Chinese Studies

online discussion forum: Making Chinese Foreign Aid Transparent – What is Hidden in Data and Policy Documents?
2021-10-28 13:00 - 14:00 (Europe/Helsinki) | Online
Since the turn of the millennium, China has provided record amounts of development aid and other types of development finance to countries around the globe. However, its grant-giving and lending activities remain intransparent. This is not least due to the institutional complexity of China’s system of foreign aid and the absence of comprehensive reporting systems for development projects. How can we therefore try to piece through the veil of secrecy and complexity? In this third Global China Conversation, Brad Parks and Marina Rudyak will help us unravel some of the underlying processes. Marina Rudyak will guide us through the complexity of the institutional setup and outline what we can learn from official government documents. Brad Parks will offer us a bird’s-eye view of China’s geo-economic strategy before and after the introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, by looking at a uniquely comprehensive and granular dataset of international development finance from China that captures 13,427 projects worth $843 billion across 165 countries in every major world region over an 18-year period.
Program
The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.
Global China Conversation #3 will take place in English.
Literature
The impulse lectures are based on the following publication:
Malik, A., Parks, B., Russell, B., Lin, J., Walsh, K., Solomon, K., Zhang, S., Elston, T., and S. Goodman. (2021). Banking on the Belt and Road: Insights from a new global dataset of 13,427 Chinese development projects. Williamsburg, VA: AidData at William & Mary. https://www.aiddata.org/publications/banking-on-the-belt-and-road
Place:
Online via Zoom, please register here.
Speakers
Dr. Bradley Parks, AidData
Dr. Bradley Parks is the Executive Director of AidData, a research lab at William and Mary. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research has been published in academic and policy journals, including Science, Governance, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Journal of Development Economics, World Development, the National Interest, and China Economic Quarterly. He is the author of three books, including Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press). Dr. Parks is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where he works on issues related to the Belt and Road Initiative.
Dr. Marina Rudyak, Heidelberg University
Marina Rudyak is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Sinology of Heidelberg University. She is the founder of china-aid-blog.com and a member of the Global Diplomacy Lab, the Sino-German Future Bridge, and the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network. She has previously worked with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) in Beijing as Program Manager of the multi-country project “Regional Economic Cooperation and Integration Asia-China.” Her research interests are Chinese foreign aid and development lending policy with a focus on Africa and Central Asia, as well as the political ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and coded communication in Chinese politics.
Moderator
Prof. Dr. Andreas Fuchs, University of Göttingen, IfW Kiel
Andreas Fuchs is Professor of Development Economics, 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. He also investigates the political economy of natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and non-militarized conflicts.

Online-Lecture: Frau Prof. Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (Universität Wien): „Das Jahr 1943: Die Alliierten entscheiden über die Zukunft von Österreich und Taiwan“
2021-11-02 17:00 - 19:00 | Online
Abstract:
Im Jahr 1943 fanden zwei Konferenzen statt, die über die Nachkriegssituation von Taiwan und Österreich entscheiden sollten: Vom 19. Oktober bis 1. November 1943 fand die Konferenz von Moskau statt, auf der durch die Außenminister der USA, der SU und Großbritanniens die Wiederherstellung des Staates Österreich beschlossen wurde. Es wurde festgestellt, dass Österreich „das erste freie Land [war], das der typischen Angriffspolitik Hitlers zum Opfer fallen sollte“, weshalb keine Kapitulation wie im Falle Deutschlands gefordert, eine „endgültige Abrechnung“ über den Anteil Österreichs an den Verbrechen des Nazi-Regimes jedoch angekündigt wurde.
Im Falle Taiwans wurde ein entsprechender, wenn auch inhaltlich vollkommen anderer Beschluss auf der Konferenz von Kairo gefällt, die vom 22. bis 26. November 1943 stattfand und an der Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill und Tschiang Kaishek teilnahmen. Die Deklaration von Kairo postuliert, dass nach der angestrebten Niederlage Japans Taiwan Teil der Republik China werden sollte.
Der Vortrag analysiert die beiden Beschlüsse und arbeitet die Gründe heraus, welche die Alliierten dazu bewogen haben, in einem Fall für die staatliche Selbständigkeit und in dem anderen für die Anbindung an Festland China zu optieren. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die Rolle der SU gelegt, auf deren Territorium die eine Konferenz stattfand und die auf der anderen Konferenz nicht anwesend war. Während der Beschluss in Moskau heute fast in Vergessenheit geraten ist, sorgt der Beschluss der Konferenz von Kairo in Ostasien für lebhafte Diskussionen.
Bio:
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik ist Professorin a.D. der Sinologie. Ihre Forschung konzentriert sich auf das Schreiben der modernen und zeitgenössischen chinesischen Geschichte, die Geschichte Ostasiens und die Erinnerungspolitik in der VR China. Überdies publiziert sie zur chinesischen Politik
Ort: https://bit.ly/3oG6Xtf

