Seminar 13 October: ‘"Chinese” Studies for the Twenty-first Century’
Published: 13 October 2022
The twentieth-century saw major shifts in the way China and "things Chinese" were studied in universities. While old-fashioned sinology continued to be dominant, the post-1940s Cold War was accompanied by the innovation that was "area studies" which in the China field saw the social sciences take centre stage.
Professor Gregory Lee, University of St Andrews
4pm–5.30pm Thursday, 13 October 2022
Location: Room 139, 29 Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow
The seminar will also be online via Zoom, with registration at: https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvdeyhrT4rHN3a4mYZ-tbRboG9Frs0N12Z
Abstract
The twentieth-century saw major shifts in the way China and "things Chinese" were studied in universities. While old-fashioned sinology continued to be dominant, the post-1940s Cold War was accompanied by the innovation that was "area studies" which in the China field saw the social sciences take centre stage. However, in the literary and cultural field change was slow to arrive with China's twentieth-century literature and culture considered a poor relative next to the sinological canon.
Now, in the twenty-first century what shape should academic studies related to China, Chinese, and Chineseness be taking? How should Scotland's and the rest of the UK's historical vision of, and relationship with, "China" and "Chinese" people be accounted for and represented? How should the vast diversity that is China and the rest of the Chinese-speaking world be broached without creating new and fixed "objects" of study?
About the speaker
As an author, broadcaster and academic, Gregory Lee has been writing and talking about China and "Chinatowns" for the past forty years. He is Founding Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has lived and worked in France, the USA, mainland China, and Hong Kong. His most recent books are China Imagined: From European Fantasy to Spectacular Power (Hurst, 2018) and the dual-language biographical fiction第八位中國商人與消失嘅海員/The Eighth Chinese Merchant and the Disappeared Seamen (Typesetter Press, Hong Kong, 2022).
The Scottish Centre for China Research Seminar Programme gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the MacFie Bequest.
For more details on the SCCR Seminar Series: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/sccr/events/
First published: 13 October 2022
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