Chinese Studies

Arab-Chinese Entanglements in the Age of Global Empires
2022-07-18 13:00 - 14:30 (Europe/Helsinki) | ZHG 104 or Zoom
Speaker: Wen Shuang (New York University of Shanghai)
This talk narrates four little-known stories of Arab-Chinese entanglement in the age of trans-imperial collaboration and competition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although much attention is paid to China’s relationships with the Middle East today, I argue that this relationship did not emerge out of nowhere. Chinese and Arab lands were not entirely separate worlds until recently. Rather they have been entangled in complex ways well before the turn of the twenty-first century. The discovery of these episodes of largely invisible interactions resulted from my original juxtaposition of primary sources in Arabic and Chinese from multi-sited research in Beijing, Cairo, Damascus, London, Nanjing, Taipei, Washington DC, and Zhangzhou.
On Campus: ZHG (Zentrales Hörsaalgebäude) 104
On Zoom: The digital participation at this event is open to everyone who registers prior to the event: Registration
Further Details: https://www.worldmaking-china.org/en/veranstaltungen/lecture-Arab-Chinese-Entanglement-in-the-Age-of-Global-Empires.html

Workshop: Islamic Pasts and Futures in East Asia’s Worldmaking
2022-08-23 11:00 | Historische Sternwarte, University of Göttingen, Geismar Landstraße 11, Göttingen, 37083
September 23, Friday
11:00 – 11:20 Opening and Introduction
• Dominic Sachsenmaier (University of Göttingen)
• Janice Hyeju Jeong (University of Göttingen)
• Mohammad Alsudairi (King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies)
11:30 – 14:00 Panel I. Visions and Instrumentalizations of Islam in Asia: Historical Trajectories
Chair: Janice Hyeju Jeong (University of Göttingen)
• Cemil Aydin (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
“Inter-Asian Muslim Experiences of World-Making and World-Breaking in the Long 20th Century”
• Ulrich Brandenburg (University of Zurich)
“Asia, Muslim Asia, and the Challenge to Geography”
• Yee Lak Elliot Lee (Leipzig University)
“Re-Territorialization of Hui Muslims in Early 20th Century China: Historical and Demographic Knowledge Production”
• Hale Eroglu (Bogazici University)
“The Awakened Muslim: Turkish Modernity in Chinese Muslim Reformist Thought”
15:30 – 16:30 Keynote Address by Selcuk Esenbel (Bogazici University)
“Islam and East Asia in World-Making: Local and Regional Maps Embedded into a Globalizing World”
17:00 – 18:45 Panel II. Crisis, Community, and Control in Altishahr/Xinjiang
Chair: Cemil Aydin (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
• Elke Spiessens (Leiden University, WWU Münster)
“CCP Policy towards Uyghur Islam in the 21st Century: What Changed?”
• Björn Alpermann (University of Würzburg)
“A Vanishing Act? Islam in Contemporary Xinjiang”
• Rachel Harris (SOAS University of London)
“Religious Experience and Manufactured Spectacle in Xinjiang”
September 24, Saturday
10:00 – 11:45 Panel III. The Question of “Muslim” Ethnicities and Minorities in “non-Muslim” Asia
Chair: Selcuk Esenbel (Bogazici University)
• Rian Thum (University of Manchester)
“Inter-Asian Islamophobia”
• Wlodzimierz Cieciura (University of Warsaw)
“Huizu – a Chinese ‘Muslim race’? Muslim Racialization and Self-Racialization in Modern China.”
• Yoko Yamashita (Sophia University)
“Multicultural Freedom and Discursive Modes of Control over Muslims in Contemporary Japan”

13:00 – 14:45 Panel IV. The Politics of “Acceptable” Islam: Aesthetics and Public Visibility
Chair: Liu Kang (Duke University)
• Yi Soojeong (Sogang Euro-MENA Institute)
“Social Integration in South Korea: Ban-Opticon and Recognition Struggle”
• Yang Yang (National University of Singapore)
“Traveling Muslim Men as Cultural Assets: Popularized Islam, Heritage Diplomacy, and the Silk Road in China”
• Michael Malzer (University of Würzburg)
“From Arabian Nights to China’s Bordeaux: the Vanishing Role of Islam in Yinchuan, Ningxia.”
15:00 – 16:00 Keynote Address by Engseng Ho (Duke University)
“Mobile Muslims and Majoritarian States: Open and Shut Cases”
16:30 – 18:15 Panel V. Dwelling in Migration and Displacement: Tensions and Opportunities between Global Expanses and Westphalian Borders
Chair: Zhu Guohua (East China Normal University)
• Francesca Rosati (University of Leiden)
“Muslim Women in Northwestern China between Islamization and Chinafication: The Case of Women’s Madrasas in Linxia”
• Leila Chebbi (CETOBaC)
“In the ways of Tabligh: Sinicization as a Survival Strategy for a Global Islamic Revivalist Movement?”
• Atsushi Yamagata (University of Wollongong)
“Responses to the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Japan”
There is a limited number of seats for attendance onsite. Please contact xiaoyang.zhao@stud.uni-goettingen.de for inquiries.
Please find here the program of the workshop as a PDF.

