Chinese Studies

Prof. Reza Hasmath (Alberta): "Is Policy Innovation Possible Under the Xi Jinping Regime?"
2017-11-07 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Theologicum, T0.136, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
Despite playing a key contributory role in China’s recent economic reforms and the Party’s regime durability, there has been a noted reduction in central-level policy experimentation under Xi Jinping’s administration. Recent studies have further noted an empirical reduction in policy innovation at the subnational level, and question whether local officials will continue to experiment in the foreseeable future.
This talk suggests that although these changes at the central-level are filtering down to local officials, a great deal of variation in policy experimentation exists. Thus, the puzzle motivating this talk is how do local officials filter these institutional changes to the extent of observed variations in local policy innovation?
Using recent fieldwork evidence, this talk presents three potential explanations: (1) the ineffectiveness of the vertical reward and punishment systems operated by the Party-state; (2) differing base preferences of local officials; and, (3) the presence of a cohort effect, viz. a communities of practice. While some officials are still conducting policy experimentation, the overall reduction in innovation strongly suggests that potential solutions to governance problems remain trapped at the local level, and that the central government will lose this “adaptable” governance mechanism that has contributed
to its past economic and political successes.

Prof. Mayfair Yang (UC Santa Barbara): “Gendered Religiosity: Patriarchal Structures and Women’s Agency in China”
2017-11-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
This lecture will examine how social structures of power, such as patriarchal power, depend on the vicissitudes of human agency to implement their principles, opening them up to subtle shifts and reconfigurations in social practice (Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu). Traditional religiosities, whether Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, or others, are often seen to produce conservative agents of patriarchy, in both men and women. Writing about the women’s Islamic piety movement in contemporary Egypt, Saba Mahmood has criticized the narrow definition of women’s agency put forth by liberal Western feminism. She suggests that women’s agency cannot be understood or defined in terms of oppositionality, critical discourse, or rebellious acts, but must also take into account the modesty, self-effacement, and self-sacrificing ethos of pious women. Here, I will examine the non-oppositional religious agency of pious women in rural and small-town Wenzhou. Two divinities in particular, the regional deity of Chinese popular religion, known as Goddess Chen the Fourteenth, and the Buddhist mother goddess Guan Yin, inspire these women’s religious agency. However, I depart from Mahmood, who almost closes herself off from feminist inquiry, by showing how local women have, through their self-sacrifice, religious leadership, and religious transcendence, carved out a public space and role for women. In the absence of feminism, and without directly confronting or resisting patriarchal power, women’s religious agency has made a social impact and brought changes in local society.
Short bio:
Mayfair Yang received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley. She has been a faculty member in the Anthropology Department at UC Santa Barbara, and is now a Professor in Religious Studies Department and East Asian Studies Department there. Yang was Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia, and has been visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Academia Sinica in Taiwan, Beijing and Fudan Universities in China, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She is the author of Gifts, Favors, & Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China, and editor of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernities & State Formation, andPlaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China. Her forthcoming book: Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy & Religious Civil Society in Wenzhou, China (Duke University Press). She is also working on a second, more theoretical book on Wenzhou religiosity and politics.

Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen (Chinese University of Hong Kong): "Discovering Childhood and Paediatrics in Chinese History: Further Considerations "
2017-11-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.136, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:

As a reflection on thirty plus years of research on childhood and paediatrics in Chinese history, this lecture intends to present further concerns after a systematic review, in three parts:
First, a retrospective on the why’s and how’s of studying children and childhood in history, the conceptual definition that the Chinese case had to start up with, the categorical materials for the investigation, the basic methodological questions to conduct the study with.
Second, an in depth re-examination of the physical conditions in the beginnings of life , and the role of traditional pedestrics in the Chinese and East Asian cultural linguistic world.
Third, further considerations are offered in way of world history, interdisciplinary childhood studies, and contemporary Chinese youth culture, in this ongoing journey.

Prof. Mark Frazier (India-China Institute, New School): "Urbanisation and Social Policy: Prospects for Social Citizenship in China"
2017-11-30 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.606, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
As numerous commentators have pointed out, China is the first country in the world to experience an ageing population without first having reached developed country status. China is indeed ‘growing old before it grows rich,’ but the meanings and significance of this demographic event are not clear. A substantial body of scholarship, generally public policy-oriented to measure and propose solutions to China’s demographic challenge, has emerged since the mid-2000s, with some observers concluding that the ageing burden will impose an insurmountable obstacle to China’s continued economic growth. Many analysts also wonder what population ageing will mean for the fiscal conditions of the Chinese government, given the demands to be placed on a still fragmented, and seemingly fragile, public pension system. Yet, will be argued in this paper, the effects of population ageing will in large part depend on questions of citizenship. Inclusion and access to basic social protections—and, by implication, exclusion from them—are debated not only in China but also in most high-income countries, many of which are ageing. In both the former and the latter, pressures from population ageing would be lessened if those now treated in law and social policy as non-citizens were to be granted access to pension and other social welfare programs (notably, healthcare) that rely on mandatory contributions from citizens.

