Chinese Studies

Lecture: Leigh Jenco (Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics, Department of Government): The Ming-Qing Transition as a Philosophical Problem
2021-12-03 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Online
Please register in advance: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUqdeysqDMvE9zMw_ZJ55l2L9xVPUb67XwZ
Abstract:
The transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty was not experienced as a sharp break for those who lived through it, but it has come to stand in the minds of later Chinese literati as nothing less than an existential crisis for Chinese identity—both driving and driven by a shift in intellectual perspective that emerged in the early years of Qing consolidation. Many educated literati retrospectively blamed the fall of the Ming on the abstruse philosophizing that preoccupied followers of Wang Yangming, a sixteenth-century statesman, frontier general and philosopher whose rejection of state-sponsored Confucian orthodoxy rode a wave of interest in metaphysical speculation about the sources of moral knowledge. In its place—just as the government policy adapted from an inward-looking, Han-dominated state to a cosmopolitan, expansionist inner Asian empire—seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literati turned their attention to the historical and philological verification of classic texts, inaugurating the “evidential learning” (kaozheng) that twentieth-century Chinese reformers would see as proof of an indigenous, modern “scientific spirit.” In this paper I argue that such divisions obscure from view the extent to which the Manchu victory and the territorial consolidation that followed continued the strong parallels that marked both Chinese and European societies in early modernity. There are thus important philosophical consequences for periodizing the Chinese early modern period as an abrupt transition from “Ming to Qing” or “philosophy to philology”. I use my current research to offer examples of these consequences. Specifically, I argue that characterizing this time period in terms of a rupture between dynasties, rather than as a more general epoch of early modernity, leaves us unable to assess philosophically the ways in which ideas and practices thematized by scholars of Yangming learning enabled particular kinds of discourse about human difference to take shape, and in turn how empirical information about human kinds generated by Ming-era territorial expansion, travel and commerce was fed back into philosophical thinking about moral possibility and the textual tradition that articulated it.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Alessandro Rippa (Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München): "Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China"
2021-12-07 18:15 - 20:15 | Online
ABSTRACT:
Across the Chinese borderlands, investments in large-scale transnational infrastructure such as roads and special economic zones have increased exponentially over the past two decades. Based on long-term ethnographic research, Borderland Infrastructures addresses a major contradiction at the heart of this fast-paced development: small-scale traders have lost their historic strategic advantages under the growth of massive Chinese state investment and are now struggling to keep their businesses afloat. Concurrently, local ethnic minorities have become the target of radical resettlement projects, securitization, and tourism initiatives, and have in many cases grown increasingly dependent on state subsidies. At the juncture of anthropological explorations of the state, border studies, and research on transnational trade and infrastructure development, Borderland Infrastructures provides new analytical tools to understand how state power is experienced, mediated, and enacted in Xinjiang and Yunnan.
More information and a link to the PDF of the book which is fully Open Access:
https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463725606/borderland-infrastructures
SHORT BIO:
Alessandro is a social anthropologist interested in issues surrounding infrastructure, borders, globalisation, conservation and the environment, particularly in the contexts of the China-Myanmar borderlands and the Italian Alps. He is the author of Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) and of numerous articles in journals such as Social Anthropology, The China Journal, Political Geography, and Ethnos. Alessandro obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen in 2015, and held postdoctoral positions at LMU Munich and at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is currently based at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, where he leads the 5-year project Environing Infrastructure (www.environing.asia) funded by a “freigeist” fellowship from the Volkswagen Foundation. Alessandro is currently on leave from his position as Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at Tallinn University.

https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/96044733388?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID 960 4473 3388
Passcode [REDACTED]

“Contemporary Theater Arts” Seminar Series No. 7: Chan Kwok Wai Bernice: "Illustrating the Stage of Hong Kong for Audiences of the Present and the Future - My Creative Journey as a Curator of the Exhibition "A Snap beyond Borders""
2021-12-08 13:00 - 14:30 | Online
“Contemporary Theater Arts” Seminar Series No. 7
Illustrating the Stage of Hong Kong for Audiences of the Present and the Future – My Creative Journey as a Curator of the Exhibition “A Snap beyond Borders”
Speaker: Chan Kwok Wai Bernice
Language: English
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/96420658426?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 964 2065 8426
Passcode: [REDACTED]
Bio:
Chan Kwok Wai Bernice is currently the General Manager of the International Association of Theatre Crit-ics (Hong Kong), and an Examiner for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (Drama Committee). She is also a Panel Member of the Hong Kong Drama Awards, the Hong Kong Theatre Libre, and the IATC(HK) Critics Awards, as well as an Executive Committee Member of the International Association of Libraries, Museums, Archives and Documentation Centres of the Performing Arts (SIBMAS).
She received the Hong Kong Arts Development Council-University of Leeds-Chevening Scholarships in 2005 and obtained her Master of Arts in Theatre Studies from the University of Leeds (UK). She was also an Art Form Panel Member (Festivals) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (2011–2016), an Advisory Committee Member of School of Drama, the Hong Kong of Academy for Performing Arts (2017–2018), as well as a guest host of Artscritique (2007–2018)and a Radio and Television Hong Kong radio programme. Chan has curated and edited over 50 publishing projects about performing arts. Her recent editorial projects have included Ten Years of A City: Selected Hong Kong Plays (2003–2012), which was awarded the 11th Hong Kong Book Prize in 2018, and “A Snap beyond Borders: An Online Archive and Education Project of Hong Kong Theatre and Performance Photography”.

Online-Lecture: Prof. Cao Yin (Tsinghua University): "India-China Connections from Subaltern Perspectives"
2021-12-08 13:15 - 14:45 | Online
Abstract:
The history of India-China connections has long been explored from elite perspectives (religious, intellectual, and political), while few have ever paid attention to how ordinary Indians and Chinese interacted and how their lives were connected. This talk will focus on cases in the first half of the twentieth century, including the experiences of Sikh policemen in Shanghai during the Interwar Period and Chinese deserter in India during the Second World War. Through telling their stories, the talk will try to demonstrate how the desires, ambitions, and activities of ordinary Indians and Chinese have shaped the two countries relations until the present day.
Bio:
Cao Yin is Associate Professor and Cyrus Tang Scholar in the Department of History, Tsinghua University. He works on modern Indian history, global history, and India-China connections. He is the author of From Policemen to Revolutionaries: A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai, 1885-1945 (Leiden: Brill, 2017) and Chinese Sojourners in Wartime Raj, 1941-45 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, upcoming).

