Stephen Chan (SOAS University of London)
2:00-3:00pm UK Time Monday 12 February 2024
Room ER231, Elvet Riverside, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University
Abstract
The performance of modernity can be strong in Africa. The South African initiative in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice is one example; the complex debt negotiations undertaken by Zambia throughout 2023 is another. Africa is enmeshed in a modern world where, e.g. relations with China must be conducted in terms of high finance. But, as with almost all modernities, backdrops of cultural traditionalism can be detected and sometimes cynically used in African politics. This in itself is a sophisticated blend, even with sometimes brutal application. The least that can be said is that there is nothing 'primitive' about Africa.
Speaker biography
Stephen Chan is Professor of World Politics at SOAS University of London, where he has also been Foundation Dean. He has worked, and also from time to time lived, in Africa since 1979, helped formulate and pioneer election observation in the 1980 Zimbabwe independence elections, and has been a member of African delegations negotiating in Beijing. He has received state honours from both the UK and Zambia, as well as many academic honours, including the 2010 International studies Association title, Eminent Scholar in Global Development. He has published 37 academic books and continues to advise governments, opposition parties and international agencies.
Professor Jun Qian (Newcastle University)
11-12am Tuesday 7 November 2023
Room ER140
Elvet Riverside, New Elvet
Abstract: Chinese modernity is much more closely linked with Victorian thought as one might assume. Key liberal ideas, including utilitarianism and evolutionism, as represented by J.S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Thomas Huxley, were translated and introduced to China by Yan Fu (1854-1921), who was sent by the government to study at Royal Naval College at Greenwich for two years (1877-1879). Yan Fu’s translations became dominant paradigms of Chinese modernity with huge impact on the younger generation, including key figures, such as Hu Shi and Lu Xun, of the New Culture Movement. On the other hand, Victorian conservative minds, such as Carlyle, Ruskin, Newman and Matthew Arnold, were the sources of inspiration for Gu Hongming (1857-1928), who, educated in University of Edinburgh and armed with Victorian conservative thought, went to discover “Chinese Civilization” as worthy of the Arnoldian “Culture” and became the most “anti-revolutionary” conservative figure in modern China. This talk will first give an overview of Victorian thought in its two strands: liberalism and conservatism, and then discuss how they were appropriated by Yan Fu and Gu Hongming in the modern Chinese context.
Speaker Biography: Jun Qian (Suoqiao) is Professor of Chinese Studies at Newcastle University, UK. He received his PhD in comparative literature from University of California, Berkeley and had taught in a number of universities in the US, China, and Hong Kong. He has published widely in Chinese studies in both English and Chinese, particularly on Chinese modernity studies and cross-cultural studies between China and the world. His most recent work Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth has had two Chinese versions with the same title 《林语堂传：中国文化重生之道》in mainland China and Taiwan, respectively, with much critical acclaim.
Professor Daniel A. Bell (University of Hong Kong), The Revival of Confucianism and Communism in Contemporary China.
Professor Dilip P Gaonkar (North-western University, USA) , Slow Burn of Modernity.
Professor Zhenzhao Nie (Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature, and former Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Study of World Literature at Zhejiang University), Interdisciplinary Reflection on Ethical Literary Criticism: A Comparative Perspective (inaugural lecture series).
Professor Dominic Sachsenmaier (University of Göttingen, Germany), Alternative Modernities – Visions During the 1920s and Today (inaugural lecture series).
Professor Ning Wang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Modernity and the Formation of Modern Chinese Literary Tradition (inaugural lecture series).