Prof. Xiong Yuegen (Peking Univ.): "Poverty Alleviation as an Instrument of Technical Governance in Rural China”
2017-12-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
In the past decades, China has achieved a great success in poverty reduction by helping more than 800 million of poor farmers out of poverty trap. However, Chinese government has made a series of serious efforts on social policy implementation in rural areas, poverty as a problematic persistent issue is still perplexing owing to institutional constraints and policy failure. In 2015, the Party and central government launched a new national campaign entitled the Targeted Poverty Alleviation Programme aiming to eradicate the problem of poverty in rural areas by 2020. In this lecture, I will mainly discuss the following issues: First, how does this national campaign on poverty reduction in the new era differ from the previous ones? Second, what is the main impact of the targeted poverty reduction programme on the farmers’ life and local government? Third, what are the main limitations of the top-down model of poverty reduction programme in the centralized regime and its implications for the socio-economic development in future in China. Based on the field research conducted in Jiangxi Province, the author will link the empirical data with theoretical interpretation on the ongoing social changes in the country.
Bio of the Speaker – Prof. Dr. Xiong Yuegen:

Yuegen Xiong is Professor and Director, The Centre for Social Policy Research (CSPR) in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, China. He is the author of Needs, Reciprocity and Shared Function: Policy and Practice of Elderly Care in Urban China ( Shanghai Renmin Press, 2008 )and Social Policy: Theories and Analytical Approaches ( Renmin University Press, 2009 ) . He was the British Academy KC Wong Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford during November 2002- September 2003, the Fellow at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study (HWK), Delmonhorst, Germany during December 2003- February 2004 and the JSPS Fellow at the University of Tokyo in October, 2005, Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Sciences & Humanities, Jacobs University Bremen from November, 2015 to December, 2015, Germany. In the past years, he has published extensively in the field of social policy, comparative welfare regimes, social work, NGOs and civil society. He is the editorial member of Asian Social Work and Policy Review (Wiley), Asian Education and Development Studies (Emerald) and the British Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (UK). He was the faculty of 483rd Salzburg Global Seminar on “ Economic Growth and Social Protection in Asia ” held in Austria during 7th-12th November, 2011.

Prof. Jane Duckett (University of Glasgow): "Who cares about inequality in China? Public attitudes toward inequalities in access to health care "
2017-12-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.136, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
About the letuerer:
Jane Duckett is Edward Caird Chair of Politics, International Dean (East Asia), and Director of the Scottish Centre for China Research at the University of Glasgow. She is also Guest Professor at Nankai University (Tianjin, China). In 2012 she received the Lord Provost of Glasgow Education Award. In 2014 she was elected President of the British Association for Chinese Studies. In 2016 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Prof Duckett’s early research on the Chinese state under market reform included a book-length study, The Entrepreneurial State in China (Routledge, 1998). It explained state business activities as the outcome of fiscal and staffing constraints on officials in an institutional context of poorly defined property rights. Jane also (with colleague Bill Miller) made a comparative study of public attitudes to openness in East Asia and Eastern Europe, published as The Open Economy and its Enemies (CUP, 2006). Her current research is concerned with the politics of China’s social policy making and implementation. She argues through studies across a range of social policies (on local social welfare financing, health insurance, poverty and unemployment), that the politics behind them and their enormous redistributive consequences make them central to the Chinese state’s marketising project. Her monograph, The Chinese State’s Retreat from Health: Policy and the Politics of Retrenchment (Routledge, hdbk 2011; pbk 2013) draws on comparative political theory to explain the Chinese state’s retrenchment in health care provision. She has also co-edited (with Beatriz Carrillo), China’s Changing Welfare Mix: Local Perspectives (Routledge, 2011), a book that takes a local perspective on China’s evolving social welfare provision. She has recently published papers in Health Policy and Planning and Health Expectations that draw on a project to survey Chinese public opinion on health care.
(Information from The University of Glasgow, School of Social & Political Sciences)

Prof. Jeffrey Wasserstrom (UC Irvine): “China and the World in 1900: Stories of the Boxers and the First Global War”
2017-12-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.609, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
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:
GENERIC CAPTIONUC Irvine Chancellor’s professor Jeff Wasserstrom is the chair of the department of history as well as an expert on Chinese history and culture.photo : Steve Zylius/UC Irvine Communications 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.

