Upcoming Events
Professor WONG Man Kong: Ch’en Shou-yi’s Reading of John Webb and His Sinological Project at Peking University (2026/6/8)
With the generous support from the Eurasia Foundation (from Asia), the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology will organize a new lecture series “Encounters in the Old World, East and West: From a Transdisciplinary Perspective” from October 2025 to June 2026. The series will feature 15 lectures, focusing on early interaction, connectivity, and relationships across time and space between European and Asian civilizations. The 15th session will be delivered by Professor WONG Man Kong, all are welcome. The event details are as follows:
Ch’en Shou-yi’s Reading of John Webb and His Sinological Project at Peking University
Speaker: Professor WONG Man Kong
Director, Academy of Chinese, History, Religion and Philosophy
Chair Professor in Modern Chinese History
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University
Date: 8 June 2026, Monday
Time: 10:30–12:00
Venue: SWT702, Level 7, Shaw Tower, Shaw Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Language: English
Registration: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/QVC503mkMQ
Abstract: Following on from Professor Longxi Zhang’s inaugural lecture, this presentation will examine the Chinese reception of John Webb’s The Antiquity of China Or an Historical Essay: Endeavouring a Probability that the Language of the Empire of China is the Primitive Language, Spoken Through the Whole Word, Before the Confusion of Babel. The analysis will centre on the scholarship of Ch’en Shou-yi, who served as Head of the History Department at Peking University during the early 1930s. Having trained in comparative literature and world history at the University of Chicago, Ch’en returned to China with a mission to establish new paradigms for Sinology. This lecture will illuminate his pivotal role in scrutinising early modern European images of China, a project he undertook first at Lingnan and later at Peking. It was there that Ch’en made bold attempts to chart new intellectual territory for the study of Chinese, history, religion, and philosophy, thereby reshaping the disciplinary foundations of Sinology itself. The enduring impact of his scholarly endeavours, traceable through the work of his students and their successors, will also be considered.
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