Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge

New publication by Professor Hans van de Ven:
"Blood Dawn: WWII and the Making of Modern Asia"

Hans van de Ven’s Blood Dawn: WWII and the Making of Modern Asia analyses the transformation of Asia, focusing on China, India, and Indonesia, from a region dominated by European empires and Japan into one of sovereign nation-states in the 1939-1955 period.

To support independent UK bookshops, it is now available for pre-order at a discount at Bookshop.org.

CANCELLATION_We regret to inform you that this week's China Research Seminar lecture, "Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts" by Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University), has been cancelled.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to welcome Professor Gentz to the seminar series at a future date.

[China Research Seminar] Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University) “Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Thursday 18 June, 14:00-15:30

Abstract:

Having tried to come up with explanations of literary figures of parallelisms in early Chinese texts over the last decades, I have often wondered what exactly our underlying assumptions of such explanations are. What do we think the texts are doing when they use parallelisms and why are we thinking so? What cultural theories inform our own explanations of such figures in ritual, divinatory, poetic, religious or philosophical texts? To seek some clarification on how we generate our theories about the meaning and function of such figures in early texts, the paper, in a first part, examines how parallelisms were explained by earlier scholars who discussed them on the basis of a number of rather diverging assumptions and theories about the cultures of antiquity. Since the term “parallelism” originates in geometry, the paper, in a second part, adopts spatial perspectives in an analysis of textual parallelisms. Taking a further step from my earlier studies into literary forms of argument, and following Chinese diagrammatic traditions, the paper uses visual methodologies to analyse textual compositions as spatial constructs. For this purpose, it analyses the geometry, functions and effects of parallelisms and repetitions in early Chinese pictorial stone reliefs and applies them to text analysis to develop a set of new conceptual questions that might enrich our interpretation of early Chinese texts.

Bio:

Joachim Gentz studied Sinology, Religious Studies and Philosophy in Berlin, Nanjing and Heidelberg. He acted as Assistant Professor for Classical Chinese at the University of Heidelberg (1999–2002), Junior professor in Religious Studies at the University of Göttingen (2002–2006), and Visiting Professor in Tokyo (2000) and Bayreuth (2008). In 2006 he moved to Edinburgh and worked at the Cultural Studies Programme, taught in Religious Studies and the Asian Studies Department in Edinburgh where he served for many years as Research Officer and Head of Department and now holds the position of Chair of Chinese Philosophy and Religion. Joachim's main research focus is on Chinese history of thought. His work crosses the disciplinary boundaries of Sinology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies. He has published on early Confucian commentarial traditions, Chinese ritual and divination, Chinese interreligious discourses, early Chinese forms of argumentation, Chinese visual traditions, modern Chinese religious policy and Cultural Studies theory in both German and English. In collaboration with Sarah Queen, he has just finished an NEH-funded ca 1000pp. long translation of the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries.

[China Research Seminar] Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University) “Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Thursday 18 June, 14:00-15:30

Abstract:

Having tried to come up with explanations of literary figures of parallelisms in early Chinese texts over the last decades, I have often wondered what exactly our underlying assumptions of such explanations are. What do we think the texts are doing when they use parallelisms and why are we thinking so? What cultural theories inform our own explanations of such figures in ritual, divinatory, poetic, religious or philosophical texts? To seek some clarification on how we generate our theories about the meaning and function of such figures in early texts, the paper, in a first part, examines how parallelisms were explained by earlier scholars who discussed them on the basis of a number of rather diverging assumptions and theories about the cultures of antiquity. Since the term “parallelism” originates in geometry, the paper, in a second part, adopts spatial perspectives in an analysis of textual parallelisms. Taking a further step from my earlier studies into literary forms of argument, and following Chinese diagrammatic traditions, the paper uses visual methodologies to analyse textual compositions as spatial constructs. For this purpose, it analyses the geometry, functions and effects of parallelisms and repetitions in early Chinese pictorial stone reliefs and applies them to text analysis to develop a set of new conceptual questions that might enrich our interpretation of early Chinese texts.

