Category: announcements

“The Beginnings of Writing in China:
Managing Livestock and Anxiety”

The National Museum of Scotland holds the largest collection of inscribed ancient Chinese oracle bones (1800 fragments from c.1300 BCE) in Europe (the second biggest outside of Asia), donated by two Scottish missionaries in 1909.  A three day academic conference will take place in the University of Edinburgh at the end of which there will be a public lecture which will consider the early origins of writing in China.

Background

The emergence of literacy in a culture previously unexposed to writing is an exceedingly rare, but consequential event, one that has taken place at only a tiny handful of places and times. Northern China, circa 1300 BCE, of was one of those places and times. Archeological evidence for the beginnings of literacy in China is spectacular in its abundance, and arguably provides a more complete picture of the process than that from any other region.

Abstract

Records of divination inscribed onto cattle scapulae and turtle shells are the most numerous and best known examples of early Chinese writing. They document divination performed on a daily basis to address the sacrificial routines and personal anxieties of the Shang royal family. But these so-called ‘oracle bones’ are only part of the picture. Brush-written labels on stone and pottery objects, and inscriptions on cast bronze objects, are two other important strands of early evidence. Documents written on strips of bamboo or wood bound together with thread have not survived, but their role in maintaining registers of sacrificial livestock can be reconstructed from references to them in the ‘oracle bone’ texts. By combining these complementary lines of evidence, we can start to answer the question ‘How does writing begin?’

Biography

Adam Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, and a curator in the Asian Section of the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. His research is focused on the beginnings of writing and literate institutions in China, and the linguistic and palaeographic reconstruction of the earliest stages of the Chinese language.

Public lecture details

Friday 20th May 18.00-19.15 followed by a drinks reception
Confucius Institute for Scotland, Abden House, 1 Marchhall Crescent, EH16 5HP

Guest Lecturer Lanyan Chen from Nipissing University, Canada will talk on the topic of Gender Statistics and Local Governance in China on Tuesday 24th May at 5.30pm.

ABSTRACT

Gender statistics provide an essential tool to mainstream gender equality in policymaking through the recognition of gender differences in all fields of life. It is a legacy of feminist movements since the 1970s to bring forth recognition of challenges women face differently from men in order to effect substantive equality.

This talk identifies the lack of gender statistics in China’s statistical systems and its negative impacts on local policymaking based on the findings of a project carried out in three local districts of Tianjin. From a feminist political economy perspective, Lanyan Chen argues that gender statistics will not find its way into policymaking, which is a process in China built upon centralized statistical reporting systems that serve the senior governments more than local communities. It is her suggestion that policymaking is a site of contestation whereby community activists demand the use of gender statistics to assist policies to promote equality.

BIOGRAPHY

Lanyan Chen, is an Associate Professor of Social Welfare and Social Development, holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of British Columbia and a Master’s in Communications from Simon Fraser University. She publishes in both English and Chinese and brings a perspective of feminist political economy to her areas of research.

Her publications in areas of gender issues and inequality, the women’s movement, health and welfare, and public policy, includes a book entitled Gender and Chinese Development: Towards an Equitable Society (Routledge, 2008), and many book chapters and journal articles in Feminist Economics, Development and Change and China Quarterly.

While her published research has mostly focused on China, she is increasingly doing research on these issues in Canada and other countries using comparative perspectives. As a researcher, she takes her role seriously in spreading knowledge and working with people to think of a way forward. This approach reflects her experiences with several United Nations appointments including the UNIFEM Gender Advisor for Northeast Asia based in Beijing from 1998 to 2003, a position where she was able to create change through projects, campaigns and mobilization of people and communities.

She has had numerous appointments as a Gender Expert, working on the design, implementation, and evaluation of large-scale projects and programmes in support of compliance to international human rights norms and standards. She also initiated situational analyses by way of surveys and field visits; interviews and focus groups; and led training workshops on participatory, action-oriented methodology (PAR); gender analysis; human rights norms and standards; gender statistics; social assessment; and survey design for projects.

Her most recent participation in the evaluation of the United Nations Population Fund country program in China is available here.

Gender Statistics and Local Governance in China
Business School Lecture Theatre 2
29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9JS

From: 5.30 till 7pm including Q&A
All Welcome
This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception

Getting the Terms Straight: Politics, State & Law in the Discourse of Chinese ‘Legalism’

‘Legalism’ is a stepchild of Chinese tradition. Long neglected by Chinese and Western scholars alike, it has until today not been properly understood. The burden of traditional terminology especially seems to have weighted down sinological scholarship and blocked inter-disciplinary approaches to the topic.

This talk will focus on some central terms of ‘legalist’ discourse – including ‘legalism’ itself – in an attempt to reach a clearer understanding of this part of Chinese tradition which is by no means a quantité negligéable.

PROFESSOR KAI VOGELSANG

Kai Vogelsang is professor of Sinology at the University of Hamburg. He studied Sinology and Economics in Hamburg and Taipei receiving a PhD in Hamburg (1997) and subsequently in Munich (2004). His fields of research are Chinese history of the pre-Qin period and the late 19th/early 20th centuries with a focus on conceptual history.

This is the third lecture in our 2016 Distinguished Lecture Series.The venue for the talk by Professor Kai Vogelsang is the Project Room, 50 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JU from 6pm on Thursday 19 May 2016. Following on from the lecture and Q&A there will be a networking drinks reception.

All Welcome. No booking is required.