Lecture： China and the World in 1900: Stories of the Boxers and the First Global War
2017-12-13 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
China and the World in 1900: Stories of the Boxers and the First Global War
Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom (UC Irvine)
Wednesday, 13.12.2017, 18:00 (c.t.) – 20:00,
KWZ 0.609
Abstract:
This illustrated lecture, entitled “China and the World in 1900: Stories of the Boxers and the First Global War,” revisits the anti-Christian uprising and international invasion that convulsed the Qing Empire during the final year of the nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the varied ways these events were understood in different places at the time and the diverse kinds of stories that have been told about them since. As different as the world of 1900 is from our own, especially when it comes to China’s strength now as opposed to weakness then, we can see in the Boxer uprising and the response by an Allied Army made up of soldiers from Germany, Japan, Britain, the United States and four other nations and empires many intimations of many things to come in the troubled twentieth century that was about to start and in our own anxious age.
Short bio:
Jeffrey Wasserstrom, who received his master’s from Harvard and his PhD. From Berkeley, is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he edits the Journal of Asian Studies (term ending June 2018) and holds courtesy affiliations with the Law School and program in Literary Journalism. He has written five books, including Student Protests in Twentieth-Century China (1991) and Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo (Penguin 2016). He has edited or co-edited several others, including, most recently, The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China (2016). In addition to writing for academic journals, he has contributed to many general interest venues, among them the New York Times, the TLS, and the Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB). He is an advising editor at LARB and an academic editor of its associated China Channel.

Design & Image Selection: CeMEAS
Image: ralph repo， Qing Court Return, The Emperess Dowerger [1902] George E. Morrison [RESTORED], CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://flic.kr/p/7cW6Dp

Lecture: Sovereignty, Natural Law, and the Ironies of Decolonization: India and the Tokyo Trial
2018-01-29 16:00 - 18:00 | Zentrale Einrichtung für Sprachen und Schlüsselqualifikationen der Universität Göttingen, Goßlerstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Sovereignty, Natural Law, and the Ironies of Decolonization: India and the Tokyo Trial
Prof.Milinda Banerjee( Ludwig-Maximilian University )
Monday, 29.01.2018, 16:00(c.t.) – 18:00, ZESS, AP26
Abstract:
Is the demand for codified international criminal justice antithetical to the demand for agonistic decolonization of global political, military, and economic power? Or can the establishment of global norms of justice be made compatible with, and even grounded upon, anti-colonial and democratic interventions? By analysing Indian involvement in the Tokyo Trial (1946-48), this paper foregrounds some of the key complexities at stake in the dialectics between global norm-building and anti-colonial agonism. While existing scholarship on the Tokyo Trial has mainly dwelt upon legal and political history, I draw upon methodological debates in the nascent field of global intellectual history to sharply focus on the tense relation between sovereignty and natural law which mediated discussions on justice in relation to colonialism, in the Tokyo moment as well as in its long aftermath. I give particular attention to the dissenting Indian judge at the trial, Radhabinod Pal (1886-1967), and contextualize his controversial judgment in relation to (anti-) colonial politics and justice, not merely in relation to the Japanese Empire – and the decades-old Indian engagement with Japanese models of sovereignty – but also in relation to British India, Dutch Indonesia, French Indochina, and Korea. In the process, I relate the dynamics of the trial to transregional flows in legal-moral vocabularies and the emergence of international legal institutions, including, most notably, the post-war International Law Commission. Simultaneously, I relate Pal to other Indian actors, such as Agent General Girja Shankar Bajpai (1891-1954) and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), who related (anti-) imperial anxieties to the politics of the Tokyo Trial. Further, I show how the trial linked the paradoxes of India’s decolonization to foreign policy debates and questions about ‘race’ in relation to the United States and the United Kingdom. Ultimately, I theorize about how the Tokyo Trial can shed novel conceptual light on the tortuous ironies involved in decolonization processes, as regimes of sovereignty – and sovereign violence – were combated, translated, and expropriated across Asia through transimperial and transnational entanglements, often with haunting long-term consequences.

Design & Image Selection: CeMEAS
Image: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East

Lecture: Citizenship & Bureaucracy in China
2018-05-16 17:00 - 19:30 | waldweg, waldweg 26, Gӧttingen, 37073
Articulating Authoritatian Citizenship in China
Diana Fu (University of Toronto)
Evaluating the Bureaucracy in China and the US
Greg Distelhorst (MIT)

Wednesday, May 16, 17:00-19:30, Waldweg -1.201

Short Bio:
Diana Fu:
Diana Fu is an assistant professor of Asian Politics. Her research examines the relationship between popular contention, state power, and civil society in contemporary China. Her book, “Mobilizing Without the Masses,” (2018, Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series and Columbia University’s Studies of the Weatherhead East Asia Institute), examines state control and civil society contention in China. Articles that are part of this broader project have appeared in Governance (2017), Comparative Political Studies (2017), and The China Journal (2018), among others.
(Information from University of Toronto)
Greg Distelhorst:
Greg Distelhorst is the Mitsubishi Career Development Professor and an Assistant Professor in Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His research explores the social impact of multinational business, focusing on how multinationals engage with labor-intensive manufacturers in the developing world. He examines initiatives to regulate labor standards in the supply chains of firms like Nike and HP. This research sits at the intersection of multinational management, industrial relations, and political economy.
Distelhorst also studies Chinese politics and public policy, focusing on China’s institutions of government responsiveness and accountability. He examines how citizens exploit these institutions and what prompts unelected officials to respond to citizen demands.
His research has been published in Management Science, Regulation & Governance, Comparative Political Studies, and the Quarterly Journal of Political Science.
(Information from MIT)

Click here for a draft paper to the topic by Greg Distelhorst.

Design & Poster: CeMEAS
Image:International Monetary Fund, _MG_9418 , CC BY-SA 2.0.,https://flic.kr/p/mnhFcy

Lecture: Historical Evolution and Future Trend of China's Agricultural Policy
2018-05-22 10:00 - 12:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Historical Evolution and Future Trend of China’s Agricultural Policy

Dr. Xingqing Ye (The Development Research Center of State Council of China)
Time: 10:00-12:00, May 22
Venue: VG 4105
Short CV:
Dr. Xingqing Ye is currently Director-General of the Research Department of Rural Economy of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). DRC is a key policy think tank within Chinese government.
Dr. Ye has conducted in-depth research in the fields of modern agriculture, new village construction, grain supply, agricultural tax systems, urbanization, rural migrant workers, and land systems. He has compiled large amounts of research materials, which got the approval of leaders in the State Council, and played an important role in making some crucial decisions.

