I often have trouble understanding the ease with which some Western observers/scholars living outside of Chinese-speaking societies try to merge modern feminist ideas with traditional Chinese culture, especially Confucian discourses. From a more embedded perspective, these attempts often look oversimplifying, or simply unconvincing. Again and again, social reality in China follows its own laws, not those imagined by observers outside of China.
Category Archives: Chinese philosophy – 中國哲學 – 中国哲学
Job at City University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong is advertising for a position; one option is expertise in Chinese/comparative philosophy; please see here.
CFP, New York Conference on Asian Studies 2018
Dear colleagues,
The annual meeting of the New York Conference on Asian Studies — NYCAS 2018 — will be hosted by the Rochester Institute of Technology on September 21 and 22, 2018. The theme of the meeting is “Innovation and Invention.” Paper, panel, and roundtable proposals are welcome from faculty and students in New York and beyond. Information on the meeting and how to submit your proposal is available here: https://www.rit.edu/cla/nycas2018/. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide any travel subsidies. To learn more about NYCAS, visit http://asianstudies.buffalo.edu/nycas/.
Kristin Stapleton
NYCAS Executive-secretary
D’Ambrosio and Connolly on Teaching Chinese Philosophy
If you or a colleague are wondering about how to teach Chinese philosophy within the framework of a “traditional” Western philosophy class — or if you’re interested in debates about the aptness of this approach — this article should be very interesting: Paul D’Ambrosio and Timothy Connolly, “Using Familiar Themes to Introduce Chinese Philosophy in Traditional Courses (for the Non-Specialist),” Teaching Philosophy 40:3 (Sept 2017).
New Book: Swartz, Reading Philosophy, Writing Poetry
The Harvard University Asia Center has published Wendy Swartz, Reading Philosophy, Writing Poetry: Intertextual Modes of Making Meaning in Early Medieval China. The press’s description is here, or read on.
Woodenfish Humanistic Buddhist Monastic Life Program 2018
Woodenfish Humanistic Buddhist Monastic Life Program 2018
Dates: July 1st to July 28th, 2018
Applications for the 2018 Program are now open! Please help us by sharing with your students.
For more information: http://www.woodenfish.org/hbmlp2018
The objective of the program is to promote the understanding of Chinese Buddhism by exposing participants to the daily life, practice and theory of Buddhism within a traditional Buddhist monastic setting.
AAR CFPs for various groups
Several groups within the American Academy of Religion (AAR) sponsor papers and panels that may be relevant to readers of the blog. A full list of AAR groups, along with their specific foci, is here. Note in particular the Confucian Traditions group and the Daoist Studies group. Paper proposals for next fall’s AAR annual meeting in Denver are due by March 1, 2018, via the submission system on the AAR website.
Fall 2018 one-course teaching opportunity at Wesleyan
The Philosophy Department at Wesleyan University is looking for an instructor to teach one section of Classical Chinese Philosophy during the Fall, 2018 semester. (I normally teach this class, but will have a reduced teaching load due to an administrative appointment.) Interested candidates should send a CV and cover letter (please be sure to reference your teaching experience) to me. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue as needed. Please also direct any questions to me.
Request for info and assistance on translation
The following is an open letter from Hans Kuijper and Wang Ronghua; please see below for their contact info, and respond directly to them if you are interested in the project here described. Of course, discussion on the blog of the ideas raised here is also encouraged! (I have edited the letter slightly.)
To whom it may concern:
The resurrection of China over the last three decades or so has taken the world by surprise, and the cause(s), nature, scale and speed of her transformation have been the subject of numerous publications in the Western world. The mounting interest in the country that fast moves to the center stage of world politics is not confined to universities, for more and more people outside of academia are curious about China’s economy, polity, society, history, and culture. Though it is questionable whether all these publications are based on solid research and bear witness to a sound theory, it is certain that many misconceptions about China prevail, misconceptions that may easily result in the pursuit of wrong, if not disastrous, policies towards it.
Correction: 4th RWCP to be held April 13, 2018
The Fourth Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy will take place on Friday, April 13. The format will be similar to the third workshop (held in 2016): scholars of Chinese philosophy have written essays engaging with contemporary Western analytic philosophy, and major figures in the latter tradition will respond to each paper. Initial information is here, and I will post updates here as more information becomes available.
