Category: lectures

Join us on Tues 25 Oct when Ian Holliday, professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong delivers a seminar entitled `Rising China and Global Justice`.

Professor Holliday`s research focuses on Burma/Myanmar: issues of political development and reform inside the country, and issues of political engagement confronting actors in the wider world.

His talk on`Rising China and Global Justice` will take place at the Confucius Institute for Scotland on Tuesday 25 Oct 2011 from 6pm-7.30pm following which there will be a short drinks reception.

To reserve a seat please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call us on 0131 662 2180.

His most recent publication is Burma Redux: Global Justice and the Quest for Political Reform in Myanmar. His teaching addresses dilemmas of humanitarian intervention in Burma/Myanmar and elsewhere.

Each summer he directs the MOEI programme, which takes students to the Thai-Burma border and other parts of Southeast Asia to deliver intensive English language classes in marginalized and impoverished communities.

He co-edits the journal Contemporary Politics and was a founding co-editor of Party Politics and of the Journal of Asian Public Policy. He currently serves on about a dozen journal editorial boards. He was educated at the University of Cambridge (BA/MA) and the University of Oxford (MPhil/DPhil).

He taught at the University of Manchester in the 1990s and at City University of Hong Kong in the early 2000s. In the late 1990s he was a Fulbright scholar at New York University. From 2006 to 2011, he was Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.

TALK TITLE: Rising China and Global Justice
VENUE: Confucius Institute for Scotland, Abden House, 1 Marchhall Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 5HP
DATE & TIME: Tuesday 25th October 6pm-7.30pm followed by a short drinks reception.
BOOKING INFO: email to info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or phone 0131 662 2180

Join us to hear two eminent speakers from Tsinghua University and Harvard University present insights into the 1911 Revolution via literary analysis. Taking place in the Playfair Library from 5.30pm-7.15pm followed by a drinks reception on Tsinghau`s Professor WANG Hui and Harvard`s Professor David Der-wei Wang will speak on the topics below:

Professor WANG Hui: Six Moments in the Life of Ah Q:

Professor David Der-wei Wang: `The Future of New China`: Liang Qichao`s Vision of Literature and Revolution

This double bill with such renowned speakers will ensure a vibrant opening session for the 2011 BACS Conference taking place in the University of Edinburgh from 7-9 September.

To book your place at this public event which on Wed 7th Sept in the Playfair Library, Old College, North Bridge, Edinburgh, please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk .

Registered BACS delegates do not need to reserve places.

Join us on the afternoon of 11 August for insights into contemporary Chinese politics and economics delivered by leading Chinese intellectuals from Tsinghua University.

The Confucius Institute, working with LSE, is proud to be host this special event which will see four renowned academics from one of Chinese`s leading universities share their insights and answer audience questions.

The programme for this event is shown below.

Registration 1.30-2.00pm
Welcome 2.00-2.10pm

Political Insight Session 2.10-3.30pm
Speaker: Prof. YAN Xuetong:
“The Trend of International Configuration”
Speaker Prof. WANG Tianfu:
“Social Stratification Structure in China: Past and Present”

Tea & Coffee Break 3.30-4pm

Economic Insight Session 4pm-5.20pm
Speaker: Prof LONG Denggao
“Development and Trend: FDI in China”
Speaker: Prof LIU Taoxiong
“China’s Economic Growth: 2011-2020”
Q&A session 5.20-6pm

Drinks Reception 6pm-7pm

Places for this event are limited and seats must be reserved. To book a space please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk with the subject title Tsinghua at the Confucius Institute. If you have any questions please call on 0131 662 2180.

Join us on Saturday 2nd July 2011, Rainy Hall, New College, the Mound, Edinburgh, to consider aspects of Chinese Cinema in the company of four renowned experts in the field.

Our speakers come from the USA and the UK and all four are contributors to The CHINESE CINEMA BOOK published earlier this month which was edited by our two UK experts.

