The digital lecture series “Chinese Perspectives: China and the World through the Eyes of Scholars” presents – in its fourth annual edition – leading Chinese scientists and their positions on current issues and developments in China and the world. Through lectures and the possibility for direct exchange and discussion, the series aim is to enter into dialogue and make perspectives of Chinese scholars accessible for European public debate.
The series is jointly organized by Confucius Institute at Freie Universität Berlin and Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr, in cooperation with Confucius Institute at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Confucius Institute at Milan State University and Confucius Institute at University of Rome La Sapienza.
The digital lectures are hosted via Zoom phone and video conference. Registration for the events is required.
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Friday, 10 January 2025, 12.00 h (CET)
Prof. Dr. Li Xuetao 李雪涛, Beijing Foreign Studies University
The Assimilation of Foreign Cultures in New China
This lecture explores the impact of foreign cultures on Chinese society since the founding of New China. It is divided into several stages, beginning with the foreign cultural influence from the establishment of New China in 1949 to the pre-Cultural Revolution period, marked by Soviet cultural aid and literature, as well as the contributions of overseas intellectuals returning to build the nation. The lecture then describes the interruption of foreign cultural exchanges during the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent restoration of cultural interactions in the later years of the period. The report further analyzes the large-scale introduction of foreign cultures after the Reform and Opening-up in 1979 and its profound influence on China’s modernization. The speaker argues that the development of New China’s culture has been shaped through the collision and integration with foreign cultures, with the absorption of foreign cultures becoming a crucial driving force for the self-renewal of Chinese civilization.
Li Xuetao is a Chinese historian, sinologist, Buddhologist, and scientific translator. His research focuses primarily on the interplay between different cultures: How can a foreign culture be integrated into the existing local culture? How do the two cultures influence each other? Key research topics include the influence of German philosophy on Chinese thought (Karl Jaspers), the history of Buddhism in China with reference to various traditions of translation, the mutual influence of Chinese Studies in Germany and in China, as well as the history of intellectual migration and knowledge transfer. These topics are investigated from the perspective of and using the methods of global history.
Lecture in Chinese with English translation
Registration for the event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEldO2oqjwrHt0NviSLLQCogOJm60CWbo7c
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Friday, 28 February 2025, 12.00 h (CET)
Prof. Dr. Hu Chunchun 胡春春 , Shanghai International Studies Universtiy
Modernity and Identity in Modern Chinese Discourse
Even if identity politics, which has proven disruptive in many parts of the world, has not yet fully entered current cultural and socio-political discourses in China, China is not entirely free of it. Since the collision with the European colonial powers in the second half of the 19th century at the latest, China has been striving for a double transformation: the political transformation from a pre-modern, dynastic, archaic society to a modern nation state on the one hand, and the cultural transformation with the strong desire to preserve the traditional Chinese identity, which now needs to be renegotiated, on the other. In the lecture, this search process will be interpreted on the basis of reading experiences of various kinds – literary and pictorial – and its inadequacy will be examined.
Hu Chunchun completed his studies of German Language and Literature at Peking University in 1997 and received his PhD from Freie Universität Berlin in 2003. From 2004 to 2021, he was associate professor at the Institute for German and European Studies, and vice director of the Center for German Studies (DFZ) and the Center for Sino-German People-to-People Exchange (CDGKA), Tongji University/Shanghai. Since 2021, he serves as director of the master program of European Studies at Shanghai Academy of Global Governance and Area Studies (SAGGAS), Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). His main research interests are German studies, German literature of the 20th century, German culture and Sino-German cultural relations. Besides scientific publications, he regularly writes about current developments in Germany and Europe for the press in China and Europe. His recent publications include: Chunchun Hu, The Fine Line Between a “Dialogue of Civilizations” and a “Dialogue of the Deaf”. On the Chinese perspective on the European Union, Rosa-Lexemburg-Stiftung, 2024, and Chunchun Hu, et al. (ed.), Im Spannungverhältnis zwischen Selbst- und Fremdverstehen. Globale Herausforderungen und deutsch-chinesische Kulturbeziehungen, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2023.
Lecture in English
Registration for the event:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrc-2vqjoiHNQVKc6cTe6jwqV6zfYuZHn4