Online-Lecture: Prof. Edward Wang (Rowan University & Peking University): "Potato vs. Sweet Potato in Making the Modern World: A Discussion of Oceanic and Plant History in Historiography."
2021-11-02 18:00 - 20:00 | Online (Zoom)
Abstract:
Both oceanic history and plant history are recent developments in historiography. This talk will discuss how the two schools enhance the study of global history and reshape our views about the making of the modern world. As a continual effort to critique the nation-state focus in 19th century historiography, which began with the French Annales School in the early 20th century, historians in more recent decades have shifted attention from land to ocean and from people to plants, analyzing how the two played their parts in shaping worldwide historical development. Discussing these new attempts will help us see the inter-continental connections and transcend Eurocentrism in historical writing.
Bio:
Q. Edward Wang, Professor of History and Coordinator of Asian Studies Program at Rowan University and Changjiang Professor of History at Peking University, serves on the board of International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography. His main publications include A Global History of Modern Historiography (2008, 2017); Turning Points in Historiography: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (2005); Marxist Historiographies: A Global Perspective (2017) and, most recently, Historiography: Critical Readings (2021).
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/93878559419?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 938 7855 9419
Kenncode: [REDACTED]

Online-Lecture: Prof. Elizabeth Kaske (Leipzig): "Late Qing Perceptions of Risk and Fortune: Plotting Careers in an Age of Anxiety"
2021-11-09 18:15 - 20:15 | Online
Abstract:
One aspect that strikes observers of nineteenth-century China is the apparent lack of panic in the face of foreign aggression among Qing officials. Max Weber, an avid reader of Peking Gazette translations and the English-language press of coastal China, identified the precarity of status and income—rather than Confucian conservatism—as the main impediment to reform. Weber’s analysis has been criticized as “Eurocentric,” but it matched the self-perception of many in China towards the end of the dynasty. Perhaps the most famous account of the official “precariat” is Li Boyuan’s Officialdom Unmasked (1903-1905) which was both a wildly popular novel and a bold political statement. This paper combines fictional careers and real-life biographies to show how status anxieties determined political choices, and elite politics was increasingly seen as the source of China’s decline. The desacralization of the scholar-official as the ruling social order paved the way for abolishing the civil service examinations and, finally, the revolution of 1911.
Bio:
Elisabeth Kaske has joined Leipzig University as professor of modern Chinese society and culture in April 2017, after studying and teaching in Berlin, Beijing, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Boston, Vienna, Pittsburgh, Taipei, and Princeton. As a historian of late Qing and early Republican China she is interested in China’s rugged path towards modernization. Her studies include the history of German-Chinese military exchange and technology transfer, the emergence of new concepts of language and education, the sale of rank and public office by the late imperial state, and the fiscal regime of the Qing dynasty. After having long focused on bureaucratic elites, she has recently become fascinated with how new professional elites, particularly engineers, imagined the nation and their own role in it.
Ort:
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/94710833540?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 947 1083 3540
Kenncode: [REDACTED]

CeMEAS: Lecture Series: "New Perspectives on Modernity in China"
2021-11-12 12:00 - 14:00 | Online
Since the nineteenth century, China is offering perspectives on modernity that are often unexpected and therefore challenge Western assumptions about the nature of modernity. In this lecture series, we will look at Chinese history, philosophy, religion, politics etc. presenting current research that is addressing unsettling questions triggered by these developments.
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Nov 12, 2021
The Understanding and Practice of “Five Religions” in Early 20th Century China. The Works and Views of Feng Bingnan (1888-1956)
Peng Guoxiang, Zhejiang University
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Dec 3, 2021
The Ming-Qing Transition as a Philosophical Problem
Leigh Jenco, Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics, Department of Government
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Dec 17, 2021
The Utopian Impulse and Chinese Political Modernity
Peter Zarrow, Department of History, University of Connecticut, Hartford, USA
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Jan 28, 2022
Self-government (zizhi) in China from the late Qing to the Republic: a contested concept in the search for political modernity
Federico Brusadelli, University of Naples “L’Orientale”

