Category: announcements

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.