Author Archives: tp86kuta

Papers on Philosophy V

Modern and Contemporary
Thursday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room 5

  • Chaired by Ady Van Den Stock
  • Lucien Monson, “Tan Sitong and Philosophical Modernity in China”
  • Katerina Gajdosova, “Names (ming 名) from the Perspective of Onto-Hermeneutics: Reconciling Cheng Chung-ying and Heidegger on the Problem of Language”
  • Antje Ehrhardt, “Mou Zongsan’s (1909–1995) Philosophical Language: Analysing his Concept of ‘Reality’ (shiti 实体)”
  • Christian Soffel, “Cultural Nationalism and Chinese Exceptionalism: Contemporary Chinese Confucians Discussing ‘Universal Values’”

Lucien Monson, “Tan Sitong and Philosophical Modernity in China”

Tan Sitong’s 谭嗣同 (1865–1898) Renxue 仁学 (An Exposition of Ren) is often regarded as one of the earliest works of modern Chinese philosophy. But how do we understand its modernity? When reading a work of modern philosophy, those trained in the history of Western thought might expect to be gratified with developed arguments that establish knowledge on the foundations of universal reason in lieu of appeals to tradition. We might also expect some formulation of rational subjectivity familiar to modern thought in the West. Disappointed scholars have responded to Tan’s work with accusations of immaturity and superficiality. Yet we should remember that these familiar hallmarks of modernity arose against the background of the specific crisis that European intellectuals faced during the 16th and 17th centuries. Approaching Tan’s text with these expectations results in misunderstanding. I argue that while Tan is ambivalent towards much of traditional thought, the philosophical crisis faced by Tan and his contemporaries was primarily a politico-ethical one, not an epistemic one. Therefore, values such as autonomy, freedom of thought, and democracy emerge not as the prerogatives of rational subjectivity but out of the interconnection of all things through ren 仁. Moreover, by observing the way ren is employed as a strategy to navigate the competing world-views of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Western thought we can see a profound vision of modernity that is not reducible to the influences of either traditional Chinese thought or Western modernity.

Katerina Gajdosova, “Names (ming 名) from the Perspective of Onto-Hermeneutics: Reconciling Cheng Chung-ying and Heidegger on the Problem of Language”

The paper seeks to contribute to the debate about the relevance of comparative philosophy approach to the study of ancient Chinese philosophy. It has been frequently pointed out that Western metaphysics, formulated since Plato and Aristotle in deeply dualist terms, does not do justice to ancient Chinese ontology. For a more profound understanding of the Daoist cosmology and the Yijing that constitute the background of pre-Han philosophical texts, a different ontological model is required: the one based on processuality instead of the absolute and unchanging, on unity instead of duality, and on dynamic interaction of opposites instead of unidirectional (subject-object) relationship.
Yet, we do have efficient interpretive models overcoming subject-object split and embracing the view of the continuous interaction of opposites, such as Gadamer’s hermeneutics of being or Heidegger’s phenomenology. The paper demonstrates how these models can be applied to the interpretation of ancient Chinese texts, in particular how the topic of names (ming 名) in the pre-Han philosophy can be reinterpreted from the perspective of Heidegger’s Dasein as self-articulating Being-in-the-world. It thus develops on Cheng Chung-ying’s onto-hermeneutics of the Yijing by bringing in the dimension of language and speech as self-articulation of the cosmos

Antje Ehrhardt, “Mou Zongsan’s (1909–1995) Philosophical Language: Analysing his Concept of ‘Reality’ (shiti 实体)”

In his main work The Moral consciousness and the Moral Nature of Men (Xinti yu Xingti 心体与性体), Mou creates his own philosophical language: he uses numerous compositions, nouns and verbal, of ti 体. With these compositions, he makes clear what, according to him, is the fundamental unit of all that exists. In this way, Mou finds confirmation of his thesis on the possibility of providing a systematic explanation of the Confucian moral doctrine handed down. The central concept of this monistic perspective lies, in Mou Zongsan’s thought, in the concept shiti 实体, which he also expresses in English as “reality.” The paper aims to demonstrate how the concept of Mou shiti (实体) or chuangzao shiti 创造实体, “creative reality,” is to be understood as an intersection point in which the arguments of his three thematic orders converge: his critic of Zhu Xi (1130–1200), his interpretation of Kant’s moral philosophy and his understanding of Confucian moral philosophy. As one of the most significant New Confucians (xin ru jia 新儒家) of the twentieth century, Mou Zongsan argues that Confucian doctrine has a cross-cultural value because of its “religious and ethical ideals.” According to Mou, Confucian doctrine, as religious and moral faith, includes equally the needs of a philosophical metaphysics and those of a religion.

Christian Soffel, “Cultural Nationalism and Chinese Exceptionalism: Contemporary Chinese Confucians Discussing ‘Universal Values’”

In spite of the remarkable changes within the People’s Republic of China during the past decades, leading to economic growth, an increased standard of living and—at least on the surface—a significantly higher level of political and cultural self-confidence, the focus on national peculiarities is a persisting theme in the intellectual discussion of the PRC still today. In particular, this can be observed by taking a look at the discussion of universal values that took place among influential Confucian scholars around the years 2012–2014. The contents of a series of conferences, published under the title He wei pushi? Shei zhi jiazhi? 何謂普世？誰之價值？(What is universal? Whose values?), permit us to take a glance at the layer behind the ideologically controlled surface and get acquainted with some modes of thinking widespread among Confucian intellectuals from the PRC. From an analysis of these discussions about “universal values”, we will be able to reflect on arguments that are used to “exceptionalize” Chinese culture and devalue Western culture. Instead of trying to enrich the global discussion on the notion of “universal values” with elements from Chinese cultural tradition, the focus is laid on strengthening the own tradition while eliminating the “Western values”. In addition, this form of Chinese cultural nationalism is combined with materialistic thought, which can be traced back to Marxist ideology.

Religious History of Modern Sichuan

Discussing Local Identities, Inter-Religious Borrowing, and Cross-Regional Networks
Wednesday
9:00 am – 12:45 pm
Room F

  • Organised by Stefania Travagnin
  • Stefania Travagnin, Chair
  • Stefania Travagnin, “From the Center to the Periphery: the Modern Buddhist History of Neijiang”
  • Lars Peter Laamann, “Catholic Smalltown Life in Late-Qing Sichuan”
  • Chongfu Zhang, “Origin and Spread of the Chuanzhu 川主 Worship”
  • Volker Olles, “The Twin-Monasteries–A Case Study of Urban Sacred Space in Sichuan”
  • Jiechen Hu, “Confucianisation of Taoist Rituals: ‘Dipper Altar Attributed to Wenchang’ in Late Qing Guizhou and its Sichuan Origin”
  • Yiqiao Yan, “Mapping Redemptive Societies in Wartime Chengdu, 1937–1945

Sichuan is a geographical area of China that so far has been less studied than other urban or coastal centers; yet, Sichuan was and remains an extremely influential region, especially for the formation and development of religious groups, modern political and military history, ethnic diversity, and transnational connections.

These two panels reflect on the religious and social texture of modern Sichuan, and thus contribute to the study of Southwest China as well as the field of modern history of Chinese religions. The panelists are part of the multi-year research project ‘Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan’ (funded by the CCKF, 2017-2020), which analyses the five officially recognised religions and other religious manifestations (like Confucio-Daoist traditions, philanthropic organisations, new religious movements, spirit writing communities).

Organiser and chair of both panels will give an introduction to the narrative underlying and connecting the six presentations. The papers, which are based on archive research and fieldwork interviews, will explore different religious traditions and social groups; some papers will focus on the capital Chengdu and the Southeastern town of Neijiang 內江, others will address a plurality of sites; some papers will cover a few decades of religious history, others will emphasize specific moments like the second Sino-Japanese conflict. All papers will highlight unique features of the local identity of Sichuan religious history, and some will also underline the process of inter-religious borrowing and the formation of cross-regional networks.

