HERE IS conference poster for 11th Annual Global South Asia Conference

The Great Unity Ideal:

The Key to China’s Imperial Longevity?

 Abstract

 One of the most notable features of imperial China is the exceptional durability of the imperial political system. Having been formed in the aftermath of Qin 秦 unification (221 BCE), this system lasted intact amid marked continuities for 2132 years, until the abdication of the child emperor Puyi 溥儀 on February 12, 1912. For sure, the empire was not indestructible—to the contrary, it underwent manifold crises, including longer or shorter periods of political disintegration. Yet, remarkably, the unified empire was repeatedly resurrected at the very least in “China proper” (roughly comparable to the territory under the control of the founding Qin dynasty). Such repeated resurrections of a huge territorial entity spanning more than twenty centuries are not attested to elsewhere in world history.

In my talk I want to argue that the key to understanding the reasons for the imperial resurrections lies within the realm of ideology and the dominant political culture. The idea that peace and stability in “All-under-Heaven” is attainable only in a unitary state ruled by a single omnipotent monarch was formed in the centuries preceding the Qin unification, at the apex of political fragmentation of the Warring States period (453-221 BCE). Having become the common desideratum of the competing “Hundred Schools of Thought,” the ideal of “Great Unity” remained fundamental to Chinese political culture for millennia to come. By denying legitimacy to any but unifying regimes, this ideal facilitated common quest for reunification during the periods of fragmentation. The idea that “Stability is in Unity” became China’s foremost self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Kevorkian Center. 

50 Washington Square S, New York, NY 10012

BOOK TALK: FROM SLAVES TO PRISONERS OF WAR: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, RUSSIA, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

With Will Smiley, University of New Hampshire; Karin Loevy, NYU; Yanni Kotsonis, NYU.

Here is the link to the schedule for Silsila: The Center for Material Cultures at NYU, which has numerous events that contribute to studies of Global Asia.

ChinaFile Presents:

The Situation in Xinjiang

Mon 29 Oct 2018, 6:30 – 8 p.m.

Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue

Over the past roughly six months, major international newspapers, scholars, and advocacy organizations have documented a campaign by China’s government to “transform” local ethnic Muslim populations in the far western region of Xinjiang. The campaign, which builds off of long-standing policies of policing and control of the local Uighur population, has escalated dramatically and now include surveillance of unprecedented scope and scale, a program of forced home visits for millions of the region’s Muslim residents, the almost complete prohibition of Islamic religious practice and Uighur cultural activity, and the incarceration of up to a million people in prison camps. 

What is the latest reporting on the subject? Why is the campaign happening? How do Chinese officials explain these policies and what they seek to accomplish? And what is the international community doing in response —  especially as it becomes increasingly clear that Beijing’s pressure tactics and threats don’t stop at China’s borders, but are levied against foreign citizens living in other countries?

ChinaFile’s Jessica Batke will moderate a discussion with journalist Gulchehra Hoja of Radio Free Asia, historian Rian Thum of Loyola University, and Foreign Policy’s James Palmer.

This event is co-hosted with the U.S.-Asia Law Institute of NYU School of Law.

We are restricting video and photography for this event. Members of the press interested in images or video recording of the event should reach out to pr@asiasociety.org.

Speakers:

Gulchehra Hoja is a reporter for Radio Free Asia’s Uighur service. Born in Urumqi, Hoja began her career at Xinjiang TV, later becoming a host for Chinese language programs on CCTV, Beijing TV, Hong Kong Hua Yu TV, and Shandong TV. In the late 1990s, she was nationally recognized as a “Class A Anchor” by China’s Radio and TV Bureau. She joined Radio Free Asia in 2001; there she researches and reports on stories related to human rights, social justice, health, economy, education, and agriculture in Xinjiang. She was part of the RFA team that developed the multimedia webpage “Half the Xinjiang Sky,” which received a Gracie Allen Award in 2010.

James Palmer is a senior editor at Foreign Policy. Palmer is the author of The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia and The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China. He won the Shiva Naipaul prize for travel writing in 2003.

Rian Thum is Associate Professor of History at Loyola University. His research and teaching are generally concerned with the overlap of China and the Muslim World. His book, The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History (Harvard University Press, 2014) was awarded the 2015 Fairbank prize for East Asian history (American Historical Association), the 2015 Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize (Society for East Asian Anthropology, American Anthropological Association), and the 2015 Central Eurasian Studies Society Book Award. Thum’s current book project, Islamic China, is a re-examination of Chinese Islam that takes full account of the numerous Persian and Arabic sources that Chinese Muslims have used and written. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham.

Jessica Batke is Senior Editor at ChinaFile. Prior to joining ChinaFile in 2017, she served as a research analyst in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, focusing on China’s domestic social and political issues. She is also a regular contributor to the Hoover Institute’s China Leadership Monitor.

LIVE WEBCAST

Can’t make it to this program? Tune in Monday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 p.m. New York time for a free live video webcast. #AsiaSocietyLIVEAsiaSociety.org/Live

Lahore Topophilia: Cultural and Literary Imprints

OCT 27-28, 2018, Kevorkian Center, NYU

MEIS

The study of the Middle East and Islam at New York University has a long and distinguished history which may well have begun with the university’s founding in 1831. It is known that by 1837 the faculty included both a professor of Arabic, Syriac, Persian and Ethiopic, and a professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages; courses were offered in Arabic, Persian, biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, Chaldaic and Syriac. The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (NELL) was established in 1966; the late Professor R. Bayly Winder served as the department’s first chair.

SouthAsiaNYU

Our faculty and students engage in a range of South Asia focused research initiatives, seminars, conferences, publications, and outreach, providing thought and leadership on the region’s key issues, opportunities, and challenges. An array of courses and resources on topics that include politics, economics, business, education, the environment, history, culture, media studies, art and law, offered by our world-renowned experts, allow the NYU community to further their understanding of the rich traditions and vibrant futures of South Asia. Our public seminars, lectures, and conferences provide an engaged and thought-provoking space within and beyond NYU, encompassing the city and the region, for dialogue and discussion about South Asia.