Design & Poster: CeMEAS
Image:tribp, Field, CC BY-SA 3.0.https://flic.kr/p/faNDSg

Lecture: Underneath the grand yellow imperial roofs of Martyrs’ Shrines: Taiwan’s colonial past and onwards and the political symbolisms at play
2018-06-05 10:30 - 12:00 | MPI, Hermann-Föge-Weg 12, 37073 Göttingen, 37073
Underneath the grand yellow imperial roofs of Martyrs’ Shrines: Taiwan’s colonial past and onwards and the political symbolisms at play
Dr. Liza Wing Man Kam
Time: Tuesday, June 5, 10:30-12:00,
Venue: MPI. Max-Planck Institute for Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Hermann-Föge-Weg 12 (Villa), 37073 Göttingen

Abstract:
The paper investigates the shift of power symbolism represented in Shinto Shrines and Martyrs’ Shrines since the colonial era in Taiwan, through putting architectural/urban design theories into dialogue with political history. Three architectural complexes, Hualien Martyrs’ Shrine, Taipei National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine and the Imperial Palace in Peking are interpreted in material and spatial terms.
Hualien Martyrs’ Shrine and the Taipei National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine, located on the former sites of two annihilated Shinto Shrines built by the Japanese colonisers, were commissioned and reconstructed by the Republican’s Party in Taiwan in the 1970s. Shifting from being the site enshrined with the spirits who fought to contribute the expansion of the Japanese Empire, the current Martyrs’ Shrines were designated to commemorate the sacrificed lives who defended the Island of Taiwan in the Sino-Japanese War. Stripped off from the Japanese zukuri (architectural orders for Shinto Shrine constructions), the shrines are bedecked with the grand Imperial yellow roofs, which accommodated the Chinese imperial power in the late Ming and Qing Dynasty– the very power that the Republicans strove to overthrow during the Xinhai Revolution in 1911.
Through analysing the Shinto Shrines, the Martyrs’ Shrines and their material history, I contend that a continual interplay of political symbolism via architectural representations from different authorities, emerged from the Japanese colonial era, followed by the Republicans’ authority since the Post-war era and till now with manipulation of the notion of ‘colonial legacy/ heritage’–essentially never ceases, despite the situational considerations to the changing political and economic agendas proclaimed.
Biography:
Dr. Liza Wing Man Kam is Research Fellow (Architecture and Urban Studies) at the Max-Planck Institute for Religious and Ethnics Diversity and Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Chinese Societies at the Department of East Asian Studies at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. She was trained as architect and later researcher in Hong Kong, Singapore, Liverpool, London, Paris and Germany. Her work on Hong Kong and Taiwan depicts the transformation of political, societal and cultural symbolisms represented by the colonial urban heritage in their unique post-colonial settings by illustrating the inter-relation between architecture, historiography, identity formation and hence civic awareness. She currently investigates colonial Shinto Shrines in the Japanese occupied Taiwan as both religious space and political symbolisms for enunciating the different powers in post-war Taiwan. Her work puts into dialogue the local memory and the grand narrated history while interpreting the meaning of colonial urban heritage and colonial legacy.

Design & Poster: CeMEAS
Image: National Martyrs Shrine (0732), Public Domain

Lecture: Die Resonanz von Körper und Geist – Zur Philosophie des Geistes im Chinesischen Denken
2018-06-07 16:00 - 18:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Die Resonanz von Körper und Geist –
Zur Philosophie des Geistes im Chinesischen Denken

Dr. Dr. Dominique Hertzer
Donnerstag, 07.06.2018, 4 pm (c.t.), KWZ 0.607

Übersicht:
Die chinesische Vorstellung vom „Geist“ (shen 神) wird oftmals mit der westlichen Vorstellung von der „Psyche“ oder „der Seele“ gleichgesetzt. Doch gibt es im Chinesischen Denken überhaupt Vorstellungen, die unseren Begriffen von Psyche oder Seele entsprechen? Ausgehend von den klassischen Fragen des Leib-Seele Diskurses im Abendland werden wir uns der chinesischen Vorstellung nähern, die das Verhältnis von Geist (shen 神) und Körper (xing 形) generell als eines der Polarität verhandelt. Es wird zu zeigen sein, dass die Ebene des Geistig-Seelischen im Chinesischen Denken nicht im Sinne einer Einheit – also des „einen“ Geistes oder der „einen“ Seele -, sondern in Gestalt einer fünffachen Auffächerung des Geistes zu verstehen ist, die sich in Resonanz zu den verschiedenen (korrespondierenden) Aspekten des Leibes bewegt. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, ob es in einem derartigen Resonanzverhältnis eine Ursache- Wirkungsbeziehung zwischen Geist und Körper geben kann und welcher Art ihre gegenseitige Beeinflussung ist. Vor dem Hintergrund der gegenwärtigen Diskussion um die Frage nach der Freiheit des menschlichen Willens und des Bewusstseins, wie sie derzeit in der Philosophie und den Neurowissenschaften geführt wird, mag der Blick auf das Chinesische Denken vielleicht auch an dieser Stelle eine neue Perspektive zu eröffnen, die die Diskussion von festgefahrenen Standpunkten befreit.

Lecture: Japanese Colonial Shinto Shrines in Taiwan
2018-10-24 16:00 - 18:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Jung-jen, Norman Tsai (National United University, Taiwan):
Japanese Colonial Shinto Shrines in Taiwan

24. Okt., 16:00 – 18:00, KWZ 1.601

Abstract:
A lecture illustrated with the speaker’s latest field study on Japanese colonial Shinto shrines in Taiwan—the more than 400 Shinto Shrines built by the Japanese colonizers over the 50 years of colonization between 1895-1945—The lecture interprets the political, social and cultural meaning of these Shinto Shrines and their relics in the past and present.
Short bio:
Norman Tsai is assistant professor at the Architecture Department at the National United University in Taiwan. His research covers a wide range of modern ideas and their relation to architecture. These ideas include nationalism, modernity, museum politics, power and gender studies. Prof. Tsai has been educated and teaching in Taiwan, England and Scotland with an extensive exposure to architectural theory, architectural design practice, critical theory and cultural studies.
The lecture is open to the public.

