Category Archives: China

NYT Columnist Brooks on Chinese Education

This was kind of a fun read. (Read the rest at the New York Times website, here.) Any thoughts?

THE LEARNING VIRTUES

Jin Li grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. When the madness was over, the Chinese awoke to discover that far from overleaping the West, they were “economically destitute and culturally barren.” This inspired an arduous catch-up campaign. Students were recruited to learn what the West had to offer.

Li was one of the students. In university, she abandoned Confucian values, which were then blamed for Chinese backwardness, and embraced German culture. In her book, “Cultural Foundations of Learning: East and West,” she writes that Chinese students at that time were aflame — excited by the sudden openness and the desire to catch up.

Li wound up marrying an American, moved to the States and became a teacher. She was stunned. American high school students had great facilities but didn’t seem much interested in learning. They giggled in class and goofed around. Continue reading →

Chinese Religion, Philosophy and Culture Program at Renmin University

Chinese Religion, Philosophy and Culture Program (CRPCP)

Renmin University of China (RUC)

Starting from 2012, the Chinese Religion, Philosophy and Culture Program (CRPCP) offers overseas students, who are not proficient in Chinese language, the opportunity to study Chinese Religion, philosophy and culture while living in China. CRPCP attracts students from all over the world and hopes to create a unique multidisciplinary and multinational environment in which diverse backgrounds and experiences will enhance rigorous academic study.

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Conference, Organization, and Journal: Comparing China and the West

COMPARING CHINA AND THE WEST:
Bringing the Disciplines Together

The International Association for Comparative Study of China and the West (IACSCW) invites proposals for presentations at its conference to be held in Beijing at Peking University from 12 to 14 July 2013. Its primary purpose is to bring together from all over the world individuals and organizations with an ongoing interest in comparing China and the West.

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Confucius on Tiananmen Square – UPDATED

(AP photo)

UPDATED and moved to top: As Steve Angle reported in comments a couple of days ago, apparently the statue has been moved inside the museum! Confucianism revivalists are up in arms. Information about why this was done — whether long-planned, or not -– is contradictory. The English-language press is now reporting this, though they don’t have much information, either!

Here’s a New York Times piece about it from yesterday: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/23/world/asia/23confucius.html?_r=1

If you hover over the Times picture, it shows you a dramatic(?) before and after shot. Note this interesting quote from the piece:

Guo Qijia, a professor at Beijing Normal University who helps run the China Confucius Institute, said that only Confucian teachings could rescue China from what he described as a moral crisis.

“Students come home from school and tell their parents, ‘One of my classmates got run over by a car today — now I have one less person to compete against,’ ” he said. “We have lost our humanity, our kindness and our spirit. Confucianism is our only hope for becoming a great nation.”

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Chinese History Positions at ANU

For historians who patiently abide our company, I relay this announcement from John Makeham:

The Australian National University (ANU) is currently advertising two new positions in Chinese History:

These are both research-intensive positions. One position is a Senior Fellow specializing in the late imperial and contemporary periods (the Republic and People’s Republic, and Taiwan). The other position is for a Fellow specializing in the pre-modern period.

I would be most grateful if you could bring the following link–which provides details of the positions–to the attention of interested parties: http://jobs.anu.edu.au/PositionDetail.aspx?p=1949

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Is Chinese Philosophical Thought "Alternative" For Us?

I’ve heard a number of times over the years, from various sources both within and outside of the world of Chinese philosophy, that Chinese philosophical thought represents an “alternative” philosophical tradition, very different from “our own”, and that we are conceptually barred from coming to a full understanding of this tradition, that we will always be looking through the misconceptions, in some sense or another, of the western tradition.  Roger Ames and David Hall endorsed something like this view, on the basis of cultural difference (while admittedly still maintaining that understanding the Chinese tradition at some level is possible).  At the extreme there is Alasdair MacIntyre’s problem of incommensurability that threatens to undermine the possibility of understanding alternative traditions at all.   What all of these views seem to assume, however, is that western scholars are in the position of having to translate Chinese philosophical concepts into concepts we more readily understand, concepts from western thinkers. Continue reading →