CeMEAS The 12th East Asia Research Salon: Theorizing the Current Global Order in the Era of Globalization, Regional Integration and the Resurgence of Nationalism: Global China, Regional EU, and National US?
2018-01-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.701, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Xiao (Alvin) Yang, University of Kassel
Abstract:
Why has China become the defender of globalization whereas the US, who is supposed to be the defender of globalization, has turned towards more nationalist and inward-looking direction? Moreover, why is European Union, the model for regional integration, not only facing economic, financial and migration crises, but also the crisis of the resurgence of nationalist movements within its member states? This dissertation aims to theorize the current global order after 2008 where there is an on-going contradictory and simultaneous process of globalization, regional integration and the resurgence of nationalism. It theorizes the relationships among China, the EU and the US in relation to their respective domestic conditions, with a particular focus on the bilateral Sino-American and Sino-EU relations.
Moreover, it goes beyond the European-Americano-centric international relations(IR) and global political economy (GPE) theories by bringing in non-Western IR/GPE theories. Particularly, it situates in the theoretical discourse and engages with the research programs of the emerging Chinese IR theories. It critically and systematically carries out literature review on both Western and Chinese IR/GPE theories and their respective critiques by selecting each work (e.g. journal article, book) based on a set of criteria, such as the relevance to the research questions, the level of intellectual and policy influence, and uniqueness of a theory. How these competing theories conceptualize hegemony, the relationship between a hegemonic power and a rising power, the notions of international relations and global order are compared and contrasted and then synthesized in order to shed light upon the current global order. Furthermore, it systematically reveals the underlying epistemological, ontological, methodological and historical assumptions of these theories to illustrate how and why they interpret the same phenomena differently as well as to bridge these assumptions to make fruitful analyses.
To test these competing theories, a set of hypotheses are generated from their respective theoretical implications and predictions. Subsequently, these hypotheses are tested on different institutional dimensions by critically examining the foreign policy of China, EU, and the US, as well as applying set theory to analyze their respective bilateral and multilateral trade arrangements and security configurations. They are further substantiated by macro indices, such as flows and trends of trade, investment, capital, and currency. Furthermore, China’s Belt and Road initiative (B&R), formerly named as One Belt One Road (OBOR), is chosen to be the main case study. Finally, this dissertation aims to construct and develop a holistic theoretical and conceptual framework that encompasses politico-economic and socio-cultural dimensions to theorize the current global order.
About the presenter:
Xiao (Alvin) Yang is currently a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Kassel in Germany. His dissertation aims to theorize the current global order by focusing on international relations among and within East Asia, Europe and North America where there are on-going tensions among globalization, regional integration and the resurgence of nationalism. He holds a master degree in Chinese European Economics and Business from the Berlin School of Economics and Law and a master degree in International Business from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in China. He also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music with honours at York University in Canada. Furthermore, he studied political science, business management and anthropology at Stockholm University, explored sociology at University of Toronto, studied German at Heidelberg Universität, Humboldt Universität and München Universität, as well as French at Université Jean Monnet in France, Western University at Trois-Pistoles and Laval Université in Quebec.

Francois Gipouloux (CNRS): „Maritime trade expansion in late Ming China“
2018-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.135, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
Maritime trade during the late Ming was characterised by the intermingling of tributary trade, private trade and piracy. The establishment of the ban on maritime trade (海禁 haijin) gave way to a scarcity of goods entering China and to a great profitability of smuggling activities. While the ban on maritime trade never succeded in eliminating the so called Japanese pirates (倭寇 woko), it opened the possibilities of huge profits to illegal trade. Fujian coast offered many opportunities to smugglers.
Several records of judicial cases, are reported by Wang Zaijin in 1611 along with and local records from Fujian and Zhejiang gazeteers give a precise description of maritime trade procedures in the 17th century. They reveal the complex mechanism of pooling capital and cargoes before venturing for overseas trade. It also describes in a very vivid way the involvement of local administration in a still prohibited trade with Japan. It finally highlights however the lack of financial instruments to mobilise capital and secure a cargo, and underline the limits of the management of the relationship between investors, ship-owners, and operators.
Short bio:
François Gipouloux (Emeritus Research Director, National Centre for Scientific Research, [CNRS] France), has worked almost 20 years in Asia (Peking, Tokyo, Hong Kong). His research covers the dynamics of urbanisation in China and the comparative analysis of economic institutions and business practices in Europe and Asia from the 16th to the 21st century. His recent publications include: The Asian Mediterranean, Edward Elgar, 2011 (also translated in Korean and Chinese), and China’s Urban Century (Edward Elgar, 2015).