Image: GD Taber,JAPAN: Shinto Shrine,CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/eipTZn

Lecture: Old society, New Belief: Religious transformation of Rome and China (1st – 6th c. CE)
2018-10-25 18:00 - 20:00 | ZHG
Lecture
Mu-chou Poo (Chinese University of Hong Kong):
Old society, New Belief: Religious transformation of Rome and China (1st – 6th c. CE)

25. Okt., 18:00 – 20:00, ZHG 004

Abstract:
Recently scholars in the study of antiquity around the world began to notice a trend of increasing interest in doing comparative studies. How should comparative study, particularly of the ancient world, be conducted, what are the benefits, what are the issues, are still problems that draw debates among scholars. This talk intends to use the example of a comparative project to address some of the issues in the comparative study of antiquity. This is a project comparing early Christianity in Rome and early Buddhism in China. Although a conference volume has been published, the issues are far from being resolved. Further investigation of this subject is needed.
Short bio:
Prof. Poo Mu-chou received a B.A. in History from National Taiwan University in 1975 and Ph.D. in Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 1984. He is a Professor of History and director of the Centre for the Comparative Study of Antiquity at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include society and religion in ancient Egypt and China. His major publications include Burial and the Idea of Life and Death: Essay on Ancient Chinese Religion, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religion of Ancient Egypt, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion, Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and China and Daily Life in Ancient China.

Image: JasonChamberlain,釋迦牟尼佛 – Shakyamuni Buddha, CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/7CnDX8

North-East Asian peripheries in focus: industrialization, architecture and city planning in Inner Mongolia
2018-12-03 12:00 - 14:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
North-East Asian peripheries in focus: industrialization, architecture and city planning in Inner Mongolia
Dr. Christine Moll-Murata (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
03.12.2018, 12:00 bis 14:00 Uhr
Veranstaltungsort: VG 3.107
Veranstalter: Ostasiatisches Seminar, Co-Host: Akademisches Konfuzius-Institut Göttingen
Abstract:
Inner Mongolia belongs to the Northeast Asian Frontier Region as defined by Owen Lattimore. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, this macro-region has been subjected to various political impacts, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. A recent research initiative based at Bochum and Duisburg sets out to consider especially the transnational and cross-border perspectives that connect this large area, although it is divided by national frontiers. This talk presents an outlook on Inner Mongolia as a region which so far has not been recognized as one of the centers of industrialization on a global scale. Yet its mineral resources in coal and rare earths are very rich; the Baotou Iron and Steel group is one of the largest steel producers nationwide, and in agribusiness the Inner Mongolian dairy companies rank topmost in China. How did this come about? Inner Mongolia seems to be a typical latecomer in industrialization with a short colonial history – or a very long one, depending on the conception of colonialism. This presentation will focus on the period during the first half of the twentieth century, when industrialization made several starts that were triggered by the competition among all the powers in the field. Its focus will be on the prerequisites of industrial development – infrastructure and communication.
Short bio:
Christine Moll-Murata is chair professor at the Department for History of China, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and honorary fellow of the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. Her research focuses on labor history of China, Taiwan, and Japan, the history of crafts and guilds in China, perceptions of the future in East Asia since 1900 and the industrialization of Northeast Asia. Her recent book, States and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty, was published with Amsterdam University Press in 2018.

Picture: Tim Zachernuk, Mongolian tent, CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/6EJWG9

Beyond National History: Some New Trends in Chinese History Writing
2018-12-05 18:00 - 20:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Lecture:
Beyond National History: Some New Trends in Chinese History Writing

Prof. Zhang Xupeng (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
05.12.2018, 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: KWZ 0.610
Organizer: Ostasiatisches Seminar, Co-Host: Akademisches Konfuzius-Institut Göttingen

Abstract:
In recent years, many Chinese scholars have rethought the paradigm of national history. Consequently, research on borders and border-crossing history has become increasingly popular. In this context, some scholars argue that the formation of the Chinese nation is not a historically given process but rather the result of interactions between various internal and external factors. With this new, more complex understanding of the Chinese nation, these historians reflect upon the nature of national history, which can be an effective way to transcend it.
Short bio:
Zhang Xupeng is Professor at the World History Institute, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. He is the author of The Theory of Cultural Studies (2014) and co-author of The Philosophy and Theory of Contemporary Western History (2019, forthcoming). His primary research and teaching fields are intellectual history, global history and modern Western historical theory.

Image:AMD5150, Anyone Know Chinese?, CC BY-SA 2.0.,https://flic.kr/p/8sfe5H

Lecture: An Intercultural Communication Circuit of Books Between China and Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
2019-01-18 12:00 - 14:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Nicolas Standaert (University of Leuven (Belgium):
„AN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION CIRCUIT OF BOOKS BETWEEN CHINA AND EUROPE IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF IN-BETWEEN TEXTUAL COMMUNITIES“d
18.01.2019, 12:00 bis 14:00 Uhr
Veranstaltungsort: KWZ 0.606
Veranstalter: Ostasiatisches Seminar, Co-Host: Akademisches Konfuzius-Institut Göttingen
Abstract:
A unique characteristic of the cultural contacts between China and Europe is the intercultural circuit of books: European books travelling to China and in return Chinese books travelling to Europe. A special feature was that a large number of intercultural books were translated and published into Chinese and others into European languages. What shape did this communication circuit take? What are the characteristics of the intercultural books produced through this interaction? What kind of community took shape in the ‘in between’ of two cultures through this circuit of books?
This presentation introduces a collective research project on this topic. By analyzing a unique collection of intercultural books, the project investigates their production, distribution and consumption in search of their role in the identity formation of in-between textual communities in China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This study will provide insight into the emergence of intercultural book worlds.
Short bio:
Nicolas Standaert is professor of Sinology at the University of Leuven (Belgium). His major research interest is the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this field he has led multiple research projects on rituality, visual culture, materiality and historiography and organized several international workshop on these topics. His recent publications include: The Intercultural Weaving of Historical Texts: Chinese and European Stories about Emperor Ku and His Concubines, Leiden: Brill, 2016; Chinese Voices in the Rites Controversy: Travelling Books, Community Networks, Intercultural Arguments, (Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I. 75), Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2012; The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008.