Dr Song Hwee Lim, co-editor of The Chinese Cinema Book, is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter. He is the author of Celluloid Comrades: Representations of Male Homosexuality in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas (University of Hawaii Press, 2006), co-editor of Remapping World Cinema: Identity, Culture and Politics in Film (Wallflower Press, 2006), and founding editor of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas. He recently completed a book manu entitled Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness. He is Chief Editor of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas.

Dr Julian Ward, co-editor of The Chinese Cinema Book, is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Research interests include travel writing, particularly in the travel diaries of Xu Xiake. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Chinese Cinemas.

Wendy Larson is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Oregon. Her research includes Women and Writing in Modern China (Stanford, 1998), and the co-edited Gender in Motion: Divisions of Labor and Cultural Change in late Imperial and Modern China (Rowman and Littlefield 2005)

Jason McGrath is Associate Professor of Chinese film and literature at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He is the author of Postsocialist Modernity: Chinese Cinema, Literature, and Criticism in the Market Age (Stanford UP, 2008), and his essays on Chinese film have appeared in journals such as Modern Chinese Literature and Culture as well anthologies including Chinese Films in Focus II, and The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. His current projects include an anthology of Chinese critical writings on film and a book entitled Inscribing the Real.

The event will run from 2pm-6pm followed by a reception. The topics on which our speakers will focus are:

2.30pm Wendy Larson `Chinese Culture on the Global Stage: Zhang Yimou and the Fifth Generation Filmmakers`
3.15pm Jason McGrath `Realism and Chinese Independent Cinema
4.15pm Julian Ward `The history of the August First Film Studio: from Socialist Realism to Main Melodies` 5pm Song Hwee Lim `Tsai Ming-Liang and the Cinema of Slowness`

This event is free but to ensure your place please register by email to jie.chen@ed.ac.uk

If you have any questions please call us on 0131 662 2180.

Thurs 21st April will see former Ambassador Platt, long time China specialist, author of `China Boys` and President of the Asia Society in New York for 12 years, address a full house at the Confucius Institute.

As a young diplomatic officer in the early 1960s, when Communist China was firmly closed to the west, Platt took the unusual step of studying Mandarin. This put him in a key position when U.S. relations to China suddenly opened. Platt was one of the State Department officials chosen to accompany President Nixon on his historic visit to China in 1972. The following year he and his family were stationed in Beijing with the opening of a U.S. Liaison Office, the forerunner of the U.S. Embassy in the PRC.

Showing some of his ‘home movie’ footage of the Nixon trip, and film of family and diplomatic events, and reading from his memoir, Platt will talk about life in China in 1973. As a former President of the Asia Society, which oversees numerous contacts and exchanges with China, and a frequent visitor and lecturer in the PRC, Platt is in a unique position to compare those early days of diplomatic contact to relations with the West today, as China now emerges as a major player on the world stage and an economic power house.

The talk takes place in the Confucius Institute for Scotland at Abden House from 6pm-7.30pm and will be followed by a drinks reception.

All available seats for this talk are now booked.

This guest lecture from Prof Shen Li of Fudan University, Shanghai is based on Professor Shen’s reflections on the many students she has taught at Fudan University in the past decade. A thumbnail picture emerges of the prevailing trends among young students in their 20’s as they come and go on campus.

To the fore of their minds is the risk of being pushed to the sidelines, as the legion of students, undergraduate and postgraduate alike, strives to achieve academic excellence and retain their integrity.

Sentiments generally called 浮躁 (fú zào) in Chinese, which include anxiety, uncertainty, and restlessness, are creeping in – largely due, in Professor Shen’s view, to the widespread social maladies known as ‘get-rich-quickism’ , ‘cutting corners’, and ‘easy gains with little effort’.

Professor Shen Li is based in the College of Foreign Language and Literature at Fudan University, Shanghai where she specialises in Metaphor Studies and Second Language Acquisition.

