Culture and Modernity in China: Re-theorizing 'Culture' in the Age of Radical Social Transformation

The main aim of the project is to better understand the role of culture within the larger context of modernization, globalization and local resistance. One central issue confronting the field of humanities continues to be the issue of modernity. In today's world, it increasingly has to do with the tension between the West-originated cultural rationale and structural model of modernity and other perspectives cherished by those societies on which this model was historically imposed, an imposition that such societies continue to try to come to terms with. The tension can be found in discursive conflicts manifested in political and economic realms. However, having gone through some major trends in critical thinking in the humanities, the field seems to be at a standstill.

Meanwhile, rapid changes are taking place in many parts of the world. Most outstanding among them is China. What China is undergoing presently has posed challenging questions for us: what is the role of culture in China's conception of modernity and consequently its search for its own way to modernization. Equally important is to understand the characteristics of Chinese culture in the current period of radical transformations.

Even though there have been debates and discussions carried out in the name of modernization, globalization and (Chinese) cultural politics, these debates have generally remained either one-dimensional or fragmented and unfocused. A major reason has to do with the fact that these debates remain blind to or uninterested in the central question posed above. Indeed, between cultural relativism, essentialism and universalism, much remains untouched and urgently calls for fuller examination and debates when it comes to the role of culture in the context of China's search for alternative modernity. What are the major cultural legacies that confront China today and how do we understand these legacies in the context of China's radical transformations in conjunction with the larger historical context of globalization?

We plan to address three major legacies confronting China today: traditional Chinese culture, May Fourth culture, and post-1949 Maoist culture. Each, in different ways, has promoted a different model for China's modern path. In China and in China Studies in the West, there have been discussions that advertise the need to revive traditional culture, debates over the pros and cons of the May Fourth legacy, denunciation of the Maoist cultural legacy, and so forth. Discussions of each of these legacies are often conducted in isolation to one another, if not down right in antithesis to one another. Little attention has been given to the more complicated dimension of the issues at hand: what do these legacies mean in relation to the options open to China in its quest for modernization?

With the central question and other related issues in mind, we are proposing a three-year project in which a wide range of scholars can come and join the debate in a substantive manner. More specifically, we hope to bring leading scholars from the PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and parts of the West, who hold different views with regard to China’s cultural heritage with various manifestations and complexities within the current transformation. Additionally, we also hope to invite scholars who are concerned with the question of globalization and values of universalism in relation to both China's search and the politics of global integration. The people we intend to invite include Dai Jinghua, Gan Yang, He Jiadong Ji Xianlin, Li Zehou, Lin Yusheng, Qian Yongxian, Qin Hui, Tu Weiming, Wang Ban, Wang Hui, Wang Jing, Wang Xiaoming, Yu Yingshi, Zhou Fucheng, Zhang Xudong, Perry Anderson, Marshall Berman, Arif Dirlick, Terry Eagleton, Harriet Evans, Roderick MacFaquhar, Susan Gal, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, Joan Scott, Gareth Stedman Jones, Slavoj Zizek among others. We wish to keep the conference to a fairly small size in order for extensive discussions and secure about 20 speakers.

The topics for three symposiums to be held in three consecutive years starting from 2003 are: (1) theorizing culture and its role in a period of rapid social transformations. (2) rethinking cultural legacies of the 20th-century China - the Chinese tradition, the May Fourth legacy, Maoist culture in the context of China's quest for modernity; (3) examining Chinese culture since 1978 in relation to cultural globalization.

Our local co-sponsors and host Institutions for this project are three major universities in China: Beijing University, Zhejiang University, and Zhongshan University.