ABGESAGT: Veranstaltung für Studierende: 07.10.2022 Praxisbezogene Chinakompetenz
2022-10-07 10:00 - 12:00 | VG 1.101
Nach zwei Jahren Pandemie eine einmalige Möglichkeit, Arbeitswelten, Berufseinstieg und Kompetenzen für den chinesischen Arbeitsmarkt kennen zu lernen und zu diskutieren!
Zeit: 07.10.2022, 10:00
Ort: VG 1.101
Herr Wolfgang Krieger vom BDI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie) in Peking wird einen kurzen Vortrag halten und dann für ein Q&A zur Verfügung stehen.
Wolfgang Krieger ist Deputy Chief Representative des Bundesverbands der Deutschen Industrie (BDI e.V.) in China. Er hat Regionalwissenschaften Ostasien und Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universität zu Köln studiert. In seiner Arbeit beschäftigt er sich mit dem regulatorischen Umfeld in China, sowie den Wirtschaftsbeziehungen zwischen der EU und China.
Herr Max Hiller von der Fachgruppe Sinologie wird die Veranstaltung eröffnen und moderieren.
Wir freuen uns auf zahlreiches Erscheinen!

Informationsveranstaltung für alle Erstsemester in den BA-Studiengängen des OAS
2022-10-21 10:00 - 12:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Das Ostasiatische Seminar lädt alle Erstsemester für den 21. Oktober 2022 von 10:00-12:00 Uhr zu einer Informationsveranstaltung über unsere Bachelorstudiengänge in das Kulturwissenschaftliche Zentrum KWZ 0.602 ein.
Da wir an diesem Tag bereits die Gruppeneinteilung für den Sprachunterricht vornehmen werden, wird die Teilnahme dringend empfohlen.
Hier gelangen Sie zum Orientierungsphasen-Programm des Ostasiatischen Seminars.

Information event for all first semester students in the Master Modern Sinology
2022-10-21 12:00 - 13:00 | KWZ 0.602
The Department of East Asian Studies invites all first semester students to an information event on October 21, 2022 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. The meeting takes place in room KWZ 0.602.
Here you get to the orientation phase program of the Department of East Asian Studies.
Here you can find the course overview of the OAS for the winter term 2023/23.
Link to the explanatory video for creating a timetable in EXA.

Sophia Kidd : Ontology of Self in Translating China's New Silk Roads
2022-10-26 16:00 - 18:00 | KWZ 0.609
Sophia Kidd
Title: Ontology of Self in Translating China’s New Silk Roads
KWZ 0.609
Abstract:
In this lecture, I discuss how the ontological unit of ‘self’ cannot be taken for granted when discussing narratives, translation of, and methodology for understanding China’s New Silk Roads. I will do this by analyzing how the ontology of self remains fluid in translation of four key terms in China’s BRI narrative: ‘Five Pillars (Wu Tong 五通)’, ‘Chinese Dream (Zhongguo Meng 中国梦),’ ‘Community of Common Destiny (Mingyun Gongtongti 命运共同体) ,’ and ‘harmony in diversity (he er bu tong 和而不同) .’ First, we will look at the epistemological and ontological ‘self’ in Western thought in contradistinction to the Chinese notion of ‘self (ziwo 自我).’ By examining selected uses of the term ziwo in Chinese literature over the past two thousand years, we arrive at a constructed Chinese notion of self which resembles the epistemological more than the ontological Western ‘self,’ while failing to reach equivalency with either. This understanding will inform our lexical and contextual analysis of Wu Tong, Zhongguo Meng, Mingyun Gongtongti, and he er bu tong.

Global China Conversations #14: Compliance in China zwischen Sozialpunkten und wachsender Regulierung: Welche Herausforderungen stellen sich für Unternehmen?
2022-10-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
For further information please click here.