DATE: Tuesday 30 November 2010
TIME: 2.30pm-3.15pm
VENUE:Confucius Institute for Scotland, Abden House

Guest speaker Prof Gao Xi from Fudan University, Shanghai will mark the life of John Dudgeon who at one time was the most famous doctor in Beijing in her lunchtime talk on Tuesday 30th November 2010.

This famous physician was a son of Glasgow and student of Edinburgh.
In the mid 19th century it was said `From the emperor and officials down to the common people, there was practically no one who did not know about his good work in establishing hospitals`.

John Dudgeon was a son of Glasgow, a student at Edinburgh and at one time was the most famous doctor in Beijing, China. In 1863 with his wife in China with his wife in Shanghai in 1863 in the capacity of a medical missionary of London Medical Missionary Society.

His notable achievements include:

• The opening in 1865 of Peking Hospital
• implementation of a new model for medical instruction in China
• the translation of `Gray’s Anatomy` into Chinese

He studied Chinese healing arts and explored the new diseases in Beijing before contributing his research to the Western world, especial to Edinburgh`s medical profession.

In 1884 Dudgeon resigned from the London Missionary Society and concentrated his efforts on modern medical education and the study of Chinese medical culture. He was a medical cultural exchange emissary between China and the Western World in the 19th century.

John Dudgeon died in 1902 and was buried in Beijing in where he had lived for more than 38 years.

Join us to hear more of the work and impact of this 19th century physician.

DATE: Tuesday 30 November 2010
TIME: 1.10pm-2pm
VENUE: 27 George Square, Celtic and Scottish Studies Conference Room, first floor
SPEAKER: Professor Gao Xi, History Department, Fudan University, Shanghai

Shanghai Museum is one of the famous in China housing a diverse and accessible collection of over 120,000 pieces.

The Institute is delighted to host a special lecture by Ms Bao Yanli, Head of the Ethnography and Textiles who will share with us her knowledge and love of Gu Embroidery (Gu Xiu) in a talk on Tuesday 26 October from 6.30-7.30pm.

This is a lesser known art form which originated in one family during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644. In Gu Xiu the artist combines embroidery needlework skills with those used for traditional Chinese painting. This style proved very influential and remained popular until the late 18th century. It is today enjoying a resurgence.

This talk will be in Chinese with translation.

VENUE: Confucius Institute for Scotland
DATE : Tuesday 26th October 2010
TIME : 6.30pm-7.30pm

Friday 4th June at 6pm will see this topic being addressed by widely published Mau-kuei Chang, research fellow of the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, and adjunct Professor of the Department of Sociology, Taiwan University.

On considering the question ‘Is Taiwan a multicultural country? Is multiculturalism an official position of the country?’ the answer must be ‘yes’. Not only do both the DPP and the KMT parties mention multiculturalism in revision articles of the Constitution (1996), but also it has become a “must learn” subject in the high school curriculum since 2006. How has this development come about? How do we make sense of this in Taiwan where politics are always about “unified” and one nation-ness? And, what does this term mean for the general public?

Chang will address this with a quick sketch of different political discourses on nationhood, on people, on difference and on civil rights since 1970’s and examine how these diverse discourses somehow suddenly converge on a very vague, little understood notion of multiculturalism, which in reality and through institutional arrangements affect the daily lives of the people.

Mau-kuei Chan received his PhD sociology degree from Purdue University and has visited U.C. Berkeley and McGill University as Fulbright and exchange scholar. His research and teaching interests include social movement studies, identity politics, and ethnicity and nationalism. He is widely published in both English and Chinese with his most recent being an edited volume titled “Nation and Identity, ideas of some Waishengren” (2010).

Date: Friday 4 June
Time: 6pm-7.30pm followed by a drinks reception

This event is free. To reserve a seat for this talk please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call 0131 662 2180.