Arbeitskämpfe und die Verfolgung studentischer AktivistInnen in China
2019-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 | OEC 0.211, Oeconomicum, Platz der Göttinger Sieben, Göttingen, 37073
Arbeitskämpfe und die Verfolgung
studentischer AktivistInnen in China

Zeit & Ort:
Dienstag, 22. Januar 2019, 18:00-20:00

OEC 0.211, Oeconomicum, Platz der Göttinger 7
Mit: Michael Ma (SACOM, Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, Hongkong), Peter Birke und Daniel Fuchs (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen).
Moderation: Katja Pessl (CeMEAS)

Die Zahl der Streiks und Proteste in Chinas Weltmarktfabriken ist im vergangenen Jahrzehnt rasant angestiegen. Alleine zwischen 2015 und 2017 ereigneten sich mehr als 6.500 Arbeitskämpfe. Zugleich haben sich mit der Machtübernahme von Xi Jinping im Jahr 2012 auch die staatlichen Repressionsmaßnahmen verschärft. Jüngst sorgte der Fall des Arbeitskampfes bei Jasic Technology Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, Südchina, für internationale Aufmerksamkeit. Die von Beschäftigten im Mai 2018 gegründete Gewerkschaftsvertretung wurde – entgegen der geltenden Gesetzeslage – für illegal erklärt, ArbeiterInnen wurden entlassen und verhaftet. Dies führte zu einer breiten Solidaritätskampagne, mehrheitlich getragen von marxistischen Studierenden und UniversitätsabsolventInnen aus ganz China, die unter anderem auch nach Südchina reisten, um vor Ort Demonstrationen zu organisieren. Damit gerieten sie zur Zielscheibe staatlicher Verfolgung. Zwischen Juli und September 2018 erfolgten zahlreiche, landesweit koordinierte Razzien, mehrere Dutzend studentische AktivistInnen wurden verhaftet. Ebenfalls an der Repression beteiligt waren und sind die Universitätsleitungen mehrerer renommierter Hochschulen, auch direkt auf dem Campus der Peking Universität wurden UnterstützerInnen des Arbeitskampfes verschleppt. Bis dato befinden sich vier ArbeiterInnen der Firma Jasic sowie ein NGO-Mitarbeiter in Untersuchungshaft. Mindestens zehn weitere studentische AktivistInnen werden weiterhin in Polizeigewahrsam gehalten oder stehen unter Hausarrest.

Veranstalter: Lehrstuhl für Soziologie mit den Schwerpunkten Arbeit, Unternehmen und Wirtschaft, Universität Göttingen, Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS)

Picture: Jasic Workers Solidarity Group.

Lecture: Acquisition of Chinese Characters by Second Language Learners: The Effects of Character Properties and Individual Differences
2019-04-17 18:00 - 20:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Acquisition of Chinese Characters by Second Language Learners: The Effects of Character Properties and Individual Differences
Li-Jen Kuo (Texas A&M University, USA)
Time: Wednesday, 17. 04.2019, 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: VG 3.106, University of Göttingen

Abstract:
Recent years have witnessed a dramatic growth of Chinese learners worldwide and a need for cross-linguistic research on Chinese literacy development. Drawing upon theories of visual complexity effect (Su and Samuels, 2010) and dual-coding processing (Sadoski and Paivio, 2013), Dr. Li-Jen Kuo will present a study that investigated (a) the effects of character properties (i.e., visual complexity and radical presence) on character acquisition and (b) the relationship between individual learner differences in radical awareness and character acquisition. Participants included adolescent English-speaking beginning learners of Chinese in the U.S. Following Kuo et al. (2014), a novel character acquisition task was used to investigate the process of acquiring the meaning of new characters. Theoretical and pedagogical implications of the findings will be discussed.
Short bio:
Dr. Li-Jen Kuo is Associate Professor of Literacy Education and Second Language Acquisition in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University, USA. Dr. Kuo also serves as the Director of Texas A&M’s Chinese and Korean Language and Culture Program, a service program funded by US federal grants.
Dr. Kuo received her M.A. in Language, Learning and Policy from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the US National Academy of Education.
Dr. Kuo’s research focuses on the interface among literacy, cognition and learning. She has directed several national and international research projects that investigate how different aspects of literacy development, ranging from the emergence of phonological awareness to the acquisition of argumentative discourse, vary across learners of diverse first and second language backgrounds. Her research participants included Chinese-, Korean-, Japanese- and Spanish-speaking learners of English as well as English-speaking learners of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Spanish. Dr. Kuo’s research has been funded by the US National Academy of Education/ Spencer Foundation and American Psychological Association. Utilizing both experimental and naturalistic methods, her research aims to advance theories of biliteracy development and to inform educational practice. Dr. Kuo has been publishing her research in high impact journals and her work has been widely cited in the fields of educational psychology and applied linguistics (Google Scholar Citation: 1.780; h-index: 14; i10-index: 16).

Lecture: Does China’s BRI have smart power on Southeast Asian countries?
2019-05-02 18:00 - 20:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Does China’s BRI have smart power on Southeast Asian countries?

Dr. Lee Chun-Yi (University of Nottingham)
Thursday, May 2,2019, 6pm (c.t.) – 8 pm
VG 2.103, Verfügungsgebäude, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen
Abstract:
The One Belt One Road project (OBOR, later known as the Belt and Road Initiative, BRI), initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, took shape in October 2013. It is envisaged to connect vibrant East Asia and developed Europe via the Silk Road Economic Belt, linking China with European countries through the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Its ultimate goal is to facilitate trade and investment in Eurasia and promote economic growth. The BRI triggered great discussion within and beyond China, with the intention of positioning China in an active role of global governance.
The main Asian countries on the map of China’s maritime belt include Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. So far there has been no systematic research focusing on the socioeconomic impact of China’s BRI particularly on the question of to what extent the BRI’s smart power, that is the combination of hard power (economic and military) and soft power (cultural influence) on those countries. In this paper I will aim to compare and contrast Chinese investment on Vietnam and Malaysia.
The structure of the paper will be as following, the first section will be the discussion of smart power, the second section will be the empirical data of Chinese investment in selected countries of China’s BRI: Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. The empirical data will be composed by qualitative interviews and also statistic data from the listed countries. The third section will be the analysis of ‘effectiveness’ of China’s smart power by interpreting those countries responses towards Chinese investment in comparison of their responses towards China’s position in South China Sea.
Key words: Smart Power, Maritime Silk Road, South China Sea

Bio:
Dr Lee Chun-Yi’s is an Associate Professor at school of Politics and International Relations, she is also the director of Taiwan Studies Program at University of Nottingham. Chun-yi’s current research project is on geopolitical implications of BRI. She has served as a visiting research fellow at East Asia Institute at National University of Singapore from May to June 2018.
Dr Lee’s past research included Chinese investment in Taiwan. This project investigated bilateral cross-Strait economic activities and their impact on the two societies. It is a two and a half year project from July 2014 to December 2016. Dr Lee’s previous research project was on Chinese labour within the global economy with Prof Andreas Bieler at the School of Politics and International Relation. A three-year project that was completed in September 2014, it investigated the influence of different foreign investors on Chinese workers and labour rights.

