Category: conferences

Edinburgh International Asia Conference 5 Feb 2016

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Scotland’s first ever student-led Asia conference will take place on Friday February 5th 2016 at the University of Edinburgh’s Playfair Library. Registration is from 09.00 and the day will finish with a drinks reception from 17.30-18.30.

The conference theme “Will the 21st Century belong to Asia – Pioneer your future in Asia” will see up to 200 student delegates, contemplating a career in Asia, meet with professionals from a wide range of organisations. Students and businesses are invited to register via the EIAC website. Any business which wishes to send a representative can receive a sponsored place.  Please simply send us an email to info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk giving us the name of the representative, their position and the company name and we will provide you with a booking code to use when registering on the site.

Keynote Speakers will be Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary and Lord Stephen Green, formerly Minister of State for Trade and Investment and Group Chairman of HSBC.  Guest speakers are the Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Sir Timothy O’Shea and Consul General of the PRC in Edinburgh, Mr Pan Xinchun.

In addition to the above there will be a number of workshops offered by businesses including:

Stewart Investors
Goldman Sachs
DLA Piper
Skyscanner
China-Britain Business Council
JET Programme
RioTinto
Scottish Government
Financial Times
LeapFrogInvestment
CRCC Asia
CGIF
Trust Fund of Asian Development Bank

The organisers and sponsors are keen to attract a wide range of businesses to attend the event to take advantage of the opportunity to engage and connect with Scotland’s most ambitious international students from across the globe.

The fundamental goal for the event is to launch an Asia-focused community aimed at fostering relationships between students and businesses.

For more information please download EIACprogramme-11,  visit the EIAC website.

This event has been sponsored by the University of Edinburgh, The Scottish Government and the Confucius Institute for Scotland.

Memory Gender & Change in China – WAGNet Podcasts

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A day long symposium ‘Memory Gender and Change in China’ organised by WAGNet (Women and Gender in Chinese Studies Network) with the support of the Confucius Institute for Scotland took place on 11 September. Podcasts of the three panel sessions which addressed themes as shown below, are now available. Scroll down to access.

  • New wave feminism
  • LGBT communities
  • Campaigns against violence against women
  • Dating and violence
  • Reproductive cultures
  • Technologies of intimacy
  • Politics of photographic representation of the female body
  • Socialist masculinities
  • Men’s role in family planning and contraception
  • Transnational feminist organizing

Woman as manWAGNET CONFERENCE: Panel 1
Tradition and Change

Moderator: Prof Fiona Moore
Dr. Alison Hardie, University of Leeds
Dr. Wu Shengqing, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Dr. Xuelei Huang, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh.

hold up half the skyWAGnet conference Panel 2:
Socialist heritage and contemporary resonances

Moderator: Prof. Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Wang Xiangxian, Sociology, Tianjin Normal University
Prof. Fiona Moore, Royal Holloway, University of London
Dr. Wang Xiying, Beijing Normal University;
Dr. Derek Hird, University of Westminster.

anti domestic violenceWAgnet conference Panel 3:
From global to local: reflections 20 years after the UN Fourth World Conference on Women

Moderator: Dr. Xuelei Huang, University of Edinburgh
Feng Yuan, Media Monitor Network for Women and Shantou University
Dr. Robin Runge, George Washington University Law School
Dr. Wei Wei, East China Normal University
Dr. Sophia Woodman, University of Edinburgh (Local Organiser)

For more information on WAGNet please visit their website here.

Military Ethics ConferenceSat 31 Oct 2015

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A unique public day long conference on Chinese and Western Approaches to Military Ethics: Ethics Education, Decision Making and Scholastic Traditions will run at the Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh on Saturday 31 October 2015.

Military Ethics Conference

The conference is an open event for which registration is required.  The programme for this can be downloaded here as a Military Ethics Conference Programme

Approaches to military ethics are undergoing review in Chinese and Western academies, faced with common or comparable problems: changes within the armed forces and within society; new educational, technological and professional demands placed on the military; and developing debates over the relationship between contemporary ethical initiatives and the intellectual resources offered by historic Chinese and Western just war theories.

