International Symposium on China and Global Modernity, 1784–1919, 27-29 May

Last updated:2016-05-20

International Symposium on China and Global Modernity, 1784–1919

This symposium intends to bring together Chinese and international scholars to identify, examine, interpret, and discuss significant individuals, cases, and events, which manifest and reveal the complexities of the historical relations between China and the West in “the Long Nineteenth Century,” bracketed by these two events——the Lady Hughes incident in 1784, which is considered the precursor of the First Opium War (1839 – 1842) and the May Fourth Movement in 1919, which may be understood as China’s re-articulation of its understanding of modernity following a century of conflicts with the West. We will look at how China and the West (mis-)understood and (mis-)represented each other, how interactions between them in different spheres produced knowledge that would redefine their understanding of each other, and how China appropriated modalities of modernity in such areas as trade, law, and culture. Guangzhou (Canton), one of the earliest Chinese ports open to Western commodities, knowledge, and beliefs, would be an appropriate venue to revisit our collective historical memories of some of the significant events that have influenced and shaped the Sino-Western relations.

Time: May 27-29, 2016
Venue: 1st Conference Room, 3rd Floor, Sun Yat-sen Kaifeng Hotel, Sun Yat-sen University
Organizer: by Boya (Liberal Arts) College & School of Foreign Languages, Sun Yat-en University

27 May 2016 (Day 1)
8.45 – 9.15 The Opening	Opening Remarks: Member of the Senior Management Team of the University Welcoming Remarks: Professor Qingsheng TONG Photograph-taking
9.15 –10.35 Panel 1: British Empire and Qing China 1.1	Chair: William CHRISTIE (Australian National University) Robert MARKLEY (University of Illinois): ‘China and the Problem of Political Economy: The Scots Enlightenment and the Stages of Civilization’ Peter KITSON (University of East Anglia): ‘The Dark Gift: Opium, Thomas De Quincey and the Amherst Embassy to China of 1816’
10.55 – 12.15 Panel 2: British Empire and Qing China 1.2	Chair: Robert MARKLEY (University of Illinois) Ming WILSON (Victoria and Albert Museum): ‘Lord George Macartney the bearer of gifts’ Dongqing WANG (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies): ‘Kowtow as Signifier: Negotiating the Sovereign Self in the Early Sino-British Encounters’
13.30 – 14.50 Panel 3: British Empire and Qing China 1.3	Chair: Xiaoyi ZHOU (Peking University) Hamashita TAKESHI (Sun Yat-sen University): ‘Foreign Commissioners in the Modern Chinese Maritime Customs under Historical Transformation from Canton System to Open Port Trade Relation: 1810-1912’ Qingsheng TONG (Sun Yat-sen University): ‘Extraterritoriality, Legal Sovereignty, and the Limits of Liberalism’
15.10 –16.30 Panel 11: Cultural Revitalization and Language Reform	Chair: Jonathan Locke HART (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) Li CAO (Tsinghua University): ‘Conflicting Humanities and “the Chinese Renaissence”’ Lorraine WONG (University of Otago): ‘Chinese Latinization and the Literary Avant-garde in Modern China’
16.50 –18.10 Panel 5: China and the World	Chair: Qingsheng TONG (Sun Yat-sen University) Guoqi XU (The University of Hong Kong): ‘The Year 1919: China Rethinks Its Relation to the World’ Jiande LU (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): ‘From Boxer Indemnity to Educational Funds’
28 May 2016 (Day 2)
9.00 –10.20 Panel 6: Travel Writing	Chair: Chengjiao WANG (Sun Yat-sen University) William CHRISTIE (Australian National University): ‘“Gratifying a liberal curiosity”: James Wathen’s Journal of a Voyage, in 1811 and 1812, to Madras and China’ Elizabeth CHANG (University of Missouri): ‘The Sensation of Sovereignty in Mid-19th-century British Travel Writing from China’
10.40 –12.00 Panel 7: China Trade	Chair: Jim WATT (University of York) Kendall JOHNSON (The University of Hong Kong): ‘Once Upon a Time in 1784: National Biography and the American Quest for Free Trade in China’ Yinghe JIANG (Sun Yat-sen University): ‘Global Contacts of Guangzhou Port in Qing Dynasty: The Case of Export Painting’
13.30 –14.50 Panel 8: Chinese Literature and the West 1.1	Chair: Peter KITSON (University of East Anglia) Jim WATT (University of York): ‘Charles Lamb, China, and global’ Kang-yen CHIU (Sun Yat-sen University): ‘“Empire’s Repository”: Walter Scott’s Writing, Collection and Reading of China’
15.10 –16.30 Panel 9: Chinese Literature and the West 1.2	Chair: Li CAO (Tsinghua University) Wen JIN (Fudan University): ‘Toward a Culture of Reading in Modern China: Western Fiction, Sentiment, and late Qing Readers’ Jin GAO (Tsinghua University): ‘Ruskin, Aesthetics and Modernity: A Transnational Perspective’
16.50 –18.10 Panel 10: Chinese Literature and the West 1.3	Chair: Guoqi XU (The University of Hong Kong) John Yu ZOU (Chongqing University): ‘Hong Shen’s Wilde: Productive Misunderstanding and Dramatic Modernism of Republican China’ Ross FORMAN (University of Warwick): ‘A “never-to-be-forgotten lesson”: Local Literature, Reform, and the Remodeling of China in NG Hing Shang’s The Upheaval in Far Cathay (1904)’
29 May 2016 (Day 3)
9.00 –10.20 Panel 11: Modern China and Religion	Chair: Kang-yen CHIU (Sun Yat-sen University) Lina GUO (Sun Yat-sen University): ‘Tong Ouen-hian and Late-Qing Kouy-tcheou Diocese’ Jonathan Locke HART (Shanghai Jiao Tong University): ‘Religion and Education: Some Western Institutions and Authors in China in the Long Nineteenth-Century’
10.40-11.10 Panel 12: Imitation and Innovation	Chair: Ruth YY HUNG (Hong Kong Baptist University) Xinyue YUAN (Sun Yat-sen University) ‘Imitation and Innovation: Chinese Authenticity and Cultural Expression of Sir William Chambers’s Great Pagoda’
11.10 -11.30 Roundtable	Chair: William CHRISTIE & Qingsheng TONG