“Contemporary Theater Arts” Seminar Series No. 13
2022-10-28 14:00 - 15:30 | Online

„Contemporary Theater Arts“ Seminar Series No. 14
2022-11-29 13:00 - 14:30 | Online
The Department of East Asian Studies (the University of Göttignen) and the Department of Theatre, Film and TV Arts (Nanjing University) jointly host the “Contemporary Theater Arts” Seminar Series. It is open to anyone interested in the Asian theatre.
Topic: Draft Theatre: the Assembly Line Theatre Production
Speaker: ZHAO Chuan, author, art critic, independent theatre director
Time: Tuesday, Nov. 29th, 2022, 13: 00 PM CET
Language: Chinese
Zoom link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/66476427828

Lecture: The Art of Audience Participation in Applied Theatre
2023-01-19 13:00 - 14:30 | Online
The Art of Audience Participation in Applied Theatre
Speaker: Estella WONG, Associate Professor and the Head of Applied Theatre in the School of Drama, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Date: Thursday, Jan 19, 2023, 13:00 PM CET
Zoom Link: https://uni-goettingen.zoom.us/j/69482194990
Language: English
More Information: https://yingmingtheater.com/chinese-culture-seminar-series/

Vortrag Francois Gipoloux, CNRS Paris: The paradox of Wealthy Merchants and Weak Capital Accumulation in Late Imperial China
2023-01-24 18:15 - 19:45 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.607, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Tuesday, January 24, 18:15 – 19:45
KWZ 0.607
Abstract:
This presentation proposes another interpretation of the Europe/China divergence, based on a redefinition of capitalism in much broader terms than its mere reduction to the industrial revolution. It recalls the reasons why Chinese merchant networks did not formalize autonomous institutions, in order to confer a perennial scope to their affairs. It revisits the paradox of Chinese economic history where the emergencee of rich merchants does not translate into steady capital accumulation. What credit institutions facilitated the collection of capital in China? How did it circulate? Where were capital markets developing credit instruments, allowing a wide exchange of information and the diffusion of financial innovations? This presentation raises the issue of late imperial China’s capital sterilization, due to the fragmentation of financial institutions and high interest rates.
Speaker:
François Gipouloux (Emeritus Research Director, National Centre for Scientific Research, [CNRS] France), is a specialist in Chinese economics with a professional experience in China, Hong Kong and Japan of almost 20 years. He teaches at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He also directs the International Research Programme : « The Globalisation’s Origins and the Great Divergence : Trading Networks and the Trajectory of Economic Institutions—— Europe-Asia, 1500-2000 », financed by CNRS and prestigious European and Asian universities. His research covers the dynamics of urbanisation in China, and the historically comparative analysis of economic institutions and business practices in Europe and Asia.
Organizer:
Prof. Dr. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen
Sponsor:
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Göttingen

Global China Conversations #17 Ideology First, Economy Second? What Challenges do European Companies Face in China?
2023-01-26 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
Here you get more information.

Drama reading
2023-01-27 15:00 - 17:00 | LSG University of Göttingen
“Mr. Big,” a play based on the leading figure of modern Chinese literature, is the first attempt to visualize Lu Xun’s image on the stage. The play starts with Lu Xun’s death and then shows the flashback scenes of the protagonist’s encounters with the people he was most concerned about during his lifetime. The play highlights how they fell into conversations and were engaged in arguments. Li Jing uses stream-of-consciousness writing to capture Lu Xun’s most painful knots in his heart.
Author: Li Jing
Language: Chinese
Venue: LSG University of Göttingen
Registration: yingming.theater@gmail.com
Anyone who is interested in Chinese theater or learning the language and culture is welcome to join the reading event.

线上讲座 Online Lectures – 如何让学生爱学汉语 How to make students love learning Chinese
2023-01-28 09:00 - 10:30 | Online
讲座要点：
如何激发学生学习动机始终是一线教师需要关注的问题，本讲座首先分析了学习者汉语学习动机的类型，动机与学习效果的关系，并在此基础上从需求分析、目标设定、发现学习、难度控制等多个角度探讨了激发学生的学习动机的方式与方法。
Key points of the lecture:
The stimulation of students’ learning motivation is doubtless one of the key challenges of teachers in practice. After an analysis of different types of learning motives of Chinese learners and the relationship between motivation and learning outcomes, this lecture explores various means and methods of enhance students’ learning motivation from different perspectives, such as leaners’ needs, goal setting and levels of difficulty.