Image: "One Belt One Road" new Silk Road concept. @Shutterstock

CeMEAS Lecture Series: Transforming China’s Agriculture and Food Sector – On path to sustainability?
2019-05-06 16:00 - 18:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
China’s Green Transformation – CeMEAS Lecture Series:
Transforming China’s Agriculture and Food Sector – On path to sustainability?

Eva Sternfeld (Sino-German Agricultural Centre)
Time: Monday, 06.05.2019, 4pm (c.t.) – 6 pm
Venue: KWZ 0.603, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen

Abstract:
China needs to feed about one fifth of the world population but has only 7 percent of world’s arable land. Ensuring food security has been always a challenge and agricultural intensification has been the program for decades. Since the 1970s technological developments such as mechanization, biotechnology and agrochemicals helped to achieve enormous increases in agricultural productivity.
However, the so called “green revolution” is reaching its limits. In recent years the sector has been in the spot light for food safety scandals and ecosystem degradation. China’s government tries tackle these problems with a series of new policies and action plans. The presentation looks at the challenges China’s agricultural and food sector is confronted with and introduces recent strategies for sustainable agriculture.
Short CV:
Eva Sternfeld is science advisor at Sino-German agricultural Center (DCZ) in Beijing, a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (MARA).
Prior to working with DCZ, Eva Sternfeld was a visiting professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and head of the Center for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China of TU Berlin. Between 2000 and 2008 she has been working as a foreign advisor for the Center of Environmental Education and Communication of the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection in Beijing. She has widely published on issues related to urban/rural development and water management in China. Recent publications include the edition of the Routledge Handbook on Environmental Policy in China (2017).

CeMEAS Lecture Series 2019: China’s Green Transformation
Organizer: CeMEAS
Sponsor: Akademischen Konfuzius-Instituts Göttingen
Partner: Alter Botanischer Garten der Universität Göttingen

Image: Eric, Train journey from Guiyang to Zhenyuan 37, CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/bq2CNn

Lecture: Chinese Oral Expression Training in Overseas Language Environment
2019-05-08 18:00 - 20:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Chinese Oral Expression Training in Overseas Language Environment

Prof. Dr. JIA Fang (Beijing Normal University)
Time: Wednesday, 08. 05.2019, 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: VG 3.106, University of Göttingen

Abstract:
摘要：在第二语言技能教学中，口头表达训练是学习者最需要教师帮助的项目之一，也是最能检验教师教学能力的科目，有很大的研究空间。本讲座的内容分为两个部分：第一部分：“汉语口头表达训练的基本问题与教学策略”，简要论述口语课的定位及教学目标，着重梳理教学中存在的实际问题和对应的教学策略。第二部分：“海外环境下的汉语口头表达训练”，分析海外环境下汉语口头表达训练的特点以及如何从教师、教材、教学方法等方面进行环境补偿。
In second language teaching, the training of oral competence is one of the most important skills for students that requires their teacher’s support. That is why it is as well one of the most representative subjects to proof the teacher’s teaching skills. Lots of research space remains within this topic. The lecture will be divided in two parts. The first will treat “fundamental issues and teaching strategies of oral expression training”, discussing briefly the status and teaching objectives of oral competence classes and putting emphasis on the combination of practical problems and how to respond to them with corresponding teaching strategies. The second part will focus on the analysis of characteristics of “Chinese Oral Expression Training in Overseas Environment” and how the environment can be compensated through teaching materials, teaching methods and other aspects.
讲座将用中文进行。
The lecture will be held in Chinese language.
Short bio:
简介：贾放，博士，北京师范大学汉语文化学院教授，世界汉语教学学会会员，中国民俗学会会员。研究方向为对外汉语教学及中国文化教学，民俗文化学。发表论文20余篇，出版译著两部及译文多篇，参加编写汉语教材两部。主持完成国家社科基金项目一项，省部级项目子课题两项。自1994年起从事对外汉语与中国文化教学以及各类汉语师资培训，培训内容包括：汉语课堂教学法、课堂教学观摩点评、汉语口头表达训练、教师的汉语观与教学成效、跨文化语境下的民俗文化教学等。讲授过的本硕士研究生课程有：汉语课堂教学法、课堂教学观摩、社会语言学课堂教学论、教学观摩与点评、以及中国风俗文化专题、中国文化史专题等。
JIA Fang (Ph.D.) is professor at the Chinese Culture Institute of Beijing Normal University and member of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching, as well as the Chinese Folklore Society. Her research interests include teaching Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese culture, and Chinese folklore studies. Her academic achievements include over 20 published journal articles, two translated books, several translated papers and two Chinese textbooks. She also was the lead researcher in a national key research project funded by the National Social Science Foundation and two research projects on provincial level. Since 1994, she has been engaged in teacher trainings and Chinese language and culture teaching, amongst others focusing on Chinese language teaching methodology, teaching observation and evaluation, oral expression training, teaching theories and efficiency, as well as folklore culture teaching in cross-cultural contexts. Furthermore, she has taught a number of different postgraduate and undergraduate courses at BNU, such as Chinese language teaching methods, social linguistics, teaching theories, teaching observation and evaluation as well as special lectures on Chinese customs, culture, and cultural history.

CeMEAS Lecture Series: Defining a Green APP: Civic Tech, Digital Activism and Visions of Public Participation
2019-05-14 18:00 - 20:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
China’s Green Transformation – CeMEAS Lecture Series:
Defining a Green APP: Civic Tech, Digital Activism and Visions of Public Participation

Li Hongtao 李红涛 (Zhegjiang University)
Time: Tuesday, 14.05.2019, 6 pm-8 pm
Venue: VG 3.104, University of Göttingen
Abstract
With smog now constituting part of the daily health threats for Chinese people, many pollution tracking APPs have come into the market to meet the demand for smog related information. Taking one particular APP- “BlueSky Map”, which is originally known as Pollution Map, as the focal case, this talk will explore how grassroots activists define, legitimize and employ such APPs as useful tools, which enable the general public to get informed, make their voices heard, and take necessary actions. The empirical analysis will focus on how environmental APPs empower Chinese public, how do citizens, NGOs, government and polluters interact on the interface, and what is the effect and implication of such participation for China’s environmental governance.
Short CV
Dr. Hongtao Li (李红涛) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism & Communication and a Distinguished Young Scholar at Zhejiang University. He also serves as an Associate Professor (20%) in the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at University of Oslo. He received his Ph.D. in Communication from City University of Hong Kong in February 2010. Before joining Zhejiang University in May 2010, he was a post-doctoral fellow and later a visiting Assistant Professor in the Center for Communication Research at City U of Hong Kong. His research interests include air pollution and environmental politics, global communication, sociology of news, media and cultural memory. He has published a book on the mediated memory of Nanjing Massacre (Renmin University Press, 2017) and his work appears regularly on major English and Chinese journals, including The China Quarterly, Communication and the Public, Media, Culture & Society, International Journal of Press/Politics, Asian Journal of Communication, Chinese Journal of Communication, and Communication & Society (in Chinese), etc.
(Source: Personal Homepage, Zhejiang University)

