The fascinating new(ish) website and project, Thinking China, is well worth a look. Part of a broader project called The China Story, it aims to document contemporary Chinese thinking on a range of subjects, and offers information and links to resources on several intellectuals already. The following discussion of its goals is quite compelling — and interestingly connected to some recent discussions on this blog:

Many Chinese intellectuals have written about what they regard as the indiscriminate embrace of ‘imported ideas’ characteristic of twentieth-century Chinese thought, but few have articulated ways in which the productive assimilation of such ideas can over time contribute to ways in which Chinese ideas can circulate more widely in the global context – and how the international currency of Chinese thought may well contribute to the ways we all think about and inhabit a world culture of which China is a constituent and central part.

We believe that, whereas, many Western-trained Chinese academics have found a voice (or a niche) in global English-language discourse, there writings tend to reflect academic concerns, in particular American-centric academic concerns. We hope that, by casting the net wide and working with leading younger and established writers and thinkers throughout the Sinophone world the section Key Intellectuals will become a database of Chinese thinkers that can, in some small way, help redress these distorting imbalances.

Comments and discussion welcome!