Past Events

Conservative Radicalism: Watsuji Tetsuro’s Critique of Civil Society and Its Implications for Chinese Intellectual History Viren Murthy, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison   May 20, 2022, 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Campus: KWZ 0.610 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen) On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the Meiji state quickly modernized, Japanese intellectuals confronted the atomization and alienation associated with new forms…

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

Building a New Chinese State from the Northwest: The Proposal of Liu Guangfen (1843-1903) Ong Chang Woei 王昌偉 (Professor of Chinese Studies), Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore   June 3, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.   In the beginning of his book Origins of the Modern Chinese State, Kuhn asks, “What is Chinese about China’s modern state?” The answer, Kuhn explains, is not to be…

The Creativeness of Modern Chinese Conservative Thinkers 王汎森: 近代保守思想家的創造性 Wang Fan-sen 王汎森 (Academician, Distinguished Research Fellow), Institute for History and Philology, Academia Sinica   June 10, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. The lecture will be held in Chinese. 近代中國保守思想家中至少可以區分成兩類，第一類是本能地反對任何改變現狀的思想，第二類是回到一個重要的思想基盤（如宋明理學、大乘佛學）上戰鬥。在這次演講中，我想討論第二類思想家，以宋育仁（1859-1931）、熊十力（1885-1968）、唐文治（1865-1954）、劉咸炘（1896-1932）、錢穆（1895-1990）等人為例，討論一個思想史上的問題：當晚清以來的新派一直在變的時候，反對或批評他們的人，其實也一直在變換他們的言論，同時也變換他們對傳統的解釋，以便對應挑戰。 此外，我在比較仔細地審視他們的思路之後，認為他們不只是「回到本來」的樣子，而是有一個微妙的新創過程。譬如他們有時候會用「提高一格法」，把儒家思想，尤其是宋明理學，作一種新的調整、詮釋。借用卡夫卡的話：「當你凝視深淵時，深淵也在凝視你」。   This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China. . Organizers: Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich,…

Chinese Intellectuals’ Rethinking of Science, Religion and Superstition in the 20th Century: From Yan Fu, Liang Qichao to New Confucians Huang Ko-wu 黃克武 (Academician, Distinguished Research Fellow) Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica   June 17, 2022, 10:00 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link. This lecture will be held in Chinese.   Late Qing and early Republican China has been regarded as a “secularized” age that ended “the era of classical learning”…

What is to be Done? Literature and History in China's Revolutionary Twentieth-Century Rebecca Karl Professor of History, New York University   June 24, 2022, 10:00 AM (GMT +2) in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna On Campus: KWZ 0.607 (University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen) On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.   This talk will address the problem of literary and historical narrative in China's twentieth century. Revolutionary time is a particular kind of time, requiring different…