EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Section 13 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 145 “Chinese culture” is often associated with “harmony”. It is a central concept in discussions on Chinese philosophy and religions, in China related intercultural trainings and academic models of Chinese conflict management and communication. This paper is arguing that the notion of “harmony” did not play any significant role in Western or Eastern discussions of Chinese culture before the 1920s. Neither in mission- ary reports on China nor in the detailed analyses of enlightenment philosophers such as Leibniz, Wolff, Hegel, Herder and others does the term “harmony” play any relevant role. Even early Sinologists such as De Groot (even in his 1918 book on Chinese “Universismus”) do not use it to explain Chinese culture. In the late 19th and early 20th century Japanese histories of Chinese philosophy and culture the term wa 和 (harmony) does not play any role, the term he 和 (harmony) is equally insignificant in the very lively early 20th century Chinese discussions about Chinese culture, it is not discussed in Feng Youlan’s famous History of Chinese philosophy (it is not even listed as a keyword in the lengthy index of Bodde’s transla- tion). The paper argues that the connection between China and “harmony” originated not from engagement with China but emerged from two mutually independent movements that had their roots in concerns about European culture and merged in the 1920 and 30s. First, although the term “harmony” does not occur in the European translations of the Bible text, the career of this term in Europe started when it was used as a more systematic utopian term in Pietistic, Hermetic and Mesmeric movements in the late 18th and early 19th century and advanced to become widely used as a vogue expression in intellectual and artistic circles in the late 19th and early 20th century. Second, with the revival of Western interests in Asian philosophies and religions in the late 19th and early 20th century this term was then also applied to Asian philosophies and religions. Gentz Natascha (University of Edinburgh) Terms of Transformations: Transnational Negotiations of the Concept of ‘Press Freedom’ in Late-Qing China Key words: media history; transcultural history; translation; press freedom; legal history The arrival of the modern ‘Western’ press since the early nineteenth century brought a new player into the field of public discussion of current affairs in China. It challenged but also nurtured discussion about legitimate speech and public expression on both sides. As many of the conflicts negotiated between Chinese and foreign officials, journalists, missionaries or printers also led to legal conflicts brought to the court, practical implications necessitated discussions about different interpretations of the concept of ‘press free- dom’. This paper explores such court cases and the ensuing different initial approaches and views on what role the new press should play against the background of legal arrangements of the Qing Code and the Mixed Court legislation informed by — mainly British — press laws and foreign legal practice. It shows that in discussions of what constitutes ‘fair public discussion’ and what was to be regarded as ‘rumours’, ‘slander’ or even ‘false accusation’, all related to the concept of ‘press freedom’, we find more common ground on intellectual, cultural or legal interpretations of the concept of a public information order from a stakeholder perspective. The paper further explores how these interpretations of the concept were com- municated and disseminated by main stakeholders, and how its intrinsic transnational complexity was received and responded to by the public, in editorials and letters to the editor, or cartoons and other visual representations within this transnational context. Guleva Mariia (Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University) Images of the Soviet Union and Russian People in the Chinese Newspapers and Magazines Key words: modern sketch, Shidai Manhua, Soviet Union, White Russians, visual images The 1930s are generally considered to be the heyday of Shanghai artistic life in the Republic of China. This also applies to the cartoon art of Chinese newspapers and magazines, with “Shidai Manhua” 時代漫 畫 , or Modern Sketch, for its most influential representative. This magazine, which existed in 1934–1937,