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“Key Texts” In Modern Chinese Political Thought Conference

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Fifteen scholars from China, Taiwan, and Europe, as well as the US, met on September 27 and 28, 2019 to discuss selected key texts written by Chinese intellectuals and political activists from the late Qing period (1890s) through the Republican period (1912-1949). The conference was held at UConn-Hartford.

 

The texts ranged from well-known works by Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Mao Zedong to lesser-known writings of Yang Du and Ding Shan. The conference’s discussions were held in English and Chinese. Duan Lian, Pablo Blitstein, Wang Fansen, Gao Bo, Carl K.Y. Shaw, Wen Yu, Mara Yue Du, Axel Schneider, Gu Hongliang, Thomas Fröhlich, Li Yongjin, Shellen Wu, and Peter Zarrow gave papers, while discussants were Stephen Angle, Alexus McLeod, and Fred Lee.

 

The goals of the conference were to highlight new scholarship on the rich political theorizing of the period, and to help establish modern Chinese political thought as a field not only important in its own right but of interest to non-Sinophone scholars working on political theory, comparative politics, and global intellectual history. We collectively hope to continue to pursue these goals in the future. In terms of making modern Chinese political thought more transparent outside this sub-field, we will work on providing complete translations of key texts and, separately, introductions to them. These introductions will provide basic information on the text’s author, its context, its contents and significance, and its reception and influence. Both translations of complete texts and introductions to them should be of use to scholars and students. At the moment, we lack these scholarly tools—most of the translations we have are highly abridged or limited to a small number of political leaders (Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong). And the monographic literature speaks mostly to specialists.

 

Papers and discussion at the UConn conference centered around such themes as materiality, utopianism, and temporality, as well as more familiar topics such as secularization, legitimacy, and rights and liberty. We did not come up with a clear definition of what constitutes a “key text” and do not want to establish a canon, but rather we hope to keep open what texts are of historical and contemporary interest. Loosely speaking, we can put key texts into one of two categories: historical importance as defined by the text’s reception and influence (at the time it was disseminated or later); and intrinsic interest as defined by the text’s originality and argumentation. This conference made no attempt to claim the texts discussed could possibly represent the spectrum of political thought in twentieth-century China, but it did include texts that represented a variety of opinion—articles and books by Kang Youwei, Zhang Zhidong, Liang Qichao, Zhang Taiyan, Yang Du, Chen Duxiu, Liang Shuming, Ding Shan, Luo Longji, and Mao Zedong.

 

Much Chinese writing of the period of course constituted adoption, adaptation, and reflections on ideas that originated in Euro-America and Japan (or via Japan). At the same time, the influence of Confucian and Buddhist ideas on particular texts was profound. In approaching key texts, it is necessary to keep in mind various authors’ particular and original interpretations of the of the questions they were asking. The afterlife of texts is also worth considering; for example, China today has seen a revival of certain texts written a hundred years ago such as writings of Kang Youwei, which interest New Confucians, and writings of Zhang Taiyan (Binglin), which interest New Left thinkers.

 

In addition to opening up the question of the exact bases of modern Chinese political thought by focusing on key texts, this conference also raised the question of what counts as “political thought” in the first place. Discussions turned to the problem of the hegemony of Western political methodologies and problems, the need to encourage more comparative work, and the advantages of interdisciplinary scholarship, especially among historians, political theorists, and philosophers.

 

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Sponsors of the conference were the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation; and UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, Asian and Asian American Studies Institute, Humanities Institute, Department of History, Office of Global Affairs, and Department of Philosophy. Photo Credit: Jason Chang.

PhD Student Alex Beckstrand Contributes to Made By History

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Alex BeckstrandIn today’s Washington Post blog, Made By History, Ph.D. student Alex Beckstrand contributed an excellent article titled “How 1940 provides the way forward for the United States in a treacherous world”. According to Beckstrand, forward-thinking and bipartisan problem solving is a must to overcome this difficult political moment. In particular, Beckstrand provides examples of bipartisan policies from the FDR era that helped the economy and gave the United States a more solid footing before World War II. To read more, click here.

