“Machiavelli advised his prince in a fashion similar to an old Chinese master, or zi.” –Francesco Sisci

Francesco Sisci Says China And West Are Two Worlds Apart

“We can see it now, every day, China and the West are two worlds apart, right from their way of thinking.”

Iconoclast writer and journalist Francesco Sisci yesterday [May 14, 2013] rocked my part and talked about the East-West dichotomy. Read full article in Asia Time here.

Sisci has turned himself an Italian brand name by explaining China. And yes, as early as in the third, no wait, fourth paragraph he declared Machiavelli to the rank of the first Western mandarin (after Plato). In this excited piece, entitled ‘East-West divide starts here,’ Sisci is assisted by the ideas of famed Italian historian Lorenzo Infantino. Sisci and Infantino argue that throughout history the West with its armies of “philosophers” devised strategies to achieve knowledge, while the China with its armies of “zi” or masters devised strategies to achieve power.

Thus, when the pendulum of history swung in favor of power, China had an edge. But when the pendulum swung in favor of knowledge [during the Age of Enlightenment], the small European states went into advantage mode, achieved the better theories, and humiliated China. I do not intend this to be a review, so read this thoughtful article yourself. And maybe write a comment. Just saying.

[BACK TO MAIN].

Western domination over World History

We have been there before. The West still cultivates the out-dated notion that “knowledge only exists if it’s the West that knows it.” The consequences of past Euro-centricism are far-reaching: By rejecting, say, Chinese key terminologies like shengren or junzi into scientific publications, Western publishers are not only impeding Chinese culture but also withholding valuable information to the general Western public. To this day, knowledge remains a dead-end road with only one flow of direction permitted: that from the west to the east. It does not have to be like this forever.

My Language, Your Prison?

When the Germans, the descendants of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation, came to China to evangelize it, they met categories of wisdom unheard of in Europe. Yet, in their effort to christen China, the Germans conveniently called the shengren “Heilige” – biblical saints. This German obsession with holiness is deeply rooted in the Germanic biblical and folkloric language; and it is in language that all European cultures want to project their own taxonomies onto China. The Germans call this Deutungshoheit, meaning having the sovereignty over the definition of thought. [BACK TO MAIN]

Thorsten Pattberg meets famed culture maker Kaiser Kuo

“Chinese as an international language is not going to happen if you push it. It is a pull-thing. People need to want it, to come here, and to find it themselves.” – Kaiser Kuo

BEIJING – Rare interview with one of Beijing’s most beloved entertainer and culture makers: Kaiser Kuo is a famed musician, rock star, writer, program host, cultural critic, and director of intl. comm. at Baidu. His [English] essays are sprinkled with wonderful Chinese vocabularies [instead of translations]. German scholar Thorsten Pattberg from Peking University asked him why.

Read the Full Interview at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS), Peking University. Here is a pictured transcript of the interview. Please remember always to cite your source: Kuo, Kaiser (2013/04/27), Interview with Kaiser Kuo on Confucianism and China’s Soft Power, The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS), Peking University, Beijing. Web. May 2013.

Key Words: TheBeijinger, expat community, Cultural China, PKU, IAHS, Kaiser Kuo, Daniel A. Bell, Tu Weiming, Interview, 2013, Ich bin ein Beijinger, Advanced Humanistic Studies, Confucianism, Building Bridges

Not quite there yet, but on the way…

China‘s Foreign Language Press endorses The East-West dichotomy

BEIJING- China’s Foreign Language Press (FLP) is publishing a revised edition of The East-West dichotomy, a globalist text that has become one of the most widely read books in Asia Studies today, over 350,000 views. It deals with ideas on inherent pluralism, cultural diversity, geopolitics, the future global language, and the rise of China and East Asia.

Foreign Language Press publishes historical key texts in 43 languages, including the works of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.

The East-West dichotomy originated in 2005 as a manifesto and last stand against total Westernization. Its content is regarded as controversial.

The author is a German linguist, writer, and activist at Peking University, former visiting fellow of Tokyo University and Harvard University. He is also the author of Shengren in which he recommends shengren and other non-Western concepts back into world history.

Get a first glimpse here; PubDate is likely to be summer 2013.

Ezra Vogel and Tu Weiming at Peking University, April 2013

Confessions of a Harvard Otaku

PEKING UNIVERSITY- Ezra Vogel, Harvard professor and author of the infamous Japan as Numer One (ironically, it was a best-selling number one in Japan) visited The Institute of Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS) at Peking University today, and confessed his past obsession with Japan (and now, China). Here are some quotes from his visit on April 23, 2013, that may give insights into the mind of America’s most beloved ‘otaku.’

Ezra on writing and mass audiences

“I tried to avoid intellectual jargon in all my books.”

“How to communicate with other people. We [writers] have a responsibility not only to scholarship but also to the people and to the country.”

“My works are for broad audiences.”

“I wanted people to understand Japan, and now, in my new book, to understand China.”

