China and Europe

China & Europe – Fostering the mutual understanding between China and Europe by multi-level comparisons of their cultures, societies, and economies, March 27-28, 2014, Rome/Italy.

China & Europe –
Fostering the mutual understanding between China and Europe by multi-level comparisons of their cultures, societies, and economies

International Conference, March 27-28, 2014 Rome/Italy

Proceedings (pdf flyer): Media:china_and_europe.pdf

Download Conference program (pdf): Media:Conference_Program_China_and_Europe.pdf

Conference Review in Chinese: China and Europe - Conference Review

Organizing Committee: Dr. Luigi Moccia (Rome, Italy), Dr. Martin Woesler (Munich/Bochum, Germany)

Under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy & the European Commission, Representative Office Italy

Further sponsors: Centro di eccellenza Altiero Spinelli, Confucius Institute, European Journal of Sinology

Venue: Universitá Roma Tre, Department of Foreign Languages, Literature and Cultures, Via del Valco di San Paolo, 19, Rome/Italy

Europe and China do not only share the same continent Eurasia, but grow closer together also economically. Although their cultures and traditions differ, both sides can profit from each other through mutual understanding on different levels. 25 international experts at this conference open a forum on the levels of culture, society, economy.

Key questions are: How to balance economical development and environmental protection? Is the 3rd way of China (the so-called “Beijing Consensus”) more successful than the 1st way of Europe? What can China learn from Europe, what can Europe learn from China?

Conference Information

This is the Conference Website CHINA AND EUROPE / Link to the peer review website: PEER REVIEW (only for speakers).

Confirmed speakers

From: Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, USA, Thailand

• 01 Altun, Sirma, Middleeast Technical University Ankara, Turkey
• 02 Bu, Qingxiu University of Sussex/Great Britain
• 03 Chiriu, Andrea, University of Cagliari/Italy
• 04 Fan, Jiani, University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle-Paris III, France
• 05 Grgić, Mladen, University of Montenegro
• 06 Halbeisen, Hermann, Research Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, University of Cologne, Germany
• 07 Hobova, Yevheniia, A.Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
• 08 Krauße, Reuß-Markus, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
• 09 Lin, Hang, University of Hamburg, Germany
• 10 Lombardi, Rosa, University Roma Tre, Rome/Italy (abstract coming)
• 11 Luengo, Pedro, University of Sevilla/Spain
• 12 Luo, Austin Jun, Beijing Normal University, Peking/China
• 13 Jiang Shixue 江时学, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
• 14 Marramao, Giacomo, University Roma Tre, Rome/Italy
• 15 Messmann, Stefan, Budapest/Hungary
• 16 Moccia, Luigi, University Roma Tre, Italy (abstract coming)
• 17 Ożegalska-Łukasik, Natalia, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Poland
• 18 Quartermain, Thomas Oxford University, Great Britain
• 19 Ritirc, Julia, Universität Wien, Austria
• 20 Wen, Zhuoyi, The City University of Hong Kong, China
• 21 Woesler, Martin, University of Applied Languages, Munich, Germany
• 22 Wong, Marco, President “AssoCina”, Rome, Italy
• 23 Xu, Xiaoqun, Christopher Newport University, USA
• 24 Yang, Keming, University of Durham, Great Britain

Program

Thursday March 27, 2014

• 10:00-10:30 a.m. Welcome Greetings

► Panizza Mario, President University Roma Tre

► Li Ruiyu, Ambassador, People’s Republic of China (tbc)

► Perugini Andrea, Italian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Director General/Principal Director for Asia Oceania

► Masini Federico, President Confucius Institute, Rome

► Grilli Giuseppe, Director Department Foreign Languages, Literature and Cultures

► Woesler Martin, Editor European Journal of Sinology

► Moccia Luigi, President CeAS

• 10:30-12:30 Session Culture I: High Civilizations and their Inspirative and Stimulative Encounters (4 panelists)

► CULTURE/CIVILIZATION DIFFERENCE Cosmopolitanism of difference: a cultural approach to Europe-China relations, Marramao, Giacomo, University Roma Tre, Rome