Expanding contact through international missions, particularly for peacekeeping purposes, has lent further impetus to the drive for greater mutual understanding within both military and diplomatic institutions.

The academic literature comparing Chinese and Western approaches stretches from works suggesting great similarities to essays focused on perceived differences, historical, conceptual, political, and strategic.

This conference will bring Chinese, British, American and other academics together with non-academic interlocutors with specialist interests in comparing approaches to military ethics and to professional ethics education.

Please see the downloadable PDF for full details. To register please use this Eventbrite booking link.

 

 

Schools’ Day for Scotland – RSAA, SCEN & CIS 28 Oct

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RSAA logoWorking with the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and SCEN*, the Confucius Institute for Scotland is pleased to invite senior students from schools across Scotland to attend a day of talks on aspects of Asia on Wed 28th October 2015.

This is an inaugural event for RSAA and builds on the well established and most successful Schools’ Day in London.

Open to students in the 16-18 age group, the conference will both inspire and educate in equal measure. Featuring a number of speakers, including James Brodie of the China Britain Business Council, and explorer and adventurer Jamie Bunchuk there will also be career-focused sessions with professionals and language tasters on offer – in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Japanese.

There is no charge for  attendance and lunch is provided.

If you require further information please contact Shaun McPhee, of the RSAA by email to shaunmcphee@rsaa.org.uk or by telephone on 0791 334 6611, during normal office hours.

* Scotland China Education Network

Memory, Gender and Change in China: Symposium 11 Sept ’15

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This day long symposium is organised by WAGnet (Women and Gender in Chinese Studies network) and will take place on Friday 11th September 2015 at the Confucius Institute for Scotland.

Memory, Gender and Change in China

The outline programme for the day is shown at the bottom of this page or you can download the WAGNet Symposium Programme. To listen to a podcast record of the day please click here.

Symposium Themes from Speakers

  • New wave feminism
  • LGBT communities
  • Campaigns against violence against women
  • Dating and violence
  • Reproductive cultures
  • Technologies of intimacy
  • Politics of photographic representation of the female body
  • Socialist masculinities
  • Men’s role in family planning and contraception
  • Transnational feminist organizing

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

Programme overview Titles and Participants
0900-0915
Welcome and introduction		 Welcome from the Confucius Institute for Scotland

Introduction to the day: Dr Sophia Woodman, University of Edinburgh
0915-1030
Keynote Address		 Prof. Harriet Zurndorfer, Leiden University                    Men, Women, Money and Morality:  Gender and the Development of China’s Sexual Economy
1030-1100 Tea/Coffee Break
1100-1230Panel 1:
Tradition and change		 Moderator: Prof. Fiona Moore, Royal Holloway, University of London

Speakers: Dr. Alison Hardie, University of Leeds
Dr. Wu Shengqing, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Dr. Xuelei Huang, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh
1230-1330 Lunch
1330-1500Panel 2:
Socialist heritage and contemporary resonances		 Moderator: Prof. Francesca Bray

Speakers: Dr. Wang Xiangxian, Tianjin Normal University
Prof. Fiona Moore
Dr. Wang Xiying, Beijing Normal University
Dr. Derek Hird, University of Westminster
1500-1530 Tea/Coffee Break
1530-1700Panel 3:
From global to local: reflections 20 years after the UN Fourth World Conference on Women		 Moderator: Dr. Xuelei Huang

Speakers: Feng Yuan, Media Monitor Network for Women & Shantou University
Dr. Robin Runge, George Washington University Law School
Dr. Wei Wei, East China Normal University
Dr. Sophia Woodman
1715-1815 Networking reception

Please note that the organizers intend that this Symposium generate a broad conversation on related themes, so participants are welcome to bring their own concerns and questions, as well as responding to what the speakers have to say.

SPEAKER BIOGS

Francesca Bray is a historian and anthropologist of science, technology and medicine in China and elsewhere. One special focus of her research is gender regimes, another is agriculture, food and identity. Her most recent books are Technology, gender and history in imperial China: great transformations reconsidered (Routledge, 2013), and Rice: global networks and new histories (Cambridge, 2015).