Workshop: "Africa in Shifting Global Contexts: The Roles of China and the EU"
2021-12-14 08:15 - 14:30 | Online
Tuesday, December 14th, 2021
08:15-08:30 GMT: Welcome
Dr. Mengshu Zhan (Göttingen University, Germany)
Prof. Dr. Dominic Sachsenmaier (Göttingen University, Germany)
08:30-10:00 GMT: Chinese and European Soft Power in Africa: Confrontational Pathways?
Join Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/85234128312
Meeting ID: 852 3412 8312
Chair: Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier (Göttingen University, Germany)
1. Prof. David Mills (Oxford University), Dr Natasha Robinson (Oxford University) & Dr Hodan Abdi (Zheijang Normal University and City University of Mogadishu)
“Feeling for the Stones:” Learning to Navigate Knowledge Diplomacy through the China-Africa Think Tanks Forum
2. Professor He Wenping (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China)
China’s Soft Power in Africa: Strengths and Weaknesses
3. Dr. Bhaso Ndzendze (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
China and the EU in Africa: A Decade of Soft Power Shifts in Review
13:00-14:30 GMT: Africa in Shifting Global Contexts: Perspectives from Africa
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/83632982167
Meeting ID: 836 3298 2167
Chair: Dr. Mengshu Zhan (Göttingen University, Germany)
1. Dr. Martyn Davies (South African Deloitte, South Africa)
The New Political Economy of Africa Emerging From the Pandemic
2. Professor Malte Brosig (Wits University, South Africa)
What Role for Africa in a Changing Global Order? Actorness, Influence and Marginalization.
3. Dr. Philani Mthembu (Institute for Global Dialogue, Pretoria, South Africa)
Africa and the World: Navigating Shifting Geopolitics
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021
08:30-10:00 GMT: The Belt and Road Initiative in Africa: Problems and Opportunities
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/83875022790
Meeting ID: 838 7502 2790
Chair: Dr. Janice Jeong (Göttingen University, Germany)
1. Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiel, Germany)
China’s Overseas Lending
2. Professor Liu Haifang (Peking University, China)
One Belt One Road + One Continent: What’s New for China-African Cooperation?
3. Dr. David Monyea (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
The African Dimension of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Advancement of the African Agenda 2063
12:00-13:30 GTM, African Relations with China and the EU and Their Shifting Global Contexts
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/89999386888
Meeting ID: 899 9938 6888
Chair: Dr. John Njenga Karugia (Humboldt University Berlin)
1. Professor Andreas Fuchs (Göttingen University, Germany)
Chinese Development Aid: Distribution, Consequences, and Comparison with the EU
2. Professor Zeng Jinghan (Lancaster University, the UK)
Domestic Dynamics of China’s Rise and Foreign Policy?
3. Mr. Abdoulaye Ibrahim (UNESCO, Paris, France)
Prospective of Africa: Future of Africa and Tripartite Cooperation
Bios of Participants
Dr Hodan Abdi
Dr Hodan Abdi is an associate research fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University. She is also currently an adjunct professor at City University of Mogadishu. Dr Abdi’s research focuses on China-Africa media relations and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Prof. Malte Brosig
Malte Brosig is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He joined the Department of International Relations in 2009 after he received his PhD from the Centre of European and International Relations Studies at the University of Portsmouth.
Dr. Martyn Davies
Dr Martyn Davies is the Managing Director of Emerging Markets & Africa at Deloitte as well as the Dean of Alchemy by Deloitte, the firm’s School of Leadership. He leads Deloitte Africa’s CEO Programme and is a member of the Deloitte global economists team.
Prof. Andreas Fuchs
Prof. Andreas Fuchs is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen and Director of the Kiel Institute China Initiative. His research analyzes trade, investment and development policies with quantitative methods and a special focus on China and other emerging economies.
Prof. He Wenping
Prof. He Wenping is Professor at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies (IWAAS), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He is specializing on Africa’s relations with China and major western powers, African democratic transition, South-South cooperation and the Middle East international relations.
Professor Liu Haifang
Prof. Liu Haifang is an Associate Professor in School of International Studies, Peking University. She serves as Deputy Director & Secretary General, the Centre for African Studies, Peking University and the Vice-Secretary General of the Chinese Society of African Historical Studies as well.
Mr. Abdoulaye Ibrahim
Mr. IBRAHIM Abdoulaye is the Head of Contextual Analysis and Foresight Unit at UNESCO, he’s an Engineer Graduate in Science. IBRAHIM Abdoulaye, as part of the implementation of UNESCO’s Global Priority Africa, he is the focal point for Natural Sciences and Development and coordinates the organization of sub-regional forums in Africa on artificial intelligence since 2018.
Dr. Janice Jeong
Dr. Janice Hyeju Jeong joined the Joint Center of Advanced Studies “Worldmaking” and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen in 2021. She has with broad research interests in formations of Islamic networks between China and the Arabian Peninsula, inter-Asian connections, and history and anthropology. She pursued her doctorate degree in History at Duke University, where she completed a thesis entitled “Between Shanghai and Mecca: Diaspora and Diplomacy of Chinese Muslims in the Twentieth Century.”
Prof. David Mills
Prof. David Mills is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, and Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). Trained in anthropology, his research interests include African research and publishing cultures.
Dr. Philani Mthembu
Philani Mthembu is the Executive Director at Institute for Global Dialogue. Prior to joining the Institute for Global Dialogue associated with Unisa, Philani Mthembu pursued a joint doctoral programme (Dr. rer. pol.) with the Graduate School of Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and the School of International Studies at Renmin University, Beijing (China); he conducted his field research at the latter.
Dr. Bhaso Ndzendze
Dr Ndzendze is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. His research is centered on Africa’s international relations, with a particular focus on the political economy of its trade.
Dr Natasha Robinson
Dr Natasha Robinson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. Natasha is interested in higher education in Africa, and its potential to ‘decolonize’ global knowledge production.
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier
Dominic Sachsenmaier is professor of “Modern China with a Special Emphasis on Global Historical Perspectives” and chair of the Department of East Asian Studies at Göttingen University/Germany. Before, he held faculty positions at Jacobs University, Duke University as well as the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dominic Sachsenmaier is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and he is also one of the three editors of the book series „Columbia Studies in International and Global History.”
Prof. Christoph Trebesch
Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch is Professor of Macroeconomics (tenured) in Kiel University and Head of Research Area “International Finance and Global Governance” in Kiel Institute Since April 2017. His main research interests focus on Sovereign Debt and Default, International Capital Flows, Financial Stability and Financial Crises, Political Economy and International Financial Institutions.
Prof. Jinghan Zeng
Jinghan Zeng is Professor of China and International Studies at Lancaster University. He is also the Director of Lancaster University Confucius Institute. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer of International Relations and Director of Centre for Politics in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (AAME) at Royal Holloway, University of London. Professor Zeng’s research lies in the field of China’s domestic and international politics.
Dr. Mengshu Zhan
In 2021, Mengshu Zhan is currently a research fellow at the Joint Center for Advanced Studies “Worldmaking.” She received her doctoral degree from the Center for Global Study at Bonn University, and her dissertation focused on perceptions of China in the eyes of South African elites. In 2019, she worked at the Centre of Africa-China Studies in Johannesburg University, South Africa. Mengshu Zhan received a Master of Arts in International Business and Diplomacy from University of East Anglia in the UK in 2014.
Responsible for Workshop Conceptualization and Organization: Dr. Mengshu Zhan (Fellow, Göttingen University). Contact: mengshu.zhan@uni-goettingen.de.