► CULTURE/SOCIETY What Chinese and Europeans can learn from each other, Woesler, Martin, University of Applied Languages, Munich, Germany

► CULTURE/INTEGRATION Education to 'Inter-Cultural Citizenship:' A European Perspective to Global Citizenship, Moccia, Luigi, University Roma Tre, Rome, and Wong, Marco, President “AssoCina”

► LANGUAGE Managing the Diversity: Language Policy and Practice in China and Ukraine, Hobova, Yevheniia, A.Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

• 12:30-13:30 Lunch
• 14:00-16:00 Session Culture II: Knowledge Formation and Historical Encounters in Eurasia (4 panelists)

► ARTISTS Chinese artists outside China during the Early Modern Period: possibilities as heritage today, Luengo, Pedro, University of Sevilla/Spain (abstract coming)

► HISTORY Turkey-China Relations: History and Future Prospects, Altun, Sirma, Middleeast Technical University Ankara, Turkey

► HISTORY/KNOWLEDGE Knowledge Formation and History of the Book in China: A Comparative Study of China and Western Europe, Lin, Hang, University of Hamburg, Germany

► SOCIETY/LITERATURE: Stereotypes about China: the Italian literature of the 20th Century, Lombardi, Rosa, University Roma Tre

• 15:30-16:00 Break

• 16:30-18:30 Session Society I: Different approaches to stigma, mortality, law and justice (4 panelists)

► SOCIETY/STIGMA Dealing with stigma – China and Europe cross-cultural study, Ożegalska-Łukasik, Natalia, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Poland (with Anna Prokop)

► MORTALITY "Being- towards- death" : a comparative study on attitudes towards mortality in Europe and in China, Fan, Jiani, University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle-Paris III, France

► LAW Will Chinese legal culture constrain its corporate governance-related laws?, Bu, Qingxiu University of Sussex/Great Britain

► LAW Legal Aspects of EU-China Trade, Messmann, Stefan, Central European University, Budapest/Hungary

• 18:30 Dinner in Restaurant

Friday March 28, 2014

• 9:00-10:30 Session Society II: China's efforts to modernization and social welfare (3 panelists)

► SOCIETY/POLITICS Analyzing China's Third Way: Conceptual and Methodological Issues, Halbeisen, Hermann, Research Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, University of Cologne, Germany

► MODERNIZATION/ECONOMICS China's Pathway of Modernization, Krauße, Reuß-Markus, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

► SOCIAL WELFARE Towards a Unified ‘Social China’: European Social Model’s Implications for China’s Fragmented Social Provision System, Wen, Zhuoyi, The City University of Hong Kong, China

• 10:30-11:00 Break
• 11:00-12:30 Session Economy I: Hard power: Military and Energy (3 panelists)

► MILITARY China-EU, from military cooperation to mutual understanding, Grgić, Mladen, University of Montenegro

► ECONOMY Powering the Future: China and Europe’s Energy Industry, Quartermain, Thomas Oxford University, Great Britain

► ECONOMY Divide et Impera: Chinese growing influence in Europe, Chiriu, Andrea, University of Cagliari, Italy

• 12:30-14:00 Lunch
• 14:00-16:30 Session Economy II: Lessons to Learn from Each Other - New Contents of Cadre Education, taxation and life standards (5 panelists)

► ECONOMY/TAXES The Introduction of Direct Taxes and the European Model in Twentieth-Century China, Xu, Xiaoqun, Christopher Newport University, USA

► ECONOMY/POLITICS China’s Leadership Transition and Its Implication for China-EU Relations, Jiang, Shixue, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking, China

► ECONOMY/ECOLOGY Objects and Forces of Transformation: Reconciling Economy and Ecology in China’s Cadre Education, Ritirc, Julia, Universität Wien, Austria

► MEDIA The Uniqueness of the Media System in China and its Internal Mechanics, Luo, Austin Jun, Beijing Normal University, Peking, China

► ECONOMY Economic Growth and Quality of Life: What can the Europeans and the Chinese learn from each other?, Yang, Keming, University of Durham, Great Britain

• 16:30-17:00 Break
• 17:00-18:00 Wrap-up discussion and panel discussion with all participants about the future of EU-China relations