Feng Yuan has been working on gender and women’s rights issues in China since the mid-1980s. From 1986-2006, she worked as a journalist, and from the 1990s on co-founded several women’s NGOs, including Media Monitor for Women Network (1996-), Anti Domestic Violence Network/Beijing Fanbao (2000-2014) and Equality (2014-). She is also a guest professor at the Center for Women’s Studies at Shantou University.

Alison Hardie has just retired as Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, and remains a researcher with the White Rose East Asia Centre.Her research interest is the cultural history of the late Ming; she has written on women’s use of gardens at that time. She has recently completed a monograph on the poet, playwright and politician Ruan Dacheng, and is now working on political drama in the Ming-Qing transition

Derek Hird is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Westminster. His research focuses on men and masculinities in China.His research focuses on men and masculinities in China. He has written on topics such as white-collar men, androgyny and domestic violence, and is currently researching the experiences of transmigrant Chinese men in London. He is the co-author of Men and Masculinities in Contemporary China (Brill 2013).

Huang Xuelei is Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include early Chinese cinema, social and cultural history of late Qing and Republican China.Her research interests include early Chinese cinema, social and cultural history of late Qing and Republican China. Her publications include Shanghai Filmmaking: Crossing Borders, Connecting to the Globe, 1922-1938 (Brill 2014) and several essays in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Twentieth-Century China, etc.

Fiona Moore is Professor in Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research interests include gender and ethnic diversity in multinational corporations and cross-cultural management.She is currently conducting a study of Taiwanese professional networks in Toronto.

Robin Runge is an Associate Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she has taught Public Interest Lawyering and Domestic Violence Law since 2004, including in the clinical education program. Since 2007, Professor Runge has worked with civil society organizations and the judiciary in China to develop curricula and conduct trainings for Chinese lawyers and judges on domestic violence, and has consulted on local, regional and national policies and laws to respond to domestic violence in China. In 2014, she co-authored a report containing recommendations for China regarding its national anti-domestic violence law.

Wang Xiangxian is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tianjin Normal University.Her research interests focus on gender and family planning, domestic violence, fatherhood and masculinity and feminist history. She is the author of several books including Introduction to the Second Sex (Tianjin People’s Press, 2010), Intimate Violence: A Case of 1,015 University Students (Tianjin People’s Press, 2009) and Gender in Everyday Life (Tianjin People’s Press, 2009). She has been active in organizing campaigns against intimate violence on campus.

Xiying Wang is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Beijing Normal University. Her major research interests include gender studies, feminist theory and human sexualities, qualitative research methods, gender-based violence, sex education, and women living with HIV/AIDs.

Wei Wei is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Development, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. His research focuses are LGBT communities and movements, urban queer spaces, Chinese masculinities and HIV/AIDS prevention. He is the author of two Chinese books: Going Public: The Production and Transformation of Queer Spaces in Chengdu, China (2012) and Queering Chinese Society: Urban Space, Popular Culture and Social Policy (2015).

Sophia Woodman is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science. Her research interests include citizenship, human rights and social movements in contemporary China, with a focus on the every day politics of citizens, including the gendered character of citizenship. A publication on these themes is Law, translation and voice: the transformation of a struggle for social justice in a Chinese village, published in Critical Asian Studies in 2011.

Harriet T. Zurndorfer is an Affiliated Fellow of the Leiden Institute for Area Studies in the Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University in the Netherlands where she has worked since 1978. She is founder, and editor-in-chief of the journal Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China. She has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College (Oxford), Visiting Professor at the Sorbonne, and a participant in the London School of Economics-sponsored project Global Economic History Network (2003-06), and is currently researching a book on Chinese women’s inequality in the post-socialist era.

This symposium and the preceding two days of workshops are sponsored by the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the Universities China Committee in London and Women and Gender in Chinese Studies Network (WAGNet).

To register for the public symposium please click here.

Chinese Language Teaching in Scotland 12 June: Free Event

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Teaching Chinese in Scotland: Pedagogy Meets the Language is a one day workshop for those involved in, training in, or interested in the teaching of Chinese. Taking place on Friday 12 June 2015 at 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9JY there will be a number of parallel workshops running on the day – which is free to attend.