Workshop: "Africa in Shifting Global Contexts: The Roles of China and the EU"
2021-12-15 08:30 - 13:30 | Online
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021
08:30-10:00 GMT: The Belt and Road Initiative in Africa: Problems and Opportunities
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/83875022790
Meeting ID: 838 7502 2790
Chair: Dr. Janice Jeong (Göttingen University, Germany)
1. Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch (Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiel, Germany)
China’s Overseas Lending
2. Professor Liu Haifang (Peking University, China)
One Belt One Road + One Continent: What’s New for China-African Cooperation?
3. Dr. David Monyea (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
The African Dimension of the Belt and Road Initiative in the Advancement of the African Agenda 2063
12:00-13:30 GTM, African Relations with China and the EU and Their Shifting Global Contexts
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/89999386888
Meeting ID: 899 9938 6888
Chair: Dr. John Njenga Karugia (Humboldt University Berlin)
1. Professor Andreas Fuchs (Göttingen University, Germany)
Chinese Development Aid: Distribution, Consequences, and Comparison with the EU
2. Professor Zeng Jinghan (Lancaster University, the UK)
Domestic Dynamics of China’s Rise and Foreign Policy?
3. Mr. Abdoulaye Ibrahim (UNESCO, Paris, France)
Prospective of Africa: Future of Africa and Tripartite Cooperation
Bios of Participants
Dr Hodan Abdi
Dr Hodan Abdi is an associate research fellow at the Institute of African Studies at Zhejiang Normal University. She is also currently an adjunct professor at City University of Mogadishu. Dr Abdi’s research focuses on China-Africa media relations and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Prof. Malte Brosig
Malte Brosig is Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He joined the Department of International Relations in 2009 after he received his PhD from the Centre of European and International Relations Studies at the University of Portsmouth.
Dr. Martyn Davies
Dr Martyn Davies is the Managing Director of Emerging Markets & Africa at Deloitte as well as the Dean of Alchemy by Deloitte, the firm’s School of Leadership. He leads Deloitte Africa’s CEO Programme and is a member of the Deloitte global economists team.
Prof. Andreas Fuchs
Prof. Andreas Fuchs is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen and Director of the Kiel Institute China Initiative. His research analyzes trade, investment and development policies with quantitative methods and a special focus on China and other emerging economies.
Prof. He Wenping
Prof. He Wenping is Professor at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies (IWAAS), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He is specializing on Africa’s relations with China and major western powers, African democratic transition, South-South cooperation and the Middle East international relations.
Professor Liu Haifang
Prof. Liu Haifang is an Associate Professor in School of International Studies, Peking University. She serves as Deputy Director & Secretary General, the Centre for African Studies, Peking University and the Vice-Secretary General of the Chinese Society of African Historical Studies as well.
Mr. Abdoulaye Ibrahim
Mr. IBRAHIM Abdoulaye is the Head of Contextual Analysis and Foresight Unit at UNESCO, he’s an Engineer Graduate in Science. IBRAHIM Abdoulaye, as part of the implementation of UNESCO’s Global Priority Africa, he is the focal point for Natural Sciences and Development and coordinates the organization of sub-regional forums in Africa on artificial intelligence since 2018.
Dr. Janice Jeong
Dr. Janice Hyeju Jeong joined the Joint Center of Advanced Studies “Worldmaking” and the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen in 2021. She has with broad research interests in formations of Islamic networks between China and the Arabian Peninsula, inter-Asian connections, and history and anthropology. She pursued her doctorate degree in History at Duke University, where she completed a thesis entitled “Between Shanghai and Mecca: Diaspora and Diplomacy of Chinese Muslims in the Twentieth Century.”
Prof. David Mills
Prof. David Mills is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, and Deputy Director of the Oxford Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). Trained in anthropology, his research interests include African research and publishing cultures.
Dr. Philani Mthembu
Philani Mthembu is the Executive Director at Institute for Global Dialogue. Prior to joining the Institute for Global Dialogue associated with Unisa, Philani Mthembu pursued a joint doctoral programme (Dr. rer. pol.) with the Graduate School of Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and the School of International Studies at Renmin University, Beijing (China); he conducted his field research at the latter.
Dr. Bhaso Ndzendze
Dr Ndzendze is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg. His research is centered on Africa’s international relations, with a particular focus on the political economy of its trade.
Dr Natasha Robinson
Dr Natasha Robinson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. Natasha is interested in higher education in Africa, and its potential to ‘decolonize’ global knowledge production.
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier
Dominic Sachsenmaier is professor of “Modern China with a Special Emphasis on Global Historical Perspectives” and chair of the Department of East Asian Studies at Göttingen University/Germany. Before, he held faculty positions at Jacobs University, Duke University as well as the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dominic Sachsenmaier is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and he is also one of the three editors of the book series „Columbia Studies in International and Global History.”
Prof. Christoph Trebesch
Prof. Dr. Christoph Trebesch is Professor of Macroeconomics (tenured) in Kiel University and Head of Research Area “International Finance and Global Governance” in Kiel Institute Since April 2017. His main research interests focus on Sovereign Debt and Default, International Capital Flows, Financial Stability and Financial Crises, Political Economy and International Financial Institutions.
Prof. Jinghan Zeng
Jinghan Zeng is Professor of China and International Studies at Lancaster University. He is also the Director of Lancaster University Confucius Institute. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer of International Relations and Director of Centre for Politics in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (AAME) at Royal Holloway, University of London. Professor Zeng’s research lies in the field of China’s domestic and international politics.
Dr. Mengshu Zhan
In 2021, Mengshu Zhan is currently a research fellow at the Joint Center for Advanced Studies “Worldmaking.” She received her doctoral degree from the Center for Global Study at Bonn University, and her dissertation focused on perceptions of China in the eyes of South African elites. In 2019, she worked at the Centre of Africa-China Studies in Johannesburg University, South Africa. Mengshu Zhan received a Master of Arts in International Business and Diplomacy from University of East Anglia in the UK in 2014.
Responsible for Workshop Conceptualization and Organization: Dr. Mengshu Zhan (Fellow, Göttingen University). Contact: mengshu.zhan@uni-goettingen.de.

Lecture: Peter Zarrow (Department of History, University of Connecticut, Hartford, USA): The Utopian Impulse and Chinese Political Modernity
2021-12-17 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
Please register in advance: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtceqorT0tH9SiRAQ_2nag0kPuXKM57ZiC
This paper discusses the role played by utopian “moves” that were made by political thinkers in the late Qing and Republican periods to build a new more or less democratic and socialist nation. An analysis of four case studies—Kang Youwei, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi—reveals distinct but overlapping visions of political modernity. On one level, these were blurry visions of political modernity directly and indirectly derived from Western discourses, particularly those of the Enlightenment. But on another level, Chinese thinkers can be read as making dialogic contributions to evolving notions of political modernity in cosmopolitan spaces across the twentieth century and beyond.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Online-Lecture: Dr. Benjamin Creutzfeldt (Göttingen University): "China in Latin America – Some Observations“
2021-12-21 18:15 - 20:15 | Online
Dr. Benjamin Creutzfeldt is a Lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies. -He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University, and a Resident Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. He obtained his Ph.D. in Political Studies from Externado University in Colombia, and is also a historian of Chinese art with ample experience as an auctioneer and start-up entrepreneur in China, Colombia, Panama and the United States. For the past ten years, he has researched and published widely on China’s relations with Latin America. He is interested in both the practical and the theoretical aspects of China’s foreign policy: diplomacy, and Chinese IR Theory.
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/96477847223?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 964 7784 7223
Kenncode: [REDACTED]

"Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar Series No. 8
2022-01-12 13:00 - 14:30 | Online
Topic: Play and Performance of Hometown: A Talk on College Theater Production
Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Dr. GAO Ziwen
Time: Jan. 12, Wednesday, 1:00 PM-2:30 PM CET
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/96138078236
Meeting ID: 96138078236
Language: Chinese with English interpretation
Lecture Content
1. To introduce the production background of Hometown
2. To describe the production process and market promotion
3. To discuss the advantage and challenges for college theater productions
Short Bio
Gao Ziwen: associate professor at Nanjing University, head of the Department of Theater, Film, and TV Arts, and deputy dean of the School of Liberal Arts. He re-ceived a bachelor’s degree in Chinese Language and Literature and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Theater and Traditional Chinese Drama Studies from Nanjing University. In 2011, he was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. In 2013, he participated in the artist-in-residence program in Austria. He currently acts as the executive editor of Stage and Screen Review. In 2019, he was awarded the Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars in Social Sciences in Jiangsu province. He was selected by the Jiangsu Province “Qinglan Initiative” as one of the young and mid-aged academic leaders in 2021. His research interests include theatrical theories and theater criticism. He has completed, as Principle Investigator, sev-eral research projects in social sciences at national and provincial levels. He was granted the Young Teacher Award of the Fok Yingdong Education Foundation. He wrote a monograph Wenming de nizi: Meiguo xiandai xiju de zhongguo xushu and translated American Avant–Garde Theatre: A History into Chinese. He has published over 30 papers which can be seen in Literature and Art Studies, The Journal of National Taiwan Normal University, and Theater Arts, etc. He also au-thored stage plays, including Day and Night Here, Pollution and Purification, and Hometown.
Event Information
We are honored to invite Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gao Ziwen of the Department of Thea-ter, Film, and TV Arts of Nanjing University as our first guest speaker for the “Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar Series in the Year 2022. He will deliver a talk on “Play and Performance of Hometown: College Theater Production.”
Hometown is a three-act comedy written by Dr. Gao. The author demonstrates his respect for Lu Xun to mark the 100th anniversary of Lu’s publication of the nov-elette of the same name. The play tells the social life in rural China while experi-encing dramatic changes. It demonstrates snobbish or friendly relationships in the countryside as well. It depicts the mental distress of peasants in the hometown and educated young people who have made their exodus to cities. It presents the tension between people’s “being adaptable” and “being rigid.” The whole thrust of the drama is full of humor and irony. Meanwhile, it makes the audiences reflect on China’s rural economic and social development.
Their department is housed in the Faculty of Literature. It offers one of the most influential and leading undergraduate and graduate programs in drama or thea-ter studies at the C9 League universities in China. They produced the historical comedy President’s Invitation in 2012. The director was Prof. Lü Xiaoping, and the play was authored by Lü’s student Wen Fangyi whom The Journal of Ying Ming Theater (Vol. 7) interviewed. The cast consisted of the students and teach-ers from Communication University of China (Nanjing) and the MFA students from Nanjing University. This drama has grossed ¥10 million at the box office. It went on tour in North America in 2013. The New York Times (Chinese Edition) published an analytical article on the reasons for the success of this production and the phenomenon of returning to dramatic texts in the current Chinese thea-ter landscape.
This event is co-organized by the Center for Modern East Asian Studies of the University of Göttingen and the Department of Theater, Film, and TV Arts of Nan-jing University. Further detailed information concerning the time and the venue can be found on the poster.

Lecture: Chinese Studies under the Eyes of the Communist Party?
2022-01-19 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
This lecture is part of the lecture series “TALK TO OUR AUTHORS“, organised by the Journal der European Association of Chinese Studies
Authors:
Olga Lomová, Charles University, Prague, Czechia
Andreas Fulda, University of Nottingham, UK

Introduced and moderated by:
Sascha Klotzbücher, University of Göttingen, Germany/University of Vienna, Austria
Join the discussion on Zoom:
Meeting ID: 962 4124 8069
Passcode: [REDACTED]
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/96241248069?pwd=[REDACTED]
Check out the recent publications:
Fulda, A. (2021). The Chinese Communist Party’s Hybrid Interference and Germany’s Increasingly Contentious China Debate (2018-21) 中共對學術“長臂管轄”，德國起論爭日益升溫. The Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies, 2, 205–234. https://doi.org/10.25365/jeacs.2021.2.205-234
Lomová, O. (2021). Jaroslav Průšek (1906–1980): A Man of His Time and Place. 生逢其時, 身歷其境：記漢學家雅羅斯拉夫·普實克 (1906-1980).The Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies, 2, 169–196. https://doi.org/10.25365/jeacs.2021.2.169-196
Klotzbücher, S., Kraushaar, F., Lycas, A., & Vampelj Suhadolnik, N. (2020). Censorship and Self-censorship in Chinese Contexts. The Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies, 1, 9–18. https://doi.org/10.25365/jeacs.2020.1.9-18
Link to the recent issue:
https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/jeacs/issue/view/546

Lecture: Federico Brusadelli (University of Naples “L’Orientale”): Self-government (zizhi) in China from the late Qing to the Republic: a contested concept in the search for political modernity
2022-01-28 10:00 - 12:00 | Online
Please register in advance: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlceCpqjsoGdSFHcpVgh0MWJ_0HIcDGHa8
Abstract
This talk will look at how the concept of zizhi 自治 (self-government) was (re) articulated in late imperial and early republican China (1898-1928), either to strengthen and “modernize” the Manchu Empire or to build federal/republican counternarratives to the traditional system. From the late Qing official Huang Zunxian 黄遵宪 (who praised the Japanese system of provincial governance as pivotal in the Meiji State-building process) to the Republican governor of Guangdong Cheng Jionming 陈炯明 and his Jeffersonian inspiration of a bottom-up reconstruction of China in the 1920s – including the “provincial patriots” of the 1910s -, prominent individuals and organized networks or movements will be observed in their attempts at redefining the relationship between the “State” and the “local”.
A survey of how the same concept of “local self-government” was variously translated, adapted, and circulated through the use of multiple historical or “foreign” references (in the methodological framework of Begriffsgeschichte), will reveal contrasting, and often competing, political blueprints for the construction of a (differently conceived) “modern” China.
Federico Brusadelli is Lecturer in Chinese History and International History of East Asia at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where he completed his PhD in 2016 with a dissertation on the Chinese philosopher Kang Youwei.
From 2017 to 2020 he was Researcher in Sinology at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany). In 2020/2021 he was Visiting Fellow at the European Institute for Chinese Studies in Paris. His current research project adopts a “conceptual history” approach to the study of Chinese federalist movements in the late-imperial and republican periods.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Lecture: Xu Jilin (East China Normal University): "Maruyama Masao’s Research on Intellectual History as seen by Chinese scholars"
2022-02-11 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
For registration, please use this zoom link.
Abstract:
Maruyama Masao is the most influential post-war Japanese intellectual historian. He transcends the dichotomy between Eastern and Western thought, uncovering the “insistent bass” in the “ancient layers” of Japanese thought and examining how it has recreated the universality of modern Japanese thought. He views the study of the history of thought as an “art of representation” similar to the performance of music, in which re-creation is achieved within the confines of a text. He relativizes universal thought in a specific historical context, presenting the richness and diversity of thought itself.
Xu Jilin is a modern Chinese intellectual historian and chair professor of history at East China Normal University in Shanghai, as well as Executive Deputy Director of the China Institute of Modern Thought and Culture, and Specially Appointed Zijiang Scholar. He is also a member of the Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Federation and the Chinese History Society.
He has worked as visiting scholar or guest professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the National University of Australia, the National University of Singapore and Harvard University, as well as Aichi University, Tokyo University, Academia Sinica, University of British Columbia, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on Chinese intellectuals and Shanghai urban culture.
His publications include (but are not limited to) Public Communication of Modern Chinese Intellectuals (co-author, 2008) and How the Enlightenment was Reborn (2011), Rethinking China’s Rise: A Liberal Critique (2018); The Enlightenment and Anti-Enlightenment in Contemporary China (2011), and Ten Essays on Chinese Intellectuals (2003), which won the first Wenjin Award from the National Library in 2005. Some of his writings have been translated into English.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Global China Conversations #7: How do investment screenings affect (Chinese) direct investment?
2022-02-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
For more information please click here.