Stefania Travagnin, “From the Center to the Periphery: the Modern Buddhist History of Neijiang”

Studies on modern history of Sichuan Buddhism have been limited mostly (or even only) to analyses of the monks Nenghai 能海 and Fazun 法尊, the nun Longlian 隆莲, the Sino-Tibetan tradition; and Chengdu, Chongqing and Mt. Emei emerged as the key places. However, an in-depth research on the history of Buddhism in Sichuan, from the Qing up to the mid twentieth century, reveals a richer picture, involving several rural and urban centers, overlapping monastic and lay networks, and a wide range of activities.

This presentation will contribute to the current scholarship on the modern history of Sichuan Buddhism with the study of the Buddhist communities of the town of Neijiang 內江, in Central Sichuan. My research will address three main elements: the historical development of Shengshui Monastery 聖水寺; the impact of the lay intellectual Wang Enyang 王恩洋 (1897-1964), especially the Eastern Culture and Education Research Center (Dongfang wenjiao yanjiuyuan 東方文教研究院); the modern history of ‘invisible’ yet relevant female communities, like the Xilin Nunnery 西林寺 and the nun Yuanhui 圓慧 (1902-1984).

‘Neijiang Buddhism’ mirrors key features of Han Buddhism in modern Sichuan, elements of the unique local culture from the Southeast of the province, but also shares significant patterns with the overall Chinese Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth-century.

Lars Peter Laamann, “Catholic Smalltown Life in Late-Qing Sichuan”

The Western missionaries who entered Qing China following the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, concluded with resigned determination that China was a land of heathens, whose Christian beginnings had been extinguished after the Yongzheng edict of 1724. However, nothing could be farther removed from the truth. As the present paper will show, the communities founded by missionary congregations between 1600 and the 1720s continued to thrive, albeit by adapting to the changing political conditions. For Sichuan, the most important incision were not the missionary prohibition policies of the Yongzheng era, but the destruction wrought by the Three Feudatories warfare marking the middle of the Kangxi reign. In the subsequent economic reconstruction boom, millions of migrants arrived from other provinces, including many Christians. These Christian migrants either contributed to the existing Christian activity in the market towns and cities which they visited or even gained new converts, to their very own brand of Christianity. Importantly, most churches were not visible from the outside, being accommodated by wealthy Christian families in their homes. This paper cites evidence from the Baxian and Nanbu archives in historical Sichuan, combined with evidence from The Number One Historical Archives in Beijing and also some Western accounts.

Chongfu Zhang, “Origin and Spread of the Chuanzhu 川主 Worship”

The Chuanzhu 川主 worship is a cross-regional and cross-border cultural phenomenon, which is centred on the culture of water management. It is an important folk belief in China; yet, it still lacks a comprehensive and in-depth research. Historically, the Chuanzhu worship originated in Sichuan; it became soon extremely popular in southwestern provinces, in the Tibetan and Qiang regions, eventually spread throughout the whole country, and has even reached other areas in Southeast Asia, so to turn into a transnational phenomenon. This paper, which is based on historical documents and fieldwork research, discusses four main aspects of this religious and cultural reality: the paper will start with a discussion on toponymy of the Chuanzhu worship; the second part will provide an answer to the question “Who is Chuanzhu,” hence will shed light on the ambiguities around this deity; the third part of the presentation will explore the historical development and geographical spread of this belife; the final part of this study will explain texts and rituals associated to the worship of Chuanzhu.

Volker Olles, “The Twin-Monasteries–A Case Study of Urban Sacred Space in Sichuan”

The Longmen 龙门 (Dragon Gate) branch of Quanzhen Daoism spread rapidly across the area of Sichuan during the Kangxi reign (1662–1722) of the Qing dynasty, and the majority of Daoist temples in this region came under the management of Longmen masters. Two Quanzhen monasteries remain the most important Daoist sanctuaries in today’s Chengdu City. The first of these, the Qingyang gong 青羊宫, has a long history, it was and remains the major center of Quanzhen Daoism in Chengdu. Situated in close proximity to the Qingyang gong and regarded as the latter’s branch monastery, the Erxian an 二仙庵 was then turned into a public (shifang 十方) monastery, where large-scale ordinations were held, and was the location of a publishing and printing house for Daoist scriptures. Both Daoist monasteries maintained close contacts with the Liumen tradition in late Qing and Republican times. Based on the teachings of the Confucian scholar Liu Yuan 劉沅 (1768–1856), Liumen developed into a quasi-religious movement that constituted an important part of Sichuan’s civil society. The present splendor of the Qingyang gong is mainly based on extensive renovations that were funded by the Liumen community during the Qing dynasty. Furthermore, it appears that the Liu family and Liumen adherents sponsored liturgical festivals of the Qingyang gong and were involved in the publishing work of the Erxian an. Analyzing relevant epigraphical sources, this paper outlines the interaction between Liumen and the “twin-monasteries.”

Jiechen Hu, “Confucianisation of Taoist Rituals: ‘Dipper Altar Attributed to Wenchang’ in Late Qing Guizhou and its Sichuan Origin”

Dipper Altar attributed to Wenchang (Wenchang Doutan 文昌斗壇) was a community active in Guizhou area in Late Qing. The members produced several full-fledged collections of liturgical texts, namely Full Collection of Rituals in the Dipper Altar Attributed to Wenchang (Wenchang Doutan Quanke 文昌斗壇全科), “Ritual Systematisation of Wenchang (Wenchang Yizhi 文昌儀製), and Mysterious Documentation of Wenchang (Wenchang Midian 文昌秘典). The collections included varieties of rituals, especially Retreats for the deceased and Offerings for the deities, which were usually performed by Taoist ritual masters. They were nevertheless categorised as “Confucian” rituals by the editors. By comparing them with earlier texts, I will argue that these liturgical texts produced in late Qing Guzhou had several origins from early-mid Qing Sichuan, including: 1) Jin Bencun’s 金本存 Wenchang spirit-writing altars in Yongzheng and Qianlong reign; 2) the collection of Ritual Systematisation of Master Guangcheng (Guangcheng Yizhi 廣成儀製) in Qianlong reign; 3) the soteriological movements initiated by Longnü Temple 龍女寺 in Daoguang reign. And it was the Wenchang spirit-writing cult directed by Confucian literati that attempted to expand the boundary of “Confucian teaching” and absorb the ritual elements from Taoism and other traditions.

Yiqiao Yan, “Mapping Redemptive Societies in Wartime Chengdu, 1937–1945

Much of what has been written in English and Chinese about redemptive societies in Republic China shares the interpretation that these civic groups decreased in social importance during the Second Sino-Japanese War, gradually ceding their authority to the state. This document-based study of redemptive societies in wartime Chengdu questions this current understanding of the field by looking at crisis relief activities that flourished in the city during the 1940s. Rather than simply being locally organised and endorsed by local elites, like Wang Di, Stapleton and others conclude, these societies were led by the elites who were closely associated with government relief action at provincial and municipal levels. The social networks and activities of these social elites and their religious affiliations are therefore a crucial dimension to consider when examining the role of redemptive societies during the wartime. This study turns the focus to an analysis of the deeply rooted Daoist-influenced spiritual writing tradition that shaped the trajectory of the development of local charities. The archival files, social survey and other locally documented sources examined in this paper offer an opportunity to both deepen our understanding of Sichuan redemptive societies in the war years and to reflect on the broader historical development of modern Sichuan religion.

Papers on Religion IV

Family and Gender
Thursday
11:00 am – 12:45 pm
Room F

  • Chaired by Anna Sokolova
  • Susan Naquin, “Chinese Female Deities: A History?”
  • Wanrong Zhang, “Women as Sex Object: The Female Image in the Religious Morality Text on Prohibiting Debauchery in the Qing Dynasty”
  • Thomas Jansen, “The Precious Scroll of Henpecked Husbands (Pa laopo baojuan 怕老婆寳卷): A Late Imperial Chinese Marriage Guide?”
  • Stefan Kukowka, “Family Ethics in the Context of a Confucian-Buddhist Discourse—A Discourse Analysis of the Lay Education of ‘The Corporation Republic of Hwa Dzan’”

Susan Naquin, “Chinese Female Deities: A History?”