“I didn’t mean to say that Japan was “number one nation,” but that it was in many fields the number one, for example in manufacturing and efficiency.”

Ezra on his work for the CIA

“I worked as an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency just for two years, and it was only during that time that I had access to classified material.”

Ezra on what we can learn from China

“What can we learn from China now? That is a good question. Central decision making that can be good for the entire population is China’s strong point. In the West it would go against individual resistances and against many lawyers.”

“In late developers, central government always played a great role: Learning how the west did it, and then to do it fast.”

Ezra on becoming an activist

“I decided to play the role of an activist: My vision is for all people: security, material gains, trying to educate the American side to work with Asia.”

“In China today there is an ongoing demonization of Japan. It should be patriotic, but it is nationalist.”

“Culture is an important factor to measure a nation’s performance. Economist without a sense of culture will often make predictions [about the future of a country] that are unreliable.”

Ezra on pushing the envelope

“Always extend your range of freedom. Always keep pushing the envelope. You will be slapped down, and if you’ve pushed to hard, you will be punished, but you will find more opportunities.”

“Taiwan was successful because in 1949 local people had experiences of voting. There was already a strong democratic basis of society. Taiwan is a steady democracy. It provides hope to the mainland because it now provides experience with democracy and voting.”

Read more on Ezra: [Japan as number One, no wait, Three] and [Joy of the biographers]

Ezra Vogel

Ezra Vogel: The Joy of the Biographers (Peking University)

Peking University, Stanford Center:
Ezra Vogel talks about his latest book on Deng Xiaoping
and the joy of the biographers

On the joys of the biographers:

“One of the things that made it so much fun was to put the pieces together… had Deng Xiaoping written it all down in detail, the biography would be not much fun. As a scholar you do like puzzle work.”

On government and legitimacy:

“How can the government have legitimacy if no growth? They need more accountability.”

On why Westerners write Chinese history:

“The Chinese could probably have written better books about Deng Xiaoping if they were allowed to.”

“A Lot of credit for my books goes to those Chinese who couldn’t write what they think, but who could tell it to me so that I can write it.”

Ezra Vogel Stanford Center, PKU 2013

On Guanxi and the Chinese Connection:

“I used all the guanxi I possible could [for writing my book about Deng].”

Ezra Vogel criticize Deng Xiaoping:

“He did some awful things.”

Ezra Vogel: Not mentioning human rights was helpful:

“I never told sufficiently about human rights…, so when the books was published into Chinese that was helpful.”

On publishing in China:

“When the book publisher in Hong Kong, the Chinese University Press, translated my book they did a wonderful job; they quoted the original (Chinese) thought [where I worked with English translations].”

On cultural difference in translation:

“Deng was born in August but China’s New Year is in February; and the date of birth is often the date of conception, so often the Chinese translators had to recalculate from English into Chinese dates.”

On publishing in Hong Kong and Mainland China:

“We put pressure on the mainland. This commitment to promote sensitive knowledge about what propaganda would allow.”

“The Chinese translation had few adaptations, but as a whole the main argument of the book is intact.”

On the art of interviewing:

“I got training on intensive interviewing which was extremely helpful.”

“I am often asked: Ezra, who was it possible to have so many contacts? It is because I like guanxi and used all the connection I possible could.”

On Deng Xiaoping and corruption:

“Deng set up a system where power is restrained.”

“He tolerated unethical behavior and did not punish officials if they were successful… of course, now we have corruption.”

On Deng Xiaoping and his relation to Mao Zedong:

“Deng did not criticize Mao as a great leader. So this gave him some room, he could get rid of the big socialist structure.”

Qin Hui (PKU Professor of History) on Deng Xiaoping’s legacy:

Qin Hui: “We are still not at the end of this revolution.”

Qin  Hui: “We are partly in romantic nostalgia about the cultural revolution, but in reality this was a very embarrassing part of our history.”

[StanfordCenter,PekingUniversity, 23 April 2013, 10:00-12:00]

West gate of Beida (left); West gate of Tsinghua (right).

Beida vs Tsinghua – China’s world class universities and global players

BEIJING– Beida and Tsinghua are the two most prominent universities in China, a country of 1.35 billion people. (There are many other famous ones like Nanjing University, Renmin, or Fudan University, but for the scope of this article let us focus on these two.) Let’s make no mistake, although Beida and Tsinghua are (just) ranked no 46 and 52 in the world according the THE rankings 2013 (Hong Kong University ranks no 35, but is listed separately [it’s a British ranking, and HK was a former colony]), nevertheless these two are powerful global players.

The “Harvard of China”

Peking University(short: Beida, from “Beijing Daxue”) is the center of China’s humanities and often called “the Harvard of China” (or, from a Chinese point of view, Harvard is called “the Beida of America”), while Tsinghua is strongest in engineering and the sciences, and known as “the MIT of China.”