Prof. Liu Tao (University of Duisburg-Essen): "The Welfare Regime Within and Beyond Borders: The Openness and Closedness of Chinese Social Policy"
2018-01-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.136, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
The functional operation of conventional Chinese welfare regime was closely linked to institutionally created forms of discrepancies and borders entrenching the status differences between different social classes as well as among welfare clients from different social spaces (e.g. rural or urban areas). Since the Millennium an unprecedented and fast expanding social policy in the Chinese history has softened the welfare boundaries of classes, regions and functionally segregated welfare spaces substantially even the welfare class ‘borders’ won’t entirely disappear in the short term. A conceptual notion of ‘incomplete universalism’ contributes to outlining the main trends of social policy development in contemporary China: on the one hand, residents from different origins are increasingly considered as national social citizens; on the other hand, the notion of a national social citizenship and its concrete implementation are heavily constrained by the uneven institutional welfare arrangements created in the past.

Prof. Milinda Bannerjee (Ludwig-Maximilian University ): "Sovereignty, Natural Law and the Ironies of Decolonization: India and the Tokyo Trial"
2018-01-29 16:00 - 18:00 | ZESS,Raum AP26, Goßlerstr. 10, Göttingen, 37073
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.

Voices of Struggle: LGTBQ & Feminist Activism in China and Beyond
2018-04-17 - 2018-04-18 | 17.04.: Emmy-Noether-Saal, Tagungs- und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Wilhelmsplatz 3, Göttingen & 18.04.: ZHG 002
Symposium: Academia meets Activism: Feminism in China
Voices of Struggle explores the complex entanglements between activism and academia in transnational perspective. What does it mean to be an engaged or activist scholar today? How should we think about the connections/separations between the two spheres of activism and academia? And how can activists and academics best combine their strengths to effect change? In what ways are deepening transnational connections re-shaping the practice of activism around the globe? It brings together leading scholars and activists to discuss these questions in relation to the development of feminism and LGTBQ activism in China and beyond.
Workshop: April 17, 13:30 – 18:15
Venue: Emmy-Noether-Saal, Tagungs- und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Wilhelmsplatz 3, Göttingen
Participants：
Bao Hongwei (University of Nottingham)
Harriett Evans (University of Westminster)
Li Tingting (London)
Kimberly Manning (Concorida University)
Film Screening: April 18, 18:00 – 20:00
Location: ZHG 002
Vachina Monologues 来自阴道
FanPopo|28’|2013
Documentary China
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Participants:
Bao Hongwei (University of Nottingham)
Fan Popo (Berlin)
Li Tingting (London)

Prof Liu Kang (Duke University): Chinese Exceptionalism: A Research Agenda
2018-04-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Verfügungsgebäude VG 3.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
This lecture explores the emergent Chinese exceptionalism in order to search for a possible research agenda from interdisciplinary approaches. It will focus on modern times from Mao to the present, especially the ideological formations of Sinicization of Marxism (Chinese Marxism or Mao Zedong Thought),and “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” (from Deng to Xi). To begin the research, we need to address 1) Chinese exceptionalism under the rubrics of international politics; 2) Chinese exceptionalism as an ideology, or value system; 3) cultural and historical roots of Chinese exceptionalism, and 4) implications for Xi Jinping’s global strategy.
Short bio:
Liu Kang is Professor of Chinese Studies, and Director of Duke Program of Research on China at Duke University. Professor Liu is Elected Member of Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe) since 2015. He is the author of twelve books, and written widely in scholarly journals in both English and Chinese. In addition, He frequently contributes in the forms of op-eds, interviews, reviews, to American and Chinese print media and the internet media, on issues ranging from contemporary Chinese media and culture, globalization, to Marxism and aesthetics.

Yang LU (The University of Nottingham): „Recent Research on SLA in Chinese and Pedagogic Issues“ (not public)
2018-04-25 10:00 - 12:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.701, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
Due to the great interest in learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), over the past two decades there has been an increased number of Studies related to Second Language Acquisition in Chinese (SLAC). Though the research field has not yet been fully established with a framework and more specific guidelines, there have been some successful attempts and projects examining the current situation of SLAC.
This talk includes three parts: (1) a review of the recent SLAC research on phonology, syntax, the logographic script and intercultural competence; (2) an introduction to the interlanguage of CFL learners; (3) a summary of pedagogic innovations in the classroom. Most of the studies presented are based on empirical evidence and some are drawn from experiments or action research by front-line CFL teachers on CFL programmes in the US, Europe, China and other parts of the world. In addition, this talk is selective of the research and studies reviewed and presented in line with the direction that I propose for a new development era of SLAC which might be challenging to the SLAC academics and CFL professionals.
Short bio:
Yang LU is Assistant Professor of Chinese Language at the University of Nottingham /UK. Prof. Lu studied the impact of teaching methodologies on second language acquisition and the relationship between the discourse features in learners‘ spoken language and their overall speaking proficiency. Apart from several articles on CFL Teaching and Learning, she is co-editor of the book „Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education: standardisation, pedagogy and learner language“ (Routledge) and is an external trainer for British Council’s Chinese Assistant programme. Yang Lu is also a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy, U.K. and has been deputy-chair of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society from 2012 to 2016.