Lecture: Peng Guoxiang (Zhejiang University): The Understanding and Practice of “Five Religions” in Early 20th Century China. The Works and Views of Feng Bingnan (1888-1956)
2021-11-12 12:00 - 14:00 | Online
Please register in advance: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYlcOirrTwvHd2Cw9yScwFKBSvj9vemw7sK
Abstract:
The so-called “sanjiao 三教 tradition (three teachings/religions)” that includes Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism has conventionally been considered as the “Chinese religion” in Chinese history. In addition to the “sanjiao,” however, Christianity and Islam were introduced to China pretty early and also became integral parts of the Chinese religious tradition. In the early 20th century, the concept and practice of “wujiao 五教” rather than “sanjiao” had already been widely accepted by Chinese people, much beyond intellectual circles. This talk introduces the understanding and practice of “wujiao” exemplified by Feng Bingnan, a successful lawyer and businessman renowned and influential in the 1940s but totally forgotten later on and demonstrates that “wujiao” offers a better perspective than “sanjiao” to understand the Chinese religious tradition.
PENG Guoxiang 彭國翔 is Qiu Shi Distinguished Professor of Chinese philosophy, intellectual history and religions at Zhejiang University, China. Before moving to Zhejiang University, he was Professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University. He was the 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North (Library of Congress, USA) and was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award in 2009 (Humboldt Foundation, Germany). He has been a visiting Professor or research fellow in numerous institutions such as Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, University of Frankfurt am Main, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, University of Hawaii, Harvard-Yenching Institute, National Taiwan University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore. His publications include The Unfolding of the Innate Good Knowing: Wang Ji and the Yangming Learning in Mid-Late Ming (2003, 2005, 2015), Confucian Tradition: Between Religion and Humanism (2007, 2019), Confucian Tradition and Chinese Philosophy: Retrospect and Prospect in a New Century (2009), Confucian Tradition from Classical Period to Its Contemporary Transformation: Speculation and Interpretation (2012), Revision and New Discovery: Historical Study of Pre-Modern Confucianism from Northern Song till Early Qing Dynasty (2013, 2015), Reconstruction of This Culture of Ours: Confucianism and Contemporary World (2013, 2018, 2019), This-worldly Concern of the Wise: The Political and Social Thought of Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) (2016), The Methodology of Doing Chinese Philosophy (2020) as well as numerous articles.
This lecture is part of the lecture series New Perspectives on Modernity in China.

Prof. Im Chong Myong (Chonnam National University): "The Amorphousness of Post-War and Post-Colonial South Korea and its Regional Contexts"
2021-11-16 18:15 - 20:00 | Online
Abstract:
The talk deals with the effects of World War Two on East Asia and Korea, and in this context it deals with issues like the re-construction of Western modernism and the inauguration of the nation-states system in the region. The talk also discusses the amorphousness of post-colonial South Korea where, in many respects, modern ideas such as democracy and nationalism could not establish their own discursive hegemony.
Presenter:
Prof. Im Chong Myong received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 2004. He subsequently took the position of professor at History Department of Chonnam National University, South Korea. From 2012 to 2013, he spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the University of California at Los Angeles. As an expert of modern Korean history, his fields of research include the subjectification of South Koreans in post-colonial/World War II contexts and the contemporary configurations of the global Cold-War dynamics.
Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/99020196657?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting-ID: 990 2019 6657
Kenncode: [REDACTED]