Prior to around the year 1000, most Chinese deities with wide followings were represented as either clearly male, comfortably androgynous, or not human at all. In the following centuries, gods who were explicitly female appeared and became ever more popular. This transformation has been recognised by those who are interested in such matters but not studied directly or systematically. Drawing on my own book-length research and adding to the more familiar histories of Guanyin 觀音 and Tianhou 天后 (Mazu 媽祖), this presentation will first examine the comparably regionally based but different processes behind the expansion of the worship of Bixia Yuanjun 碧霞元君in North China from the Song through the Qing.
The rise of these and other female deities and their prominence down to the present day has been understood as a success. Even research on China since 1850 has emphasised not only the destruction of the physical and organisational religious infrastructure but also its more recent and vigorous revival. For this period, however, the history of Bixia Yuanjun suggests a different story.
My presentation will therefore also use this northern example to invoke another trajectory. I will suggest instead that other processes have also been at work in the last century, processes that have undermined and diminished all female gods and even the pantheon more generally: amalgamation, homogenisation, and banalisation. I invite comparison with parts of China.

Wanrong Zhang, “Women as Sex Object: The Female Image in the Religious Morality Text on Prohibiting Debauchery in the Qing Dynasty”

This paper shows the female image in the male vision in the Chinese religions of the Qing dynasty by studying the Jieyinshu 戒淫书. Jieyinshu, the morality text on prohibition the debauchery, is a kind of book about sexual morality since the late ming dynasty, produced mainly by the religious groups and the literati. Man is the primary character in the books, taught by the gods in Taoism and Buddhism and the Confucians, and woman is the sex object, described as a dangerous and sexually seductive existent. This is different from the female teaching books (Nüjiaoshu 女教书), which focus on the teaching of female fidelity and have been studied by many scholars. Jieyinshu discusses the female body basing on the ancient religious disciplines and discourses, which require men to restrain women at their families to reduce the sexual temptation (Sugui 肃闺), in order to achieve the purpose of prohibition the debauchery. My paper compares the similarities and differences in sexual morality between Jieyinshu and Nvjiaoshu, and then studies the ideas and the ways of Sugui. As a group of material rarely studied, jieyinshu will provide a new perspective to understand the women’s body and social status at that time, particularly in terms of sexual behaviours and psychology.

Thomas Jansen, “The Precious Scroll of Henpecked Husbands (Pa laopo baojuan 怕老婆寳卷): A Late Imperial Chinese Marriage Guide?”

The seventeenth-century witnessed a challenge to Confucian family virtues among the non-elite population. The ‘fierce wife’ or ‘shrew’ is a prominent theme in Pu Songling’s 蒲松齡 (1640–1715) collection Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋志異 (Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio). In an essay on the topic, Pu urged people to donate money for the printing of a Buddhist sutra which was supposed to restore the traditional power balance between husband and wife. The view that religious texts could be manipulated by their users to handle everyday affairs is occasionally echoed in the scholarly literature on Chinese religions but rarely examined in more detail. In my paper I will explore the use of religious texts as guidebooks for solving everyday problems, using a manuscript copy of the Precious Scroll of Henpecked Husbands (Pa laopo baojuan 怕老婆寳卷) as my case study. First, I will briefly summarise the content of this baojuan and then focus the analysis of the text on three questions: What information does the text yield about how it was used? Is it a text for men, women or both? How is the relationship between husband and wife conceptualised in this baojuan compared to, for example, the stories in Liaozhai zhiyi?

Stefan Kukowka, “Family Ethics in the Context of a Confucian-Buddhist Discourse—A Discourse Analysis of the Lay Education of ‘The Corporation Republic of Hwa Dzan’”

Founded by Ven. Jingkong (1927–) in 1989 and run by Ven. Wudao (1951–), “The Corporation Republic of Hwa Dzan Society” (huazang jingzong xuehui 華藏淨宗學會) displays distinct characteristics in terms of its advocated path towards rebirth into Amitābha’s Pure Land. The mindful recollection or mere invocation of Amitābha’s name (nianfo 念佛) is not enough to achieve rebirth, instead, monastics and laypeople have to focus on this-worldly cultivation based on Confucian and Daoist scriptures. Jingkong and Hwa Dzan emphasise that the improvement of one’s fate—and therefore the chance to be reborn into the Pure Land—is not the result of humble worship or the efficaciousness of rituals or even the renunciation of all worldly distractions, it is rather based on moral conduct in daily life, through acts of filial piety, loyalty, honesty, and humility—which are de facto Confucian values. These ‘Buddhicised’ Confucian values are propagated through various channels (online media, press, dharma talks etc.) and address specifically the sphere of family ethics. Hence, this paper aims at analysing Jingkong’s and Hwa Dzan’s construction of a Confucian-Buddhist discourse community by applying Michel Foucault’s theoretical concept of ‘discourse.’ It became apparent that Hwa Dzan’s propagation reflects a strong centripetal inclination towards the centre of authority (Jingkong), thus creating an exclusive discourse community, and Hwa Dzan’s incorporation of non-Buddhist scriptures reflects a relative openness towards other traditions when supporting certain aspects of their interpretation of the Dharma.

A Reflection of the Interactions between Christianity and China

Wednesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room 4

  • Organised by Marco Lazzarotti
  • Marco Lazzarotti, “Rituals Encounters and Cultural Dialogue: Two Taiwanese Case Studies”
  • Raissa De Gruttola, “Transmitting Christianity in China through Written Texts: History and Linguistic Features of the Sigao shengjing 思高聖經”
  • Magdaléna Rychetská, “Cooperation or Resistance? Christian Mission in Authoritarian Chinese Societies”
  • Aleksandrs Dmitrenko, “The Image of Christianity in Chinese History Textbooks (1900–1949)”

The history of evangelisation in China has witnessed divergent developments according to the approaches used by the different Churches and, within the same Church, by different religious orders. Despite this difference, all the missionaries who have worked—and are working—in China have clashed with what Eric Zurcher defined as the “Cultural Imperative” of Chinese Culture. To deal with this Cultural Imperative, the missionaries have constantly sought the best way to transmit the Gospel by adapting it to the local culture without distorting it. Transmission is here conceived with a broad meaning, considering that this concept can be declined as cultural transmission, as well as historical or linguistic transmission. Moreover, the panel will try to place the transmission model in a wider and more complex context, namely the dialogic one. Within the dialogic approach, the papers will try to answer the following questions: How has the message been preserved in the transition from one culture to another? How much have loyalty and the effort to preserve the integrity of the message influenced its reception by the Chinese people? This Panel aims to present some examples of how the transmission of the Christian message has adapted in China during different historical periods and according to the reactions of the local people and the political situation.

Marco Lazzarotti, “Rituals Encounters and Cultural Dialogue: Two Taiwanese Case Studies”

This paper looks at two case studies of the way in which the Catholic Church in Taiwan has adapted to the local culture. The author describes two funerals set in the same parish in Taipei but performed very differently to meet the needs of the participants. The author analyses these funeral ceremonies as an encounter between cultures that he looks at the exchange of religions. Culture is analysed according to the anthropology of Clifford Geertz, whilst religious dialogue is presented according to two documents issued by the Vatican in 1984 (Dialogue and Mission) and 1991 (Dialogue and Proclamation). Particular attention is drawn to the role of a third party in any dialogue, in the case here, those non-Catholics who did not accept Catholicism.  The person as the place where dialogue is carried out is very important. The paper concludes that in Taiwan there is reciprocal interpretation of two cultural systems. In dialogue, people find the symbols which give meaning to their everyday life. The symbols of one cultural system slowly penetrate and root themselves in another, and vice versa. It is this endless (re)interpretation, negotiation, and accommodation that is called cultural dialogue.

Raissa De Gruttola, “Transmitting Christianity in China through Written Texts: History and Linguistic Features of the Sigao shengjing 思高聖經”

Despite the presence of Christian missionaries in China dates back to the end of the thirteenth century, at the beginning of the twenty-first century the Chinese Catholics did not have a complete translation of the Bible in the Chinese language. Up to the end of the nineteenth century, the role of the Bible in the evangelisation methods of the Catholics was not central while, on the contrary, when Protestant missionaries arrived in China, their main task was that of translating the Bible in Chinese. On the Catholic side, notwithstanding the precious and copious writing and translating activity of the Jesuits who published and distributed many books in Chinese in the seventeenth century, particular relevance was given to oral preaching and to the use of texts as catechisms, collections of biblical episodes, lives of saints, and prayer books.
In 1931 the Franciscan missionary Gabriele Allegra arrived in China and decided to translate the complete Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek texts into the Chinese language. Eleven volumes were published between 1946 and 1961, and the single volume was published in 1968. This version, known as the Sigao shengjing, is the one still used today in the Catholic liturgy.
The aim of this proposal is to analyse the features of this first complete Catholic Bible version in Chinese and to present the translating solutions of some peculiar words and key concepts. The study will give an outline of the linguistic choices made to transmit the Catholic doctrine to Chinese people from the second half of the twenty-first century.

