Through this method, the campaign initiator tries to gain the gratitude and loyalty from those factions which had been under attack. In local factional practice, the optimal solution, i.e that the winner takes it all, was rarely achieved. Instead, usual procedure is constant internal split and repeated balancing of power. This finding will contribute to understanding the complicated local factional political process in CR.

Cui Jinke崔金珂 is a PhD student at the Department of East Asian Studies – Sinology (University of Vienna). He obtained her MA at Peking University, majoring in the History of the CCP. For his research on the Cultural Revolution Cui Jinke conducted fieldwork in Shandong and Shanxi provinces, collecting local archival materials and conducting oral history interviews since 2013.
Organizers:
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen, Lehrstuhl für Moderne China Studien, Universität zu Köln
Picture: Cui Jinke
