“Orientalism & Occidentalism in Cross-Cultural Sino-European Representations: A Philosophical Deconstruction”

Jean-Yves Heurtebise (Fu Jen Catholic University)

Discussant: Eric Nelson (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Moderator: Héctor G. Castaño (National Cheng Chi University)

Academia Sinica, Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Conference Room 2B

December 16, 2020, 3PM

The object of this talk is to discuss Jean-Yves Heurtebise’s new book Orientalisme, occidentalisme et universalisme : Histoire et méthode des représentations croisées entre mondes européens et chinois. Heurtebise’s book addresses the issues of Eurocentric and Sinocentric visions of otherness and the issue of the Orientalist and Occidentalist framing of cross-cultural philosophical discourses and geopolitical narratives. The book is divided in two parts: the first part deals with the construction of the European vision of China with a special focus on the “anthropological turn” of the late 18th century; the second part addresses the issue of the Chinese reception of “Western modernity” and its own specific way to cope with it, challenge it or question it – and, through this process, be changed by it at the aesthetic, philosophical and geopolitical levels. After a short presentation by Jean-Yves Heurtebise, Eric Nelson, Professor at The Hong-Kong University of Science & Technology, specialist of modern German philosophy, Daoism, and Environmental Philosophy – author of Daoism and Environmental Philosophy: Nourishing Life (Routledge, 2020) & Chinese and Buddhist Philosophy in Early Twentieth-Century German Thought (London: Bloomsbury, 2017) – will comment the book and introduce the debate.

Jean-Yves Heurtebise is an Assistant Professor at Fujen Catholic University, Associate Researcher at the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) and Co-Editor of quarterly journal Monde Chinois Nouvelle Asie. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles (including 2 SSCI & 1 AHCI) and 20 book chapters. He is the author of the monograph Orientalisme, occidentalisme et universalisme : Histoire et méthode des représentations croisées entre mondes européens et chinois (Paris: Eska 2020, 358 p.) related to the field of comparative cultural studies and dedicated to the analysis of Sino-European cross-representations.