报告人简介
丁安琪 中国人民大学博士，华东师范大学国际汉语文化学院副院长兼国际汉语教师研修基地副主任，教授，世界汉语教学学会标准与评估专委会副主任委员，上海市语文学会理事。主要研究领域为国际中文教育、国际中文教师教育，主持或作为主要成员参与教育部语合中心《国际中文教学通用课程大纲》研制与《国际中文教师标准》修订工作。发表学术论文七十余篇，出版专著《汉语作为第二语言学习者研究》及《汉语作为第二语言学习者实证研究》（合著），作为主编或主要作者参与编写多部教材，主编《我的课堂活动设计笔记》系列丛书，多次参与海外本土汉语教师培训。
Prof. Ding received her PhD from the Renmin University and is currently deputy dean of the International Chinese Culture College and deputy director of the International Chinese Teacher Training Base of the East China Normal University. She also functions as vice chairwoman of the Standards and Evaluation Committee of the World Association for Chinese Language Teaching and as director of the Shanghai Chinese Language Association. Her main fields of research include international Chinese language education and international Chinese teacher education. She presided over and participated as a key member in the development of the „General Curriculum Syllabus for International Chinese Teaching“ and the revision of the „International Chinese Teacher Standards“ by the Language Coordination Center of the Chinese Ministry of Education. She has published over 70 academic papers as well as the monographs „Research on Learning Chinese as a Second Language“ and „Empirical Research on Learning Chinese as a Second Language“ (co-authored). The „My Classroom Activity Design Notes“ series of books has participated in the training of overseas local Chinese teachers for many times. As the editor-in-chief or the main author, she participated in the compilation of several textbooks, edited the „My Classroom Activity Design Notes“ series of books, and participated in the training of local Chinese teachers around the globe for many times.
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81564277513

Meeting-ID: 815 6427 7513
讲座将用中文进行 This lecture will be held in Chinese.
隐私保护请参阅 Information on privacy can be found in：https://zoom.us/privacy-and-legal

This lecture will be held in Chinese. 讲座将用中文进行。

线上讲座 Online Lectures 李泉教授 Prof. LI Quan, 中国人民大学 Renmin University of China
2023-02-11 09:00 - 10:30 | Online
For further information please clicke here.

Global China Conversations #18, 16.02.2023, Spannungen um Taiwan: Wie ist die aktuelle Situation und welche Herausforderungen ergeben sich für Unternehmen und die Wirtschaft?
2023-02-16 11:00 - 12:00 | Online
For more information please click here.

Christian Henriot & Cecile Armand , Aix-Marseille University: Taming the Digital Dragon. Textbases, Datafication, and the Study of Modern China
2023-02-23 16:15 - 17:45 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
23. Feb., 16:15 – 17:45
KWZ 0.602
Abstract:
Since the mid-1990s much has been written about digital history and how the Internet and the dematerialization of historical sources are transforming the ways in which historians can muster their materials. The major shift, however, occurred when historical sources became available in full text format. This finally opened the way to approaches and methods based on text analysis and natural language processing, though with a particular challenge due to the very nature of historical sources. The ENP-China project has been at the forefront of developing a set of resources — text database, spatial database, and HistText — that break through the limits of historical investigation on modern China.
Speakers:
Christian Henriot is Professor of modern Chinese history at Aix-Marseille University and a former Senior Research Fellow at the Institut Universitaire de France (2007-2012). He is the author and editor of several books on modern Chinese history, including Prostitution and Sexuality in Shanghai. A Social History, 1849-1949 (Cambridge UP, 2001), In the Shadow of the Rising Sun. Shanghai under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge UP, 2004), Visualizing China (Brill, 2012) and Scythe and the city. A social history of death in Shanghai (1865-1965) (2016, Stanford UP). Henriot is also the creator of a digital research and resource platform on Shanghai history (http://virtualshanghai.net) and the P.I. of the ENP-China Project (ERC) (https://www.enpchina.eu/)
Cécile Armand is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project “Elites, Networks and Power in modern China” (Aix-Marseille University), a former postdoctoral fellow of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (2018-20) and Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the DHAsia program at Stanford University (2017-18). Her first monograph based on her dissertation will be published by De Gruyter (Berlin) under the title: Madmen in Shanghai: A social history of advertising in modern China. She is the author of several articles on advertising, urban history, transnational elites in modern China, and digital history. She is the creator of a digital research platform (https://madspace.org/).
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

线上讲座 Online Lectures – 吴中伟教授 Prof. WU Zhongwei, 复旦大学 Fudan University
2023-02-25 09:00 - 10:30 | Online