汉语教学培训 线上讲座 Chinesischlehrerfortbildung – Online-Veranstaltung
2021-11-20 09:00 - 12:00 | Online
汉语教学中的差异化教学 Differenzierung im Chinesischunterricht
培训
内容:
• 差异化教学及其理论基础：多元智能理论与布鲁姆教育目标分类
• 华裔学习者与非华裔学习者、汉语传承语教学（ Heritage Language Teaching ）与传统的外语教学（ Foreign Language Teaching ）的异同
• 成人汉语教学中的差异化教学设计和案例
• 儿童汉语教学中的差异化教学设计和案例。
Inhalt:
• Differenzierung im Unterricht und ihre theoretischen Grundlagen: Multifaktorielle Intelligenztheorien und Blooms Taxonomie der Lernziele;
• Unterschiede im Spracherwerb zwischen chinesischstämmigen und nicht chinesischstämmigen Lernenden, Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen Herkunftsprachenunterricht (Heritage Language Teaching) und Fremdsprachenunterricht (Foreign Language Learning);
• Differenzierung im Chinesischunterricht mit erwachsenen Lernenden Unterrichtsplanung und Fallbeispiele;
• Differenzierung im Chinesischunterricht mit Kindern Unterrichtsplanung und Fallbeispiele.
曹贤文，南京大学教授、博士生导师，中国语言战略研究中心研究员、世界汉语教学学会理事、世汉学会教师发展专业委员会副主任委员，长期在国内外从事一线教学和研究工作，发表学术论文50余篇，出版专著、教材等10余部。Prof. Dr. CAO Xianwen lehrt an der Universität Nanjing und forscht am Chinesischen Forschungszetrum für Sprachstrategien. Er ist Mitglied im Vorstand der International Society for Chinese Language Teaching (ISCLT) und stellvertretender Vorsitzender des Fachausschusses für Lehrkräftebildung des ISCLT. Seit langem an vorderster Front in einschlägiger Lehre und Forschung im In- und Ausland tätig, hat Prof. Cao über 50 Fachzeitschriftenartikel und mehr als zehn Fach- und Lehrbücher veröffentlicht.
张凤永，南京大学海外教育学院汉语教师，持有国际可理解输入工作坊（TCI）专业培训证书和剑桥成人英语教学证书（CELTA）。曾参与联合国职员中文培训项目等项目。Frau ZHANG Fengyong ist Chinesischlehrerin am Institut für Fremdsprachen der Universität Nanjing und besitzt das Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) der Universität Cambridge sowie ein Zertifikat für Teaching with Comprehensible Input (TCI). Sie wirkte als Chinesischlehrerin in zahlreichen internationalen Programmen mit, u.a. im Rahmen des Chinesisch-Ausbildungsprogramms für Mitarbeitende der Vereinten Nationen usw.
本次工作坊工作语言为中文 。Der Workshop findet in chinesischer Sprache statt.
此次工作坊名额有限 请有意参加培训的老师 同学 尽快报名 报名截止日期：20 2 1 年 10 月 31 日 。Aufgrund der begrenzten Teilnehmerzahl bitten wir um rechtzeitige Anmeldung bis zum 31. Oktober 2021.
报名方式 Anmeldung ausschließlich über Link.
检视更多 Weitere Informationen erhalten Sie hier.

China Platform: Taiwan Lecture Café Series 2021
2021-11-30 10:00 - 11:30 | Online
Wednesday 27 October
Liao Hsien-hao (National Taiwan University)
“Taiwan at the crossroads: Between Central Kingdom and Seafaring Pirates”
Wednesday 3 November
Yeh Kuo-chün (National Taiwan University)
“Did China’s soft power seduction lure Taiwan’s youth? Preliminary evidence for employment and entrepreneurship”
Wednesday 10 November
Lee Yu-Ting (National Taiwan University)
“Problems of East Asian Historical Narrative: Compared with Europe”
Wednesday 17 November
Hwang Yih-Jye (The Hague University College)
“The Origin and Development of International Studies in Taiwan”
Wednesday 24 November
Chen Yi-Ling (University of Wyoming)
“Governed by the Market: The Rise of Social Housing Movement and its Obstacles in Taiwan”
Tuesday 30 November*
Hsiung Ping-Chen (University of California, Irvine)
“Further Reflections on the Migrating Taste: Development of Taiwanese Food Culture in the Postwar Era”
Time 11:30-13:00 (CET)
*10:00-11:30 (CET)
Online registration: https://eventmanager.ugent.be/TaiwanLC

Dr. Mohammed Al-Sudairi (Hong Kong University): "Yellow Peril with a Dash of Green?: Global Fantasies on an Islamized China at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"
2021-11-30 18:15 - 20:15 | Online
Bio: Mohammed Al-Sudairi is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Asian Studies Unit at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. He obtained his PhD in Comparative Politics from the University of Hong Kong, his master’s degree in International Relations from the Peking University and in International History from the London School of Economics (joint program), and his undergraduate degree in International Politics from the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is proficient in Arabic, English, and Chinese. His research interests encompass Sino-Middle Eastern relations, Islamic and leftist connections between East Asia and the Arab World, and Chinese politics.
https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/skype/93990758044
Meeting-ID: 939 9075 8044
Code: 957008

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 | 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.