线上讲座 – Online-Lecture: 文化点的选取与教学 – Selection and Teaching of Cultural Aspects
2022-02-22 13:30 - 15:00 | Online
讲座要点
语言的教与学离不开文化的教与学，这已成为共识。但是在没有一部“文化大纲”的情况下教师如何开展文化教学，却始终是众说纷纭。其实，这一问题的解决需要更多依靠一线教师的探索和实践，相互交流尤为重要。本次讲座主要围绕两个问题与各位同行进行讨论：

如何确定中文教学中的“文化点”？

语言教学中的文化因素
代表性的文化符号

如何进行“文化点”的教学？

“文化三角形”的拓展运用

Key points of the lecture
There is general consensus that the teaching and learning of language cannot be separated from the teaching and learning of culture. However, there is much dispute on how teachers should carry out cultural teaching, if there is no “cultural curriculum”. The answer to this question should be based on the practical experiences of practicing teachers, for which communicative exchange is essential. This lecture focuses on two issues for discussion：
How to determine “cultural aspects” in the teaching of Chinese?

Cultural factors in language teaching;
Representative cultural symbols

How to teach „cultural aspects“?

Expansion and application of the „Cultural Triangle“

主讲人简介 About the Lecturer
王学松，文学博士。北京师范大学汉语文化学院教授、校学术委员会委员、教学指导委员会委员。曾先后在美国明德学院和达特茅斯大学、韩国的成均馆大学、日本金泽大学讲授汉语与中国文化课程。目前的研究工作主要集中在汉语与文化教学、中国古代文学领域。主持编著《面向第二语言教学的中华文化与跨文化传播研究》 目前主持在研项目“基于国际中文教育中文水平等级标准的文化教学分级指南”（国家语委2020）。
WANG Xuesong, Ph.D., is a professor of the School of Chinese Culture of Beijing Normal University as well as a member of the university’s academic committee and teaching steering committee. He has taught Chinese language and Chinese culture at Middlebury College and Dartmouth University in the United States, Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, and Kanazawa University in Japan. His current research primarily focuses on the teaching of Chinese language and culture as well as on ancient Chinese literature. Prof. Wang was the chief editor of „Research on Chinese Culture and Intercultural Communication for Second Language Teaching“ ,and currently presides over the research project „Grading Guidelines for Cultural Teaching Based on the Chinese Proficiency Standards in International Chinese Education“ (National Language Commission 2020).
ZOOM meeting ID/会议号：812 6408 5366 https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81264085366
请在注册zoom软件后，于13:15扫描二维码或输入会议ID加入会议
Access to the event starts at 13:45. After downloading the zoom opening launcher, please enter meeting ID to join the lecture.
隐私保护请参阅 Information on privacy can be found in：https://zoom.us/privacy-and-legal
讲座将用中文进行 This lecture will be held in Chinese.

“Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar Series No. 9: "Comedies in contemporary Chinese theatre - a sudden boom"
2022-03-16 13:00 - 14:30 | Online
Speaker: Sabine Heymann, Dr. Anna Stecher
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/97996297643
Meeting ID: 979 9629 7643
Language: English
Organizer:
The Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen
The Department of Theater, Film and TV Arts at Nanjing University
Partner:
The Center for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen
The Academic Confucius Institute at the University of Göttingen
The Journal of Ying Ming Theater
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Göttingen
Content:
Sabine Heymann in conversation with Anna Stecher about her new book „Die Konjunktur her Komödie im China der Gegenwart“ (The boom of comedies in contemporary China) – which presents six current successful comedies from China in German translation.
Chinese theatre is not famous for comedies. As far as we know, up to now no Western book has been explicitly dedicated to this topic. However, comedies are among the most watched and discussed plays in contemporary Chinese theatre of recent years – and someone might even argue, that in present time comedy has become the most serious theatrical expression on the Chinese stage. Entangled with the commercialization of theatre, new cultural structures and the changing of urban audiences, the ques-tion is: How is this phenomenon to be understood? As a sudden boom influenced by narrative conven-tions of Western cinema? As a special expression of a millennial tradition of entertainment – and cri-tique? It has to be said: comedies as an own genre didn’t really exist within the Chinese theatre tradi-tion. On the other hand: elements of comedy have always been an important piece of the big xiqu tragedies.
While Chinese audiences are familiar with actors and plays, academic research does not appear to be interested in contemporary comedies, not to mention possible readers and audiences outside China, which have hardly heard of them. This was the reason for Anna Stecher and her colleague Xu Jian in Beijing to plan a book project focusing on contemporary Chinese comedies. It presents some of the most popular recent plays, written by Nick Yu, Wen Fangyi, Huang Weiruo, Lin Weiran, Guo Shixing and Li Jing. It also aims to propose different approaches towards Chinese theatre – every play in translation is introduced by an expert from the fields of Chinese studies or Theatre studies. In addition, it intends to contextualize the recent phenomenon of comedies within different fields, such as the social reality in contemporary China and the history of comedy in China and to discuss questions like: Which topics are contemporary Chinese comedians interested in? How can this phenomenon be understood in the con-text of 20th and 21st century in China? How can these comedies be understood in Europe? Last but not least, it aims at exploring comedy as a text for intercultural communication. When watching theatrical comedy performances on stage or on tape you think: what the heck is so funny about them? Questions like these are discussion topics of the the book – and some more will be addressed in the “Contempo-rary Theater Art” Seminar Series.
Short Bio:
Sabine Heymann – the managing director of the ZMI (Interdisciplinary Research Center for Media and Interactivity) at the University of Giessen from the foundation in 2001 until 2017, theatre critic and journalist, translator of theatre texts, fiction and non-fiction books, as well as an expert on the theatre scenes in Italy and China. Already during her studies of German and Romance studies at the University of Giessen she had been working as a cultural journalist and theatre critic for the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau and the German public-service television and radio broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk. From 1981 to 1994 she was a cultural correspondent in Rome, where she worked for several important German newspapers, the prestigious theatre review Theater heute and radio stations. Various lectureships brought her to the Freie Universität Berlin, to the Universities of Mainz and Frankfurt am Main, as well as to the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies at the Univer-sity of Giessen, where she gave lectures about the subject of “Post-dramatic Theatre in Italy”. In 1994 she became curator of supporting programs at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Re-public of Germany in Bonn. She returned to the University of Giessen in 1996 and became the per-sonal assistant of the President of the University of Giessen. She started working on Chinese theatre with the moderation of the Workshop “One table two chairs” at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin) in 2000, followed by several journeys and work stays in different parts of China. In 2009 she published a report about the theatre scene in Shanghai in Theater heute. She took part on several European-Chinese culture dialogues, conferences and workshops of Goethe Institut and EUNIC as well as within the cooperation between ZMI and Shanghai Theatre Academy. In 2011 she curated the third German-Chinese Theatre Forum in Chongqing (Goethe Institut). She gave lectures and took part on scientific round-tables in Shanghai, Hamburg, Munich, Salzburg, Weimar, Hellerau, Frankfurt etc. and in 2015 she moderated the panel about New German Musiktheater inside the in-ternational conference “Turning Point of the Theatre” (Shanghai). Her book “Contemporary theatre in China” (Alexander Verlag, Berlin, published in 2017 together with Cao Kefei and Christoph Lep-schy) immediately became a reference work on the subject in Germany. At present, she is concerned by translations, publishing of scientific essays, teaching at different universities.
Anna Stecher
Dr. Anna Stecher is an assistant professor at the Institute of Sinology at Ludwig-Maximilians- Universi-tät (LMU) Munich. She studied Oriental History at the University of Bologna and Modern Chinese Litera-ture at Beijing Normal University (MA and PhD). She also holds a PhD (Dr. phil) in Theatre Studies from LMU. Her main research interests are Chinese theatre and modern Chinese literature. She is the author of a book-length study on Lin Zhaohua, China’s most influent theatre director of the late 20th and early 21st century (Im Dialog mit dem chinesischen Schauspieljahrhundert. Studien zum Theater von Lin Zhao-hua), co-editor of a volume with contemporary Chinese plays (Chinas Schauspiel. Nah am Nerv. Sechs Stückübersetzungen), and co-translator of a collection of sanqu-songs from Yuan China (Lieddichtungen aus der Yuan-Zeit). Her publications further include a number of literary translations from Chinese.