Vortrag: Dr. phil. Volker Klöpsch "Jadeschleifer, Verseschmied Das Handwerk der Dichtung im Lichte der chinesischen Literaturkritik"
2023-05-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Dichtung ist ein universales Phänomen. Doch entsteht sie überall unter ähnlichen Voraussetzungen? Ein genauerer Blick zeigt, dass Dichten vielfach als ein gewöhnliches Handwerk verstanden wird. Darauf verweisen Begriffe wie Verseschmied oder Jadeschleifer, Vers oder Text. Der Vortrag untersucht an einer Reihe von Beispielen, wie im Alten China ein Gedicht entstand, welche Funktion sein Verfasser in Gesellschaft und Politik einnahm und wie seine Verse bewertet wurden. Aus der Betonung handwerklichen Könnens ergibt sich auch die Frage nach der Erlernbarkeit des Dichtens.
Zeigen wird sich, dass die chinesische Poetik des Altertums Gemeinsamkeiten mit Vorstellungen des europäischen Mittelalters aufweist, aber möglicherweise Leser enttäuscht, die an Goethe und Hölderlin geschult sind.
Volker Klöpsch (geb. 1948) studierte Germanistik, Anglistik, Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft und Sinologie auf verschiedenen Kontinenten. Er lehrte in Taipeh, Bochum und Köln, legte zahlreiche Übersetzungen von Lyrik und Prosa aus verschiedenen Epochen der chinesischen Literatur vor, gab mit Eva Müller das Lexikon der chinesischen Literatur (München 2004) heraus und ist Begründer und langjähriger Mitherausgeber der Hefte für ostasiatische Literatur.

