Bringing Together China And The West

2023年，香港中文大學迎來六十周年校慶。值此重要時刻，當反思大學使命—「結合傳統與現代，融會中國與西方」的歷史意蘊與時代價值。大學圖書館藉此難得機會，舉辦紀念展覽，展示館藏中日益豐富的西方漢學珍本。 本圖錄記錄了展出的藏書，並一一簡述概況，涵蓋從十五至十九世紀中葉的書籍、地圖和手稿。珍藏之中不乏最優秀的早期漢學著作。其中許多作品均由利瑪竇、湯若望等知名耶穌會教士撰寫，他們縱然人數不多，但在深入接觸近代早期中國社會與文化的過程中，一手創立了近代漢學，留下了近距離觀察中國的珍貴記錄。隨著這些傳教士的著作傳回歐洲，關於中國的歐洲書籍愈加準確詳細，歐洲人對中國的了解也與日俱增。本圖錄透過豐富的圖像，以及細緻的介紹和描述，呈現出一幅生動的早期歷史圖景，展現西方對中國持久而深入的興趣和理解，以及中西淵源的交疊與關聯。透過本圖錄，讀者亦可藉此思索如何更好地「結合傳統與現代，融會中國與西方」。 In 2023, The Chinese University of Hong Kong celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of its foundation. This occasion provides a moment for reflection on the historical and contemporary meanings of the university’s mission “to combine tradition with modernity and to bring together China and the West.” To this end, the celebrations include an exhibition of the University Library’s burgeoning collection of Western rare books about China, which is recorded and contextualized in this catalogue. This splendid volume features books, maps, and manuscripts from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Among its treasures are some of the very finest works of early Sinology. Many of these were written by celebrated Jesuit missionaries like Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who though few in number almost single-handedly founded modern Sinology through their deep engagement with early modern Chinese society and culture. As the writings of these missionaries percolated back to Europe, knowledge about China grew exponentially as European books about China became more accurate and detailed. Through its extended introduction, images, and descriptions, this catalogue illustrates the dynamic early history of the West’s longstanding and profound interest in China, thereby giving members of the university community and the public at large an opportunity to consider how we might better “combine tradition with modernity and bring together China and the West.”

Despite radical and fundamental reform of the Chinese higher education system, very little is known about this outside China. The past decade has seen radical reform of all levels of China’s education system as it attempts to meet changing economic and social needs and aspirations: this has included transformation of university curricula, pedagogy and evaluation measures, rapidly increasing joint research and degree programmes between Chinese universities and universities abroad, and very large numbers of Chinese students studying at universities outside China. This book describes the historical, cultural, intellectual and contemporary background and contexts of the reform and internationalisation of higher education in China. It discusses these changes, outlines the challenges posed by the changes for university administrators, faculty, researchers, students and those working with Chinese academics and students in China and abroad, and assesses the impact, and evaluates the success, of the changes. Most importantly, it considers how this mobility of people and ideas across educational systems and cultures can contribute to new ways of working and understanding between Western and Chinese academic cultures. The book is a companion to Education Reform in China, which focuses on reform at the early childhood, primary and secondary levels.

The meeting point between China and the West is a striking subject in a wide range of disciplines. This collection scrutinises how China and the West interact in aspects of culture, arts, politics and everyday life. Within a complex web of actors, dimensions, technologies, spaces and social structures, cultural encounters are nevertheless problematic. China and the West come together within the stream of a global world. The essays in this anthology analyse new and emerging dynamics that challenge authoritative views imposed on the other, while deconstructing traditional responses to otherness too. Bringing these essays together responds to a commitment to a critical assessment of the various shapes that such convergence takes within globalisation. China and the West: Encounters with the Other in Culture, Arts, Politics and Everyday Life will appeal to scholars and practitioners in communications, the visual arts, cultural studies, sociology, media studies, anthropology, literature and politics. The non-academic reader interested in the vibrant and emerging interface between China and the West will find this enlightening too.

This timely book offers uplifting examples of major figures in Chinese and Western civilization from ancient to modern times who learned from and influenced each other. Rather than emphasizing cultural differences, this inspiring text highlights successful dialogue, commonalities, and mutual influences in this regard. Readers familiar with the Western canon will discover surprising influences of China on well-known Anglosphere writers and critics. Drawing on an expansive range of periods in the East and West from classical to contemporary times, it is a tour-de-force of theoretical range and practical impact. Starting with Confucius and Socrates, the chapters move chronologically on to address such major figures in Eastern writing as Zhuangzi, Qian Zhongshu, and Zhang Longxi, and Western figures including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Empson, Nietzsche, and Fredric Jameson. The book will appeal to scholars and students at all educational levels, as well as the general public interested in understanding past and current East-West cultural relations.

The world is looking East. Whilst in the West psychoanalysis is fighting to maintain its position among the other therapies in a society which has less time for introspection and self-reflective thought, in Asia a new frontier is opening up: we are witnessing a surge of interest for psychoanalysis among the mental health professionals and among the younger generations, interest which is articulated and nuanced differently in the different Asian countries. In Asia and particularly in India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China, the development of psychoanalysis reflects separate socio-political historical contexts, each with a rich cultural texture and fuelled by the interest of a new generation of mental health professionals for psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method.

Since the end of the World War II, nation states have formed regions to give them some protection from the processes of globalization and internationalization. Against this background, the contributors consider the position of China in the processes of regional competitive interdependency. This book offers analysis at three levels: internal, regional, and global. Chapters consider China’s position in regional post-socialist associations such as the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Silk Road Economic Belt and the ‘One Belt, One Road’ (OBOR). Contributors discuss how membership in these regional bodies is likely to enhance China’s economic power, strategic position, and political importance. A major theme addressed is whether these new powers will become complementary to the American-led economic core countries or evolve as countervailing powers. Contributors suggest that linkages favored by China’s regional associations are more ‘network’ based and informal in character. They are more in keeping with regionalization rather than regional blocs such as the European Union, which have ‘locked in’ members to market-driven institutions. Thus, these new developments move away from a neo-liberal market perspective and satisfy the needs of members to retain their economic and political sovereignty. This book considers whether these new regional blocs led by China will perform a ‘transformative’ process for the international order or become an alternative—supplementary to, but not replacing, the existing institutions of the North. An important topic is the relationship of Russia and China to the Central Asian countries of the former USSR and the interaction between the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and the Chinese initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt. There is potential for the evolution of an alliance between China and Russia against the neo-liberal order led by the USA. Concurrently, they bring out possible the tensions between Russia’s and China’s conflicting interests over influence in Central Asia. Reactions to China’s rise include the Trump administration’s movement from a multilateral to a bi-lateral trade policy and the threat of discriminatory tariffs for China. The contributors seek to promote a better appreciation of China’s role in regional associations, and the implications of contemporary developments in economic, geo-political, and international political affairs in the 21st century.

An in-depth study of Ma Xiangbo, one of the most prominent Catholic thinkers in modern China.

This book explores the forces that impelled China, the world’s largest socialist state, to make massive changes in its domestic and international stance during the long 1970s. Fourteen distinguished scholars investigate the special, perhaps crucial part that the territory of Hong Kong played in encouraging and midwifing China’s relationship with the non-Communist world. The Long 1970s were the years when China moved dramatically and decisively toward much closer relations with the non-Communist world. In the late 1970s, China also embarked on major economic reforms, designed to win it great power status by the early twenty-first centuries. The volume addresses the long-term implications of China’s choices for the outcome of the Cold War and in steering the global international outlook toward free-market capitalism. Decisions made in the 1970s are key to understanding the nature and policies of the Chinese state today and the worldview of current Chinese leaders.