Bio:

Joachim Gentz studied Sinology, Religious Studies and Philosophy in Berlin, Nanjing and Heidelberg. He acted as Assistant Professor for Classical Chinese at the University of Heidelberg (1999–2002), Junior professor in Religious Studies at the University of Göttingen (2002–2006), and Visiting Professor in Tokyo (2000) and Bayreuth (2008). In 2006 he moved to Edinburgh and worked at the Cultural Studies Programme, taught in Religious Studies and the Asian Studies Department in Edinburgh where he served for many years as Research Officer and Head of Department and now holds the position of Chair of Chinese Philosophy and Religion. Joachim's main research focus is on Chinese history of thought. His work crosses the disciplinary boundaries of Sinology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies. He has published on early Confucian commentarial traditions, Chinese ritual and divination, Chinese interreligious discourses, early Chinese forms of argumentation, Chinese visual traditions, modern Chinese religious policy and Cultural Studies theory in both German and English. In collaboration with Sarah Queen, he has just finished an NEH-funded ca 1000pp. long translation of the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries.

Dear all,

Please notice today's lecture at AMES, forwarded from the Sino-Hellenic Network group:

The Sino-Hellenic Network is pleased to welcome Prof. Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard University, for a seminar next week.

Title: Gods, Goddesses, and Humans in Ancient Greece and China


Time: Thursday 11 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 BST Refreshments to follow



Venue: Room 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge

Sign up for Zoom participation here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5jey8YyPRd49yoLX-sdq8w3lSwN9OA-PoisEbo0yYp0bR8g/viewform
Alternatively, please join the Sino-Hellenic Network to receive updates and Zoom links for future events. We are grateful to the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge, the Needham Research Institute, and the Michael Loewe Fund for their generous support.

Sino-Hellenic Network seminar by Prof. Michael Puett: Gods, Goddesses, and Humans in Ancient Greece and China Time: Thursday 11 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 BST Refreshments to follow Venue: Room 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge Zoom joining instructions will be sent by email within 24 hours of the event starting. To sign up to the mailing list and receive links to futur...

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！

[China Research Seminar] Paul Bevan (SOAS, University of London) “Will the Real Chuck Thode Please Stand Up! Charles Thode and his Song, ‘Butterfly Wu’"

Time: Thursday 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30
Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
This talk builds on the previous work I undertook on popular cultural themes in my book Intoxicating Shanghai and my forthcoming monograph Shanghai’s Shadow Waltz. The story takes place in Shanghai during the years 1935 and 1936, in and around the Paramount Ballroom, a popular nightclub that opened in the West of that city in 1934. Central to the story is the American pianist and songwriter Charles ‘Chuck’ Thode, who performed in the Paramount Ballroom together with band leader Serge Ermoll and a host of foreign cabaret acts. This talk looks specifically at the song composed by Thode in honour of the film star Butterfly Wu, as well as his highly controversial life as a performer and composer in China and the USA. The story has a cast of five: two Chinese singers; a Chinese poet and lyricist; an ethnically Russian dance band leader; and an American cocktail pianist. The paper charts the colourful lives of these individuals and explores how they came together as dedicatee, performers, and composer of a now forgotten song.

Bio:
Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Paul’s research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly with regard to periodicals and magazines. Paul’s first book, A Modern Miscellany – Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as ‘a major contribution to modern Chinese studies’; his second, ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’: Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines During Shanghai’s Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi’s review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: ‘Featured within the book’s densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies…’. Paul has translated two early twentieth-century novels: The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: an Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the story of her brother, Ma Yongzhen, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai (Earnshaw Books, 2024).

[China Research Seminar] Paul Bevan (SOAS, University of London) “Will the Real Chuck Thode Please Stand Up! Charles Thode and his Song, ‘Butterfly Wu’"

Time: Thursday 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30
Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
This talk builds on the previous work I undertook on popular cultural themes in my book Intoxicating Shanghai and my forthcoming monograph Shanghai’s Shadow Waltz. The story takes place in Shanghai during the years 1935 and 1936, in and around the Paramount Ballroom, a popular nightclub that opened in the West of that city in 1934. Central to the story is the American pianist and songwriter Charles ‘Chuck’ Thode, who performed in the Paramount Ballroom together with band leader Serge Ermoll and a host of foreign cabaret acts. This talk looks specifically at the song composed by Thode in honour of the film star Butterfly Wu, as well as his highly controversial life as a performer and composer in China and the USA. The story has a cast of five: two Chinese singers; a Chinese poet and lyricist; an ethnically Russian dance band leader; and an American cocktail pianist. The paper charts the colourful lives of these individuals and explores how they came together as dedicatee, performers, and composer of a now forgotten song.

