International Conference on Intertextual Dialog...

Join scholars from all over the globe at the upcoming International Conference on Intertextual Dialogue in Early Chinese Writings, to be held at LT1, Yale-NUS College from 6 to 8 May 2021 (rescheduled). More details of the scheduled presenters can be found here.

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International Academic Conference on Philosophy...

The International Academic Conference on Philosophy and Technology in Early China was co-organised with the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge and the Needham Research Institute. It was held at Yale-NUS College from 19 to 21 August 2017. More details of the Conference schedule and participants can be found here.  

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International Academic Conference on Excavated ...

The International Academic Conference on Excavated Manuscripts and Chinese Classical Studies was co-organised with the Center for Excavated Manuscripts and Paleography, Fudan University, Shanghai. It was held at Yale-NUS College from 7 to 9 April 2016, bringing together scholars and researchers from all across the globe. More details of the Conf...

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Kenneth J DeWoskin—China: A 360° New Year’s Review

After a tumultuous 2018, we entered the New Year with China pursuing an ambitious development and reform programme while facing formidable domestic and international challenges. There was no doubt that developments in 2019 would have major impact on the Mainland, regional, and global landscapes. Landing on the dark side of the moon was an apt...

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Stephen Angle—Confucianism as a Way of Life

What can it mean, in the modern world, for Confucianism to be a way of life? I consider this question at both abstract and personal levels. What are the institutional contexts within which one might live a Confucian life, and do the answers depend on whether one is in East Asia? How can the various...

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William H. Nienhauser, Jr.—The Significance of ...

When Wan Zhang asked Mencius about how Yi Yin sought an introduction to Tang, Mencius replied that he had done so by “plowing the wilderness of the Youxin Clan, delighting in the principles of Yao and Shun.” Mencius also responded to Zhou Xiao’s question, “Did superior men of old take office?” by quoting a passage...

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Evelyn Goh—Rising China’s Influence in Developi...

Rising China has been reshaping international order for the last two decades. Yet, we cannot assume that growing resources and capabilities automatically allow China to cause other states to change their behaviour. We can only accurately assess rising China’s impacts by first demonstrating how its growing power resources are translated into poli...

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Bates Gill—The Enduring Paradox of US-China Rel...

The US-China relationship—arguably the world’s most consequential—is defined by a paradox: while the two countries have never been so interdependent nor shared as many global interests, they are also at odds with one another on a growing list of international and regional issues. Professor Bates Gill explored the past, present and future of this...

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Michael Puett—Ritual and Sincerity: Theories fr...

Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History at Harvard University discussed some of the indigenous theories concerning ritual and sincerity that have developed in the Chinese tradition with the stance that these theories in China have much to offer contemporary discussions. This talk was held as part of a series of college-wide l...

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Jonathan Spence – A Historian’s Life

Sterling Professor of History (Emeritus) Jonathan Spence reflected on the history of modern China since the 17th century at the talk, which focused on how Chinese history seemed to be constantly changing in response to China’s place in the world. This talk was held as part of a series of college-wide lectures organised under the...

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Annping Chin—Confucius, You Surprised Me

Confucius in the Analects never ceases to surprise the reader, and this is particularly true for Books Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen. Fresh and forceful are his comments in those chapters regarding politics and the political life, how to govern and who are fit to govern, when to take office and when to retreat, and whether...

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Haili Kong—Time, Space & Being: Wong Kar-Wa...

Wong Kar-wai may be considered the most mythical and stylistic Hong Kong film director of all. The lecture explored how his Hong Kong trilogy, “Days of Being Wild (1991),” “Fallen Angels (1995),” and “In the Mood for Love (2000),” with their unconventional use of camera and visual-audio media, represented the intellectual reaction to Hong Kong’s...

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Martin Kern—Poems and Manuscripts in Early Chin...

This lecture was co-sponsored with the Ancient Worlds Study Group and the Yale-NUS Division of Humanities (Literature Major). In this lecture, Professor Martin Kern introduced the case of “Xi shuai” 蟋蟀, a poem from the Shijing now also available in a recently discovered bamboo manuscript from ca. 300 BCE. Comparing the manuscript version and t...

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Elizabeth Wijaya—The ‘As If’ of Cinema between ...

This lecture was co-sponsored by the Yale-NUS Division of Humanities (Literature Major). From an omitted phrase “to go to jail together” in a 2017 advertisement for a telecommunications company in Singapore that appreciated Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in order to celebrate Singapore’s utopic multiculturalism and multiraciali...

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David Der-wei Wang—Strange Encounters: On Sinop...

This lecture was co-sponsored by the Yale-NUS Division of Humanities (Literature Major). About Professor Wang Professor Wang is Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature and holds a joint appointment in Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Ac...

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Ma Ming-hao—Hands-on Sessions on The Arts and A...

Visiting Professor and Renowned Calligraphy Ma Ming-hao, provided students with the opportunity to learn and practise the basics of Chinese calligraphy at the same time that they learn more about the art and aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy and its fascinating connection with poetry and other forms of traditional Chinese art. The primary langua...

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