• 18:30 Dinner

The conference is advertised at several places, like:

• Call for papers: http://www.eurasiane.eu/index.php?page=news-item&id=402
• Conference: http://www.eurasiane.eu/index.php?page=news-item&id=403

Abstracts

► Turkey-China Relations: History and Future Prospects

• Altun, Sirma, Middleeast Technical University Ankara, Turkey

Turkey-China relations, significantly developing during the 2000s, is an internal part of dynamic China-Europe relations. Officially, Turkey has long used the bridge analogy to define its geopolitics as well as its cultural and ideological positioning between the West and the East. Esenbel and Atli (2013) argue that Turkey is now turning the bridge analogy from rhetoric into reality through greater integration with Asia in general and with China in particular. Thus, the aim of this paper is to grasp the developing relations between Turkey and China by picturing the politics and economics of the relations. The paper will be composed of three parts covering different aspects of Turkey-China relations. In the first part, historical overview of the politics of Turkey-China relations will be provided. The paper tries to make sense of the dynamics that shape Turkey-China relations at national and regional levels, covering the Eurasian aspect. In the second part, a brief analysis of the economics of Turkey-China relations will be provided, specially focusing on the Chinese investments in Turkey. The paper asks how economic relations between Turkey and China fits into the general picture of Europe-China relations. In parallel to the political and economic developments between Turkey and China, Asia Studies emerges as a rapidly developing scholarly field in Turkey through the scholarly interactions and cultural exchanges between Turkish and Chinese scholars. In the last part, a general account of Asia Studies in Turkey will be provided and ideas for the possible scholarly cooperation within the field will be offered.

► Will Chinese legal culture constrain its corporate governance-related laws?

• Bu, Qingxiu University of Sussex/Great Britain

There are a wide variety of social, economic, political and cultural variables that may influence the corporate governance regime, of which culture has been observed as “the mother of all path dependencies”. Corporate governance laws relate interactively to China’s prevailing culture. A unique set of cultural values might affect, in a chain of causality, the development of China's laws in general and its governance system in particular. On the one hand, culture serves to motivate and justify actions which are compatible with its values through its impact on organisational policies and on the values of individual decision-makers. On the other hand, the existing corporate governance laws and civil procedures reflect culture orientations for particular forms of conflict resolutions. Under the current global financial crisis, it would make significant sense to examine some most controversial issues inherently embedded in Chinese cultural settings. By analysing the cultural attitude toward executive compensation and the extent of tolerance of interested-party transactions, this paper aims to explore an efficient litigation-based enforcement regime on the basis of cultural values justifying actions and evaluations. The corporate governance-related laws should arguably be compatible with the degree to which the national culture tolerates confrontational processes.

► Legal Aspects of EU-China Trade

• Messmann, Stefan, Central European University, Budapest/Hungary

Evaluating and analyzing closely the ‘strategic partnership’ in the EU-China trade relations, we find that the partnership has developed simultaneously as a para-legal instrument. This instrument adds dynamism to economic dialogues, it assists to conclude sector-based agreements and to integrate the political dimension to the economic partnership, and also as a pre-legal instrument which allows one to envisage the conclusion of a new framework agreement – an element of hard law indispensable to the reality of the challenges posed by the EU-China relationship that implies difficult negotiations. The paper draws the conclusion, that in this situation, Europe must show foresightedness and use the opportunity to set up a strong and durable partnership as long as it will not be too late because of the unstoppable strength of the Chinese industry.

► Divide et Impera: Chinese growing influence in Europe

• Chiriu, Andrea, University of Cagliari, Italy

Sino-European relationship unfolds especially on the economic and trade fields. Yet, due to the economic crisis currently affecting Europe, EU has seen her negotiation power decreasing. Beijing is trying to get advantage from European current weakness trough an economic offensive mostly directed to the new EU members. Chinese strategy seems to be focused on a “Divide et Impera” model and exploits the contrasts between EU members. As a reaction, European Commission is calling members to be more unite and to unanimously stand in front of China, defending European common interests. However, Bruxelles’s reaction seems to be myopic and ineffective, causing vociferous reactions from new members, as China-CEE summit recently hold in Bucharest showed.