Tsinghua is wealthier and looks typical American, at least the main campus. Beida has its beautiful lake and is home to China’s greatest modern thinkers and philosophers like Gu Hongming, Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Ji Xianlin, and Hu Shi. The list goes on.

Increasingly, the two are testing their prerogatives and are competing for China’s top spot and for attracting best and brightest students in all the fields. They established their own business schools, language schools for foreigners, etc.

Tsinghua’s new leadership programme

Stephen A. Schwarzman, the US billionaire and chairman of Blackstone Group, believes that Tsinghua will take the lead in the future. He may be right. China’s new president, Xi Jinping , is a Tsinghua graduate (the Premier, Li Keqiang, is from Beida), so are many of the technocrats in the Communist Party that rules China. Tsinghua has an edge in research and technology, and Schwarzman donates $300m into a new leadership programme that wants future global leaders from the US and elsewhere to come to Wu Daokou in Haidian district of Beijing in order to experience Chinese elite education and the ‘guanxi’ or “connections” it brings along. After all, this century is deemed by many as the Chinese one.

Haidian – Beijing’s university district

Beida will watch this new US investment carefully. Both universities float on cash and invite famous people from abroad. Political leaders like Tony Blair have a tough time choosing which one to visit and deliver their keynote speeches. (David Beckham recently visited Beida). Gigantic conference centers like Beida’s ‘New Global Village’ with dozens of apartment blocks were built; even a museum restaurant, and Beida’s new Lake View Hotel (which charges up to $500 a night). Tsinghua parades its mighty TUS Park facing Chengfu Road, the High Street of Wu Daokou, a couple of glassy skyscrapers that house Google, Baidu, and Deutsche Bank, among others. Beida has its own metro station named after it. Each campus is as huge as entire districts in some European capitals.

Tsinghua lies just across the street from Beida, and towers prominently among 168 (!) other institutes of higher education in Haidian. Chinese universities are campus university (unlike, say, European universities) and are closed communities with their own hospitals, supermarkets, and village-sized dormitories. They are massively subsidized by the central government to keep the food and housing prices on-campus in check. It’s a cheap world as long as one does not leave the campuses.

China’s universities aim to become world class universities

But the massive increase of students over the past 20 years, including hundreds of thousands of foreign students (there are 60.000 Koreans living in Wu Daokou), are pushing the people into the local surrounding communities like Zhongguancun, the Silicon Valley of China.

For many observes it does not really matters which university comes ahead in 2014. All competition is good for China, and for all those students who come here.

‘Panda, Umbrella, and Dragon’ by Cottondragon

Please support and spread the word about our new project on bigthink.com  DRAGONS AND PANDAS - Insights into Chinese soft power.

Ezra Vogel at Peking University, April 2013

Ezra Vogel draws crowds at Peking University, April 2013

BEIJING – Ezra Vogel, Harvard professor emeritus, political analyst, and one of America’s best-known public intellectuals on Asia, drew crowds today at Peking University, China’s leading institution of higher education. He gave the talk in Chinese. [April 21, 2013]

Ezra Vogel at Peking University, April 2013

Vogel’s latest book, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (2011), has become an academic bestseller and important reference material about one of China’s greatest leaders: Deng Xiaoping.

Ezra Vogel at Peking University, April 2013

Deng Xiaoping initiated China’s open-up policy in 1978 which ultimately lifted 400 million people out of poverty (so far) but also put his political legacy at stake during the events of the 1989 Tiananmen incident.

This talk is part of Peking University International Cultural Festival 2013 and titled: ‘Deng Xiaoping and his diplomacy.’ Click here for Chinese post.

Thorsten Pattberg – What is lingualism?

TOKYO – China, India, and Japan should engage more and better in the creative process of writing ‘World history.’ Non-Western cultures in general should better promote their socio-cultural originality; they need to compete for their key terminologies like they compete for everything else. The future of global language may be English yet it still defies tens of thousands of non-European inventions and ideas that are concealed by convenient yet erroneous (Western) translations. [See example essays in international media on shengren, daxue, or long.]

“Philosophy,” “religion,” and “science” are ideological concepts that serve the needs of the dominant West, and, in the past, were hardly ever challenged. In this century, however, this could change, by means of calling into question an archaic and fallible model of knowledge acquisition: translation.

Due to the one-time European conquest of the world, most of those who became European subjects took in European vocabularies, with the result that the vast majority of students no longer had any other terminologies available to them other than philosopher, religion, and science to categorize the whole range of human thought. This reduction of all the world’s vocabularies to a set of inherently European words that made it effortless for our elites to, for example, compose a Philosophy of China without using a single original Chinese term.”

ASIA PACIFIC WORLD, from BERGHAHN JOURNALS, has just published (online soon) – in their forthcoming Spring 2013 issue- Pattberg’s pioneering and future-oriented essay entitled: ‘Lingualism – A New Frontier in Culture  Studies?‘ ISSN: 2042-6143 (Print); ISSN: 2042-6151 (Online); Volume 4/2013, 2 issues p.a. (spring, autumn)