Magdaléna Rychetská, “Cooperation or Resistance? Christian Mission in Authoritarian Chinese Societies”

In Chinese societies, Christianity is a foreign religious system that historically came to these Chinese societies together with colonial rules. Even today, some Chinese refer to Christianity as yangjiao 洋教, a term meaning a foreign religion. The paper is interested in political and social cooperation and negotiation of the observed Christian groups in the selected environment. The two different settings are the contemporary People´s Republic in China (1945–now) ruled by the communist government and the Republic of China in Taiwan during the period of martial law (1949–1987). The paper does not only confirm the domination-resistance model of church-state relations but instead focused on what different means are available for the religious groups during the process of negotiations. The paper is interested in how Christian churches attempt to protect and promote their interests in authoritarian Chinese societies. I argue that religious specialists established in an authoritative Chinese environment have to face at least two types of pressure—demands of an authoritarian rule and a social pressure requiring their assimilation to the local culture. One of the main interests of both mentioned churches is to create a well-established mission and stable parishes. The findings suggest that to accomplish their objective, the churches have for a long time endeavoured to localise the church (bendihua 本地化) and to create a bond between Christian beliefs and the local culture. Another part of the adaptation to the local environment is also to cooperate with the government.

Aleksandrs Dmitrenko, “The Image of Christianity in Chinese History Textbooks (1900–1949)”

The image of Christianity in Chinese history textbooks (1900–1949)
The present study focuses on the image of Christianity in Chinese history textbooks on World and China’s history. In the world history textbooks, Christianity is first of all associated with the figure of the Pope. Despite the fact that there were different Popes, the role of these leaders of the Roman Catholic Church continues to be presented as utterly negative. The Church is associated with authoritative power, which was fighting with different Emperors for political power. The Church is also represented as the power that obstructed people from development in the sciences. The Protestants are presented as the people who opposed both the Church and the State authoritative power. Nonetheless, this led to religious wars, and their image can hardly be interpreted as a positive one.
In the history of China, European presence in China is associated with aggression. In this context, even the image of Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) is hard to interpret as positive. It is stated that he brought to China “western learning” (xixue 西學), wore Chinese closes, spoke Chinese and respected Chinese customs. Nevertheless, textbooks stay quite neutral in assessing his actions or influence. In the context of the Boxer rebellion (1898–1901), missionaries are described as the representatives of the Western.

Translating Integration

Conceptual Boundaries of the Sinicisation of Islam, Lived Experiences of Chinese Muslims, and the Power of the Party-State
Wednesday
11:00 am – 12:45 pm
Room 4

  • Organised by Yee Lak Elliot Lee, Ruslan Yusupov, and Jia He
  • Wlodzimierz Cieciura, Chair
  • Yee Lak Elliot Lee, “Genealogy of ‘Islamic(ate) Culture’ in the Pearl River Delta: Secular Empowerment or Religious Marginalisation?”
  • Ruslan Yusupov, “The Ethical Distance: Islamic Taboos, Everyday Sociality, and the Question of Integration in a Chinese Hui Muslim Town”
  • Wlodzimierz Cieciura, “’Chinese Mosques Must Look Chinese’: Sinicisation of Islam and the Changing Standards of Religious Islamic Architecture from Reform and Opening Up Era to Xi’s ‘New Era’”
  • Jia He, “Crossing Over Minzu, Ethnicity and Islam: Rethinking Intermarriage through the Lived Experiences of Hui intermarried Han in Ningxia, Northwest China”
  • André Laliberté, Discussant

Integration of Muslim populations has been a central problem, not without tension, contradiction, or rejection, in the nation-building process of China. With the policy directive for mutual adaptation between religion and socialism, discourses on Sinicisation of Islam has dominated the public sphere of China since the current leadership. The party-state requires religions to exploit doctrines that is beneficial to social stability and the country’s developmental path while retaining core beliefs, rituals, and institutions. However, as discursive traditions, religions, and in our case, Islam would have to reinterpret and create new discourse or “language” with suitable appropriation of and referencing to concepts within and beyond the existing discursive traditions. It is in this sense that we talk about translation. Nevertheless, considering plausible untranslatability, misrepresentation, and contestation, there are conceptual boundaries and limitations leading to possible paradoxical outcomes due to novel discourses directing the integration of Muslims in China. This is not unprecedented in the modern history of China and has been having profound implications in the lived experiences of Muslims. At the same time, Chinese Muslims are not merely passive objects in this process of translation. Rather, they (re)produce and live in ways that continuously redefine boundaries and forms of Islam in Chinese societies. Intrigued by the contemporary development while remaining informed by history, this panel brings together anthropologists and historians on Chinese Islam to engage with this very problem of Chinese Muslims’ integration via the translation of their very existence into party-state authorised and enforced discourses.

Yee Lak Elliot Lee, “Genealogy of ‘Islamic(ate) Culture’ in the Pearl River Delta: Secular Empowerment or Religious Marginalisation?”

Yisilan/Huijiao wenhua, i.e., the suffixing of “culture” to “Islam,” is a prominent usage in China by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. One would find it being employed for a wide range of material manifestations and practices, from historical mosques, the Five Pillars of Islam, to names of Islamic associations. It is on this discursive conception of culture that political directives on religious Sinicisation of the party-state has been built upon in order for translation and integration between Chinese culture and Islam to be conceivable. Yet, the aim of this paper is to problematise the power neutral assumption that underlies cultural translations and abstractions of forms of life into “cultures.” Focusing on the Guangzhou–Hong Kong Islamicate networks, this paper attempts to reconstruct a genealogy of the incorporation of “culture” into Chinese Muslims’ repertoire since the early 20th century. I demonstrate that there was an earlier sense of “culture” related to literacy, alongside a civilisational sense, followed by the emergence of a civil/socio-spatial sense. This paper argues that the shift corresponded to the changing emphasis from the creation of modern Chinese nationals to a normalisation of the marginal existence of Islam. It was by employing this secular discourse of “culture” that Muslims and the state justified the existence of Islam in China; whereas it simultaneously reinforced the marginal position of Islam in different social realms and lived experience of Muslims. This paradox provides a vantage point for reconsidering the secularity of “culture,” simultaneously questioning the limits of secular translation in China and beyond.

Ruslan Yusupov, “The Ethical Distance: Islamic Taboos, Everyday Sociality, and the Question of Integration in a Chinese Hui Muslim Town”

In 2014, when Chinese social media publics saw pictures of Hui ethnic minority Muslims in Shadian town of China’s Yunnan province successfully banning the sale and consumption of alcohol, they condemned the practice as illegal and demanded immediate intervention of the state. The assumption that underlined this online hysteria was that religious taboos are incompatible with, and thus go against the commonsense reality in which the existence of alcohol is undeniable. Through an analysis of indigenous practices informed by the Islamic conception of “haram,” this paper reveals a modality of prohibition, one in which the effort is directed to construct certain ethical distance with the forbidden substance rather than banning it altogether. Insofar as the presence of alcohol is required for that distance to be actualised, haram actually serves the very means by which such virtues as tolerance and patience are cultivated, thereby securing the form of everyday sociality that flourishes across religious and ethnic differences. I then contrast such sociality to the understanding of haram with which the Chinese local government initiated the ban on alcohol, only to reveal that the government bid to recognise indigenous ways of life in the name of ethnic diversity actually creates the very boundaries that the state aimed at eliminating by that recognition. The focus on the disparity in understandings of haram, I suggest, not only sheds new light on the conventional anthropological definitions of taboo but is also critical for how we think about the place of Islam in China.

