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As China Meets the
World:
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Historical Society
for Twentieth-Century China
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As China Meets the
World:
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Call for Papers“As
China Meets the World: Vienna, May 15-19, 2004The Department of East Asian Studies/Sinology at the University of Vienna together with the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for China and Southeast Asia Studies, Vienna, and the Historical Society for 20th Century China are planning a conference with the title “As China meets the world: China’s changing position in the international community, 1840-2000” in May 2004. We invite scholars from all over the world to submit outlines of their papers for the conference before September 30, 2003. We also welcome complete panel proposals on one of the conference’s key topics as listed below. The selected paper/panel proposals will be announced in October. The deadline for submission of the conference papers will be February 15, 2004. A conference volume of the submitted papers will be published. The organizers of the conference are in the process of applying for financial support. It is their aim to support paper presenters as far as their expenses for their stay in Vienna is concerned. Colleagues who cannot get financial support from their home institutions for international travel costs can apply with the organizers for additional support. For further information please contact the conference organizers Univ.-Prof. Dr.
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik Univ. Prof. Dr.
Gerd Kaminski For further information regarding the Historical Society for 20th Century China please contact Prof. Elisabeth
K�ll Please submit abstracts of paper and/or panel proposals, max. 500 words, to the following two e-mail addresses by Sept. 30 :
susanne.weigelin-schwiedrzik@univie.ac.at Conference Outline The conference will focus on the following topics: 1. China’s Changing Position in the World: From Empire to Nation to Globalization We would like to encourage presenters to focus on the history of international relations and diplomacy from the late Qing to the present. We are especially interested in papers on the strategy of foreign policy applied by the Chinese state before and after 1949 as well as on China’s changing self-definition of its position in the international community and global politics. Papers should address the question whether China’s definition of its role in global politics has changed due to revolutionary changes during the 20th century or whether there is a continuous and unanimous approach to this question beyond the differences between the political forces regarding the internal development in China. 2. International Aspects of System Change in China: China’s Search for a New Political Order – Between Opening to the World and Self-Isolation We would like to encourage papers from colleagues in the field of political history interested in understanding how political as well as intellectual elites in China have been trying to design a new political order for China since the beginning of the 20th century. Inclusion of international aspects are welcome insofar as they deal with the question of how international models have formed the idea of the political system designed for China. In addition, the question of how much international factors have influenced the courses and dates of system changes in China during the 20th century should be addressed. 3. China’s Integration into the World Economy: Colonization – Self Reliance - Globalization We would like to invite scholars from the field of economic history to submit papers on strategies and policies China developed to meet the challenge of international competition by designing its own economic strategies and solving the question of national sovereignty as well as the issue of social justice. Just as China’s entering the world is part of China’s entering the world market, so was China’s temporal isolation from the world also isolation from the world market. We would like to encourage presenters to discuss the question as to which extent external factors shaped China’s economic performance during the course of the 20th century and how much the decision making process among Chinese politicians was shaped by existing or missing chances they saw on the world market for China. 4. Chinese Identity in an International Context: the Voice of the Intellectuals China’s changing position in the world has instigated vigorous debates among Chinese intellectuals searching for an adequate definition of Chineseness in an international context. We encourage presenters to ponder on the question how different intellectual groupings in China have solved the relationship between the claim for universality by China’s traditional culture and the claim for particularity in the 20th century. As we see China moving between integration into the world and isolation from the world in the political and economic spheres, intellectual debates in China stress particularity rather than the search for universal values and vice versa. Is this tension between being exclusive and inclusive typically Chinese? We would like colleagues working on the history of ideas debate the question and offer potential answers. 5. Chineseness in the Age of Globalization – A Symbol of Particularity or a Motor for Internationalisation? Can national identity be defined by national culture? And what does national culture mean in China in the 20th century? We would like to invite colleagues from the field of literature, art, cinema, and history of science and technology to submit papers linking cultural production to the construction of identity and to the discussion of how cultural exchange might contribute to developing a post-national identity rather than defining national particularity. While Chinese literature and art as well as cinema have been able to attract international attention, other fields of cultural production, especially the writing of history, are mostly isolated from the international discussion. Books, which are unknown to the majority of Chinese readers, are translated into many foreign languages, while Chinese bestsellers are unknown to the non-Chinese audience. What is the reason for this phenomenon, and to which extent is it possible to use cultural production for the definition of China’s new position in the world?
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