Dr. Zhang Chunjie (University of California, Davis): "Weber, China, and Cultural Pessimism"
2018-05-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.607, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
This talk attempts to read Max Weber’s treatise on Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, contained in his magnum opus Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen, as a critique of a rationalism that Weber sees as the core component of Christian puritanism and as the foundational force for the rise of capitalism in Europe and America. This talk is cautious about understanding Weber’s theoretical effort as a triumphant historicist and cultural legitimation for European capitalism in the early twentieth century. Rather it discusses a deep cultural pessimism that informs Weber’s transcultural endeavor. Moreover, the talk hopes to develop the concept “world as method” through the reading of Weber’s works.
Short bio:
Frau Zhang ist Associate Professor of German an der University of California in Davis, USA. Ihr Buch „Transculturality and German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism” wurde 2017 von Northwestern University Press publiziert. Ihre Forschungsinteressen sind das globale 18. Jahrhundert, postkoloniale Theorie, komparative literarische Moderne und Asian-German studies. Nach einem Studium an der Peking Universität, China (B.A.) und der Universität Tübingen (M.A.) promovierte Frau Zhang an der Duke University.

Iain Johnston (Harvard University): China and International Order: What Order? Which Order?
2018-05-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Verfügungsgebäude, VG 3.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
The discourse about China’s challenge to the liberal world order assumes that such an order exists. This talk argues that there are instead multiple orders in different arenas (military, trade, finance, information, environment, among others), and that there are tensions within and between these orders. China supports some of these orders, wants to reform others, and opposes elements of others. We need new and more sophisticated ways of measuring order and describing the relationship of states to these orders.
Short Bio:
Alastair Iain Johnston (PhD University of Michigan, 1993) is the Gov. James Albert Noe and Linda Noe Laine Professor of China in World Affairs in the Government Department at Harvard University. He has written on socialization theory, identity and political behavior, and strategic culture, mostly with application to the study of East Asian international relations and Chinese foreign policy. Johnston is the author of Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History (Princeton 1995) and Social States: China in International Institutions, 1980-2000 (Princeton University Press, 2008), and is co-editor of Engaging China: The Management of an Emerging Power (Routledge 1999), New Directions in the Study of China’s Foreign Policy (Stanford 2006), Crafting Cooperation: Regional Institutions in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge 2007), Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists (Cambridge 2009), and Perception and Misperception in American and Chinese Views of the Other (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2015).
Information from Harvard University.

Greg Distelhorst (MIT) & Diana Fu (University of Toronto): Citizenship & Bureaucracy in China
2018-05-16 17:00 - 19:30 | Waldweg -1.201, Waldweg 26, Göttingen, 37073
Articulating Authoritatian Citizenship in China
Greg Distelhorst (MIT)
Evaluating the Bureaucracy in China and the US
Diana Fu (University of Toronto)
Short Bio:
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)
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)
Design & Poster: CeMEAS
Image:International Monetary Fund, _MG_9418 , CC BY-SA 2.0.,https://flic.kr/p/mnhFcy

Bene Bassetti (University of Warwick): „Chinese as a Second Language Writing System: Some Less Widely Researched Issues“
2018-05-16 18:00 - 20:00 | Verfügungsgebäude VG 2.108, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
This talk will explore some less widely researched topics related to the learning and use of hanzi and pinyin in learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language. First, we will look at how the interword spacing conventions of CFL learners’ first languages affect their Chinese word awareness and their reading of hanzi sentences and texts. Then, we will see how the grapheme-phoneme correspondences of pinyin affect metaphonological awareness and speech production. Finally, we will discuss the results of an on-going project that investigates the effects of the native script on hanzi handwriting. All these issues have implications for teaching practice, including the use of interword spacing in CFL reading materials, the use of pinyin for teaching pronunciation, and best practice in the teaching of handwriting. At a theoretical level, it will be argued that the written forms of both the first and the second language have an important and sometimes under-rated impact on the learning and use of a second language, both written and spoken.
Short bio:
Bene Bassetti is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, and is researching second language learning and bilingualism, particularly involving the Chinese, English and Italian languages. Bene has co-founded the journal Writing Systems Research, obtained research funding by the Leverhulme Foundation and other sponsors, engaged in international and interdisciplinary collaborations, co-edited volumes and special issues, organised events, and presented papers around the world.