► "Being- towards- death" : a comparative study on attitudes towards mortality in Europe and in China

• Fan, Jiani, University of Sorbonne-Nouvelle-Paris III, France

Via the interpretations of a painting of Arnold Böcklin- "Isle of the Dead" and the poetry of Tao Yuanming, we explore contrasting views about the death in Europe and in ancient China. According to Freud, there is a difference between mourning and melancholia: melancholia concerns that we have lost something indescribable and unexplainable. By contrast, mourning absorbs us for the decease of our beloved, which overshadows our own world, makes it insignificant and gloomy. In the painting of Böcklin, the two negative sentiments have converged. In order to purge oneself of the distress, according to Kierkegaard, it is only by contemplating nature with the pre-verbal silence can we meditate on the death profoundly and approach to the authentic death with a metaphysical significance. Through the landscape which incarnates the divinity, we receive a revelation more profound. In the period of Wei Jin, the political turmoil deprives many lives arbitrarily, so the poets in the anthology of The Nineteen Ancient Poems have a pessimistic attitude towards life. Therefore, they view death as transforming ( hua 化) with the other beings in an abrupt and brutal manner. Here hua means perish and go to dust. Do not want to be ruthless to articulate the death explicitly, so they designate it as transformation with beings. Unlike his predecessors, who take hua as the euphemism of death, Tao Yuanming, who believes in Taoism, is optimistic about death, because of his conviction of the great transformation (da hua) with nature as a kind of endless reincarnation. Similar to the Taoists, Heidegger considers death as immanent in life, instead of viewing it as a force beyond life or opposite to life. The Taoist sages identify with the Tao, so that the encounter with death lasts only a little time. Therefore, they speak of death with an ecstatic and rhapsodic tone. However, although Heidegger advocates the practice of death to live better, the mortality looms large as a threatening abyss, which is the fundamental source of human anguish.

► China-EU, from military cooperation to mutual understanding

• Grgić, Mladen, University of Montenegro

The EU and China do talk, on different matters and on different levels; they talk a lot, but not enough. Without a comprehensive military cooperation, many important issues would always remain pending and confidence between the two will always be on a low level. Without military cooperation the EU and China will never have a clear understanding of each other’s foreign policies, and thus living the field to possible misunderstandings and misinterpretations. China is keen to reform, reduce and develop a more efficient military that could honor its economical and political achievements. For such a complicated business it needs a solid partner, which could help and offer a know-how solutions. The EU, from its side, could increase its influence in Beijing and become a voice that Chine will be willing to listen, and even to become a bridge between the US and China. In that way Brussels will avoid being aligned to one side (read: the US) in a world, which is becoming more and more multipolar with some bipolar characteristics. Insisting on the arms embargo, Brussels would only weaken its positions when dealing with China, while unnecessarily is damaging its military sector, ready to profit from Chinese increasing demands for weapons.

► Analyzing China's Third Way: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

• Halbeisen, Hermann, Research Institute for Political Science and European Affairs, University of Cologne, Germany:

China's successful development has attracted widespread attention among scientists and resulted in the publication of numerous studies. Quite a number of these publications have tried to ascertain the claim that China has produced an alternative model of development (3rd Way). The proposes paper will look into these claims from both a conceptual and methodological angle. In order to ascertain the validity of this claim it will focus on the competing conceptualizations of this model, the Western (Beijing Consensus) as well as the Chinese One (China Model), that show differences in both in conception and characteristics.

The existence of of a new path to development (a model) cannot be ascertained by studying isolated aspects, it must be analyzed within an overarching framework. In order to verify this claim three aspects will be discussed:

a) similarities and dissimilarities with the Asian Model of Development that formed the topic of discussions in the 1970s and 1980s,

b) in order to ascertain the character of a 'model' the applicability of the Chinese approach to development outside of China must be demonstrated,

c) is the claim of the 3rd way limited to the field of economics or does it also contain a claim to a different way to and form of modernization?