Waiting for Testing: Rewriting Theater History - A Workshop by Tian Gebing and WANG Yanan
2022-04-13 13:00 - 15:00 | VG 3.104, the University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
We are very honored to invite Director TIAN Gebing and Choreographer WANG Yanan. They will host the workshop at the University of Göttingen on April 13 and 14. Amid the commonly experienced disorientation in this game-changing crisis, the workshop “Waiting for Testing – Rewriting Theatre History” proposes to hold a discussion on the history of the past two decades to look again at how, in contemporary performance, fugitive resistance and personal insurgence have formed biographies of surprise, as well at how collective heterogeneous energy was generated through fragmentary and inorganic connections, against the backdrop of the development of socio-historical space and power landscape in China. Director Tian will also briefly introduce his new performance at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. He will lead the workshop from the modern history of East-West exchanges since the 18th century to enter topics such as “revolution” and “colonization”, trying to initiate discussions from a historical and macro perspective.

Time: April 13, 1: 00 PM-3: 00 PM (TIAN)
Venue: VG3.104, the University of Göttingen
The first in-person event is limited to 40 attendees. Scan the QR code on the poster to register.
TIAN Gebing is a director, curator, and writer. He graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1991. In 1997 he initiated the founding of Paper Tiger Studio. Over the past 20 years, he has created a large number of artistic works and events mixing visual arts and performance. His works are seen in international cities and festivals around the world. Early works are exemplified by “Killer is Not Cold and High Art” (1998), “Cool” (2006), “Reading” (2010). From 2010 on he has shifted his focus to transcultural research and collaboration. Works in this period include “Dekalog” (2016), “500 Meters: Kafka, Great Wall or Images from the Unreal World and Daily Heroism” (2017), “Infection, State of Emergency, Beethoven” (2020). Further in 2014 “Totally Happy” premiered at Münchner Kammerspiele. In 2021, he collaborated with the ensemble of Muenchner Kammerspiele for “Hart Chamber Fragments”.

Time: April 14, 1: 00 PM-4: 00 PM (Wang)
Venue: VG3.104, the University of Göttingen
The second in-person event on April 14 is limited to 20 attendees. Scan the QR code on the poster to register.
WANG Yanan is a dancer and choreographer. She graduated from Beijing Dance Academy. Since 1999 Wang worked for ten years with Living Dance Studio and was part of productions such as Birth Report and Body Report. She toured international cities and festivals and won the ZKB Award at Zürcher Theater Spektakel. In 2004, she founded Le Se Dance Studio and has created works such as Le Se 1, Le Se 2, House, etc. She collaborated with artists with various backgrounds and toured in European countries. She has been part of Paper Tiger works since 2001, as a performer, concept, and choreography. In 2014, she was commissioned by Hong Kong Arts Festival for Iron Horse. In 2014 she collaborated with Münchner Kammerspiele and Goethe Institute (China) for Totally Happy. In 2016 she was commissioned by Stary Teatr Kraków for “Dekalog”. In 2017 she worked with Thalia Theater Hamburg to create 500 Meters: Kafka, Great Wall or Images from the Unreal World, and Daily Heroism. In 2021 she collaborated again with Münchner Kammerspiele for “Heart Chamber Fragments”.
Initiator: Dr. Yumin Ao
Assistants: Nathalie Morenings, Jiayue Li
Organizers:
The Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Göttingen; The Department of Theater, Film and TV Arts of Nanjing University; The Academic Confucius Institute at the University of Göttingen
Partners:
The Center for Modern East Asian Studies; The Journal of Ying Ming Theater; The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Göttingen

"Contemporary Theater Art" Seminar Series
2022-04-20 14:00 - 16:00
Ms. ZHU Yi, a New York-based bilingual playwright, is to give a talk on “Writing New Plays in China and the US” on April 20th.
Zoom Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/98307551103
Professor Xiaomei CHEN from the University of California, Davis, will present a talk about “Performing the Socialist State” on May 4th.
Zoom Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/95966904122
For more information about the events and the guest speakers, please visit https://yingmingtheater.com/chinese-culture-seminar-series/.
Kind regards,
Yumin

Lecture Kai Vogelsang (Universität Hamburg): China’s Fragmented Modernity
2022-04-22 12:00 - 14:00 | KWZ 0.610 sowie Online
April 22, 2022, 12:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Campus: KWZ 0.610 (Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen)
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
When modern concepts and institutions entered China in the early 20th century, they met a society which was quite unlike its European and American counterparts. While functional differentiation, especially in the cities, did make its appearance, Chinese society was still characterized by a fragmentary substructure made up of so many families, lineages, and personal networks. This paper will introduce the concept of segmentary society and present some preliminary thoughts on how this social structure affected the formation of Chinese modernity: the concepts of a public vs. private sphere, the individual, social classes, and others.
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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg

Global China Conversations #9: Diskussionsreihe mitorganisiert durch das CeMEAS - Centre for Modern East Asian Studies
2022-04-28 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
Sprecherinnen
Prof. Dr. Doris Fischer, Universität Würzburg
Veronique Dunai, IHK Frankfurt am Main
Dystopie eines autoritären Überwachungsstaats oder moderne Vision datenbasierter Regierungsführung? Das chinesische Sozialkreditsystem hat seit seiner offiziellen Ankündigung im Jahr 2014 für zahlreiche kontroverse Debatten gesorgt. Was genau jedoch ist das neue Bonitätssystem und wie wirkt es sich auf die chinesische Wirtschaft und europäische Unternehmen in China aus? Mit dem neuen Fünfjahresplan (2021–2025) soll auch das Sozialkreditsystem weiterentwickelt und vor allem zentralisiert werden. In zwei nationalen Datenbanken werden Informationen über Unternehmen geführt und Schwarz- sowie Rotlisten veröffentlicht. Positive Entwicklungen sowie Verstöße einzelner Unternehmen gegen Bestimmungen und Gesetze werden in den Datenbanken aufgeführt. Das System soll so zu mehr Compliance führen, Vertrauens- und Kreditwürdigkeit von Unternehmen einsehbar machen, aber auch Sanktionen bei gröberen Vergehen ermöglichen. Welche administrativen und bürokratischen Herausforderungen kommen auf europäische Unternehmen zu? Welche Risiken bestehen für Unternehmen auf “schwarze Listen” zu kommen? Wie wirkt sich die starke Fragmentierung des Systems auf Unternehmen aus? Kann das Sozialkreditsystem dazu beitragen, Geschäftsbeziehungen zu verbessern? Wie entwickelt sich das Sozialkreditsystem weiter und welche Auswirkungen hat es auf das internationale Handelssystem? Diese und weitere Fragen diskutieren wir mit Ihnen und unseren Expertinnen in der neunten Global China Conversation.
Hier finden Sie mehr Information.

Lecture Rebecca Nedostup, Associate Professor of History & East Asian Studies (Brown University): Is Modern Chinese History Secular?
2022-04-29 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
April 29, 2022, 4 PM, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this Zoom link.
This lecture takes up the most fundamental construction of secularization – the separation of the religious realm from that of politics, philosophy, science, economics, and so on – and asks not simply how it has influenced modern Chinese history, but also historians’ imaginations of modern China. What are some routes by which the modern secularist narrative has been naturalized in considerations of the twentieth century, and where is it challenged or reinforced? Is a flourishing field of modern religious history sufficient to break down such barriers? How might other fields and disciplines redirect inquiry in positive critical directions? In its second part, the lecture will consider two cases of mid-twentieth-century transformations in conceptions of self, sovereignty, and community – one centered on sacrifice, the other on aid and recovery. These cases offer one possible set of methods among many, in which attention to scale and juxtaposition of sources portray the continued existence and reworkings of senses of space and time apart from the secular-nationalist narrative.
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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

“Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar Series No. 10
2022-05-04 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
Topic: Performing the Socialist State
Speaker: Prof. Xiaomei Chen
Time: May 4, Wednesday, Europe 4:00 PM, California 7:00 AM, Beijing10:00 PM
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/95966904122
Meeting ID: 959 6690 4122
Language: English
Organizer:
The Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen
The Department of Theater, Film and TV Arts at Nanjing University
Partner:
The Center for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen
The Academic Confucius Institute at the University of Göttingen
The Journal of Ying Ming Theater
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Göttingen
Content
The lecture offers a quick overview of Xiaomei Chen’s forthcoming book, Performing the Socialist State: Moments, Crisis and Success of Modern Chinese Theater (Columbia University Press, 2022). It begins with the theatrical achievements of Tian Han, Hong Shen, and Ouyang Yuqian, three founders of spoken drama, and ask how their legacies in the Republican period played important roles in constructing socialist theater. She will demonstrate how these multi-faceted leaders provided the blueprints for the Maoist theater in the PRC, contrary to the conventional claim that the PRC theater is a total break-away from the Republican period. To this end and in this context, she will reflect on the continuities with the performing culture in the Republican period through examinations of “Rightist satirical comedies” in the 1950s, women’s theater and film “red classic” in the 1960s, scientists on stage in the Maoist and post-Maoist periods, and soldiers in transformation from the Republican, to the socialist, and finally, to the post-socialist stage. She will also explore the relationship between science and theater, music and theater, and artists and their collective identities as “new cultural workers.”
Short Bio
Xiaomei Chen is Distinguished Professor at the University of California at Davis where she teaches modern Chinese literature, film, and theater. She is the author of Occidentalism (1995), Acting the Right Part (2002), and Staging Chinese Revolution (2016). She is the editor of Reading the Right Text (2003) and Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama (2010) and co-editor, with Claire Sponsler, of East of West: Cross-Cultural Performances and the Staging of Difference (2000)”; with Julia Andrew, of Visual Culture in Contemporary China (2001), with Steven Siouan Liu, Hong Shen and the Modern Mediasphere in Republican-Era China (2016), and with Tarryn Chun and Siyuan Liu, Rethinking Socialist Theater Reform (2021).

“Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar Series
2022-05-04 16:00 - 18:00 | Online