The workshops will be run by experienced teachers and trainers from the Chinese Studies Department in the University of Edinburgh; Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools; School of Oriental and African Studies; Heriot-Watt University; and Dollar Academy.

Running from 9:45am on Friday 12 June 2015, with registration from 9:00am and networking opportunities from 4:15pm this event is free of charge. An outline of the programme for the day is below or simply download the PDF programme for Teaching Chinese in Scotland.

And please do please register for the day via our Eventbrite Booking link.

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE :
Friday 12 June, 50 George Square,EH8 9JY

Time ACTIVITY
0900-0945 Registration
0945-1000 Opening Remarks:
Prof Natascha Gentz & Fhiona Fisher
1000-1045 Plenary Session
We are Chinese Language Teachers!
Learning Chinese across the age spectrum
1045-1130 Workshop Session 1 – choice of 3
1130-1145 Tea/Coffee Break
1145-1230 Workshop Session 2 – choice of 3
1230-1315 Workshop Session 3 – choice of 3
1315-1400 Lunch
1400-1445 Workshop Session 4 – choice of 3
1445-1530 Workshop Session 5 – choice of 3
1530-1615 Plenary Session – Q&A with Panel
1615-1700 Farewell: Tea/Coffee & Networking

 WORKSHOPS Options: delegates can attend up to five

Workshop Options Speaker Working Language
1+2 Approach to Language learning Ms Judith McKerrecher English
Assessment is for learning in  your practice Ms Judith McKerrecher English
Classroom management Ms Judith McKerrecher English
Chinese exams in the UK Ms Suen Lik Chinese + English
Learning technology for the mandarin classroom Mr Billy Prior English + Chinese
SQA Assessments for chinese Ms Lin Fan Chinese + English
Teaching Chinese Grammar Dr Zhu Zhu Chinese + English
Teaching Listening + Speaking Ms Suen Lik Chinese + English
Teaching Reading and Writing Dr Song Lianyi Chinese + English
Teaching Tones + Pronunciation Ms Wu Yanmei Chinese + English

SPEAKERS

Ms LIN Fan, Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools

Lin Fan, a bilingual educator in English and Chinese languages, was an English teacher in China before moving to Scotland to take her MSc in Leadership and Management in Education. She has worked in education for more than 15 years in both China and Scotland. Currently Depute Director of the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools based in Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) at the University of Strathclyde Lin Fan works closely with government organisations in Scotland and China to promote and develop Chinese language and culture for schools in Scotland. Previously she worked at the Scottish Qualifications Authority leading the development of National Qualifications for Chinese for Scotland and for two years was Vice Principal of the Glasgow Chinese School. She also delivers training to PGDE Mandarin students at the University of Edinburgh.

Mrs Judith McKerrecher, Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools

As Professional Development Officer for the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools Judith supports the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in both primary and secondary schools. Additionally she also works with the Confucius Classroom Hubs across Scotland and develops and provides CLPL for teachers and Tianjin teachers.

Judith is currently on secondment from Craigmount High in Edinburgh where she holds the post of Curriculum Leader for Languages – a post previously held at Liberton High. In this role Judith’s work covered French, German, Spanish and Mandarin languages. She also served as Acting Head Teacher with the Edinburgh Community Chinese School on a voluntary basis over a two year period.

Mr Billy Prior, Dollar Academy

Billy teaches secondary Mandarin at Dollar Academy. After graduating from Oxford University with a double first in Chinese, he spent three years in Shanghai working on the project team of a growing bilingual school. He returned to gain a PGDE from Moray House, and has taught since then. His current interests are blended learning strategies and game-based learning.

Dr SONG Lianyi, SOAS, London

宋连谊博士系伦敦大学亚非学院资深中文教师，获伦敦大学语言教学博士学位。他在英从事中文教学20多年，曾任英国汉语教学研究会会长。他主要研究领域是教学法及汉语测试，并与英国同事编写了几本汉语教学课本。

Song Lianyi is Principal Teaching Fellow in Chinese at SOAS, University of London, and has taught Chinese in the UK for over 20 years. He obtained his PhD in foreign language teaching at University of London. He was chairman of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society (BCLTS) from 2002 to 2004. His research covers Chinese language pedagogy, language assessment, teaching material development, etc.