Given the speed of development in China it is hardly suprising that the idea of a city constructed in the blink of the eye is central to recent Chinese visual arts.

The instant city is visually represented by miniature models and computerized simulations. The extensive use of architectural modelling -in the media, on the theatre stage, and on the screen – is a symptom of the neoliberal state`s need to reify its vision in idealized form.

In response, some filmmakers have turned to preserving the present condition of cities in images. Others go beyond using new media to propose to propose a post-cinematic and post-spatial understanding of the city.

The Confucius Institute for Scotland is delighted to present a lecture by Professor Yomi Braester, Professor of Comparative Literature and a core member of the the Cinema Studies Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published extensively on film, drama, and fiction in the PRC and Taiwan and is the author of `Witness against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China` (2003) and `Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract` (2010).

LECTURE DETAILS

Urban Utopia and Contemporary Visual Arts in China
Monday 7th June 2010
6.30pm-7.30pm
Ground Floor, Abden House

Followed by a drinks reception

This event is free. To reserve a seat for this talk please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call 0131 662 2180.

Zhang Longxi, City University of Hong Kong gave a talk on Monday 22 March at 6pm in the Confucius Institute for Scotland. A podcast of this talk will be added soon.

His topic was The Complexity of Difference: A Methodological Issue in Cross-Cultural Studies.

ABSTRACT

Difference is a basic fact in life and in our understanding of life, as people are all different as individuals and as social groups and communities. In humanities and social sciences, however, differences are often ignored on the individual level, while emphasized on the collective level. This is particularly true in understanding different cultures. By examining some recent works in East-West cross-cultural studies, Zhang will argue that we should pay attention to the complexity of difference and what Geoffrey Lloyd calls the “multidimensionality” of things so as to avoid the mistake of subsuming individual differences under collective categories, and to go beyond the simplistic claims of universalism as well as the relativist dilemma of cultural incommensurability.

PROFILE

Zhang Longxi is Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation at City University of Hong Kong and Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

ZHANG Longxi holds an MA from Peking University and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He taught at the University of California, Riverside, before moving to City University of Hong Kong, where he is currently Chair Professor of Comparative Literature and Translation.

His research area is East-West comparative studies, and his major book publications include `The Tao and the Logos: Literary Hermeneutics, East and West` (Duke University Press, 1992), which won honorable mention for the Joseph Levinson Book Prize; `Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China` (Stanford University Press, 1998); `Allegoresis: Reading Canonical Literature East and West` (Cornell University Press, 2005); `Unexpected Affinities: Reading across Cultures` (University of Toronto Press, 2007), and most recently, 《比較文學研究入門》[`An Introduction to Comparative Literature`] (in Chinese, Fudan University Press, 2008).

He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in 2009.

Booking is not essential but an advisory email or phone call to help us with planning is appreciated. Please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or call 0131 662 2180.

Event Date: 18/03/2010

Professor Shen Tung of National Taiwan University will present a talk entitled Music Taipei vs. Music Shanghai: A Historic Overview of the Dissemination of Chinese Opera and Popular Songs from Shanghai to Taipei in the 20th Century.

This event will take place in the Confucius Institute starting at 6pm. Places are free but should be booked by email to info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk or by phone to 0131 662 2180

Event Date: 19/01/2010

Eric Schwitzgebel, Professor of Philosophy, University of California at Riverside will present a talk entitled `An Empirical Perspective on the Mencius-Xunzi Debate about Human Nature`

Mencius and Xunzi were two of the early followers of Confucius with polarised opinions on the essential nature of humankind.
Our speaker, Eric Schwitzgebel, Professor of Philosophy at University of California at Riverside, is a prolific writer and a popular and accessible speaker. His areas of interest include philosophy of psychology; philosophy of mind; cognitive development; philosophy of science; classical Chinese philosophy; epistemology; perceptual and cognitive psychology; and metaphilosophy.

