Kategorie: Migration, China, and the Global Context
The Max Weber Stiftung (MWS) and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) have embarked on a joint research collaboration since 2014. The objective of the collaboration is to contribute to the development of young scholars and academic knowledge in the areas of migration, China and the global context.
A joint research group was established and its activities were officially initiated after an inaugural meeting held on May 29, 2015, in Hong Kong.
“Analyzing the Social Life of Stereotypes” – Interview with Sören Urbansky
We regularly introduce scholars that work in the project by letting them answer three short questions. Today, we talk to Sören Urbansky, a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. Sören…
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 197
Editorial Work between Manuscript and Print Culture: Books, Identities and the Medical Book Bureau in Northern Song Dynasty (CHEN Hao) This talk will explore the interaction between the transformation of the materiality of textual knowledge and the identities of the related knowledge communities based on a study of the Medical Book Bureau in Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). The major questions of this talk will be: How did the members of the involved knowledge communities perceive and understand this transformation/co-existence of manuscript and print culture? […]
Affordable Civilization: Education Reform, Textbook Piracy, and the Question of ‘New Knowledge’ in Modern China
Beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, as the intensified Western aggressions expedited the Qing Empire’s decline, Chinese sociocultural elites started to question the value and relevance of their traditional knowledge system. Believing knowledge to be the secret behind the rise of the Western powers, these elites avidly consumed so-called New Learning (xinxue), … Continue reading Affordable Civilization: Education Reform, Textbook Piracy, and the Question of ‘New Knowledge’ in Modern China
Conference: “The French School of Sociology and Traditional China: For the Centenary of Marcel Granet’s Festivals and Songs in Ancient China”
The conference “The French School of Sociology and Traditional China: For the Centenary of Marcel Granet’s Festivals and Songs in Ancient China”, organized by the Xu-Ricci Centre for Dialogue (Fudan University, Department of Philosophy) and the École…
A Brief Introduction to the Qingshui River Manuscripts
by QU Jian (PhD Candidate, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg / Visiting Researcher, Max -Planck Institute for European Legal History) The Qingshui River Manuscripts (清水江文书) refer to a large number of Ming-Qing (1368–1911) written contracts as well as various other kinds of documents that were found in the Qingshui River Basin of southwest China. Over the last decade, these manuscripts have been enjoying increasing popularity among scholars. This short paper intends to offer some basic information for understanding the Qingshui River Manuscripts in their entirety.
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 196
The Fascination of Handscrolls – Manuscript and Block Print Products of Ming Dynasty Literati Gatherings (CHEN Zhenghong)Handscrolls are a specific sort of manuscript. In Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) literati gatherings they were often a joint production of several people. Written impromptu these were poetic texts which served social interaction. The concrete direction and specific meaning of the poems in handscrolls comes from their relation to the other texts included in the scroll, and because of this they hold a unique fascination. But as soon as […]
New Publication: “Ars, Cognitio et Scientia. L’évolution des savoirs et des techniques en Europe et en China aux époques moderne et contemporaine” (Sinologie française n° 18)
Luca GABBIANI 陆康, ZHANG Baichun 张柏春 (eds.): Jiuxue xinzhi: Zhong Ou zhishi yu jishu yanbian 旧学新知——中欧知识与技术演变 (Ars, Cognitio et Scientia. L’évolution des savoirs et des techniques en Europe et en China aux époques moderne et contemporaine). Be…
Why China Did Not Have a Renaissance – And Why that Matters
By Thomas Maissen and Barbara Mittler The r/Renaissance is often characterized as a particular epoch in European history and an important element in the traditional narrative of the rise of the West….
Annual Conference Talk: Western Knowledge About Reforming China (1972-1989)
On November 20 and 21st 2018, the Annual Conference “Knowledge and Society in Times of Upheaval” of the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland took…
New publication “The Temple and its Actors: Religious Institutions and Urban Communities in China from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republican Era”
Lü Min (Marianne Bujard), Lu Kang (Luca Gabbiani) (eds.), Xianghuo xinyuan: Ming Qing zhi Minguo shiqi Zhongguo chengshi de simiao yu shimin 香火新緣:明清至民國時期中國城市的寺廟與市民 (The Temple and its Actors: Religious Institutions and Urban Communities in China from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republican Era), Beijing, Zhongxin chuban jituan, 2018 ISBN: 9787508673257. This book is the outcome of an international conference which took place in 2009 at Beijing Normal University (Beijing shifan daxue). It is dedicated to the memory of Li Shiyu (1922-2010), a great specialist of the study of religion in […]
Chinese-European Lecture No. 195
During the eighth century woodblock printing was invented in China. Text and illustrations were reproduced by carving characters and line-drawings onto woodblocks in relief; ink was then applied to the woodblocks and a mirror image of the woodblock impressed on paper. Despite the expansion in the quality and quantity of printing from the late-sixteenth century onwards much late-Ming printing did not observe the artistic standards established in the Song period (960-1276), in particular with regards to the nondescript and impersonal character of the script […]
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 193
Engraved Calligraphy in Woodblock Print Books (QI Xiaochun) Abstract: What is “engraved calligraphy”? Generally speaking, everything in old books that is hand carved onto the printing-block, including handwritten character forms or book-engraver forms which developed out of handwritten character forms, may be referred to as “engraved calligraphy”. Extant old books from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing periods contain abundant examples of “engraved calligraphy”.Why should we study “engraved calligraphy”? From the perspective of art historical research we may say that, firstly, research on the […]
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 192
Baojuan Manuscripts in Modern Performance Traditions of Jiangsu: With “Telling Scriptures” of Changshu County as an Example (Rostislav Berezkin) Abstract: Baojuan 寶卷 (precious scrolls) is a type of Chinese prosimetric literature (with alternation of prosaic and poetic passages) used for ritualized storytelling, mostly with religious subject matter. They appeared around the 13th-14th centuries as a type of Buddhist proselytizing literature, but during the Ming and Qing dynasties served as sacred books of various religious movements. At the end of the 19th-early 20th centuries recitation […]
Conference: “Sovereignty and imperial patronage in China (XIIIth-XXth century)”
The International Conference “Sovereignty and imperial patronage in China (XIIIth-XXth century)”, organized by the École pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and the Palace Museum Research Center for Ti…
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 191
A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Ming-Qing Hui Merchants and their Route Maps and Manuals (WANG Zhenzhong) Abstract: The earliest merchant route books or manuals date from the Southern Song period (1127 – 1279), however they were only produced in large numbers after the 16th century. Judging from the extant exemplars most of these route books were compiled by Hui or Shanxi merchants. During their annual travels and trading Hui merchants composed, revised and recopied many route manuals. These manuals record the distances between […]
Chinese-European Academic Lecture No. 189
Heritage, law and religion: a colonial history of historic preservation in India (Indra Sengupta) Abstract: The term ‘heritage’ in the way in which we in modern times understand material and immaterial remains form the past has been largely defined by the UNESCO’s discourse on world heritage and its vast project of recognising world heritage sites (Glendinning 2013, Jokilehto 2009). It was in use in most countries of Western Europe by the middle of the nineteenth century. But protection of old, historic buildings and structures, […]