SPEAKERS & PARTICIPANTS:
 Li CAO 曹莉 (Tsinghua University)
 Elizabeth H. CHANG (University of Missouri)
 Kang-yen CHIU 邱刚彦 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 William CHRISTIE (Australian National University)
 Ross FORMAN (University of Warwick)
 Yang GAN 甘阳 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Jin GAO 高瑾 (Tsinghua University)
 Lina GUO 郭丽娜 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Jonathan Locke HART (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
 Ruth YY HUNG洪如蕊 (Hong Kong Baptist University)
 Yinghe JIANG 江滢河 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Wen JIN 金雯 (Fudan University)
 Kendall JOHNSON (The University of Hong Kong)
 Peter KITSON (University of East Anglia)
 Jiande LU 陆建德 (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
 Robert MARKLEY (University of Illinois)
 Hamashita TAKESHI 滨下武志 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Qingsheng TONG 童庆生 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Chengjiao WANG 王承教 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Dongqing WANG 王冬青 (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies)
 Jim WATT (University of York)
 Ming WILSON 刘明倩 (Victoria and Albert Museum)
 Lorraine WONG 黄芷敏 (University of Otago)
 Guoqi XU 徐国琦 (The University of Hong Kong)
 Xinyue YUAN袁昕玥 (Sun Yat-sen University)
 Xiaoyi ZHOU 周小仪 (Peking University)
 John Yu ZOU 邹羽 (Chongqing University)