Lecture Justin Ritzinger, Associate Professor of Religious Studies (University of Miami): Push and Pull: Toward a Taylorian Theory of Alternative Modernities
2022-05-06 16:00 - 18:00 | Online
May 6, 2022, 4 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
Religion occupies a vexed position in many visions of modernity. It stands as the embodiment of “tradition,” of the nonmodern, of the irrational. It is thus presumed to be condemned to a shrinking sphere of social and cultural life. This has typically been construed as a “challenge” to which religion must “adapt” lest it face extinction. This adaptation typically includes demythologization, rationalization, and social engagement. Such understandings of modernization, which I term “push models,” are useful but insufficient. They fail to account not only for religion’s continuing hold on the hearts of many but also the inspiration modernity gave to many modernizing figures. This talk will offer a counterbalancing “pull model,” drawing upon the account of moral frameworks in Sources of the Self to develop a Taylorian theory of the formulation of alternative modernities. Illustrated with reference to developments in religion in Republican China, this theory may offer new angles for understanding this process in other areas of cultures as well.
Justin Ritzinger is associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Miami. He received his PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard in 2010. His work focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism. He is the author of a monograph on the reinvention of the cult of Maitreya, entitled Anarchy in the Pure Land, and articles dealing with eschatology, engagements with evolutionary theory, and international monastic exchange, as well as tourist development in the contemporary People’s Republic. He is currently working on an ethnographic study of a blue-collar lay Buddhist group in Taiwan. At the University of Miami, Ritzinger teaches courses in Asian religions.
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This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Lecture Viren Murthy, Associate Professor of History (University of Wisconsin-Madison): Conservative Radicalism: Watsuji Tetsuro’s Critique of Civil Society and Its Implications for Chinese Intellectual History
2022-05-20 12:00 - 16:00 | KWZ 0.610 sowie Online
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 of labor in civil society. Unlike in the family, where affective bonds govern human action, in civil society, people ventured into the world as purposive individuals entering into wage-contracts, which forced them into a means-end relationship. While scholars have dealt with attempts to overcome modernity twentieth century Japan, few have focused on the how the ideal of the family served as a trope to reconcile the antagonism between the individual and the community. The Japanese philosopher, Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960) critically drew on Hegel’s conception of the family to attack civil society. While his critique is clearly conservative, I argue that his position overlaps with leftist treatments of modern alienation and reveals the contradictions between spheres of the family and civil society. Watsuji develops his position in an essay written in the 1930s on the city, where he translates the civil society (bürgerliche Gesellschaft) as “interest society (rieki shakai)”, a sphere where people pursue personal gain. In response to this, he advocates rekindling to older forms of society, where work and family are not so clearly severed. Towards the end of my presentation, I examine the implications of Watsuji’s critique of urban life for the study of Chinese intellectual history. Specifically, in both contexts, my study suggests that we at times blur the lines between radical and conservative because they often have a similar object of critique, namely capitalism, which they each grasp with varying degrees of success.
Viren Murthy teaches transnational Asian History and researches Chinese and Japanese intellectual history in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Contemporary Theater Art” Seminar series No. 12: "Writing a Play Script and Teaching How to Write One"
2022-05-25 14:00 - 16:00 | Online
Topic: Writing a Play Script and Teaching How to Write One
Speaker: Guy Chenzi
Time: Wednesday, May 25, 2: 00 PM
Zoom Meeting: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/62861416226
Meeting ID: 628 6141 6226
Language: Chinese
Content：
1. Can we “learn” how to write a play? What are the pros and cons of playwriting “apprenticeships”?
2. Can we “teach” how to write a play? Is teaching playwriting equivalent to play diagnosis?
3. What is dramaturgy in the opinion of a playwright? How did I write “Hudec”?
Short bio:
Guo Chenzi, M.A., associate professor of Shanghai Theater Academy. Her works written include the dramas performed in black box theaters “Don’t Ask Who I Am”, “Love Slimming”, “Resurrection”, the musical drama “Zhong Kui”, “A Moment Is Not Forever”, the musical “Jews in Shanghai” (cooperation with others), stage plays “Hudec” and “Clear Ripples”, etc. She has published books Kunqu Opera: The Past Life I See in This Life, A Moment Is Not Forever – Guo Chenzi’s Drama Collection, The Curtain Opens – Guo Chenzi’s Drama Critic Collection and Chenzi Watching Dramas.
Organizers:
The Department of Theater, Film and TV Arts at Nanjing University
The Department of East Asian Studies, the University of Göttingen
Partners:
The Center for Modern East Asian Studies at the University of Göttingen
The Academic Confucius Institute at the University of Göttingen
The Journal of Ying Ming Theater
The Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Göttingen
写剧本，教写剧本
——编剧与编剧教学
1. 写剧本能“学”吗？编剧“学徒制”的利与弊。
2. 写剧本能“教”吗？编剧教学=剧本诊断？
3. 编剧眼中的Dramaturgy与《邬达克》的写作。
个人简介：
郭晨子，文学硕士，上海戏剧学院副教授。
编剧并上演的作品主要有小剧场话剧《别问我是谁》《爱情瘦身》《还魂记》、音乐话剧《钟馗》《瞬间不是永远》、音乐剧《犹太人在上海》（与人合作）、舞台剧《邬达克》《清清涟漪》等。出版有《昆曲 今生看到的前世》《瞬间不是永远——郭晨子剧作集》《大幕拉开——郭晨子戏剧评论集》和《晨子看戏》
组织：
南京大学戏剧影视艺术戏
哥廷根大学东亚系
合作：
哥廷根大学现代东亚研究中心
哥廷根大学学术孔子学院
《嘤鸣戏剧》
哥廷根大学中国学生学者联谊会

Lecture: 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
2022-05-27 10:00 - 12:00 | Online
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.
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Organizers:
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg
CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Sponsor:
Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen

Global Conflicts, Global Collaboration: China in a Changing World Order
2022-06-02 - 2022-06-04 | Universität Göttingen und Online
This conference is organized by a Joint Center of Advanced Studies entitled “Worldmaking from Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China.” Funded by the Federal Ministry of Educa-tion and Research (BMBF) since November 2020, the Joint Center is characterized by its highly integrated network system. It brings together scholarly teams from Freie Universität Berlin, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München and Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. The Göttingen part of the project is directed by Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier and explores the transformation of conceptions of world order between the late nineteenth century and the present.
The Joint Center’s annual conference takes place in Göttingen from June 2nd to June 4th, 2022. Two panels and a keynote that deal with China’s place in shifting global orders are available to a wider public, via zoom.
Overview Public-Panels June 3rd, 2022.
Register to attend at:
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN___I-HO8QSBWQd_jxvEkWHQ

Lecture: Ong Chang Woei on "Building a New Chinese State from the Northwest: The Proposal of Liu Guangfen (1843-1903)"
2022-06-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Online (Zoom)
On Zoom: For registration (required), please use this Zoom link.
Abstract:
At 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 found by supposing that there are some distinctive cultural qualities that will ensure that “China will always be China.” Rather, it is to be found by probing how the Chinese in the recent past dealt with what he calls “constitutional issues” that had already presented themselves before the West made its impact felt. Using Liu Guangfen 劉光蕡 (1843-1903) as a case study, I would like to ask a follow-up question: “What is northwestern about China’s modern state?” My assumption is that whatever “Chinese” problems existed could be better understood if we take the regional perceptions of such problems into consideration. In this talk, I will demonstrate that Liu Guangfen’s vision of building a modern Chinese state allows us to examine how the concern over nation-state building was shaped by regional experiences. I will also try to show that by studying a particular regional version of the “Chinese” nation-state, we can learn something important about the dynamics that shape the quest for a strong nation-state in modern China in general.
This lecture series is jointly organized by
Prof. Dr. Axel Schneider, University of Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Thomas Fröhlich, University of Hamburg
CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Asia-Africa-Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, Hamburg University
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Lecture.: The Creativeness of Modern Chinese Conservative Thinkers 王汎森: 近代保守思想家的創造性 Wang Fansen Academia Sinica
2022-06-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Online
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, University of Hamburg
CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Sponsor:
Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen

Lecture: 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, Academia Sinica
2022-06-17 10:00 - 12:00 | Online
June 17, 2022, 10:100 AM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
On Zoom: For registration, please use this zoom link.
Late Qing and early Republican China has been regarded as a “secularized” age that ended “the era of classical learning” and opened the door to an empirical, scientific search for knowledge. With the progress of secularization, science gradually established its authoritative status. Thinkers of the May Fourth period, such as Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu, held science in high esteem and emphasized a clear-cut definition of science and superstition. To them, religions were superstitions that needed to be eliminated. This led to many debates. There were two famous debates in the early Republican period. One was the spiritualism debate and the other was the science and metaphysics debate. The latter was influenced by the former in terms of vocabulary and issues. This lecture will describe these two debates and use Yan Fu and Liang Qichao as two examples to illustrate their views on science, religion and superstition. Their views had a very complex origin. They attempted to rely on traditional spiritual resources to bridge East and West in order to build the moral and intellectual foundation needed for a modern state. New Confucians such as Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan inherited the legacy of Yan and Liang. They resisted May Fourth scientism and anti-traditionalism, and thought more deeply about the serious issue of how Chinese tradition and Western modernity should converge.
Dr. Max K. W. Huang was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1957. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History from Nation Taiwan Normal University. He subsequently pursued his studies in the United Kingdom and the United States, receiving a second master’s degree from Oxford University and his Ph. D degree from Stanford University. He is a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica. His major fields are Ming-Qing studies and Modern Chinese intellectual history. He has published ten books and more than 100 articles. Dr. Huang’s most recent book is Yan Fu: The Man Who Enlightened China with His Pen (筆醒山河：中國近代啟蒙人嚴復, 廣西師範大學出版社，2022年).
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, University of Hamburg
CeMEAS – Centre for Modern East Asian Studies & Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Asia-Africa- Institute, Department for Chinese Language and Culture, University of Hamburg
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen
Sponsor:
Academic Confucius Institute, University of Göttingen