The Confucius Institute for Scotland is delighted to have secured him to present this talk on Tuesday 19 January in the Confucius Institute from 6pm. To reserve a seat please email info@confuciusinstitute.ac.uk.

This talk while self-contained is linked to a seminar by Eric Schwitzgebel on the following evening, Wed 20 January. This will be held in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. Entitled `The Moral Behavior of Ethics Professors: Empirical Evidence`

Dr Felix Boecking, University of Edinburgh will present `Understanding China`s Economic Transformation` the last in our series of special PRC at 60 lectures series.

In the last three decades, the People’s Republic of China has experienced a successful market transition with impressively high GDP growth rates. As average incomes have risen dramatically, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty. Equally important is China’s new position as a key player in today’s world economy. However, the increased social inequality and environmental depredation associated with economic reforms in the PRC raise the question of their sustainability. In this talk, Dr Boecking will trace some of the key features of China’s economic development since 1978, and consider the question of China’s economic future.

Felix Boecking is Lecturer in Modern Chinese Economic and Political History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests focus on China’s political economy in its historical context, as well as material culture and consumption in 20th-century China. Felix’s PhD thesis “Tariffs, Power, Nationalism and Modernity: Fiscal Policy in Guomindang-Controlled China 1927-1941” fundamentally challenged the widespread idea that the key to the Communist seizure of power in China lies in the incompetence of the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek (1927-1949) by demonstrating the strength of Nationalist state-building in the crucial area of taxation and fiscal policy.

This lecture will take place in the Raeburn Room, Old College, North Bridge starting at 6pm. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

While bookings for this lecture have closed standby places are available to those without tickets from 6pm

Professor Ian Taylor, University of St Andrews is our fifth speaker in the PRC at 60 Lecture Series.

China`s rise in Africa is arguably the most momentous development on the continent since the end of the Cold War. China is now Africa’s second most important bilateral trading partner, behind only the United States, with Sino-African trade hitting over $100 billion in 2008 (up from $5 billion in 1997). Yet this rise has been met with some criticism in the West and in Africa. This lecture seeks to discuss whether such scepticism is wholly justified.

Ian Taylor is Professor in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews’ School of International Relations and a Professor Extraordinary in Political Science at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He is also Honorary Professor in the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, China and Joint Professor in the Centre for European Studies, Renmin University of China. He is interested primarily in Africa`s political economy and its international relations and in Chinese foreign policy. These two strands come together in an extensive body of work, conducted since 1994, on China`s emerging relationships with Africa. Ian Taylor’s most recent books include China’s New Role in Africa (2009) and China and Africa: Engagement and Compromise (London Routledge, 2006).

This lecture will take place in the Raeburn Room, Old College, North Bridge starting at 6pm. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

While booking for this lecture has now closed standby places are available from 6pm on a first come, first served basis.

Event Date: 11/11/2009

Dr. Li Wengang, a visiting fellow from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will present a lunchtime seminar entitled, `China-Nigeria Relations: A Chinese perspective` on Wed 11 Nov 2009.

The seminar begins at 1300 and the venue is Seminar Room 5, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15A George Square. All are welcome.

Dr. Li Wengang is on sabbatical with the Centre of African Studies from the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

For more information please email African.Studies@ed.ac.uk.

Event Date: 04/11/2009

Professor Natascha Gentz, Director of the Confucius Institute, will give a talk on `The influence of Confucianism on China and the modern world` at the Open Door, Morningside Road, Edinburgh on Wed 4 Nov 10.30-11.30.

Professor Gentz studied in Germany at Heidelberg University, where she took her MA (1994) and PhD (1998) degrees. She has also studied and conducted research at Fudan University, Shanghai (1988-1990), People’s University, Beijing (1995-6), and Tokyo University (1997).

After the completion of her PhD she was engaged in research projects and teaching in the Chinese Departments at Heidelberg University and Göttingen University.