Wlodzimierz Cieciura, “‘Chinese Mosques Must Look Chinese’: Sinicisation of Islam and the Changing Standards of Religious Islamic Architecture from Reform and Opening Up Era to Xi’s ‘New Era’”

Mosque architecture in China proper has been an area of contention between traditionalists, preferring the more sinicized architectural aesthetics, and modernists who looked to the Middle East and Muslim-majority countries for inspiration. In the last forty years, the latter has been in the ascendancy with most new mosques built in China resembling more the idealised “dome and minaret” type of structure rather than the traditional architecture, which had developed in the centuries of Islam’s presence in the Chinese cultural landscape. Countless old mosques throughout China have been demolished and replaced with modern ‘Middle Eastern’ buildings, often with government’s support and encouragement in the hope of turning this architecture into a visible sign of China’s tolerance towards Islam and of the country’s willingness to promote trade and political relations with Muslim majority countries. However, this has changed since Xi Jinping’s arrival at the helm of the Communist Party, and his attempts at controlling and transforming most forms of religious practice and expression. In the Islamic sphere, one of the first areas to experience this new push for “sinicisation” of religion has been the mosque architecture. Domes and minarets are being dismantled, and more ‘Chinese’ designs are promoted in the official discourse of the Islamic Association. This paper will look into this discourse and try to find an answer as to how this “sinicization” of Islam is being reconciled with Xi’s ambitions of a “New Silk Road” and Chinese Muslims’ aspirations to “religious authenticity.”

Jia He, “Crossing Over Minzu, Ethnicity and Islam: Rethinking Intermarriage through the Lived Experiences of Hui intermarried Han in Ningxia, Northwest China”

According to the Chinese party-state, only marriages that cross over minzu (ethnic-nationality) is called “intermarriage”, and they are encouraged as an expression of the modern Chinese nation. As a separate minzu recognised by the state, Huizu—people that have their ethnic-nationality deduced and solidified from their historical “Muslim-ness”—is therefore target of these intermarriages. Nevertheless, there are “emic” understandings of intermarriage other than the state discourse. Based on primary fieldwork on the lived experiences of Hui intermarried to Han in Ningxia, I present different types of what intermarriage means for the Hui individuals. For instance, intermarriage between a Hui and a Han who converted to Islam; between a Hui and a Han without the latter’s conversion; between two Huis who have different understandings towards Hui identity resulted from affiliations with different Islamic traditions (jiaopai) and/or discursive disaffiliation from Islam. These different types of intermarriage differ and/or overlap with each other depending on how a particular understanding of Hui identity is lived out by individuals. By highlighting the meta-discourse of minzu policy with regard to intermarriage, this paper complicates the understanding of intermarriage and reveals the power of state discourses down to personal level of intimate relationship. Furthermore, the paper aims at demonstrating the nuanced boundary making processes where state, minzu, Islam and marriage inform each other, so as to reflect on its implication for Sinicization of Islam from a bottom-up perspective.

Mortality and Eternity

Reexaminations of Temporality in Chinese Texts
Wednesday
9:00 am – 10:45 am
Room 4

  • Organised by Ernest Billings Brewster
  • Chaired by Joachim Gentz
  • Yiran Zhao, “Sick Body, Temporal Experience, and the Literary Self in Honglou meng”
  • Ernest Billings Brewster, “What is Lost in Death? Xuanzang on the Temporality of the Physical Senses and the Mind”
  • Heejung Seo, “The Relationship between Space and Time in Zhuangzi 庄子—Focusing on the Concept of Death”
  • Yinlin Guan, “The Eternity and its Ethics in the Laozi”

What is death? Is there life after death? How do we live, and live fully, with the awareness of our own mortality? The papers in this panel aim to illuminate how Chinese thinkers—within the domains of philosophy, religion, and literature—have grappled over time with the universal questions that are raised by the examination of the temporality of life. They engage with it on both a psychological level in terms of dealing with the anxiety and fear in facing the inevitability of morality, and a physical level in terms of grappling with the physical suffering involved in aging, sickness, and dying. The first paper probes how the teaching of Laozi on “staying with weakness” (Chi.: shou ruo 守弱) can be used to enhance the quality and longevity of life. The second paper investigates how Zhuangzi links his conceptualisation of space and time in the cosmos to human mortality. The third paper investigates how the theories about the constitution of the physical senses and the mind developed by Xuanzang address the existential anxiety that is related to mortality. The fourth paper examines how the theme of the sick body of Daiyu, the protagonist of Honglou meng, functions as a symbolic site of temporal experience and self-imagination. Taken together, this collection of papers reexamines how great Chinese thinkers, across two millennia, address the profound question of the temporality of life.

Yiran Zhao, “Sick Body, Temporal Experience, and the Literary Self In Honglou meng“

Often described as having a naturally weak constitution, Lin Daiyu, the female protagonist in Honglou meng, may well be one of the most famous literary portraits of a patient of Chinese literature.  While Daiyu’s sick body tends to be associated with her ethereal beauty rather than a disturbing substance, the narrative devotes much more effort to depict how she is consistently perplexed and afflicted by it. Throughout the novel, the crucial anxiety over her sick body lies not in its physical pain, nor its performance in the household, but in its engagement with temporal experience and self-imagination: how through which its subject perceives changes and imagines herself over time, and how this could affect the way she thinks and acts. This paper hypothesises that the sick body of Daiyu functions as a crucial symbolic site where the existential qualities of selfhood and temporality are intricately connected. I start from the emplotment of Daiyu’s bodily deficiency in the mythical scheme, to manifest how her sick body could be read as a model of temporal engagement in the world of mortals. Then I look at two important modes when Daiyu’s sick body encounters temporality and selfhood, namely, simulating a death scenario and perceiving changes over temporal succession. My method is to analyse the narrative strategies and devices for making these significations explicit and visible. A careful examination of these literary connotations inscribed on Daiyu’s sick body is crucial to a better understanding of the novel’s temporal complexity in terms of constructing the literary self.

Ernest Billings Brewster, “What is Lost in Death? Xuanzang on the Temporality of the Physical Senses and the Mind”

This paper examines the Chinese scholar-monk Xuanzang’s (602–607) investigation into the nature of mortality. Xuanzang looks to Buddhism to grapple with dying and his fear of it. In his efforts to master his fear of dying, Xuanzang returns to the ancient Indic scriptures that describe the impermanence of life and the idea of no-self (Sanskrit.: anātman; Chinese: wu-wo無我). Tranquility comes to Xuanzang in his recognition that death marks a transition in the cycle of death and rebirth rather than the end of a person. Essentially, the doctrine of no-self means that the individual contains no singular or unchanging core that becomes reincarnated after death. For Xuanzang, the definition of death as the loss of an immortal soul is antithetical to the Buddhist ideal of liberation, the relinquishment of clinging to a permanent self. The doctrine of no-self presents a thorny question, however: when the individual dies, who or what dies? I will argue that Xuanzang’s development of the Buddhist doctrine of the faculties (Sanskrit: indriya; Chinese: gen根), the inherent mental and physical powers of sentient life, provides a rigorous account of the nature of death’s deprivation that is congruent with the Buddhist doctrine of no-self.

Heejung SEO, “The Relationship between Space and Time in Zhuangzi庄子 –Focusing on the Concept of Death“

This article aims to examine the relationship between Space and Time in Zhuangzi’s thought of death through the fundamental interaction between Self (wo 我) and Things (wu 物) in the Zhuangzi Text. In Qiwulun chapter, Zhuangzi abandoned the attempt to recognize the truth. Nevertheless, for ordinary people in real life realizing truth is more important than merely knowing about the truth. In other words, if one succeeds in denying epistemological knowledge that is formed between oneself and things, and fundamentally reconstructs it as an empirical relationship, then all those problems that people are facing aren’t questions of cognitive knowledge, but about life itself. However, in order to return to life, one must disengage oneself from the concepts of space, time, and mortality thus can step into the life of “absolute freedom (独有)”, while at the same time, also can acquire the most practical gain, anming 安命. Once one has achieved the state “to rest content in one’s fate (安于命)” or obey one’s fate, one can cope with any suffering in his/her life that is caused by haphazardness or inevitability of death and achieve real freedom.