► Managing the Diversity: Language Policy and Practice in China and Ukraine

• Hobova, Yevheniia, A.Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

Despite the linguistic diversities both People’s Republic of China and Ukraine each have a single official language. Maintaining this situation is an important political issue and a fairly complicated task in general, especially when it comes to putting the policies into practice. Is a single official language the way to consolidate the people, or is it disruptive for the multinational society? How does Chinese language unite such an ethnically diverse population and why is Ukrainian language a matter of harsh political manipulation? As we see it, the answers to these questions are not in the policies themselves but in the ways they are implemented and in the cultural backgrounds. Comparing the language situation in Ukraine and PRC shows the advances and shortcomings of their language policies.

In this paper we analyze the political, ideological and linguistic issues of maintaining the language balance in Ukraine and PRC with a special regard to the recent results of adopting the law for regional languages in Ukraine, its results and the legal basis behind it.

► China's Investment in the EU

• Jiang Shixue 江时学, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

As China’s economic power has continued to grow, encouraging Chinese companies to invest overseas has become a national policy priority. This is referred to as the “going out” strategy. The EU, the world’s largest economy, offers a huge market and is home to many world-leading technologies. This has naturally made the EU important for Chinese outbound direct investment (ODI). The prospects for Chinese ODI in the EU are bright, to the benefit of both China and EU host countries.

► China's different Path of Modernization

• Krauße, Reuß-Markus, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

Since the 1990s China's modernization was a particular pathway of modernization the Maoistic Chinas society and its political jacobinistic program. The lecture identifies some typical features we recognize in the meantime. It is necessary to mention that the modernization was an intrinsically achievement take off from the political China's system, which changed the structure of the Chinas society essentially. China's society follows a different pathway than the Western modernization. That means that we witness, for instance, a restructuring of the economic system towards a market orientation, but the characterization of Chinese economic lays in the interconnection with the other functional systems and the social interaction beneath this problem level. To understand the social change in China it is essential to emphasize that the economic modernization goes along with the stabilization of the political center, the continuation of the network communication and solidarity, which is also referred to the interpretation of the cultural background of China's tradition and historical experiences.

► Knowledge Formation and History of the Book in China: A Comparative Study of China and Western Europe

• Lin, Hang, University of Hamburg, Germany

There is no question that the history of the book in China was substantially inspired and defined by the large body of scholarship produced by historians of the European book. However, it shall not obscure the fact the very real differences that inform the history of the book in Europe and that in China. The issues that arise from the study of the book in China is in fact inevitably shaped by specifically Chinese social, economic, intellectual, political, and technological conditions. Based on a comparative investigation of these aspects in China and against the Western Europe background and experience, this paper endeavors to probe into such issues that distinguish the unique history of printing and book culture in China, including technology of printing, economic considerations, motivations for printing, aesthetic preference, language, as well as the persistence of manuscripts. This examination shall also demonstrate that these issues can help not only assert the independence of the study of China – so often conducted through historiographical concepts borrowed from Europe – but also provide a new way of reflecting on both the distinctive and important issues in the history of Chinese book and the particularity of the experience of Europe and other cultures.

► Chinese artists outside China during the Early Modern Period: possibilities as heritage today

• Luengo, Pedro, University of Sevilla/Spain (abstract coming)

During the Early Modern Period, the Chinese communities along the European settlements in Asia played a key role in the development of their Art and Architecture. Working for different European powers, and cooperating with local artisans, they were responsible for a deep cultural transfer during centuries. Their presence in all these port cities, such as Jakarta, Manila or Macao, allowed the enlargement of cultural webs between East and West cultures.

Today, these cities are keeping interesting discussion on heritage and postcolonial discourse. In these cases, this problem is usually understood as a problem between a West power and local population. Therefore, this heritage is explained as the imposition of an outer power, and not as a common history testimony. The Chinese role, shadowed by most of archival documents and historiography, is being now avowed. They mean a third element in this discussion that connects the cultural activity of the whole European presence in Asia.

Unfortunately much of this heritage, such as buildings, pieces of art and even traditions, is no more preserved. This can be solved thanks to the new potential given by mobile software. They allow people, both tourists and local population, to better understand cities and its heritage.