Prof. Ho Wai Yip, Exeter University: Two Tales of the City: Conflicting Narratives on Hong Kong
2023-05-04 18:15 - 19:45 | Verfügungsgebäude (VG) 2.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
4. May, 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103
Abstract:
As always, there are conflicting narratives on Hong Kong’s history from the British colonial period to the present comprehensive rule of the People’s Republic of China. In the early transition from British to Chinese rule in early 2000s, there were two contradictory views in explaining the economic success of the colonial Hong Kong, namely the nationalistic narrative – ‘Hong Kong has been part of Chinese territory since ancient times’ and the colonial narrative – ‘Hong Kong as a barren-rock-turned capitalist-paradise by benevolent rule’. In the present day of China’s Hong Kong, the debate continues with two opposing narratives. It involves the official campaign of telling the world the ‘good story’ of Hong Kong following ‘the new stage of transition from chaos to order’, which is to combat the ‘bad story’ of distorted anti-China prejudice. According to renowned literary educators, ‘telling the story of Hong Kong is so difficult’ (Leung Ping-kwan’s words) and ‘the personality and life of Hong Kong are blurred and obscured’ (Lo Wai-luen’s words), this presentation inquires the ambiguities of Hong Kong stories and the society has been navigating under superpowers in history.
Speaker:
Wai-Yip Ho is currently the Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Arab & Islamic Studies, University of Exeter; Correspondent Member, Nantes Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the author of Islam and China’s Hong Kong: Ethnic Identity, Muslim Networks and the new Silk Road (Routledge: London, 2015, paperback). He held several research fellowship and research appointments, including the François Chevalier Fellow (2021-2022), Madrid Institute for Advanced Study (MIAS); Sir Edward Youde Fellow; Visiting Scholar at Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies at Oxford as well as Endeavour Research Fellow at Australian National University etc. His research interests include Islamic Studies, China’s Christian-Muslim relations, New Media and China’s Islam, etc.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Prof. Selcuk Esenbel (Bogazici Univ. Istanbul): Legal Transformation, Contemporary Civilization, and Sovereignty: Global Perspectives on the Quest for Modernity in Japan, China, and Turkey
2023-05-09 16:15 - 17:45 | Verfügungsgebäude (VG) 0.110
9. May (Tuesday), 16:15 – 17:45
VG 0.110
Abstract:
The paper discusses some key experiences of Japan, Turkey, and China during the nineteenth century, but primarily focuses on a comparative discussion of Japan and Turkey for the twentieth century and possibly the early years of the new millennium. It will offer reflections particularly on the conjuncture that was related to the adoption of European codes and constitutionalism, coupled with the larger aim of catching up with contemporary civilization and regaining sovereignty. Despite the fact that the perception of the West throughout this long history kept shifting between a friend or foe, the West has remained to be the “Un-forgettable Other.”
Speaker:
Dr. Selçuk Esenbel is Professor em. of History at Boğaziçi University, and the Director of the Asian Studies Center at the same institution. After studying at International Christian University Tokyo and George Washington University, she obtained her Ph.D. in Japanese history from the Columbia University. Since 1982, she has been teaching Japanese and Asian history at Boğaziçi University, where she is also in charge of the Asian Studies Center, Asian studies graduate program and Asian language courses. Esenbel has published many articles in various professional journals as well as a number of books on history of Asia with particular focus on Japanese history. Her research interests cover Japan and the world of Islam, Japanese pan-Asianism, modernization in Japan and Ottoman Turkey, peasant uprisings in Meiji Japan, and Japanese-Ottoman/Turkish relations. Esenbel is the recipient of various awards, like the Order of the Rising Sun, Japan Foundation Special Prize for Japanese Studies, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs special award for the promotion of Japanese-Turkish academic relations, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation George Forster research award.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Dr. Hu Nan, Fudan University: Towards an Anticolonial Asian Cinema: the 1957 Asian Film Week and China’s Imagination of Asia
2023-05-11 18:15 - 19:45 | Verfügungsgebäude (VG) 2.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
11. May, 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103
Abstract:
This talk traces the forgotten history of the Asian Film Week held by and in China in 1957. It engages with two recent discussions of cultural politics in the Cold War era. First, there is a growing interest in Sino-Asian cultural relations in the 1950s and 1960s, but scholars have not focused attention on film festivals, which was a very important element of cultural diplomacy during the Cold War. Second, studies on film festivals among Asian countries in this period highlight events sponsored by either the U. S. or the Soviet Union, leaving the efforts and experiments of cinematic practices beyond the superpowers understudied. Drawing on a variety of sources including contemporary newspapers, magazines, festival brochures, local film gazetteers, government documents, and the films shown at the 1957 Asian Film Week, this talk demonstrates that film festival was a crucial part of China’s inter-Asian cultural diplomacy in the Bandung age and that the postcolonial Asian countries played an active role in defining “Asian cinema” and “Asianness” alternative to the superpowers’ imagination. Not only did the Film Week build an inter-Asian cinematic network beyond the Cold War divide to improve China’s diplomatic relations with many Asian countries, but it also sought to unite Asian filmmakers with anticolonial aesthetics and agenda, which challenged the cinema-as-entertainment model previously entrenched in other inter-Asian cinematic networks. This talk will also discuss the enduring influence of the Asian Film Week as an important event in the history of world cinema, including its connections with the Afro-Asian Film Festival (1958-1964) and the Third Cinema movement.
Bio:
Nan Hu is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Fudan University, Shanghai. She earned her Ph. D. in Chinese and Comparative Literature in 2021 at Washington University in St. Louis, where she completed a dissertation entitled “In Other Voices: Dubbing Foreign Films in Maoist China (1949-1976).” Her current research projects explore the idea of inter-Asian solidarity among Chinese intellectuals around the 1960s, and the ways zoos have reconfigured the human-animal relationship vis-à-vis the Chinese projects of nation-building, modernity, and revolution. Her studies have been funded by the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, the Center for the Humanities at Washington University, Ministry of Education (Taiwan), and China Postdoctoral International Exchange Program, among others.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Vortrag Dr. Marc Hermann (Universität Bonn): "Marsianer und Mutanten: Chinesische Science-Fiction erobert den Planeten"
2023-05-24 16:00 - 18:00 | Verfügungsgebäude, VG 1.103
Abstract:
Der weltweite Erfolg von LIU Cixins Trisolaris-Trilogie hat der chinesischen Science-Fiction internationale Aufmerksamkeit beschert. Neben LIU als Galionsfigur haben sich auch jüngere Autoren wie CHEN Qiufan oder HAO Jingfang einen Namen gemacht. Was steckt hinter diesem Erfolg? Wie „chinesisch“ ist die chinesische Science-Fiction? Und welche unterschied-lichen Strömungen weist sie auf?
Short bio:
Dr. Marc Hermann ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter an der Abteilung für Sinologie der Universität Bonn und gehört zu den aktivsten Übersetzern chinesischer Literatur in Deutschland. In den letzten Jahren hat er schwerpunktmäßig chinesische Science-Fiction übersetzt – von Altmeistern wie LIU Cixin und WANG Jinkang bis hin zu Nachwuchsstars wie CHEN Qiufan und HAO Jingfang.

