8. June (Thursday), 18:15 – 19:45
VG 2.103

Abstract:
“Changing Perceptions of World Order in Chinese Historiography: Three Phases of Development”: This talk takes a longue-durée perspective to examine and analyze the modern Chinese conception of the world from the middle of the 19th century to the present. This perception has changed significantly over the course of this period, which is reflected in the ups and downs of world/global history as a subfield of history. Foreign histories are commonly referred to as “world history” in the Chinese historical community; the term’s invention in the 19th century was a sign of a shifting worldview. The term “world history” has been increasingly been replaced by the term “global history” starting from the late 1990s, which suggests yet another significant shift in how the Chinese leadership and historians view the world.

Speaker:
Q. Edward Wang, a specialist in Chinese history and global historiography, received his education partly in China and partly in the US. He is now Eminent Professor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey. He is also editor of Chinese Studies in History, a journal that promotes academic exchanges between historical communities in greater China and the rest of the world. Wang’s main publications include Historiography: Critical Readings (2021 in 4 volumes); A Global History of Modern Historiography (2008 and 2017); Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History (2015), and Inventing China through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography (2001). Some of the above titles have appeared in Chinese, Korean, German, Greek, Japanese, and Russian.

Organizer:
Prof. Dominic Sachsenmaier, University of Göttingen