Appointed as a junior professor at Frankfurt University in 2002, she moved to the University of Edinburgh to take up the post of Chair of Chinese in May 2006. In addition to her directorship of the Institute she is Head of Asian Studiea and also Dean International, China in the University of Edinburgh.

In this the fourth of six lectures in the `PRC at 60` series, Professor Jane Duckett`s topic is `The China Challenge: Models, Visions and Global Futures.`

China`s economic power and global influence have led commentators to suggest that it has a model of development and modernity that will challenge the West`s. This lecture looks at the models that China has embraced since 1949 and considers both their origins and very different economic and social outcomes. It argues that having rejected both Maoism and neoliberalism, China may now be at an important crossroads. As it reconsiders its development strategy its government has the opportunity to forge a new model. But will it have the vision and will to overcome formidable opposition?

Jane Duckett is Professor of Chinese and Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics at the University of Glasgow. She studied modern Chinese at Leeds University in the 1980s, and Chinese politics at SOAS, University of London, in the early 1990s. She first lived in China in 1984 and has travelled widely there. Her early work on the Chinese state under market reform included a book-length study, The Entrepreneurial State in China (Routledge 1998). Jane also (with Bill Miller) made a comparative study of public attitudes to economic openness in East Asia and Eastern Europe, published as The Open Economy and its Enemies (Cambridge, 2006). Her current research is concerned with China’s social and health policy and politics. She is now completing two books, The Chinese State`s Retreat from Health, and (with Beatriz Carrillo) China`s Changing Welfare Mix.

All lectures in the PRC at 60 series are fully booked. Standby places are offered to those without tickets subject to spaces being spaces due to no-shows.

In this third lecture of the `PRC at 60` series, Professor Natascha Gentz, University of Edinburgh will lecture on Opening Pandora`s Box: the Cultural Revolution and its repercussions on the ‘Reform and Opening Period’ of the 1980s.`

The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) has been described as a period of `ten chaotic years`. All governmental efforts after the death of Mao Zedong aimed at reuniting society and encouraging contribution to the new opening and reform policy. The lecture will discuss the intricacies involved in this process and why the Cultural Revolution still poses problems for Chinese society today.

Natascha Gentz is Professor of Chinese Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Confucius Institute for Scotland in the University of Edinburgh. Her publications include a monograph on the history Chinese journalism and two edited volumes, on transcultural knowledge transfer in Late Qing China, and on how global media are shaping cultural identities. She has also published a book on contemporary Chinese historical drama as well as dozens of articles on Late Qing and contemporary Chinese drama, literature and media. She has also translated a novel and two volumes of short stories by the Chinese nobel laureate Gao Xingjian.

This lecture will take place in the Raeburn Room, Old College, North Bridge starting at 6pm. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception.

All lectures in the PRC at 60 series are fully booked. Standby places are offered to those without tickets subject to spaces being spaces due to no-shows.

The Playfair Library will host this special guest lecture from Dr Jiemian Yang, President of Shanghai Association of International Relations; and Vice President, China Association of International Relations on the morning of Tuesday 13 Oct. Doors open at 10.15 for a 10.30 start.

Recipient of a number of National Special Awards as well as Shanghai Outstanding Talent Award, Dr Yang has published many papers and books on international relations and foreign policy.

His most recent books include: Sino-US Relations in Post-Cold War Era: Elaboration and Exploration; Sino-US Relations in Post-Cold War Era:Comparative Studies on Foreign Policies; The Taiwan Issue and the World Configuration of Powers: Changes and Challenges; (co-authored), International Terrorism and Contemporary International Relations: Impacts and Influence of the `9-11` Attacks; (co-authored) International Cooperation on Anti-Terrorism: Thinking Beyond Geopolitics; (co-authored) and Sino-US Relations in the Post-Cold War Era: Crisis Management Comparative Studies.

Following the guest lecture tea and coffee will be available from 11.30.

To reserve seats for this prestigious lecture please click here