► MEDIA The Uniqueness of the Media System in China and its Internal Mechanics

• Luo, Austin Jun, Beijing Normal University, Peking, China

The media system in China is different from any other countries in the world. In this presentation, I explain the unique nature of the media system in China and its internal mechanics. The media system in China is a combination of different media philosophies and a result of the long history of the Chinese civilization. In this media system, the Chinese Communist Party, the government, private enterprises, media professionals, public individuals and Chinese culture play different roles and provide different forces from different directions and in a different way. By analyzing each forces and their interaction inside the media system in China, this paper discovers the mechanics of the media system in China and tries to explore the possibility to use these mechanics as a new model to explain the media phenomenon in China.

► Comopolitanism of difference: a cultural approach to Europe-China relations

• Marramao, Giacomo, University Roma Tre, Rome

► Education to 'Inter-Cultural Citizenship:' A European Perspective to Global Citizenship

• Moccia, Luigi, University Roma Tre, Italy

[Abstract forthcoming.]

► Dealing with stigma – China and Europe cross-cultural study

• Ożegalska-Łukasik, Natalia, Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Poland (with Anna Prokop)

Mental disorders are commonly interpreted by social scientists as one of the most powerful stigmatizing attributes in various societies. As studies show, cultural discrepancy delivers diverse contexts for labelling and exclusion of individuals due to their mental health conditions. In case of China and Europe the concept of cultural differences outlined them respectively as culture of shame and culture of guilt. The presentation addresses the question whether this dichotomy is adequate when comparing recent anti-stigma campaigns in China and European countries. In framework of comparative visual analysis means, motives and strategies of the national or local campaigns from China and four European countries will be confronted.

► Powering the Future: China and Europe’s Energy Industry

• Quartermain, Thomas Oxford University, Great Britain

Following the nuclear disaster in Japan, many nations around the world sought to secure and limit nuclear power stations in their countries. However, some states are now turning back to nuclear power as the new ‘green’ energy. Global companies are both bidding for new nuclear facilities in emerging markets and selling energy to neighboring countries. Although France has built and exported its nuclear technologies for decades, China has now joined the nuclear powered technology exporting club. Both France and China are financing and developing nuclear power in Britain, and yet compete for new markets outside of Europe. Germany is also facing competition from China’s solar power companies that make cheaper solar voltaic cells. As China becomes a leading exporter of various nuclear and green technologies, will this lead to an inevitable clash with Europe, or will both sides be able to develop new sources of energy and secure energy independence? This paper will argue that Chinese investment should be welcomed into Europe to develop alternative energy, even at the cost of some European jobs, and more joint-projects should be undertaken to both develop Europe’s energy security and bilateral trade relations.

Key Words: Energy, China, Europe, Nuclear Power, Alternative Energy

► Objects and Forces of Transformation: Reconciling Economy and Ecology in China’s Cadre Education

• Ritirc, Julia, Universität Wien, Austria

This article focuses on the CCP’s efforts to tackle the conflict between economy and ecology in cadre education and training 干部教育培训. Three questions raised are: What role does cadre training play in China’s coping with its economic and environmental challenges? How does cadre education tackle the problem of reconciliation between the conflicting interests? What can Europe learn from this approach?

Local party schools serve well as objects of analysis as they reflect the political discourse of economy and ecology within the CCP. A qualitative comparative analysis of local party school curricula in Jiangsu brings to light the single narratives and possible solutions discussed. However, against a widespread assumption, cadre instruction is not confined within the walls of party schools and limited to indoctrination of party ideologies; various seminars are organized with and in national and international universities, and research institutions. The purposes of training classes are diverse and their emphasis shift depending on the hosting institution.

In my research I draw on fieldwork in Jiangsu and Beijing during which I also participated in a relevant cadre training session at China Renmin University 中国人民大学. In addition to official releases and information provided on the web pages of party schools, I collected reports on training classes in Chinese newspapers, and interviewed party school teachers and cadres who participated in a training sessions on circular economy.