Bio:
Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Paul’s research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly with regard to periodicals and magazines. Paul’s first book, A Modern Miscellany – Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as ‘a major contribution to modern Chinese studies’; his second, ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’: Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines During Shanghai’s Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi’s review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: ‘Featured within the book’s densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies…’. Paul has translated two early twentieth-century novels: The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: an Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the story of her brother, Ma Yongzhen, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai (Earnshaw Books, 2024).

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！✨

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] Benjamin Brose (University of Michigan) “A Hermit of the Zhongnan Mountains"

Time: Thursday 21 May 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872-1962), a devoted Buddhist practitioner and inveterate traveler, spent nearly thirty years on pilgrimages to Buddhist and Daoist mountains and monasteries across China. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he kept detailed accounts of his experiences on the road, which were later collected and published together as A Record of Visits to Famous Mountains (Mingshan youfang ji 名山遊訪記). This talk introduces the life and work of Gao Henian, with a particular focus on the years he spent living in a small hermitage deep in the Zhongnan mountains.

Short bio:
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] Benjamin Brose (University of Michigan) “A Hermit of the Zhongnan Mountains"

Time: Thursday 21 May 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872-1962), a devoted Buddhist practitioner and inveterate traveler, spent nearly thirty years on pilgrimages to Buddhist and Daoist mountains and monasteries across China. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he kept detailed accounts of his experiences on the road, which were later collected and published together as A Record of Visits to Famous Mountains (Mingshan youfang ji 名山遊訪記). This talk introduces the life and work of Gao Henian, with a particular focus on the years he spent living in a small hermitage deep in the Zhongnan mountains.

Short bio:
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] James Robson (Harvard) “The Grove and the Lotus: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Containing Lost Texts from China Preserved in Japan"

Time: Thursday, 14 May 2026 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: FAMES room 8/9

Abstract:
This talk will focus on a manuscript from Kōyasan 高野山 that includes handwritten texts on the frontside and the backside. The front side contains a 9th century (823 CE) manuscript of the Wenguan cilin文館詞林 [Grove of Texts from the Literature Office; Jpn. Bunkan shirin]. Different sections of the manuscript, classified as a “National Treasure” 国宝, have been located at the Shōchi-in正智院 and Hōju-in 宝寿院 on Kōyasan 高野山, and the full manuscript has recently made available to me. The Wenguan cilin—originally in 1,000 juan—was ordered to be complied by Emperor Gaozong 唐高宗 (628-683) in the early Tang and the project was completed by Xu Jingzong 許敬宗 (592-672) in 658. It included texts from the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) up through the early Tang. By the Southern Song the Wenguan cilin had become lost in China and became virtually forgotten (probably due to the success of the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 [Blossoms and Flowers from the Literary Garden]). Some fragments were discovered in Japan in the late-18th century. To date about 30 juan have been recovered and published in various editions. Many of the surviving works, which were long presumed to be lost, survive in the newly discovered fragments. This collection is noteworthy since it includes works that are not found in other large collections in China.

The backside of the manuscript contains another text, namely Senkan’s 千観 (918–983) Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō 法華三宗相対抄 [Extracts on the Comparison [of the Interpretations] of the Lotus Sūtra by the Three Schools], which is a valuable work for the study of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism (as well as Hossō and Sanron), and doctrinal debates concerning the issue of “buddha-nature” 仏性問題 in particular. Senkan was a specialist of Buddhist logic, but his works have received surprisingly little attention by scholars since he and his lineage were largely overshadowed by the success of the lineage traced from Ryōgen 良源 (912-985) to Genshin 源信 (942-1017). What is distinctive about the Kōyasan manuscript of the Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō is that it includes a rich body of quotations from other Tiantai Buddhist texts which no longer survive in China (including, for instance, the Tang dynasty Fahua jing xuanzan yaoji 法華經玄贊要集 by Qifu 栖復). For the purposes of this talk I will focus my attention on the quotations from the no longer extant Chinese Buddhist sources that are contained in the manuscript. Therefore, this talk will concern both the study of early medieval Chinese literature and history as preserved in the individual texts collected in the Wenguan cilin and the study of Tang-Song Chinese Tiantai Buddhism and Heian and Kamakura period Japanese Tendai Buddhism. One of the questions that will be addressed is: Is there any relationship between the two works that are found back-to-back on this manuscript? I am afraid that I will be unable to offer any definitive answer to that question, but it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the flow of texts and people between China and Japan from the 8th-10th century.