Yinlin Guan, “The Eternity and its Ethics in the Laozi“

Death, being faced by all mankind in the human world, needs to be dealt with by any philosophy or religion, since it has a close relation to the issues of the existence of mankind as well as the meaning of the lives. As the end of life, death calls upon human beings to scrutinize, reflect and introspect on their existence and morality. The Laozi, in chapter 50, claims that human beings come forth and live, they enter the world and hurtle towards death. Contrasted with the eternity of the dao, human beings easily perish are destroyed. “How to live their lives for mankind?” becomes a radical question to answer. In this paper, I intend to argue that the Laozi emphasizes that human beings should act and live in accordance with the dao for the sake of prolonging their life-span, since the existence of the human being for the Laozi is the prerequisite of morality, social values and so on. Furthermore, I will argue that the doctrine of the dao, such as staying with the weakness 守弱, are so as to preserve the feature of the eternity and persistence of the dao. Having emulated the dao and cultivated themselves accordingly, human beings should live a long and simple life.

Papers on International Relations II

Institutions
Wednesday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room 3

  • Chaired by Franziska Plümmer
  • Nihal Kutlu, “The Hybrid Power: Explaining China’s Distinctive Participation in UN Peacekeeping”
  • Un Hye Joe, “The People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Role toward an East Asian Economic Community (EAEC)”
  • Reinhard Biedermann, “A Diamond Decade, But for Whom? China’s Belt and Road Initiative and ASEAN”
  • Josie-Marie Perkuhn, “Alternative Peace—with Chinese Characteristics?”

Nihal Kutlu, “The Hybrid Power: Explaining China’s Distinctive Participation in UN Peacekeeping”

If we take a look at countries’ participation behaviours in UN peacekeeping, we see a significant divergence between top financial contributors and troop contributors. While the top ten financial contributors are developed countries, the top ten troop contributors consist of lower-middle-income and low-income countries. However, China is an exceptional case since it is the second major contributor to UN peacekeeping budget and is the only UN Security Council permanent member among the top ten troop-contributing countries.
This research, rather than relying on outsider labels to define and explain China’s behaviour, uses the concept of “responsible major developing country” (RMDC) -China’s self-referential description of itself- as a framework of analysis. The RMDC concept perfectly captures China’s purpose(s), behaviours, and dilemmas in the international system since the late 1990s.
I argue that the RMDC concept characterises China’s hybrid identity -being a developing country and a great power at the same time- and China’s effort to reconcile the different expectations arising from two identities under the term of being responsible while attempting to fulfil the goals of its national interests. The process turns China into a hybrid power.
After discussing the sources of China’s hybrid identity, I explore the expectations from its two reference groups, i.e., the Global South and P5 countries. Then, I explain how China’s troop contribution serves its national interests by contributing to the modernisation of its military, while China meets the expectations of two reference groups by sticking to its non-intervention principle and abiding by the UN system.

Un Hye Joe, “The People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Role toward an East Asian Economic Community (EAEC)”

In the wake of the 1997/98 financial crisis, East Asian states have looked to strengthen regional integration inter-governmentally at the macro-level. In November 2019, 13 ASEAN Plus Three (APT) participating countries, Australia and New Zealand, finally concluded text-based the world’s largest trade bloc negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). According to the models of regional integration, RCEP will be the first step of regional community-building, as an economic and primarily trade-focused proposal, which lays the most important foundation stone for the next customs union integration-step, like the European Economic Community (ECC), i.e. EAEC. However, East Asia’s endeavour is strictly restricted by the principle of non-interference in national sovereignty, possesses no EU-style legal institutions with supranational governance power and lacks regional public goods that an EAEC will produce for the regional community. This is due to the collision between the sovereignty game and the modern international political game in the East Asian region.
While ASEAN has been placed in a position of operational centrality regarding EAEC proposals, its success depends on the relationships between the large economic powers; ultimately on the role of PRC. The Treaty establishing the ECC (1957) showed that the participating countries were under rule of law and European integration continues with trust between countries and public institutions. East Asian Integration is blocked by the sovereignty game and can’t proceed to legal space, to EAEC. Strengthening legal institutionalisation based on mutual trustworthiness is key to unlocking and expanding new sectors of cooperation. And that will require PRC’s leadership.

Reinhard Biedermann, “A Diamond Decade, But for Whom? China’s Belt and Road Initiative and ASEAN”

China has replaced the European Union as the biggest trading partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) resulting from the bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), in force since 2008. In 2013, China proposed the ten year-plan “diamond decade” under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to further develop economic relations
However, central to China’s ASEAN strategy is the BRI, a large Eurasian infrastructure connectivity project that has attracted much attention in recent years. China’s President Xi Jinping initiated the BRI in 2013, which, since then, has provided significant investments of all kinds of infrastructure to improve connectivity and economic development. While China promotes this program as a Chinese public good for the world, based on the principle of win-win, scholarly experts and Western political actors are more cautious about the BRI: It would support unsustainable development and political collusion, and mainly serving the interests of China’s political leaders and overcapacities in the domestic economy. Also, China’s BRI would mainly strengthen bilateral relations with individual ASEAN countries, and in addition to that weaken the integrative forces of ASEAN.
Thus, has China become a stumbling block for the ASEAN single market? This article explores the development of trade and investment of China in ASEAN, compared to the development of domestic ASEAN trade. Furthermore, it elaborates conditions and rules that come with the BRI. This research also takes a look at ASEAN adaptation and responses to China’s BRI and ASEAN’s current single market dynamics.

Josie-Marie Perkuhn, “Alternative Peace—with Chinese Characteristics?”

What is alternative about peace norms with Chinese Characteristics? The concept of Harmonious World clearly envisions a normative concept with Chinese characteristics for peace. With it, China proposes an alternative understanding that is based on the Confucian ideal of a Harmonious Society and the concept of Tianxia. While Chinese thought already spread with Chinese money along revived silk roads, scholars widely discuss implications of Chinese alternative thinking (Acharya & Buzan 2010; Zhang & Chang 2016). Assuming that insights from the vivid Chinese IR debate contribute to the international research of how to define peace in terms of Galtung’s distinction of positive and negative peace definitions, evaluating China’s alternative peace concept seems promising. Hence, this paper questions to what extent contributes China’s peace understanding to the normative debate of positive/negative peace research? By tracing this proclaimed alternative thinking in Chinese foreign politics this paper explores China’s peace understanding in terms of defining peace alternatively. Based on governmental statements this paper conducts a qualitative discourse analysis and evaluates the conceptual idea, the establishment and maintenance of China’s peace norm by analysing Chinese understanding of peace concept, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping.

Social Welfare and Public Services in Transforming China

Wednesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room 3

  • Organised by Hua Wang
  • Hua Wang, “Elderly Care Provision in Urban Communities of China: Institutions, Actors, and Local Constraints”
  • Pia Eskelinen, “Hukou, Rural Women and Land Rights”
  • Diwen Xiao, Liao Liao, Yulin Wang, “Cross-Border Health Service Provision under ‘One Country, Two Systems’: The Evidence from University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital”
  • Jingyan Zhu, “The Perceptions of Marketisation in Health Care in China: Evidence from Chinese Local Health Facilities”

China’s welfare regime is undergoing tremendous transformation. With decades of reform and opening-up, China’s economic performance has achieved great success, yet issues like public services supply, social welfare provision and social inequalities have become more significant challenges facing Chinese government and society. This panel, consisting of four papers by authors from both European countries and China, seeks to inquire the existing problems of citizens’ welfare rights, eldercare provision, and cross-border public services supply in the transforming period of China. All papers on this panel are based upon solid empirical evidence collected from contemporary China. Pia Eskelinen’s paper focuses on rural women’s land rights and how the change of Hukou locations has generated gender inequalities in land contracts. Diwen Xiao’s paper argues that the political party (CCP) has played a significant role in influencing the cross-border supply of public services through its interaction with professional groups. Hua Wang’s paper looks into how the central initiatives on elderly care have been implemented in the local context and how the elderly care provision structure in urban communities has been shaped by various factors. Anthea Cain’s paper takes the specific populations who directly provide eldercare to the growing aged in China as a lens to understand the care chains among rural-to-urban migrant women and non-migrant urban women, thus to investigate the gender inequality in old age.