► Towards a Unified ‘Social China’: European Social Model’s Implications for China’s Fragmented Social Provision System

• Wen, Zhuoyi, The City University of Hong Kong, China

Social policy in China has rapidly expanded in the past a decade after a policy paradigm shift in the central government. But the local governments’ policy initiatives based on the household registration system have resulted in various local welfare state and local social citizenship as well. This emergent fragmented welfare state raises a problem of the relative affluence of different regions, and hence the possibility of social provision varying between citizens of the same country as a result of geographical location. Thus, a unified social state and social citizenship is absent in China. This problem reflects an inherent tension in social policy to strike a balance between territorial justice and territorial equity. From the perspective of path dependence, this paper explains this fragmented social provision system is a result of social (welfare) federalism. Different from international experience of countries in Europe and North America, the social (welfare) federalism should be understood as a variant of fiscal federalism for China’ economic reform extended to social development. To build a unified social state in China, it is necessary to reconfigure central-local policy and financial responsibility. During this process, the experience of European Union member countries united in a social Europe may provide implications for policy learning and transfer.

► What Chinese and Europeans can learn from each other

• Woesler, Martin, University of Applied Languages, Munich, Germany

[Abstract forthcoming.]

► The Introduction of Direct Taxes and the European Model in Twentieth-Century China

• Xu, Xiaoqun, Christopher Newport University, USA

From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century (from the Qing dynasty to the early Republic), the Chinese government relied on the following sources of revenue to finance its operation: the maritime customs duty, the salt monopoly tax, the land tax, and the transit tax (not counting local levies of all sorts). After the Nationalist Government came to power in 1927, it began to reform the taxation system by achieving tariff autonomy (previously the rate was fixed under the unequal treaties signed with Western Powers and Japan in the 19th century), and abolishing the transit tax and replacing it with a turnover tax. Further, by 1936 the government introduced a number of direct taxes, including personal income tax, corporate income tax, inheritance tax, and excise tax (which would replace turnover tax). The entire tax reform was guided by the European-American model (especially the French taxation system) and by the theory of "good tax" that was based on the ability-to-pay and was to help address the economic inequality with progressive tax rates. Based on primary and secondary sources, the paper will analyze the gap between the good intention of the tax reform launched by the central government and the reality on the ground when the new taxation was to be implemented in local society. Some of the lessons one can draw from the historical experience have great relevance to the mutual borrowing of experiences between China and Europe in the twenty-first century.

► Economic Growth and Quality of Life: What can the Europeans and the Chinese learn from each other?

• Yang, Keming, University of Durham, Great Britain

Economic growth is a condition for high quality of life, but the quality of life may have to be sacrificed, at least temporarily, for achieving economic growth. On the other hand, economic growth may have to slow down in order to achieve and enjoy high quality of life. The Europeans have realized and dealt with such trade-off for many decades and therefore have more to offer to the Chinese who have recently started to look for their own solution, although the Europeans may want to learn something from the Chinese about promoting economic growth. This paper aims to identify the lessons that each side could learn from the other by conducting a critical review of two kinds of literature: the measurements of quality of life and the institutional contexts of entrepreneurship. Whilst the Europeans may show the Chinese that the material factors are only a part of high quality of life, the Chinese would demonstrate how entrepreneurship is critical for sustaining such life. The comparisons are made at both national (state policies and culture) and individual (interests and strategies) levels. These discussions will contribute to our understanding of the ultimate and mere general question of economic conservatism versus liberalism.

Biographies

Mr. Andrea Chiriu is a PhD candidate in History, Institutions and International Relations of Asia and Africa at the University of Cagliari, his research interest are the Chinese Foreign Policy and the International Relations of Eastern Europe and Asia.

Mr. Mladen Grgić is a PhD candidate at the University of Montenegro. He is an Associate of the European Institute for Asian Studies, Brussels.

Dr. Yevheniia Hobova is a research associate at A. Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).

Dr. Shixue Jiang 江时学 is Professor and Deputy Director, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking/China.

Dr. Austin Jun Luo is Vice Dean of the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture. Before that he was an award winning branding and media expert, consulting with big media companies in China, such as CCTV. He got his Ph.D of Film Studies 2009 at Beijing Normal University and is now working as Postdoctoral Fellow at AICCC, Beijing Normal University.