Short bio:
James ROBSON 羅柏松 is the James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He also served as the Director of the Harvard Asia Center for six years. Robson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, after spending many years doing research in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He previously taught at Williams College, the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He specializes in the history of East Asian religions and Chinese local history. His book the Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China received the Stanislas Julien Prize and the Toshihide Numata Prize in Buddhist Studies. He is also the editor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions: Daoism.

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] James Robson (Harvard) “The Grove and the Lotus: A Tale of Two Manuscripts Containing Lost Texts from China Preserved in Japan"

Time: Thursday, 14 May 2026 - 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: FAMES room 8/9

Abstract:
This talk will focus on a manuscript from Kōyasan 高野山 that includes handwritten texts on the frontside and the backside. The front side contains a 9th century (823 CE) manuscript of the Wenguan cilin文館詞林 [Grove of Texts from the Literature Office; Jpn. Bunkan shirin]. Different sections of the manuscript, classified as a “National Treasure” 国宝, have been located at the Shōchi-in正智院 and Hōju-in 宝寿院 on Kōyasan 高野山, and the full manuscript has recently made available to me. The Wenguan cilin—originally in 1,000 juan—was ordered to be complied by Emperor Gaozong 唐高宗 (628-683) in the early Tang and the project was completed by Xu Jingzong 許敬宗 (592-672) in 658. It included texts from the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) up through the early Tang. By the Southern Song the Wenguan cilin had become lost in China and became virtually forgotten (probably due to the success of the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 [Blossoms and Flowers from the Literary Garden]). Some fragments were discovered in Japan in the late-18th century. To date about 30 juan have been recovered and published in various editions. Many of the surviving works, which were long presumed to be lost, survive in the newly discovered fragments. This collection is noteworthy since it includes works that are not found in other large collections in China.

The backside of the manuscript contains another text, namely Senkan’s 千観 (918–983) Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō 法華三宗相対抄 [Extracts on the Comparison [of the Interpretations] of the Lotus Sūtra by the Three Schools], which is a valuable work for the study of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism (as well as Hossō and Sanron), and doctrinal debates concerning the issue of “buddha-nature” 仏性問題 in particular. Senkan was a specialist of Buddhist logic, but his works have received surprisingly little attention by scholars since he and his lineage were largely overshadowed by the success of the lineage traced from Ryōgen 良源 (912-985) to Genshin 源信 (942-1017). What is distinctive about the Kōyasan manuscript of the Hokke-sanshū-sōtaishō is that it includes a rich body of quotations from other Tiantai Buddhist texts which no longer survive in China (including, for instance, the Tang dynasty Fahua jing xuanzan yaoji 法華經玄贊要集 by Qifu 栖復). For the purposes of this talk I will focus my attention on the quotations from the no longer extant Chinese Buddhist sources that are contained in the manuscript. Therefore, this talk will concern both the study of early medieval Chinese literature and history as preserved in the individual texts collected in the Wenguan cilin and the study of Tang-Song Chinese Tiantai Buddhism and Heian and Kamakura period Japanese Tendai Buddhism. One of the questions that will be addressed is: Is there any relationship between the two works that are found back-to-back on this manuscript? I am afraid that I will be unable to offer any definitive answer to that question, but it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the flow of texts and people between China and Japan from the 8th-10th century.

Short bio:
James ROBSON 羅柏松 is the James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and the Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He also served as the Director of the Harvard Asia Center for six years. Robson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, after spending many years doing research in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He previously taught at Williams College, the University of Michigan, and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He specializes in the history of East Asian religions and Chinese local history. His book the Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China received the Stanislas Julien Prize and the Toshihide Numata Prize in Buddhist Studies. He is also the editor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions: Daoism.