Florian Coulmas (Universität Duisburg-Essen): “Die Alphabetschrift ist an und für sich die intelligentere.“ Überlegungen zur Bewertung von Schriftsystemen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Chinesischen
2018-05-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.134, Platz der Göttingen Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
Sind manche Schriftsysteme besser als andere? Gibt es sinnvolle und verlässliche Kriterien zur Bewertung von Schriftsystemen? Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Fragen vergleicht dieser Vortrag die chinesische Schrift mit anderen Schriften. Ausgangpunkt ist das in der Überschrift zitierte Verdikt des deutschen Philosophen Georg Friedrich Hegel, das eine positive Beantwortung der Frage nach einer möglichen qualitativen Bewertung von Schriftsystemen nahelegt. Kritisch zu untersuchen sind jedoch die Maßstäbe, die angelegt wurden, um zu dem darin ausgedrückten Urteil zu kommen. Einer der zu diskutierenden Maßstäbe ist das Verhältnis von Schrift und Sprache, das in diesem Zusammenhang näher betrachtet werden soll.
Short bio:
Florian Coulmas ist Senior-Professor am IN-EAST Institut für Ostasienstudien der Universität Duisburg-Essen. Er hat 25 Jahre an verschiedenen japanischen Universitäten und Forschungseinrichtungen gearbeitet und leitete von 2004 bis 2014 das Deutsche Institut für Japanstudien in Tokio (https://www.dijtokyo.org/), von wo er an das IN-EAST-Institut ging. Er schreibt regelmäßig für die Neue Zürcher Zeitung und andere Zeitungen. Er ist Mitherausgeber des International Journal of the Sociology of Language und hat neben zahlreichen Aufsätzen in Fachzeitschriften und herausgegebenen Werken 25 Monographien verfasst, darunter Writing Systems. An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003.

Qin Yaqing (China Foreign Affairs University): Chinese culture and foreign policy decision (中国文化与外交决策)
2018-05-29 18:00 - 20:00 | Verfügungsgebäude VG 3.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Short Bio of the lecturer:
QIN Yaqing is President and Professor of China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) and Chancellor of China Diplomatic Academy, Executive Vice-president of China National Association for International Studies (CNAIS) and editor-in-chief of Foreign Affairs Review, the academic journal of CFAU and CNAIS. He was on the resource team for the UN High Panel for Challenges, Threats and Changes (2003-04) and worked as Special Assistant to the Chinese Eminent Person, China-ASEAN Eminent Persons Group (2005).
Qin’s main academic interest is International Relations (IR) theory and has recently focused on the exploration of Chinese cultural and philosophical traditions for developing IR theory. He has also done research on global and regional governance and China’s foreign policy. As a leading scholar and professor in the field of international relations in China, Qin has published extensively, including Hegemonic System and International Conflicts; Power, Institutions and Culture; Relations and Process, etc.
Information from PRIO

Dr. Liza Wing Man Kam: "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. Max-Planck Institute for Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Hermann-Föge-Weg 12 (Villa), Göttingen, 37073
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.
Short bio:
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.

Vortragsreihe „On Stage: Chinesische Oper im Kulturkontakt“ – Karsten Gundermann, „China und die Barockmusik. Von Chinoiserien, Missionaren und gegenwärtigen Experimenten“
2018-06-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Tagungs- und Veranstaltungshaus Alte Mensa, Hannah-Vogt-Saal, Wilhelmsplatz 3, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
In der Chinamode des Barockzeitalters verbindet sich europäische Neugier auf Kurioses und Fremdes mit Projektionen eigener Träume auf das ferne „Reich der Mitte“. Ballette, höfische Opern und Genrestücke der Kammermusik verlangten plötzlich nach chinesischen Klängen. Wie befriedigten die klassischen Komponisten Europas diese Nachfrage und welche Vorlagen nutzten sie? Was wusste man zur gleichen Zeit in China von der europäischen Musik? Wie fand sie Eingang in die chinesische Kultur und was hielt das östliche Publikum von ihr? Der Komponist Karsten Gundermann gewährt in seinem Vortrag Einblicke in die chinesische und europäische Musikgeschichte, die er mit Hörbeispielen aus der Klassik und mit Ausschnitten aus dem eigenen Schaffen unterlegt.
Short bio:

Karsten Gundermann studierte Komposition in Dresden, Beijing und New York. Mit der 1993 uraufgeführten „Nachtigall“ schuf er als erster westlicher Komponist eine Pekingoper, die in China und Europa große Erfolge feierte. Mit einer eigenwilligen Neubearbeitung von Glucks „Le Cinesi“ glückte Gundermann im Jahr 2010 eine Verbindung von Pekingoper und Barockoper. Im Jahr 2017 erregte sein Ausstellungsprojekt „Secret Sounds of China“ große Aufmerksamkeit.
Mehr Informationen zur Vortragsreihe “On Stage: Chinesische Oper im Kulturkontakt” finden Sie hier.