Dr. Stefan Messmann is Professor of Law at the Central European University in Budapest/Hungary.

Dr. Luigi Moccia is Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Rome Tre. Professor of Comparative Private Law and Jean Monnet professor of European Union Studies. President of the Centro di Studio e Documentazione sulla Cina (DSDC, Centre for the Documentation and Study of China). Director of the “Altiero Spinelli” Centre.

Mag. Julia Ritirc is Univ. Ass. with the Universität Wien, University of Vienna, Department of East Asian Studies/Sinology, Spitalgasse 2, Campus AAKH， Hof 2， A-1090 Vienna.

Mr. Zhuoyi Wen is a PhD Candidate with the Department of Applied Social Studies, The City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Dr. Martin Woesler is Professor of Intercultural Communication, University of Applied Languages, Munich/Germany.

Dr. Xiaoqun Xu (Ph.D. Columbia U.) is Associate Professor of History, Christopher Newport University, USA.

Dr. Keming Yang is a Senior Lecturer of Sociology at School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Durham, UK. He is the author of Entrepreneurship in China (Ashgate, 2010) and Capitalists in Communist China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He has also published some academic articles on social relations and loneliness among the adults in China and Europe.

Academic Presses who have expressed an interest in publishing a conference volume

• Cambridge Scholars Publishing
• European University Press
• Palgrave

Original Call for papers (deadline expired)

“China & Europe – Fostering the mutual understanding between China and Europe by multi-level comparisons of their cultures, societies, and economies” March 27-28, 2014 Rome, jointly organized by Dr. Luigi Moccia (Rome, Italy) and Dr. Martin Woesler (Munich/Bochum, Germany)

Europe and China do not only share the same continent Eurasia, but grow closer together also economically. Although their cultures and traditions differ, both sides can profit from each other through mutual understanding on different levels. The conference opens a forum on the levels culture, society, economy.

Key questions are: How to balance economical development and environmental protection? Is the 3rd way of China (the so-called “Beijing Consensus”) more successful than the 1st way of Europe? What can China learn from Europe, what can Europe learn from China? Scholars without travel support from their institutions can apply for a limited number of travel stipends.

Deadline for the submission of abstracts (up to 200 words): November 30, 2013.

Please submit to: Ruhr University Bochum, P. O. Box “The University Press Bochum”, China & Europe Organizing Committee, Universitaetsst. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany, email: journal@china-studies.com

Passed Deadlines - Acceptance of abstracts continued until December 23, 2013

In a 2nd round of abstract submissions, we will review all abstracts we receive until December 23, 2013. Here are all upcoming deadlines in an overview:

If you are a speaker or visitor, please submit a short c.v. (one page) incl. photo for the conference website, your confirmation to participate via email to journal@china-studies.com. Please indicate A or B (limited funds available):

A) I confirm my participation in the conference and will be able to cover the travel and accomodation expenses either by myself or through travel reimbursement by my institution. I ask the conference organizing committee to reserve the 3 nights from March 26-29, breakfast included, in the conference hotel at a special discount rate. (Please specify if you bring someone and therefore need a double room or if you do not stay in the conference hotel but arrange accomodation privately.)

B) I confirm my participation, I will first use and exhaust available personal/instutional funds but on top of that need and apply for a travel stipend of _____ Euros (please attach cheapest flight or train ticket estimate) and/or accomodation stipend of _____ Euros (of the total of 210 Euros) for 3 nights (breakfast included) in the conference hotel.

The Committee tries to use the funds in a way that as much and interesting contributions can be arranged as possible. Since the funds are limited, the decision by the Committee will be final.

DEC 23, 2013

2nd round of abstract (re)submission ends

Timeline

FEB 1, 2013

Submit paper (up to 50,000 characters, references cf. MLA standard, keywords, subheaders).

You will receive 2 papers by peers for review (3 weeks time to review).

FEB 21, 2013

Submit reviews of 2 peer papers

MAR 1, 2013

Submit final version of paper

MAR 20, 2013

Conference Proceedings go in print

Visitors

• Ven Chotan Bhikkhu, Mahamakut Buddhist University, Bangkok, Thailand