Lecture: Prof. Malachi Hacohen (Duke University): Antisemitism(s) – Local to Global
2023-05-25 18:15 - 19:45 | Verfügungsgebäude, VG 2.103
25. May, 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Antisemitism occupies a unique place among minority hatreds, weighing on historians’ conscience and challenging historical faculties. The variety, local contexts, and divergent character of antisemitism present a major challenge for historical explanation Yet, as globalization progresses, there is a convergence toward a global antisemitic discourse, crossing continents from Europe to Asia to the Americas. The lecture will seek to demystify antisemitism by projecting it against the growth of an ever changing Jewish Diaspora and provide a framework for understanding its transformation from local and diverse antisemitism to a more uniform global discourse.
Speaker:
Malachi Haim Hacohen is Professor of History, Jewish Studies and Religion at Duke University, and Director of the Religions and Public Life Program. His research interests focus on Central Europe and include social theory, political philosophy, and rabbinic culture. His Karl Popper – The Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna (Cambridge, 2000) won the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the AHA and Austria’s Victor Adler State Prize. His Jacob & Esau: Jewish European History Between Nation and Empire (Cambridge, 2019) won the Center for Austrian Studies’ Biannual Book Prize. He has published on the European Jewish intelligentsia, Cold War liberalism, and cosmopolitanism and Jewish identity in leading professional journals. He was a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Humanities Center, and the IFK in Vienna. He is presently Leibniz Professor in Leipzig for Summer 2023.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Lecture: Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (CNRS-EHESS Paris): Hybrid Maps: Reformatting the Chinese Imperial Realm According to 19th-Century Western Cartography
2023-06-01 18:15 - 19:45 | Verfügungsgebäude, VG 2.103
1. June, 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103
Abstract:
The definition of “The Great Qing Everlasting Unified” was frequently used in titles of general maps of the imperial realm in the beginning of the 19th century. It formally distinguishes one of the most widely known and impressive group of Chinese maps, the so-called Blue Maps and their multi-coloured congeners. This series of large format wall maps is representative of the late imperial phase of the development of the traditional Chinese cartography. Göttingen State and University Library possesses a unique surviving copy of a hand-coloured map of this kund. The map is signed by Li Mingche (1751-1832), a Taoist master and a recognised Chinese astronomer and cartographer, who was propagating Western science in China. The proposed presentation analyzes how Li Mingche tried to reformat traditional Chinese representation of the realm of the Qing empire according to the standards of modern Western cartography and evaluate the outcome of this attempt from the point of view of Chinese and the Western cartographic traditions.
Speaker:
Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann studies historical Chinese conceptions of terrestrial space and their continuous influence on Chinese cartography. Since 2000 she is a Chargé de Recherche at the CNRS (France), and in 2017-2023 was recurrently a Visiting Scholar of the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science, Berlin (Germany). Her latest publications cover a large scope of text-map relationships, including translation of text into maps.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Andrew Cainey (UK National Committee on China): Xiconomics, Dual Circulation Strategy and Western Business
2023-06-05 17:15 - 18:45 | Zentrales Hörsaalgebäude, ZHG 003, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, Göttingen, 37073
5. June, 17:15 – 18:45
ZHG 003
Abstract:
In Xi Jinping’s China, national security, ideology and the political priorities of the Communist Party now play a much larger role in shaping China’s economic and business environment. The context is more politicized, more uncertain. China’s state media call this ‘Xiconomics’. Xi’s Dual Circulation Strategy marks out clear dividing lines between China’s domestic economy and the rest of the world. It sets out how China seeks to manage the interactions between the two. And it does so just as Western countries focus too on decoupling, ‘friendshoring’ and technology competition. In order to succeed, Western business needs to understand these new dynamics. Simply declaring them ‘too political’ no longer works. As a result, companies are reconsidering and revising their China strategy – driven by changes both in China and at home. How far can ‘ambidexterity’ in operations go? What are companies doing to maintain connectivity and build resilience and agility? And what comes next from geopolitics – is this all just getting started?
Speaker:
Having first visited China in 1981, Andrew Cainey has lived and worked for most of the past twenty-five years in China, Korea and Singapore advising businesses and governments. He now lives in London and works on the impact of geopolitics on business, with a particular focus on China and is the co-author of Xiconomics: What China’s Dual Circulation Strategy Means for Global Business.
Mr Cainey is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, the world’s oldest security and defense think tank, and a founding director of the UK National Committee on China. He was previously China managing partner for Booz & Company; the head of the Rt Hon Tony Blair’s Asian government advisory practice; the head of Boston Consulting Group’s Asian financial institutions practice; and a project leader in BCG Germany. Andrew has also had roles with Chatham House and think tanks in Hong Kong and Shanghai. He has a First Class MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School; he speaks Chinese and German.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Prof. Edward Qingjia Wang (Rowan University): Changing Perceptions of World Order in Chinese Historiography: Three Phases of Development
2023-06-08 18:15 - 19:45 | Verfügungsgebäude (VG) 2.103, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 7, Göttingen, 37073
8. June (Thursday), 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103
Abstract:
“Changing Perceptions of World Order in Chinese Historiography: Three Phases of Development”: This talk takes a longue-durée perspective to examine and analyze the modern Chinese conception of the world from the middle of the 19th century to the present. This perception has changed significantly over the course of this period, which is reflected in the ups and downs of world/global history as a subfield of history. Foreign histories are commonly referred to as “world history” in the Chinese historical community; the term’s invention in the 19th century was a sign of a shifting worldview. The term “world history” has been increasingly been replaced by the term “global history” starting from the late 1990s, which suggests yet another significant shift in how the Chinese leadership and historians view the world.
Speaker:
Q. Edward Wang, a specialist in Chinese history and global historiography, received his education partly in China and partly in the US. He is now Eminent Professor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey. He is also editor of Chinese Studies in History, a journal that promotes academic exchanges between historical communities in greater China and the rest of the world. Wang’s main publications include Historiography: Critical Readings (2021 in 4 volumes); A Global History of Modern Historiography (2008 and 2017); Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History (2015), and Inventing China through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography (2001). Some of the above titles have appeared in Chinese, Korean, German, Greek, Japanese, and Russian.
Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