CeMEAS Lecture Series 2019: China’s Green Transformation
Organizer: CeMEAS
Sponsor: Akademischen Konfuzius-Instituts Göttingen
Partner: Alter Botanischer Garten der Universität Göttingen

Image: CC BY-SA 2.0., michael davis-burchat, mobile moment of worship, https://flic.kr/p/cacewm

Lecture: Reading as creative and social practice: Unofficial popular entertainment literature during the Cultural Revolution
2019-05-20 16:00 - 18:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Reading as Creative and Social Practice: Unofficial Popular Entertainment Literature during the Cultural Revolution

JunProf. Dr. Lena Henningsen (Freiburg)
Time: Monday, 20 May 2019, 4-6 pm
Venue: KWZ 1.731, 37073 Göttingen
Abstract:
Most literary histories of 20th-century China describe the output of the Cultural Revolution (CR) in a few paragraphs. Officially endorsed literary texts of the decade seem flat, dull and boring to today’s readers. The CR thus appears as a period of literary shortage. However, a more complicated picture of literary diversity arises once we look at actual literary practices: Chinese readers at the time were craving for things to read and went to great lengths to obtain reading materials. They would steal books from libraries; read literary texts from earlier epochs that were now forbidden; illegally read and copy material designated for internal circulation; write, read, copy and circulate entertainment literature by hand…
In this talk, JunProf. Dr. Lena Henningsen will discuss this latter type of popular unofficial hand-written (shouchaoben) entertainment fiction from the perspective of reading practices and delineate the role that readers played in their creation, circulation, preservation and development. After all, extant manuscripts attest to a great variety of versions of the “same” story: when copying texts, many readers found ways to alter, enhance or change extant stories. Resembling fan-fiction practices in many ways, they offered readers space to probe into their literary talents and creativity, to ponder their experiences during the CR, to question the ideals of Maoism, and to test new notions of love or the self.

Organised and hosted by: Department of East Asian Studies
Co-hosted and financed by: Academic Confucius Institute

Image by Lena Henningsen

CeMIG Lecture: Transnational Migration and Religious Conversion among North Korean Refugee-Migrants across Continents in Comparative Perspectives
2019-05-22 18:15 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
CeMIG Lecture:
Transnational Migration and Religious Conversion among North Korean Refugee-Migrants across Continents in Comparative Perspectives

Jin-heon Jung, Institute of Korean Studies in the Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
22.05.2019, 16:15-17:45, VG 4.102

Abstract:
This talk examines North Korean refugee-migrants’ religious encounters throughout their transnational migrations by way of China to South Korea, North America, and Europe in comparative perspectives. It investigates how some of them become voluntarily or involuntarily converted to Christianity, and ordained as professional missionaries, while others are indifferent, critical to, or disenchanted from the religion in the contexts of both national division and their host societies. Their conversion to Christianity is often depicted as a signifier of a sacred triumph over the “evil” socialist North in evangelical political discourses. Such evangelical churches and missionary networks have provided secret shelters, broker-missionaries, and the “Underground railways” in China and Southeast Asian countries to South Korea and other western countries. Overseas Korean ethnic churches serve for the individual refugees to resettle in the host society and the co-ethnic community. Based on more than a decade long follow-up research among North Korean refugee-migrants in different countries, this talk aims to discuss the ways in which North Korean converted Christians develop and practice their own religiosities in the context of transnational migration and in envisioning post-division Korea. It sheds light on religion as a lens through which one can better understand how North Korean refugee-migrants negotiate senses of belonging and further claim to become “the chosen” rather than “helpless victims” in both secular and sacred terms. Moreover, this talk analyzes the similarities and differences in practicing religiosities and the implications among North Korean communities in Germany, England, South Korea, and North America respectively.
The talk is part of the CeMig lecture series on “Migration and Regimes of Migration Control: A Regional Comparison”.
For more information please visit the website: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/cemig+lecture+series+summer+term+2019/607157.html

Image: CeMig Lecture Series Summer Term 2019, @CeMig

Vortrag: Interregnum oder Epochensignum? Kollektive Führung als Antwort auf Stalin und Mao
2019-05-28 18:00 - 20:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Vortrag:
Interregnum oder Epochensignum? Kollektive Führung als Antwort auf Stalin und Mao

Martin Wagner (Humboldt-Universität Berlin)
WANN: Dienstag, der 28.05.2019, 18 Uhr (c.t.)
WO: KWZ 0.603, Universität Göttingen

Diese Veranstaltung ist Teil des Forschungskolloquiums zur Neueren und Neuesten Geschichte Osteuropas.

Die Veranstaltungen sind öffentlich und Interessierte herzlich willkommen.
Mehr informationen finden sie unter: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/kolloquium/587670.html

The 14th Göttingen East Asia Research Salon
2019-06-11 16:00 - 18:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
The 14th Göttingen East Asia Research Salon:
Measuring Reliability in the Wartime Transport of Provisions: The Case of Mao Yuanyi (1594-1641)

Presenter: Masato Hasegawa (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)
Commentators: Dr. Charlotte Backerra, Dr. Julia Schneider
Time: Tuesday, 11.06.2019, 4 pm (c.t.) – 6 pm
Venue: VG 2.101, University of Göttingen

