Misframing/Misplacing in the Sino-Western Civilizational Discourse – WTO Negotiations and Beyond

Speaker: Qin Hui, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, Professor Emeritus at Tsing-hua University & Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Qin Hui is a leading historian and public intellectual in China, having spent much of his career at the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. His early academic focus was on rural history and the peasantry, but over the past two decades, he has published widely on any number of topics relating to themes of social justice, traditional Chinese culture, globalization, and much more. He writes as a fiercely independent liberal, with a mordant wit seldom appreciated by Chinese officialdom. His 2015 book, Leaving Imperial Rule Behind (《走出帝制》), which recounts the failure of China’s first experiment in constitutional rule, was banned by authorities weeks prior to its formal publication date (volumes were already on the shelves). In recent years, as Xi Jinping has sought to reimpose discipline on academic intellectual life, many China-related topics that had once been hotly debated have become taboo, and Qin has focused on the world outside of China, in part to avoid criticism and to be able to continue to publish.

Sponsored by the Doctoral Faculty of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
Co-sponsors: Bouden House & The China Truth Institute