Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
With the rapid proliferation of New Confucian studies since the mid 1980s, it has become an unquestioned dogma that one particular event at the beginning of 1958 marks a watershed in the movement’s...Show moreWith the rapid proliferation of New Confucian studies since the mid 1980s, it has become an unquestioned dogma that one particular event at the beginning of 1958 marks a watershed in the movement’s development. This event is the publication of the Manifesto that Mou Zongsan 牟宗三, Tang Junyi唐君毅, Xu Fuguan 徐復觀, and Zhang Junmai 张君劢 co-signed and published almost simultaneously in the two journals Minzhu pinglun民評論 (Democratic Tribune) and Zaisheng再生(National Renaissance) with the title “为中国文化敬告世界人士宣言─我们对中国学术研究及中国文化与世界文前途之共同认识” (Wei Zhongguo wenhua jinggao shijie renshi xuanyan –women dui Zhongguo xueshu yanjiu ji Zhongguo wenhua yu shijiewen qiantu zhi gongtong renshi; translated in English as “A Manifesto on the Reappraisal of Chinese Culture – our Joint Understanding of the Sinological Study relating to World Cultural Outlook.”). Its main purpose is to benefit Western intellectuals in 'aiding them to appreciate Chinese culture'. In order to do so, the authors employ a strategic terminology, which allows them to build a consistent cross-cultural dialogue between Western and Chinese philosophy by means of an unprecedented discourse on 'Chinese Rationalism' (中国心性之学 Zhongguo xinxing zhi xue). Interestingly, the latter is described by the authors as “the essence of Chinese Culture” and, beside its comparative value, it represents the most comprehensive configuration of Confucianism in the context of 20th century. Academic interest in Chinese Studies and Chinese Philosophy should take into account the articulation of Chinese Rationalism in the Manifesto of 1958 as representing a paradigm of post-comparative dialogue that exemplifies the underlying philosophical continuity beyond consistently different traditions of thought.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
The term Manchu has always been a complex one. The Daiqing khans already struggled to define the Manchu community. After a century of silence, the Manchus are slowly crawling from under their...Show moreThe term Manchu has always been a complex one. The Daiqing khans already struggled to define the Manchu community. After a century of silence, the Manchus are slowly crawling from under their shells to form a new Manchu community in the contemporary world. By taking into consideration theoretical frameworks of imagined communities and transculturality, this thesis aims to define the cultural aspect(s) that help the Manchus imagine their community. It looks at different potential aspects and evaluates whether those are integrated within the social spaces (public, private, educational, occupational and virtual) of the Manchus.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis compares the texts of Vietnamese national history written in the colonial period by two competing reformist intellectuals Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải. Exposed to the currents of...Show moreThis thesis compares the texts of Vietnamese national history written in the colonial period by two competing reformist intellectuals Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải. Exposed to the currents of thought such as Social Darwinism and the theory of evolution in early twentieth century Asia, both of them realised the backwardness of Vietnam and stressed the necessity of reform. However, Phan decided to fight against the French while Hoàng chose to collaborate with them. As will be shown in this thesis, both Phan and Hoàng, despite the difference of their political stances, endeavoured to justify their respective propositions by constructing the historic past of Vietnam. As two reformist intellectuals, Phan Bội Châu and Hoàng Cao Khải regarded the introduction of Western civilisation in late nineteenth century Asia as a key moment for the Vietnamese people to get rid of their backward conditions and evolve into a civilised nation. However, they shared different opinions about the nature of this transition of Vietnam. Phan Bội Châu was inclined to view the French invasion as a “Messianic” moment which marked the “rupture” between the past and present in Vietnamese history. In his historiography, Vietnamese society in the past centuries was inherently barbarous, and this barbarousness led to the current backwardness of the country. Meanwhile, Phan Bội Châu, as an anti-French activist, emphasised that the salvation of the Vietnamese nation should never rely upon the assistance of France. He insisted that albeit France was a civilised state, it played an anti-progressive role in the process of Vietnam’s modernisation. Therefore, resisting against the French colonisation naturally became the most important step in the national salvation and rejuvenation. To justify his anti-French proposition, Phan constructed a genealogy of national heroes who, out of their inherent “anti-foreign nature”, participated in the resistance against China’s invasions in the previous millennia. Meanwhile, he included the present anti-French revolution into the glorious anti-foreign tradition of the Vietnamese nation. Hoàng Cao Khải systematically refuted Phan in Việt sử kính and Việt sử yếu. Based on the theory of the transition of models of civilisation, however, Hoàng Cao Khải argued that it was not the inherent barbarousness of the Vietnamese people but the decay of the model of civilisation that Vietnam followed in previous times that resulted in the inferior status of Vietnam in the current international competition. In Hoàng’s narrative, the history of Vietnam is depicted as a gradual and consistent process towards civilisation, in which China, because of its superiority in competition, functioned as the first model for Vietnam to follow and eventually made the later a domain of civilisation. Considering the power of France which had been demonstrated in its recent competitions with Vietnam, Hoàng suggested that France had already replaced China as the new model of civilisation for Vietnam to follow. In the face of Phan Bội Châu’s emphasis on the anti-foreignness of the Vietnamese nation, Hoàng employed the analytical framework of the dichotomy between “universal principle” and “brute force” to analyse those uprisings against the China’s colonisation and argued that most of them were merely contingent responses to inappropriate policies based on the “brute force”. Moreover, by utilising the ideas of Social Darwinism to reinterpret the connotation of “universal principle”, Hoàng justifies the behaviour which employed “brute force” in the process of disseminating so-called “universal principle” and civilisation. Apart from their interpretation of the past, this thesis examines their imagination of the future as well. Based on their discussions about the issue of Champa, it points out the shared “pro-imperial” orientation of Phan and Hoàng in their opinions on the international status of Vietnam after modernisation. That is, neither Phan (despite his anti-colonialist stance) nor Hoàngrealised the underlying nature of the phenomenon of colonialism itself let alone intending to challenge or subvert the current colonial order. The world they envisioned in which a decolonised Vietnam situated is still established upon asymmetrical relations of power.Show less