Vortrag: Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Hoffmann (Universität Mainz): Vom Dichter zum Zeugen - Der Schriftsteller und Dissident Liao Yiwu
2023-06-21 18:00 - 20:00 | Kulturwissenschaftliches Zentrum, KWZ 0.602, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, Göttingen, 37073
Mittwoch, den 21. Juni 2023, 18 h c.t.
KWZ 0.602
Abstract:
Der Nachwuchslyriker Liao Yiwu kam nach dem 4. Juni 1989 wegen zweier Gedichte für vier Jahre ins Gefängnis, wo er sich vom Dichter zum (Zeit)Zeugen wandelte. Danach beruflich in Schwierigkeiten, begann er, in hunderten von Interviews den Außenseitern der VR-chinesischen Gesellschaft, unter ihnen die vergessenen Opfer früherer Kampagnen sowie der Öffnungspolitik, eine Stimme zu geben und ein Bild der Gesellschaft von unten zu zeichnen. Gleichzeitig hielt er in autobiographischen Werken seine Erfahrungen in und nach der Haft und bei seinen mehrfachen Fluchtversuchen fest. Zuletzt legte er mit Wuhan einen Dokumentarroman über die Corona-Pandemie in China vor. Bei all dem hat Liao Yiwu doch nie aufgehört, ein Dichter zu sein. So stellt dieser Vortrag auch die Frage nach der Beziehung von Dichtertum und Zeugenschaft.
Short bio:
Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Hoffmann ist einer der profiliertesten literarischen Übersetzer aus dem Chinesischen in Deutschland. Er leitet zurzeit den Arbeitsbereich Chinesisch am Fachbereich Translations-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft der Universität Mainz in Germersheim. Dort lehrt und forscht er zur chinesischen Literatur und Kultur und unterrichtet literarisches Übersetzen. Hier wie in seiner weiter geführten übersetzerischen Tätigkeit beschäftigt er sich mit Texten verschiedener Genres, Autor:innen unterschiedlichster Hintergründe und mitunter weit auseinander liegenden Thematiken.

Workshop on New Civilizationisms (China-related speakers: Wang Hui, Rebecca Karl, Mohammed Alsudairi)
2023-06-26 14:00 - 19:15 | Historical Observatory, Geismar Landstr. 11, Göttingen
On Monday, June 26th (2.00 pm – 7.15 pm), we will have an international workshop on New Civilizationisms. The program is attached and listed below. If you wish to attend, you need to register by Friday, June 23rd: https://forms.gle/wAPRRjLxWXqvQdt89
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HISTORICAL MEMORY AS AN ACT OF WORLDMAKING:
Contextualizing New Civilizationalisms in the 21st Century
June 26, 2023, 14:00-19:30
Historical Observatory, Geismar Landstr. 11, Göttingen
Organizers: Srirupa Roy and Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen
CeMIS & OAS, University of Göttingen
Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies (ICAS:MP)
BMBF “Worldmaking-China” Initiative
Schedule:
Welcome and Introduction
14:00-15:00 Wang Hui, Tsinghua University
“If This is a Comeback, When was the Beginning? Some Thoughts on the Return of Civilizational Discourse”
15:15-16:15 Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University
“The River Beneath: Antiquity, Alterity, and the ‘Indic Present’ in Indian Nationalism”
16:30-19:15 Roundtable: “Contextualizing New Civilizationalisms”

Mohammed Turki Al-Sudairi, Humboldt Fellow, University of Göttingen
Matthew Blackburn, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Rebecca Karl, New York University
In conversation with Srirupa Roy and Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen

19:15: Reception

Global China Conversations #22 Deutsche Forschungskooperationen: Wissen Schaffen für oder mit China?
2023-06-29 11:00 - 12:00