Abstract
This paper examines the notion of efficiency and reliability in the wartime transport of provisions during the late Ming period. Primarily drawing on writings of Mao Yuanyi (1594-1641), one of the most prolific writers of the period on military matters, this study assesses how technologies, animals, and human labor enabled the overland transport of military provisions in late Ming society. A military strategist and advisor, Mao participated in the Ming defense effort against the Jurchen troops in Liaodong in the early seventeenth century. In his seminal study on the conduct of war, The Record of Military Preparedness (Wubeizhi), he extensively discussed the costs and benefits of the transport methods that were available at the time, including wooden carts, pack animals, and water transport. Among the various methods considered in The Record of Military Preparedness, Mao clearly favored what he called “human transport” (renyun), which exclusively relied on the labor of human bearers. By analyzing his writings on the transport of provisions and his forceful argument in favor of employing human labor, this study not only illuminates the manner in which consideration over the duration and speed of transport entailed an appraisal of reliability over the long term. It also reveals how local communities in the Liaodong region became intricately involved in the planning and implementation of war in the late Ming period.
For an essay draft please contact us (assist@cemeas.uni-goettingen.de).
Short Bio
Masato Hasegawa received his PhD in History from Yale University in 2013 and previously taught Chinese, Korean, and East Asian history at the University of Oregon, Columbia University, and New York University. His research centers on the question of how individual lives intersected larger historical changes in borderlands in early modern East Asia. His dissertation, “Provisions and Profits in a Wartime Borderland: Supply Lines and Society in the Border Region between China and Korea, 1592–1644,” examined the impact of cross-border wars on local society in the Chinese-Korean borderland during China’s political transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty. Focusing on the wartime procurement and transport of provisions across the Chinese-Korean borders, it analyzed the manner in which the logistics of cross-border military campaigns profoundly affected and disrupted the lives of individuals and the region’s agricultural cycle. He is currently revising his dissertation for publication and preparing a new project on the notion of reliability in connection with technologies, animals, and seasonality in the Sino-Korean borderland of the early seventeenth century.
Source: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/mhasegawa

Image: Qi Jiguang 戚繼光 (1528-1588), Lianbing shiji zaji 練兵實紀雜集 [Miscellaneous notes concerning military training], fascicle 6, leaf 22.

Lecture: Greening for urban wellbeing: A Sustainability Assessment of the Kökyar Protection Forest in NW China
2019-06-18 16:00 - 18:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Greening for urban wellbeing: A Sustainability Assessment of the Kökyar Protection Forest in NW China

Prof. Dr. Martin Welp (Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development)
Time: Tuesday, 18.06.2019, 4 pm-6 pm
Venue: VG 4.103, University of Göttingen
Abstract
China has made remarkable achievements in increasing forest and vegetation cover in large parts of the country. The Three-North Shelter Forest Program (also known as the great green wall) is one the famous national initiatives to hold back desertification. On the local level, the city of Aksu, located at the fringe of the Taklimakan desert in NW China, started already in the 1980s preparing and planting the so called Kökyar protection forest. It is an ecological engineering project with the intent of protecting the city from frequent dust and sand storms. The forest is well-known in China, has been awarded by the UN and is highlighted as an achievement of the so called “Kökyar-spirit”. We examined the shelterbelt from a broader perspective, embedding Kökyar to the wider context of social and environmental problems in South Xinjiang. Results affirm the economic sustainability of the shelterbelt, but see a mixed record for the social sphere as well as negative trade-offs when looking at the ecological dimensions — especially due high water consumption of the protection forest (a combination of poplar shelterbelts and orchards) and its impacts down-stream. There is a trade-off between artificial shelterbelt plantations for urban ecosystem services on the one hand side, and natural riparian forests and their biodiversity on the other hand side. In such agroforestry schemes systemic interactions need to be considered and locally adapted species favored.
Short CV
Martin Welp holds a professorship in Socioeconomics and Communication at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (Faculty of Forest and Environment). He is head of the International Master Study Programme Global Change Management (M.Sc.). He earned his Doctoral degree at the Technische Universität Berlin in Germany and his Master’s degree in Forestry at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Before his current position he worked as senior researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Department Global Change and Social Systems. He is engaged in stakeholder dialogues in science-policy-platforms as well as in management, researching positions and agreements among actors, dialogue methods and the theoretical framing of such dialogues. Research projects have focused on global (environmental) change with special attention to socio-economic dimensions and human well-being. Past projects include among others SuMaRiO – Sustainable Management of River Oases along the Tarim River / China funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The full list of projects and publications in the field of climate mitigation and adaptation as well natural resources management (integrated coastal zone management, integrated river basin management, forest management, and arid land management can be found at URL: www.hnee.de/welp.

Hosted by the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) in cooperation with the Academic Confucius Institute (ACI) and the Old Botanical Garden at the University of Göttingen.

Image: CC BY-SA 2.0., Louis Dallara, Dead Cedar Trees, https://flic.kr/p/4Xh7cn

Lecture: Japan and China on the Silk Road: a Global History of Politics and Culture in Eurasia
2019-06-18 18:00 - 20:00 | KWZ, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Lecture:
Japan and China on the Silk Road: a Global History of Politics and Culture in Eurasia

Prof. Selçuk Esenbel (Department of History, Boğaziçi University Istanbul)
Jun 18, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
KWZ 0.609, University of Göttingen
Japan on the Silk Road is a global history of politics and culture from the late 19th century until the end of the second world war connected to the Great Game between competing empires of Russia, Britain, and China in the vast area of Eurasia across the Middle East and Central Asia. Between 1868-1945 Japanese diplomats, military officers, archaeologists, and linguists traversed the land locked and maritime Silk Roads pursuing imperial interest and exploring ancient civilizations.
A global team of scholars bring to light Japan’s intellectual and political encounters with the peoples and cultures of Asia, in particular Turks and Persians, Hindus and Muslims of India, Mongolians and the Uyghur of Inner Asia, and Muslims in China. The study exposes the entanglements of pre-war Japanese Pan-Asianism with Pan-Islamism, Turkic nationalism and Mongolian independence as a global history of imperialism and the Japanese connections to Ottoman Turkey, India, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and China. At the same time it reveals a discrete global narrative of cosmopolitanism in Japan’s intellectual and political encounters with the peoples and cultures of Eurasia Asia along this transnational geography. The Japanese experience also shows the background to the One Belt One Road vision of China today and the revival of the “Silk Road” as a geography of competition and contestation.
Prof. Selçuk Esenbel got her BA from George Washington University, M.S. from Georgetown University and Ph.D from Columbia University. She has been Chair of History Department, Director of Asian Studies Center, Turkish Director of Confucius Institute, and University Administrative Council Member; she is President of Japanese Studies Association in Turkey since 2002. Her latest publications include: Turk-Cin Iliskilerine Turkiye’den Bakislar (Turkish-Chinese Relations: Perspectives from Turkey, 2012), Japan, Turkey, and the World of Islam: The Writings of Selcuk Esenbel (2011), and Japan and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1868-1945 (forthcoming, 2014). She got the High Achivement Award for Senior Scholars from Boğaziçi University in 2005, and the Special Prize for Japanese Studies from Japan Foundation in 2007.