Todd Hall (Oxford University): The Senkaku Islands Dispute: A MacGruffin?
2018-06-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Waldweg 9.102, Waldweg 26, Göttingen, 37073, Deutschland
Short Bio of the lecturer:
Prof Hall earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2008 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Harvard, as well as visiting scholar appointments at the Free University of Berlin, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the University of Oxford, Prof Hall held the position of Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto (2010-2013). Research interests extend to the areas of international relations theory; the intersection of emotion, affect, and foreign policy; and Chinese foreign policy. Recent publications include articles in Asian Security, International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Political Science Quarterly, and Security Studies. Prof Hall has also published a book with Cornell University Press, titled Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage, which was recently named co-recipient of the International Studies Association’s 2016 Diplomatic Studies Section Book Award.
Prof Hall’s research fields include:
Theorizing the role of emotions and affect in international politics.
The international relations of East Asia, with a specific focus on the foreign policy of China.
Information from Oxford University

Dominique Hertzer: "Die Resonanz von Körper und Geist – Zur Philosophie des Geistes im Chinesischen Denken"
2018-06-07 16:00 - 18:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.607, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
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.

Saori Katada (University of Southern California): "The BRICS and Collective Financial Statecraft"
2018-06-12 18:00 - 20:00 | Verfügungsgebäude VG 3.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
In the first decade of the 21st century, five rising powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) formed an exclusive and informal international club, the BRICS. Although neither revolutionaries nor extreme revisionists, the BRICS perceive an ongoing global power shift and contest the West’s pretensions to permanent stewardship of the existing economic order. Together they have exercised collective financial statecraft, employing their expanding financial and monetary capabilities for the purpose of achieving larger foreign policy goals. This volume examines the forms and strategies of such collective financial statecraft, and the motivations of each individual government for collaborating through the BRICS club. Their cooperative financial statecraft takes various forms, ranging from pressure for “inside reforms” of either multilateral institutions or global markets, to “outside options” exercised through creating new multilateral institutions or jointly pushing for new realities in international financial markets. To the surprise of many observers, the joint actions of the BRICS are largely successful. Although each member has its unique rationale for collaboration, the largest member, China, controls resources that permit it the greatest influence in intra-club decision-making. The BRICS cooperate due to both common aversions (for example, resentment over being perennial junior partners in global economic and financial governance and resistance to infringements on their autonomy due to U.S. dollar dominance and financial power) and common interests (such as obtaining greater voice in international institutions, as the IMF). The group seeks reforms, influence, and enhanced leadership roles within the liberal capitalist global system. Where blocked, they experiment with parallel multilateral institutions in which they are the dominant rule-makers. The future of the BRICS depends not only on their bargaining power and adjustment to market players, but also on their ability to overcome domestic impediments to sustainable economic growth, the basis for their international influence.

Vortragsreihe „On Stage: Chinesische Oper im Kulturkontakt“ – Dr. Andreas Seifert, „Bühnen aus Papier. Popularisierung von Opern- und Theaterstoffen im chinesischen Comic“
2018-06-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Theologicum, T0.134, Platz der Göttingen Sieben 2, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
In diesem Vortrag geht es um die Darstellung und Wiedergabe von Opern und anderen Bühnenstücken im chinesischen Comic (lianhuanhua 连环画). Dabei wird ein historischer Bogen gespannt, der bei der Bühne als Ausgangspunkt der chinesischen Comicentwicklung ansetzt, sich über die weitere Entwicklung der Comics als Mittel der politischen, kulturellen und technischen Bildung erstreckt und mit ihrer Indienstnahme für die politische Indoktrination während der späten Jahre der Kulturrevolution endet. Auch nach dem Beginn der Politik von Reform und Öffnung spielten die chinesischen Comics eine zentrale Rolle in der kulturellen Bildung. Anhand von zahlreichen Beispielen wird der besondere Stellenwert, den die Wiedergabe von Bühnenstücken (mit Schwerpunkt Oper) im Comic einnahm, veranschaulicht und analysiert. Die dem Vortrag zugrundeliegende These lautet, dass es gerade das lianhuanhua ist, das zur Popularisierung von Opern- und Bühnenstücken in China beigetragen hat.
Short bio:
Andreas Seifert ist promovierter Sinologe und hat sich in Studium und Forschung mit populären Bildmedien aus China beschäftigt. 2010 kuratierte er zusammen mit dem Cartoon-Museum Basel die Ausstellung „Wortbilder“ zu chinesischen Comics. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt seiner wissenschaftlichen Tätigkeit ist die Auseinandersetzung mit der Militär- und Sicherheitspolitik der Volksrepublik China.
Mehr Informationen zur Vortragsreihe “On Stage: Chinesische Oper im Kulturkontakt” finden Sie hier.