Ms SUEN Lik, SOAS, London

宣力, 毕业于北京语言大学对外汉语教学专业, 现任教于伦敦大学亚非学院中文系, 并兼任伦敦孔子学院英方执行院长。有多年在中国, 香港, 美国及英国从事汉语教学的经验。国家级普通话水平测试员, 英国某考试局中文科高级考官。曾参与欧洲范围内的汉语教学框架的研究。主要研究兴趣为汉语语音，汉语语法，方言研究及语言测试。

Suen Lik  graduated from Beijing Language (and Culture) University, majoring in TCAFL. She is now Principal Lecturer in Chinese at SOAS, University of London, and the Executive Director of ​ ​​the ​ London Confucius Institute, SOAS. She is  ​​an ​ examiner of PSC Chinese pronunciation test (China).  She has​ experience in teaching Chinese in China, Hong Kong, the US and the UK from beginner to Master’s degree level. Her research interests are Chinese syntax, Chinese phonology, Chinese dialects and language testing.

Miss WU Yanmei, Heriot Watt University

吴砚梅目前在郝瑞瓦特大学教中文，之前在曼城城市大学任教。她擅长教汉语的声调与发音，也专注于研究电影在语言教学中的运用。她持有对外汉语教学硕士（谢菲尔德），音乐表演硕士（伦敦）和视觉人类学硕士（伦敦），目前在攻读文化遗产传承的博士。

Wu Yanmei teaches Chinese at Heriot-Watt University. Prior to this, she taught Chinese at Manchester Metropolitan University. She specializes in teaching Mandarin tones/ pronunciation, as well as using films in language teaching. She holds an MA in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Sheffield), an MMus in Music Performance (SOAS), and an MA in Visual Anthropology (Goldsmiths), and is currently reading for a PHD in Heritage and Performance.

Dr ZHU Zhu, University of Edinburgh

朱珠博士，爱丁堡大学中文教学主任，负责爱丁堡大学开设的所有三类中文课程，包括本科及研究生学位课程、跨系公选课程以及面对社会学生的各类各级别课程。朱珠博士在教授各级别汉语课程和汉语教师培训方面经验丰富，并且在二语习得、翻译研究等领域积极从事研究工作。

Dr Zhu Zhu is Chinese Language Programme Director at the University of Edinburgh, overseeing Chinese language provision across the University. She directs the curriculum development of Chinese language courses at both UG and PG levels as well as the design and revision of Chinese language courses for the general public. Zhu has extensive experience in training Chinese language teachers as well as in teaching language classes at ab initio to advanced levels. She is also an active researcher in the fields of Second Language Acquisition and Translation Studies.

BOOKING

To secure your place at this one day event please register now via Eventbrite.
You can download, save or print  Teaching Chinese in Scotland ProgrammeBooklet here.

This event is a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, the Confucius Institute for Scotland and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools.

 

Cultural Globalisation Conference – May 2013

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A two day conference entitled Cultural Globalisation in Historical Perspective: Actors, Arts and Artefacts will take place at the Confucius Institute on 12-13 May. This international workshop brings together a group of renowned historians working on China, Japan, Africa, India and Latin America.

Globalisation is seen as a recent modern phenomenon but in fact has a long history which can be traced back over centuries. This conference will concentrate particularly on the 19th century which has been labelled as “the century of globalisation”.

The opening address will be given by Professor Tom Devine while the keynote address at 6pm on Wed 12 May comes from Arif Dirlik. For full details of the programme, the participants and the papers please visit our micro-site.

China PostGrad Network Conference – June 2012

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The China Postgraduate Network Annual Conference taking place in Edinburgh on 18 and 19 June 2012 is now fully subscribed. Supported by the British Association of Chinese Studies, the Institute of Academic Development and the Confucius Institute for Scotland the conference has proven to be very popular.

Open to graduates and scholars from all disciplines whose work relates to China this conference provides an opportunity to present research and receive feedback, listen to keynote speeches by leading experts and network with colleagues from across the UK.

