Spring 2007 Events

Chinese Lyricism Workshop 

A workshop on Chinese lyricism sponsored by the CCK-IUC took place in the Common Room of the Harvard Yen-ching Institute at Harvard University on April 14, 2007. With paper topics ranging from the “Nineteen Ancient Poems” (gushi shijiushou), the sonic therapeutics of Mei Sheng’s “Seven Stimuli” (qi fa), to poems by and the career of Chinese poets such as Jiang Wenye and Aiqing, presenters of the workshop explored issues concerning both the poetics and politics of classical and modern Chinese poetry in relation to the conventions and inventions of poetic subjectivities and languages.

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Wang Anyi Lecture at Harvard University

On April 15, 2007, renowned Chinese writer Wang Anyi gave a talk, sponsored by the CCK-IUC, on her life and writing experiences in Yen-ching auditorium at Harvard University. The inclement weather did not stop people from attending the event where Wang, a remarkably engaging writer and storyteller, shared with her audience not only her sources of inspiration for writing but also her understanding of writings by other contemporary Chinese writers.

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Taiwan and Its Contexts, Yale University

Sponsored by the CCK-IUC, National Science Council in Taiwan, and the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, the international conference on “Taiwan and Its Contexts” was convened at Yale University from April 26-28, 2007. 

Papers presented in the event responded to Dr. Frederick Chien’s keynote speech that emphasized the irreplaceable role Taiwan plays on the international arena from various angles and demonstrated how Taiwan contributed to the world in fields such as literary production, political and economic developments, and science advancement. For instance, in his paper, Professor Liao Ping-hui of Tsing-hua University calls attention to an evaluation of the role of public intellectuals in Taiwan in the past two decades. Professor Chu Yun-han of National Taiwan University shared his scholarly view on the prospect of Taiwan’s democracy over the past few years. Professor Murray Rubinstein of Baruch College gave a comprehensive overview of the development of Taiwanese Studies in the U.S. thus far and offered a few projections on how the field may evolve in the near future in both Taiwan and the U.S. 
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As the question of cultural communication has become increasingly important in global contexts, this event seeks to find new ways of understanding Taiwan and its achievement. In the end, by examining Taiwan’s cultural legacy, vitality, and history from various aspects, the conference successfully shed new light on the current situations in Taiwan (Chun-yu Lu and May-yi Shaw).

Kinetic Vision Workshop, Harvard University

During the Six Dynasties, an energetic period in Chinese cultural and intellectual history, there was a proliferation of secular and religious writings on “roaming and seeing” (you guan 游觀).  Such a kinetic vision entails not only the observation of physical landscape as the writer moves through it, but also a meditative visualization that establishes new kinds of visual relations between the phenomenal world and the self.  Vision is directed both outward and inward, as the phenomenal world and the human body itself are construed as an image capable of embodying truth. 
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The workshop, convened on May 25-26 at Harvard University, brought together a group of scholars working in different fields—literature, history, religion, and art—to promote a lively, interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and perspectives on the emergence of new visual discourses in this period. 

Annual Meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics and 19th Annual North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics

Supported by CCK Foundation and Columbia University, the joint conference of the 15th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL) and 19th Annual North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL) was held on May 25-27, 2007 at Columbia University in New York City. 
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Prof. Paul Anderer, Vice Provost for International Relations from Columbia University, and Prof. Robert Hymes, chairman of the university’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, opened the conference by welcoming more than 200 scholars from 13 countries.  Following the opening ceremony, three key-note speakers, Prof. C-T James Huang of Harvard University, Prof. Alain Peyraube of France Academy of Humanities and Social  Sciences, and Prof. Jianxuan Sheng of Chinese Academy of  Social  Sciences, delivered their speeches to the full audience. Their speeches were both pioneering and inspiring. The right tone and the high standards were set for the conference.  

For two and a half days, scholars, including 14 prominent invited speakers and some fresh faces to the field, presented their papers, exchanged ideas and explored new frontiers. The conference reached its peak in the evening of May 26 when organizers treated all participants to a sit-down dinner at the Rotunda of Columbia’s monumental Low Library. The setting was splendid, the food was delicious and the atmosphere was very warm. 

As a tradition of IACL, and to promote, recognize, and reward young scholars in the field, "Young Scholar Award" and "Mantaro J. Hashimoto Award in Phonology” were presented to two winners at the banquet. Ms. Chengqing Song from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Mr. Young Wang from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shared the honors. 