Marijk van der Wende and Marcus Düwell (Utrecht University): The New Silk Road: Implications for higher education and research cooperation between China and Europe
2018-06-26 12:15 - 13:45 | Verfügungsgebäude VG 1.102, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
Recent geopolitical events such as Brexit and the US turning its back on international trade and cooperation create waves of uncertainty in higher education regarding international cooperation, the free movement of students, academics, scientific knowledge, and ideas. Meanwhile China is launching new global initiatives with its New Silk Road (or One Belt One Road) project, which could potentially span and integrate major parts of the world across the Euro-Asian continents. But likely on new and different conditions, also for higher education.
How will the NSR affect European higher education and research? What types of academic flows and activities emerge along the NSR, how do universities respond, under what conditions are these activities taking place, who defines these, based on what values, and do we actually understand these values at all?
About the speakers:
Marijk van der Wende is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at Utrecht University’s Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance. Her research focuses on the impact of globalization and internationalization on higher education. She is also an affiliate faculty and research associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) at the University of California Berkeley and member of the Academia Europaea. Previously she held full professorial positions at VU University Amsterdam (2006-2015), the University of Twente (2001-2016), and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University (Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies), Boston College (Centre for International Higher Education), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Graduate School of Education), and the University of California Berkeley (CSHE).
Marcus Düwell holds a chair for philosophical ethics at Utrecht University. He is director of the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University and director of the Utrecht Research Institute for Philosophy and Religious Studies. From 2005-2012 he was director of the Netherlands Research School for Practical Philosophy. Düwell studied Philosophy, German Literature and Theology in Tübingen and Munich. His PhD-thesis at the university of Tübingen was a philosophical investigation about the relationship between ethics and aesthetics. From 1993-2001 he was academic coordinator of the Interdepartmental Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tübingen. His research interests include bioethics, ethics of climate change and general topics of moral and political philosophy, particular the ethics of human dignity and human rights.

Prof. Chen Huaiyu (Arizona State University): The animal turn in the study of global history: a religious perspective
2018-07-05 12:00 - 14:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 2.601, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Abstract:
This talk will examine some key issues that concern scholars who attempt to figure out the historical roots of our contemporary problems. One the one hand, some scholars have been debating the intellectual and religious cause of the ecological crisis and the extinction of animal species across the global village. For instance, Lynn White Jr. noted that the Christian dogma in the West contributed to the dominance of humans over animals and nature. On the other hand, the development of modern biotechnology and genetic engineering might have profoundly changed the non-human animals in the technology-assisted farm industry. The modern state of biotechnology has ended the traditional contract between humans and nature. Numerous plants and animals are cultivated and reared in the human-created or modified environment. Animals are no longer aware of nature’s changes when they do not witness the Sunrise and Sunset. Some ethicists and religious scholars are concerned that the animality of these technology-assisted reared animals is deprived because these animals now live in a human-made environment, which cannot even be called an ecological system. The human-animal relations have entered a new phase. This talk hopes to offer some observations about how the roles of major religions have been redefined and reshaped in the global ecological crisis and farm industry.
Short bio:
Huaiyu Chen received his MA in history from Peking University, China and Ph.D in religious studies from Princeton University, USA. Currently he is an associate professor at Arizona State University where he teaches Buddhism and Chinese Religions. He has published several monographs and numerous articles on Buddhist rituals and monastic culture, the interactions among Buddhism, Christianity, and Daoism, animals in Chinese religions, Western missionaries in China, and modern Chinese intellectual history. In this summer, as a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, he is finishing up his English book on animals in medieval Chinese religions.

Information meeting for our new master students in Modern Sinology
2018-10-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Zentrales Hörsaalgebäude, ZHG 002, Platz der Göttingen Sieben 5, Göttingen, 37073
All new students in the master program Modern Sinology are cordially invited to join the information meeting on October 12, 2018, at 1pm in room 002 of the ZHG (Zentrales Hörsaalgebäude).

Lecture: Jung-jen, Norman Tsai (National United University, Taiwan): "Japanese Colonial Shinto Shrines in Taiwan"
2018-10-24 16:00 - 18:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 1.601, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
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.