Further details on the conference can be found here.

Art in Translation: Keynote and Conference – October 2011

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A full day conference on 28 Oct with a keynote address the evening before will examine the topic of Chinese Art:Translation, Adaptation and Modalities. The conference is part sponsored by the Confucius Institute for Scotland and is organised by Art in Translation.

DAY 1: The keynote address at 5.15pm on Thursday 27 October will be given by Roderick Whitfield, University of London,SOAS on the topic `When Buddhism Came to China`. The venue will be Lecture Room 1 at 20 Chambers Street

DAY 2: The full day conference programme on Friday 28 October runs from 9.30am-6pm and will take place in Teviot Dining Room, Teviot Row Student Union, 13 Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AJ.

Session 1: Why Translate?

Puay-Peng Ho, The Chinese University of Hong Kong: Mind the Gap: Will More Translated Works in the Field of Chinese Architectural History Help?
Michael Nylan, University of California-Berkeley: Heritage Issues in Translation: Convergent Preoccupations in Chinese and Western Scholarship
Chia-Ling Yang, University of Edinburgh: Archaic Art and Translated Modernity in China

Session 2: Exotic China, Exotic West

Youngsook Pak, University of London SOAS: Chaekkori – a Chosŏn Conundrum –
Alain George, University of Edinburgh: Chinese Art and Culture in the Islamic World (7th–10th c)
Yuka Kadoi, Art Institute of Chicago: China in Islamic Art after the Mongol Invasions of Eurasia: Centuries of Translations
Hsueh-Man Shen, New York University: ‘Dragon’ or ‘Long’ in Chinese Art

For more information and to book please visit http://www.artintranslation.org/
Attendance is charged at £30 (£15 concession) inclusive of full conference attendance plus an evening reception on Day 1 and tea/coffee plus lunch on Day 2.

Art in Translation aims to broaden the scope of understanding of art, architecture and visual design through events such as this conference and through its online journal which publishes English translations of the best writing on these topics from across the globe.

BACS -priority registration open till 31 July – September 2011

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Priority delegate registration for the British Association of Chinese Studies conference being organised with the Confucius Institute for Scotland is available until Sunday 31st July.

Opening on September 7th with keynote addresses from renowed Professors Wang Hui and David Derwei Wang the conference will run through till mid-afternoon on Friday September 9th. A special exhibition on `Cao Yu: Pioneer of Modern Chinese Drama` created by the Shanghai Theatre Academy Theatre Museum working with the University of Leeds will also be on show during the Conference.

For more information and to register please visit the Conference website.

BCLTS – conference programme available – June 2011

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The conference programme for BCLTS 29 Jun-01 Jul is now available to download along with cross-referenced abstracts. The conference dinner will take place on Wednesday 29 June and non-members are requested to book and pay online if they wish to attend the dinner which is charged at only £15.

China Inside-Out – March 2010

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An innovative creative writing conference will take place in early March with options to attend some or all of the varied event programme.

Organised by the Confucius Institute in conjuntion with Scottish PEN this three day event brings together Chinese women writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry in English with Scottish women writers. Opening with a keynote public lecture on Thursday 11 March in the Playfair Library and two days of events at Abden House on 12 and 13 March booking is now available. For full details please visit our micro-site, www.confuciusinstitute.ac.uk/china-inside-out

International Business Conference – October 2009

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Event Date: 28/10/2009

Sponsored by the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the University of Edinburgh Business School will be hosting a conference on 29-30 October 2009. Organised by Dr Ling Liu and Professor John Henley, the theme of the conference is: ‘The State and the Internationalisation of Business: Is There a China or India Model?’.

The governments of China and India have pursued significantly different economic development paths over the past two decades, yet each has achieved significant economic growth. China is developing an outward-oriented, collectivist growth strategy, whilst India prefers a domestic-oriented, large business in-house driven political economy compatible with mass democracy; yet each has presented an increasing integration with the world economy in terms of international trade and foreign direct investment. Going into the current global financial crisis, both China and India have substantial foreign exchange reserves, yet retain dissimilar economic structures. The conference will seek to explore whether there is a convergence or divergence of the internationalisation paths of China and India and to project the future position of China and India in the world economy.

