Symposium on “China’s Appeal and its Discontents”
Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong, June 20-23, 2011
As China rises to prominence, current scholarship examines the strategies of appeal China has deployed to penetrate different parts of the globe at the expense of American dominance. One such strategy has been the rhetoric of “peaceful development” (heping fazhan) and “harmonious society” (hexie shehuì), devised to ease anxieties about China’s global expansion, maintain authoritarian rule at home, and articulate an inclusive identity for its diverse populations. China still faces the problem of effective governance from within, for coinciding with its economic growth is the political awakening of its citizens and with it the rise of organized activism on an unprecedented level. Empirical studies increasingly reveal serious challenges to the one-party state including rights consciousness campaigns, labor disputes, ethnic conflicts, religion-state tensions, protests about the inadequacies of official disaster management, and cries for democratic governance.
This symposium provides an interdisciplinary platform for scholars to examine the appeal of a rising China and the challenge of governance it faces in the early 21st century. We welcome submissions from scholars and graduate students on the following topics:
The inner dynamics of China’s rise as an empire from traditional times to the present;
The current rhetoric of “peaceful development” and “harmonious society” China uses to advance its influence abroad and to control its diverse populations;
Challenges marginalized groups or minorities experience in relation to the state’s hegemonic vision of “harmonious society,” and their ongoing struggles for recognition of their rights and interests;
Additional strategies China uses to co-opt its neighbors and peripheries in an attempt at global power projection;
The ways developed and developing countries respond to China’s appeal, whether accommodating or challenging a rising China while pursuing their own agendas.
Our goal is to produce an edited volume that will highlight and test the appeal of China’s global outreach today.
The symposium will be held at Hong Kong Shue Yan University on June 20-23, 2011. Three nights’ on-campus accommodation will be provided for participants. Please send abstracts or enquiries to Prof. Siu-Keung Cheung at Hong Kong Shue Yan University (skcheung@hksyu.edu). The deadline for abstract submission is October 31, 2010. Selected submissions will be notified by November 20, 2010. Participants are expected to submit full papers by June 1, 2011. Link: http://www.hksyu.edu/sociology/cad.html
Organizers
Prof. Siu-Keung Cheung, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong (skcheung@hksyu.edu)
Prof. Joseph Tse-Hei Lee, Pace University, New York, USA (jlee@pace.edu)
Prof. Lida V. Nedilsky, North Park University, Chicago, USA (lnedilsky@northpark.edu)