Some of you may already have noticed our recently established “Research Center for Chinese Cultural Subjectivity in Taiwan“.

Over the last three years we have been organizing, among many others events, a lecture series on important issues relating to intercultural theory, Chinese culture and intellectual history (as viewed from the perspective of a modern, diverse, and democratic society like Taiwan). Gunter Senft, Yang Rubin 楊儒賓, Yang Fenggang 楊鳳崗, and Haun Saussy were among the past speakers. This spring, David B. Wong will present five online-lectures on “Metaphor and Analogy in Early Chinese Thought: Governance within the Person, State, and Society” (more details soon). Notice that we also have a newsletter and a digital magazine (in Chinese and English).

Most recently, our newsletter published an interview with the French scholar Jean-Yves Heurtebise (Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei). Dr. Heurtebise has just published a very impressive scholarly monograph in French on the possibility of intercultural philosophy (Jean-Yves Heurtebise, Orientalisme, occidentalisme et universalisme, Paris: MA Editions, 2020). Here is the link to the transcribed interview in English and in Chinese (first part; second part). His sharp critique of the “orientalizing” tendencies in François Jullien’s writings, but also his use of notions like “occidentalism” and “transculturality” echo the discussions among North-American scholars surrounding Edward Slingerland’s recent book on the “myth of holism”. I guess, there never has been a better time to think about these issues than today!