Institute Gathering in Edinburgh

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Directors and staff of ten Confucius Institutes from around the UK met in Edinburgh for a full day meeting to discuss operational and development opportunities for CINUK (Confucius Institute Network, UK).

The growth of the Confucius Institute network in the UK is shown by the increased geographical spread and extended reach of the partners. With ten tertiary education based Institutes now in the UK and twenty Confucius Classrooms across the country, demand in this area is one which, against most trends, is expanding. This expansion is mirrored elsewhere in the world with new partnerships being established which will take the number of Institutes to around 300.

By working together CINUK members aim to manage costs, expand the programme of activities and share knowledge and best practice with each other.

Int`l Workshop on `Old Chinese` – January 2009

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An international academic workshop on `Old Chinese philosophy and religion` drawing speakers from Harvard, Leuven, Lampeter, Oxford and Cambridge, will be held at the Confucius Institute from 29 Jan-02 Feb 2009.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Social Council, and as a cooperation project between Oxford`s British Inter-University China Centre and Edinburgh Chinese Studies, the workshop is the first of a series of four to be held at different universities and is designed to help graduate students from the UK researching Classical Chinese topics to develop research techniques and a wider knowledge base through reading and discussing innovative `works in progress` from the expert scholars leading the workshop sessions.

The leading idea is to connect the various UK centres for the study of Old Chinese into a nationwide network to facilitate specialised research-training in Old Chinese phonology, palaeography, grammar, literature, philosophy, and religion for graduate students, and strengthen the international visibility of traditional Sinology in the UK at large.

The Edinburgh Workshop Programme is outlined below:

Friday January 30th 2009

9.00 – 10.00 Introductions

10.00 – 11.15 Michael Puett (Harvard)
Texts: Liji passages on ritual theory

11.30 – 12.45 Roel Sterckx (Cambridge)
Talk: Religion in practice in Warring States and Early Imperial China: methods, themes and issues

13.45 – 14.45 Roel Sterckx (Cambridge)
Texts: texts on early Chinese religion in practice: ritual, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer in excavated texts, Liji, Chunqiu fanlu

15.00 – 16.00 Carine Defoort (Leuven)
Talk: The use and absence of‘persuasive definitions’ in ancient Chinese texts

16.15 – 17.30 Carine Defoort (Leuven)
Texts: classical passages on regicide and benefit: Chunqiu, Shangshu, Mengzi, Xunzi, Guanzi, Lüshi Chunqiu etc.

Saturday January 31st 2009

9.30 – 10.30 Hilde De Weerdt (Oxford)
Talk: philosophy and genre: the (Neo-)Confucian tradition

10.45 – 12.30 Hilde De Weerdt
Texts: letters as major sources for intellectual exchange in imperial
China
Methodology: experiment with text markup and digital analysis on a
small sample of set texts.

Sunday February 1st 2009

9.00 – 10.00 Thomas Jansen (Lampeter)
Talk: Reading the `Longhua baojuan` (Precious Scroll of the Dragon Flower`)

10.15 – 11.30 Thomas Jansen
Texts: chap. 1: `Hundun chufen pin di yi 混沌初分品第一`

11.45 – 12. 45 Adam Yuet Chau (Cambridge)
Talk: The Kangxi Emperor Sponsors and Hosts an Offering Ritual for a Minister’s Deceased Mother

14.30 – 15.45 Adam Yuet Chau
Texts: texts on offering rituals
(Rulin waishi and posts to two late 17th cent. painting scrolls)

16.00 – 17.00 Elisabeth Hsu (Oxford)
Talk: Medicine during the last three centuries BC

17.15 – 18.30 Elisabeth Hsu
Texts: Pulse diagnostic texts from the 2nd century BC

Asia Links Conference: interKULTUR

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Academics from China, Germany and Edinburgh held a three day working conference at the Confucius Institute.

interKULTUR is a collaborative European-Chinese project to develop an international higher education curriculum focusing on inter-cultural content, inventive didactic practice, and the application of new media in developing teaching material and course delivery.

For More Information on interKULTUR