Jens Damm presenting a paper "The Ethnic Chinese Diaspora and the Transnationalization of China Studies" at the workshop “China Studies in a Global Context”, Free University Berlin

ORGANIZERS:
PROF. DR. DR. H.C. MECHTHILD LEUTNER, FU BERLIN
PROF. DR. KATJA LEVY, FU BERLIN, UNIVERSITÄT WÜRZBURG
PROF. DR. ZHANG XUDONG / NEW YORK UNIVERSITY / PEKING-UNIVERSITÄT

Globalization has left its mark on academia – and its consequences are particularly obvious in fields that deal with the »world« across national and cultural divides like area studies do. Discourses about global affairs have become global discourses. Modern China Studies / Sinology is very much part of this dynamic. The field needs to come to terms with a multitude of new challenges: How do the increasing economic, political, cultural and social ties between China and the world alter the field? How do they impact processes of knowledge production? And how do China Studies /Sinology position themselves theoretically to adjust to a context in constant flux? Old premises have been placed under rigorous scrutiny. »Western« sinology’s historical roots in colonialism are reexamined. Is a science that was born complicit in subduing old China up to the task to help the world understand a newly returned contemporary China? How does it have to readjust – and which of its conceptualizations have stood the test of time?

See http://www.konfuziusinstitut-berlin.de/html/de/veranstaltungsprogramm/workshops/china-studies-in-a-global-context/index.html