Lecture: Governance of Green Space: Management Structure, Planning and Policies in China
2019-07-08 18:00 - 20:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Governance of Green Space: Management Structure, Planning and Policies in China

Wu Jian (Renmin University of China)
Time: Monday, July 8, 6 pm (c.t.)–8 pm
Venue: VG 3.108, 37073 Göttingen
Abstract
This lecture will introduce the theoretical basis and national strategy of China’s green space governance, describe the achievements and problems regarding the construction of China’s ecological space pattern, and share the recent progress in management structure reform, spatial planning and major policy practices toward an effective green space governance to promote the ecological civilization.

Hosted by the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) in cooperation with the Academic Confucius Institute (ACI) and the Old Botanical Garden at the University of Göttingen

Picture: Green Isolated Trees inside Sai Wan Estate © Shutterstocck

Lecture: Managing Municipal Solid Waste in China: A Community-based Decentralized Approach
2019-07-09 12:00 - 14:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
Managing Municipal Solid Waste in China: A Community-based Decentralized Approach

Zhang Xuehua (Nanjing University) Time: Tuesday, July 9, 12 am (c.t.) – 2 pm Venue: VG 1.104, 37073 Göttingen
Hosted by the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS) in cooperation with the Academic Confucius Institute (ACI) and the Old Botanical Garden at the University of Göttingen
Image: Peter Parkes, Other waste / Recyclable, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), https://flic.kr/p/9CeNr7

Transnational ageing and care technologies: Mainland Chinese grandparenting migrants
2019-07-11 14:00 - 16:00 | MPI, Hermann-Föge-Weg 12, 37073 Göttingen, 37073, Germany
Lecture:
Transnational ageing and care technologies: Mainland Chinese grandparenting migrants
Organizer: Max Planck Research Group
Lecturer: Dr. Elaine Ho (National University of Singapore)
Time: Thursday, 11. JULY 2019 | 14:15 – 16:00 |
Place: Hermann-Föge-Weg 12 (villa), Göttingen

Abstract:
Transnational ageing is an understudied topic compared to the attention that has been given to other aspects of transnational familyhood. This presentation focuses on grandparenting migrants from the People’s Republic of China who move temporarily to Singapore or Sydney to care for grandchildren and/or to receive care. Rather than “ageing in place”, they are charting transnational journeys of ageing by recreating social networks and social spaces abroad. Using WeChat, an ICT tool, they maintain social ties in China while also building new social connections abroad. Our presentation introduces the concept of “care technologies”, referring to two dimensions: first, in the Foucauldian sense of how technologies of subjectification are evinced in and through care relations; and second, the role that ICT tools play in mediating care relations across borders, exhibiting governmentality effects too. The presentation also shares insights on integrating qualitative research methods with Geographic Information Science (GIS) visualisations to extend understanding of the spatial and temporal care routines of the grandparenting migrants, as well as the “throwntogether” spaces which they share with older Singaporeans as they age abroad.
Click here to find the flyer.

Summer Break
2019-07-17 08:00 - 2019-09-30 17:00
CeMEAS wishes you a wonderful summer break!
We will be back next semester with more exciting events and news to share with you!

Foto: michael_china China_2014_Beijing_YuanMingYuan_Lotus_140712_7455 + (Copy) https://flic.kr/p/o32zQo, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Lecture: The Cultural Interweaving among Deities, Humanity and Buddha
2019-11-11 16:00 - 18:00 | Theologicum, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
The Cultural Interweaving among Deities, Humanity and Buddha:
The Transition from Authoritarianism to Democratic Awakening

A Glance at Taiwan’s Recent Movement toward the Legislation of The Basic Religious Law

Lecturer: Bhikkhu Shih Fatzang
Abbot, Wanfo Buddhist Monastery, Tainan, Taiwan The Forty-sixth Generation Lineage-Holder in the Tiantai Lineage
Time: November 11, 2019 4 p.m.(c.t.)-6 p.m.
Venue: Theologicum -1.113, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, 37073 Göttingen (please pay attention that the room is on the basement floor)

Image: Daoan,台南之行-萬佛寺 (285), CC BY-SA 2.0., https://flic.kr/p/F5t5GP
Image Selection & Design: CeMEAS

Lecture: European Expats in East Asia: Issues in Cross-Cultural management
2019-11-19 16:00 - 18:00 | VG, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
European Expats in East Asia: Issues in Cross-Cultural management
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Fabian Froese (Economics)
Time: 19.11.2019, 16:00 – 18:00
Venue: Verfügungsgebäude 1.103 (Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7)
Organizer: Euroculture / GLOCAL
The public lecture series presents current research on Europe’s interrelationship with the global economy (past and present). Speakers from various disciplines provide a wide array of specialized topics to explore different facets of European engagement with economic globalization including: issues of trade and international investment, multinational companies and organizations, cross-cultural management and marketing, transfers of knowledge and know-how, questions of development and immigrant entrepreneurship, as well as finally issues of global migration and international labor markets. The lecture series addresses core questions of two Erasmus Mundus MA Programs in Göttingen about central issues for European politics and culture (Euroculture) and about regional perspectives on global markets (GLOCAL).

Here for the Program of the whole lecture series.

The Yijing and the Yijing Commentarial Traditions
2019-11-29 17:00 - 19:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Lecture:
The Yijing and the Yijing Commentarial Traditions

Prof. Dr. Tze-ki Hon (City University of Hong Kong)
Time: 29. November, 17:00 – 19:00
Venue: KWZ 0.603

Abstract:
Originally a divination manual, the Yijing 易經 (Book of Changes) is a composite text consisting of three distinct layers. Its first layer is comprised by the 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams allegedly created by the mythical figure, Fu Xi. Its second layer are the hexagram statements and line statements allegedly written by King Wen and the Duke of Zhou during the 11th century BCE. Its third layer incorporates seven pieces of writings composed from 5th to 2nd century BCE. Divided into ten segments (hence, the name “Ten Wings”), the authors of these writings used the hexagrams to discuss cosmic patterns, the relations between humanity and nature, and the complexity of human life. By 125 BCE, these three textual layers were combined to form what we now call the Yijing.
Despite separate by hundreds of years, these three layers of the Yijing were traditionally considered as mutually reinforcing in illuminating the meanings of the classic. Yet, over the centuries, Chinese scholars disagreed on the sequence of reading. Some read the text chronologically, focusing on the visual images as the foundation of other parts. Others read the text historically, focused on the writings of King Wen and the Duke of Zhou to connect the hexagrams to the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. Yet others read the text retrospectively, focusing on the Ten Wings as the philosophical summation of the entire classic. In this talk, Prof. Hon will compare different commentarial traditions that interpreted the Yijing for different audiences.