Prof. Healey Interviewed by SECOLAS Podcast

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Mark Healey, Associate Professor of History at the University of ConnecticutOn October 31, Associate Professor and Department Head Mark Healey was interviewed by Historias, the official podcast for the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS). Listed as Episode 64 and titled “Mark Healey and Ernesto Semán on Argentina’s presidential election,” the participants discussed the evolution of Argentina political culture and the emergence of today’s radicalized center-right political movement. To listen, click here.

Prof. Alexis Dudden Contributes Article to NYT

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Professor Alexis Dudden, University of ConnecticutOn September 23rd, Professor Alexis Dudden published an op-ed, titled “America’s Secret History in East Asia,” in the New York Times. The article explores the history behind the history of the trade disputes between South Korean and Japanese officials and places blame in the hands of U.S. diplomats. Professor Dudden writes: “Neither South Korean nor Japanese officials point a finger at the United States for their dispute, and yet they should…the historical moment they are fighting about, more than a half-century later, was fundamentally shaped by America’s involvement. Even as it claimed to help resolve Japan’s and South Korea’s longstanding grievances with the 1965 treaty, Washington used one ally over the other out of expedience, to advance its own interests.”

To read more about the ongoing trade dispute and Washington’s past involvement, click here.

Two History Professors Featured in UConn 360 Podcast

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This week’s episode of UConn 360 features state historian and Professor Walter Woodward, as well as Professor Altina Waller. While Professor Woodward provides fascinating facts about Connecticut’s history, Professor Waller discusses the Hatfield-McCoy feud, which served as the subject of her third book. To listen to the podcast, click here. To read more about Professor Waller’s book, “Feud: Hatfields, McCoys and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900,” click here.


                                                      Altina Waller, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Connecticut       Walter Woodward, Associate Professor of History at the University of Connecticut and State Historian for Connecticut

Nathan Braccio’s Fellowship with Omohundro Institute

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Ph.D. candidate Nathan Braccio was named an Omohundro Institute–Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation fellow, which enabled Braccio to conduct research over the summer in Williamsburg and Jamestown. While Braccio’s dissertation, “Parallel Landscapes: Algonquian and English Spatial Epistemologies 1500-1700,” focuses on how New England colonists and Algonquians described and learned about their landscape before 1700, his fellowship enabled him to broaden his research to include the culture of professional surveying and mapmaking among early colonists.

Braccio shared his fellowship experience and details relating to his fascinating research on OI’s “Uncommon Sense” blog. A link to his post can be found here.

Professor Sinha Receives 2019-2020 Radcliffe Institute Fellowship

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Professor Manisha Sinha, History Department, University of Connecticut

This past week it was announced that Manisha Sinha, the UConn History Department’s James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History, is a recipient of a 2019-2020 fellowship from Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

With an acceptance rate of 3.7 percent and an applicant pool of more than 1,000 distinguished academics, it is a well-earned honor for Professor Sinha to serve as one of the fellows. Specifically, her research on “the limits and possibilities of progressive constitutionalism through study of gender and race issues that arose during Reconstruction” will contribute to the Institute’s 19th Amendment Project associated with Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.

For more information, please see the Institute’s fellowship announcement listed here.

Hilary Bogert-Winkler Accepts Position of Director at Montreal Dio

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Hilary Bogert-Winkler, PhD candidate, History Dept, UConnThe Department is extremely pleased to announce that Dr. Hilary Bogert-Winkler has accepted the position of Director of Pastoral Studies at Montreal Diocesan Theological College, an Anglican institution affiliated with McGill University.

Bogert-Winkler recently defended her dissertation, titled “Prayerful Protest and Clandestine Conformity: Alternative Liturgies and the Book of Common Prayer in Interregnum England,” in April 2019. In addition to studying liturgy and church history at UConn, Rev. Bogert-Winkler also has served in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts. Bogert-Winkler is “thrilled” to be joining Dio and states that “In learning more about the college, I have been so impressed with the creativity, excitement, and passion for the Gospel I see. The church is being challenged to find new ways to train all its members to be ministers of the Gospel, and I look forward to joining in that work in Montreal.”

 

Congratulations, Hilary!