Hua Wang, “Elderly Care Provision in Urban Communities of China: Institutions, Actors, and Local Constraints”

As one of the most indispensable civil welfare schemes, elderly care in China has become a significant social issue. The Chinese government has recognised the need to strengthen formal elderly care provisions and expand access to services. Since 2013, Chinese central government has issued several policy documents to promote “Integrated Elderly Care” and “Long-term Care Insurance”. However, the local practice in implementing these initiatives has demonstrated distinct local characteristics and great variation. The policy deviation is partly due to the conflicting interests of local bureaucratic institutions. In the meantime, the interaction of public-private sectors, and the influence of the third sectors are also relevant. This article takes the implementation of “Integrated Elderly care” and “Long-term Care Insurance” as case studies, to illustrate the process of how the central initiative being implemented in the local context and most importantly, how the elderly care provision structure has been constructed in the urban communities. Based on case studies and interviews from 2019 to 2020 in several Chinese cities, this study tries to provide a clear picture of elderly care provision structure in the Chinese urban communities, and analyse how the structure has been shaped by central policy design and local policy implementation, the interaction of public-private actors and families, and other local constraints.

Pia Eskelinen, “Hukou, Rural Women and Land Rights”

The household registration system, hukou, was introduced by the People’s Republic of China in the 1950’s, even though hukou’s history in imperial China is thousands of years long. The hukou system does not only designate residents’ status as being either rural or urban based on their registered birthplace but it also controls (domestic) migration. In today’s China, the problem of the hukou system is not simply controlling migration, but the great inequality the hukou has created between the urban and rural population. However, there are inequalities and inconsistencies within the rural hukou holders as well. Most striking problem involves the land contracting in rural areas after hukou location has been changed. Particularly rural women suffer from the unequal policies surrounding the changing of hukou location and status compared with rural men. According to my interviews, there are different rules for men and women although the law is very clear: land should be redistributed if new residents move in the area and if they no longer have land at their old location. China cannot be analysed from a Western perspective but rather within the Marxist, Confucianist and Chinese feministic framework. This research is mainly based on formal interviews and informal discussions that will be analysed within the framework of the theories and philosophies grounding Chinese ideology.

Diwen Xiao, Liao Liao, Yulin Wang “Cross-border Health Service Provision under ‘One Country, Two Systems’: The Evidence from University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital”

It has become a universal public governance issue to achieve effective cross-border public service supply and ensure citizens’ social rights in the age of globalisation. Existing studies focus on the cross-border public service provisions between developed countries, emphasising the importance of coordination and supranational institutions to ensure the effective supply of public services. There are few studies on cross-regional practice within sovereign countries and little attention has been paid to the political parties. This study takes the development of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital as an example to show how the CCP influences the cross-border supply of public services in the context of “one country, two systems.” The study presents that the interactions between CCP and professional groups promote the settlement of cross-border medical and health services. On the one hand, CCP of Hospital plays a linking role in the communication between hospitals and local governments to ensure mutual trust. On the other hand, CCP also ensures that professional organisations can adapt to the new institutional environment and provide high-quality medical services under its consultation and supervision. Meanwhile, important plans of the hospital are formulated jointly by CCP, the board of directors, and experts or decided in a collaborative way. This study would shed light on both the cross-border public services provision under the “one country, two systems” regime, and the role of political power and the professionals in trans-system health cooperation.

Jingyan Zhu, “The Perceptions of Marketisation in Health Care in China: Evidence from Chinese Local Health Facilities”

Since the 2009 healthcare reform, the Chinese health system has undergone the transition with a series of government-funded programs ensuring the safety net and public health provision for the Chinese population. However, it is largely relying on the market in the delivery of hospital-centred services. The long-term marketisation for over three decades has significantly affected people’s understanding and behaviours of health care. The existing scholarship pays scant attention to how stakeholders view marketisation and how the marketisation impacts on the utilisation of health care. This study focuses on the perceptions of marketisation at the service delivery level through the various lens of stakeholders, including patients and their lay carers, health professionals, health board managers and local administrators.
This is qualitative research with a multiple case design. Four local health facilities are selected as case sites in Shandong Province, including two city hospitals, a county hospital and a long-term care facility between 2017 and 2019. Semi-structure interviews are conducted for data collection. Framework analysis is used for data analysis. Drawing upon the empirical evidence in selected Chinese local hospitals, I argue that the marketisation in health care leads to a variety of demands, expectations, and beliefs in health care. It also stimulates service users as consumers to exercise rights of choices in the market of health care. This study contributes to our understanding of marketisation and the impact on the utilisation of health services empirically and theoretically.

The Impact of Digital Technologies on Political Participation and Economic Activities of Migrants from and in Taiwan

Wednesday
11:00 am – 12:45 pm
Room 3

  • Organised by Jens Damm
  • Jens Damm, “The Impact of Digital Media on Overseas Chinese and Taiwanese ‘Friendship Associations’”
  • Julia Marinaccio, “Electoral Behaviour of Overseas Taiwanese in Austria: Combining Digital Ethnography and Traditional Field Research”
  • Beatrice Zani, “Surfing on Digital Waves, Navigating Global Seas: Chinese Migrants’ Creative E-Commerce in Taiwan”

The first paper by Jens Damm (Tübingen) paper maps how migrants from Taiwan and Mainland China in Berlin are involved in networks with their place of origin. Based on qualitative interviews, it contrasts how Taiwan fosters a narrative of being a ‘norm taker’ (democracy/human rights), in contrast to Mainland China’s becoming a ‘norm setter.’ The second paper by Isabelle Cheng (Portsmouth) explores the use of smartphones by Southeast Asian immigrant women in Taiwan for facilitating political participation (Line group observation). This paper argues that this semi-open cyberspace creates a forum where immigrant women solicit support for political campaigns. The third paper by Julia Marinaccio (Berlin) deals with Taiwan’s presidential/legislative elections of 2020. In particular, she analyses the electoral behaviour of the Taiwanese Overseas, highlighting# the role of social media in voter participation. This paper presents the results of a mixed-method study of electoral behaviour of Taiwanese Overseas in Austria. The fourth paper by Beatrice Zani (Lyon) then explores the emotional ties and solidarity networks of Chinese women within WeChat groups in Taiwan. The research is based on data collected both in Taiwan and in Mainland China. All papers thus offer insights into very recent phenomena of social media employed by different groups of migrants: Mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian migrants living in Taiwan on the one hand, Taiwanese migrants residing in Europe on the other hand. Both groups stay in contact with their places of origin employing different types of social media and increasingly adapt to their new life situations.

Jens Damm, “The Impact of Digital Media on Overseas Chinese and Taiwanese ‘Friendship Associations’“

This paper will map how migrants from Taiwan and Mainland China in Berlin are both involved in various networks with their place of origin. This paper will ask, in particular, how the Taiwanese authorities are actively involved in keeping contact with various types of migrants (defined broadly) in Germany, and what kind of role the ubiquitous social media apps, such as Line and Facebook, play in strengthening this relationship. This paper is based on the observations of the activities undertaken by Taiwanese and Chinese communities in Germany in the form of ‘friendship association’. All ‘friendship associations’ established by Taiwanese and Chinese communities include a large number of transnational actors, including newly arrived migrants, artists, language teachers and those who temporarily live abroad. Notable examples are the German-Chinese Association – Friends of Taiwan (DCG), the German-Chinese Friendship Association (GDCF) and the Confucius Institute at the Free University Berlin. Educational associations, such as FlAKE, and cultural groups, such as the Chinese Umbrella Organisation in Germany (Chinesischer Dachverband in Deutschland UCCVD) can be also included in this category. These organisations vary in their goals, but in general, they contribute to cultural diplomacy promoted by Taiwan and China. This paper will critically analyse how Taiwan (an ethnic Chinese region) fosters a narrative of being a ‘norm taker’ that emphasises the island’s democracy and commitment to human rights protection, in contrast to China·s claim to become a ‘norm setter’.