Prof. Ken-ichi Takashima of the University of British Columbia was elected as the new President of IACL.
The conference was the largest one of its kind ever held in North America, and was particularly successful in attracting many young and promising graduate students.

Early China Seminar

During the Spring of 2007, the Early China Seminar at Columbia University continued its wide-ranging discussions of the history, culture, archaeology, language, and art of China from prehistoric times up to 200 C.E. Profs. David Prager Branner [林德威] of the University of Maryland and Li Feng 李峰 of Columbia University served as co-Chairs. The Seminar’s discussions continue to focus on problems associated with literacy in early China. Presenters included some of the preeminent specialists on this period in greater China and the West, and the 30 or so participants came from institutions all over the northeast of the United States.

​The Seminar is the premiere venue for the study of Early China on the East Coast of the United States and has been supported since its inception by the CCKF. Eight papers were presented over the course of four meetings:

• On February 24, 2007, Lothar von Falkenhausen (University of California at Los Angeles) spoke on “Oral Performance and Written Transmission in Ceremonial Contexts: The Nature of Western Zhou Bronze Inscriptions in Light of the Recent Finds from Yangjiacun”. Falkenhausen drew materials from Yángjiācūn (陜西眉縣楊家村) into the larger question of how Western Zhou bronze inscriptions were actually formed, including the roles of donor and audience in the lineage ceremony at which an inscribed vessel would have been dedicated.　
• On February 24, 2007, Yang Nan 楊楠 (Central University of Nationality, Beijing; visiting University of North Carolina), read “良渚文化興衰原因 [The Rise and Decline of the Neolithic Liangzhu Culture of Southeastern China]” in Chinese. Yang summarized archaeological findings from the socially stratified Liángzhǔ 良渚 Culture (named after the modern town of Liángzhǔ in Yúháng County, Zhejiang 浙江余杭良渚), which flourished for a millennium between about 5200 and 4200 B.C.E.　
• On March 17, 2007, Constance Cook (Lehigh University) read “Education and the Way of the Former Kings”. Cook sought to connect the transmission of the liùyì 六藝 originating in Western Zhou with the spread of literacy in the Warring States, in the hands of a diverse and fluid group of master-student lineages.　
• On April 7, 2007, Wang Wei 王巍 (Professor and Director of the Institute of Archaeology, CASS) read “關於中華文明起源的幾個問題 [Key Issues in the Origin of Ancient Chinese Civilization: Archaeological Research]” in Chinese. Wang presented an overview of forces and effects connected with the development of Chinese civilization, as now understood with reference to specific archaeological findings. He identified thirteen traits characteristic of Chinese civilization and asserted that there were signs that cultural and geographic forces had led inevitably to the coalescence of the Xià dynasty in the central plains region of modern China.　
• On April 7, 2007, Robin Yates (McGill University, Canada) read “Soldiers, Scribes, and Women: Literacy among the Lower Orders in the Early Empire”. Yates argued that although literacy was associated with the court and the ruler’s officials, there was also evidence that some commoners, including soldiers, merchants, and heads of households (including women) must also have had some ability to read and write in Qin times.　
• On May 5, 2007, On Matthias Richter (University of Freiburg, Germany; visiting scholar, University of Chicago) read “Enquiring into the Significance of Writing for the Transmission and Stabilisation of Early Chinese Texts”. Richter treated many concrete matters connected with the actual practice of writing as attested in Han bamboo slips, making a distinction between inscriptions and manuscripts (documents where the text is inscribed as against those where it is applied to a surface) and proposing four components to literacy: writing, “encoding” (making language visible), reading, and comprehension.　
• On May 5, 2007, Robert Eno (Indiana University) read “Literary and Historical Clues to Ru Disciple Traditions: Zigong and the Identity of the Meng School”. Eno’s paper examined the historical role of Confucius’ disciple Zǐgòng 子貢 in the history of early factionalism within the Ruist school. He argued that Zǐgòng held an important place in the patristics of two major early factions: the Mèng and Yán schools.　
• On May 5, 2007, Zeng Zhenyu 曾振宇 (Shandong University) read “荀子“天”論再認識 [Guodian Bamboo Texts and the Philosophical Nature of ‘Tian’ (Heaven) in Xunzi]” in Chinese. Zeng explored the historical origins of three sense of tiān 天 in Warring States thinking: “Heaven” as nature, as a divine force, and as a rational philosophical concept. 
• 17 June, 2007. David Prager Branner