Julia Marinaccio, “Electoral Behaviour of Overseas Taiwanese in Austria: Combining Digital Ethnography and Traditional Field Research“

Against the backdrop of mounting pressures from the PRC under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the long-lasting protests in Hong Kong, Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections 2020 have become a significant political event that has also garnered considerable international attention. The issue of electoral behaviour dominated media coverage before and after the elections within Taiwan. But while electoral behaviour of Taiwanese living in Taiwan is a well-researched topic, we still know little about how Taiwanese who reside abroad cast their votes. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study addresses the following questions: How many Taiwanese who live abroad turn back to Taiwan to make use of their right to vote? Whom do they vote for? Do they organise themselves individually or in groups? What role do social media play in the organisation of vote-related homeward journeys? In this study, the author firstly conducts a large-n survey among Taiwanese Overseas residing in Austria. To increase the turnout rate, the questionnaires are distributed online via the various Facebook pages of Taiwanese Overseas associations and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Austria and by door-to-door visits in Taiwanese households and enterprises. Secondly, to gain a better understanding of how homeward journeys were organised, digital ethnographic methods are used to explore the diverse virtual networks and face-to-face semi-structured interviews are conducted with the principal functionaries of the Taiwanese Overseas population in Austria, diplomats, and the CEO’s of the two Taiwanese airlines China Airline and Eva Air.

Beatrice Zani, “Surfing on Digital Waves, Navigating Global Seas: Chinese Migrants’ Creative E-Commerce in Taiwan”

This paper is based on data collection in Taiwan and in Mainland China. Through ‘multi-sited ethnography’ and ‘virtual ethnography’, 171 ‘life stories’ were collected describing the economic practices, emotional ties and solidarity networks of women within WeChat groups. how and to what extent navigating through global capitalism and local consumption, Chinese migrant women’s physical and virtual transnational economic activities transgresses and transcend, or redraw, spaces, temporalities, and boundaries? To what extent does the production of digital markets contribute to upward social and economic mobility processes? In particular, taking account the rigidly monitored physical and moral borders between China and Taiwan, As a result, it will be shown that by exploiting new technologies—more precisely the application of WeChat on ‘contested markets’—Chinese women generate translocal and transgressive entrepreneurial practices. Women’s transnational social networks built on the production of transnational multipolar economies connect the different spaces of women such as Chinese rural villages of origin, Chinese cities where they worked temporarily worked and the new environment in Taiwan.

Papers on Modern Literature VI

Contact
Wednesday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room E

  • Chaired by Letizia Fusini
  • Letizia Fusini, “Modern yet Traditional: Reconfiguring (Western) Tragedy in Early-Republican China”
  • Yichun Xu, “Fashioning Courtesans in Suzhou Wu: Topolect and Gender in Shanghai Courtesan Novels”
  • Congshuo Li, “Ling and Woolf: Women Writers’ Biographical Writing in a Modernist Transcultural Context”
  • Martin Blahota, “Anti-Western Westernization: Akutagawa’s Devils in Fiction of East Asian Colonial Subjects”

Letizia Fusini, “Modern yet Traditional: Reconfiguring (Western) Tragedy in Early-Republican China”

One of the key features of the New Culture and May Fourth Movement was the discussion of Western tragic theory and dramaturgy, which had been introduced to China since the late-Qing period through Japan. As has been noted (Tang, 2000; Wang, 2004), tragedy was acclaimed as a new, ‘civilised’ and ‘progressive’ form of drama, an incarnation of the sublime (as per Western standards), and a powerful pedagogic tool capable of shaking the social and historical consciousness of the Chinese in the aftermath of the century of humiliation. While the interest in tragedy was clearly sparked by the widely accepted assumption that an analogous genre had never existed in China, the way in which it was interpreted and adapted to the Chinese context suggests that a traditional ‘indigenous’ filter was applied to define its supposed ‘modernity’. Although the term beiju was originally coined in Meiji Japan to translate the German Trauerspiel, bei is one of the cardinal emotions in traditional Chinese texts and among those typically associated with melancholy, frequently mentioned in premodern Chinese poetry and sometimes even preferred to joy, for its ability to strengthen the spirit rather than saddening or weakening it (Cheng, 2001). In premodern China melancholy, linked to the autumnal season and to the experience of loss and/or separation, was considered a gateway to contemplation and reflection, and from a Confucian perspective, a “source of motivating force for self-cultivation” (ibid.) and the construction of social harmony. Similarly, in May Fourth China, beiju was meant to arouse a sense of compassion and indignation in the audience/readers, to compel them to combat injustice and seek the common good in real life. Through a cross-comparison of Chinese conceptions of beiju in the May Fourth era and traditional views of melancholy and sadness, this paper will seek to show that the Chinese reception of (Western) tragedy, was informed by the rejuvenation of traditional ideas rather than the introduction of purely ‘Western’ theories.

Yichun Xu, “Fashioning Courtesans in Suzhou Wu: Topolect and Gender in Shanghai Courtesan Novels”

Wu is one of the few topolects in China having a rich literary tradition. The earliest work written with Wu topolect is usually traced to the seventeenth century. A much more recent example is the 2015 winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, Blossom. During the late Qing and Republican eras, Wu topolect writings were produced on a hitherto unknown scale. This paper discusses the role Wu topolect courtesan writings played in constructing Wu topolect as the language spoken by courtesans and of the entertainment world in general, both in the diegetic world of fictional texts and in the reality beyond them by examining two Wu topolect courtesan novels—Nine-Tailed Turtle and Romance on Hu River. I contend that it is the Shanghai entertainment world, the commercial print industry, and certain traditions within pre-modern Chinese literature—in particular, folksongs in Suzhou Wu on secret love—that conspired to forge the Wu-topolect (especially Suzhou Wu) courtesan novel tradition. Apart from the interaction between the fictionality and the reality, I also argue the use of Suzhou Wu in courtesan fiction not only can reflect male writers’ linguistic and stylistic preference for the woman of Suzhou, but also their anxiety about creating a safe distance between themselves and the courtesan world, as can be seen in the two novels where Suzhou-Wu is largely used in a gendered, professional, and site-specific manner. Furthermore, the association of courtesans/prostitutes with Wu dialect continues on into the Republican era and even into post-Mao China.

Congshuo Li, “Ling and Woolf: Women Writers’ Biographical Writing in a Modernist Transcultural Context”

In the first half of the 20th century, Ling Shuhua and Virginia Woolf were two women writers who came from different cultures, yet they communicated across cultural boundaries. Woolf was one of the foremost English writers of the twentieth century; Ling was a Chinese writer and painter during the same era. In their respective countries, they were members of influential literary groups of writers, and they had close connections. Their similar contributions to women’s writing through subverting the traditional notions of gender and women’s writing styles are therefore worthy of being studied.
Here I focus on their representative biographical works: Ancient Melodies and Orlando: A Biography. Orlando is Woolf’s 1928 fictional biography published; Ancient Melodies is Ling’s 1953 autobiographical novel. They are related to the genre of biographical writings, but meanwhile, they distinguish from normal biographies and autobiographies in the combination of fact and fiction; moreover, they both achieve self-representation through writing others. Also, it is noticeable that the support of Woolf was significant in Ling’s English autobiographical writing.
Therefore, I focused on these works and their correspondence between 1938–39. I explored how their transcultural communication contributes to Ling’s autobiographical project; furthermore, I have borrowed the theory of metahistory to reinterpret the relation between the biographer and the subject; I have also utilised theories of gender and explored their insightful reflection on gender issues in their biographical and autobiographical writing.

Martin Blahota, “Anti-Western Westernisation: Akutagawa’s Devils in Fiction of East Asian Colonial Subjects”

From the perspective of the coloniser, the Japanese Empire was founded on the ideals of Pan-Asianism and liberation from the West. It is, therefore, fascinating how many works of fiction created by colonial subjects throughout the Empire deal with Christianity. Some of them, such as Manchukuo Jue Qing’s Defeated Escape (1940) or Taiwanese Zhou Jinbo’s A Devil’s Messenger (1945) seem to mirror the Japanese war propaganda that was profoundly anti-Western. However, especially in Manchukuo, Christianity was addressed positively by many writers as well. This paper suggests that the colonial subjects were influenced not only by Japanese propaganda but also by modern Japanese authors such as Akutagawa Ryūnosuke whose attitudes towards the West and Christianity were far more complex. This study analyses the paradox of literature’s westernisation under the Japanese colonisation and offers new insights into the East Asian colonial modernity.