News

In conjunction with the Asia Society Museum's exhibition Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds, Asia Society hosted a discussion on the conceptions of hell in China and the role these traditionally played in shaping the contours of the moral universe for many Chinese on March 15, 2023 in NYC. Participants included former New York Times China correspondent and author of The Souls of China: The...

Tao Jiang's book, Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China (Oxford University Press, 2021), has received Honorable Mention for the 2023 Joseph Levenson Prize for distinguished scholarship on pre-1900 China from the Association for Asian Studies. Here's the link to the announcement: https://www.asianstudies.org/aas-2023-prizes/

Ann A. Pang-White (University of Scranton), an active participant in the RCCS online events, just published a new book, Readings in Chinese Women’s Philosophical and Feminist Thought: From the Late 13th to Early 21st Century (Bloomsbury, Dec. 2022). From the publisher's website: Readings in Chinese Women's Philosophical and Feminist Thought gathers 40 original writings on women by 32 authors...

Tanja Sargent, Associate Professor in the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, is the new co-editor of the journal Chinese Education and Society, along with Xie Ailei who is Associate Professor in the School of Education at Guangzhou University. The journal Chinese Education and Society invites proposals for special issues on topics of current interest related to education, and the social...

Congratulations to Elizabeth Childs-Johnson for publishing a new book, Metamorphic Imagery in Ancient Chinese Art and Religion (Routledge 2023), co-authored with John Major. Childs-Johnson is a research professor at the Institute of Asian Studies in Old Dominion University and has been an active member of the RCCS community. From the publisher's website Metamorphic Imagery in Ancient Chinese Art and...

Congratulations to Jessey Choo, whose book, Inscribing Death: Burials, Representations, and Remembrance in Tang China, was just published by the University of Hawaii Press! From the publisher's website: This nuanced study traces how Chinese came to view death as an opportunity to fashion and convey social identities and memories during the medieval period (200–1000) and the Tang dynasty...

Jesse Rodenbiker, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Geography, is one of twelve recipients of the 2022 American Council of Learned Societies and Henry Luce Foundation China Studies Early Career Fellowship. Rodenbiker is the recipient of a 2022-2023 postdoctoral research fellowship from Princeton University's Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China at the Princeton...

Tao Jiang, Chair of Religion Department and Director of Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies, is among the five recipients of The Presidential Outstanding Faculty Scholar Award for the 2021-2022 academic year. Here is the announcement: https://academicaffairs.rutgers.edu/academics/awards-overview/2021-2022-faculty-year-end-excellence-award-recipients

On April 22, the 5th Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy took place, with six scholars of Chinese philosophy presenting papers that engaged with the works of Ernest Sosa and Linda Zagzebski. The workshop’s website is here. At the workshop, two doctoral students from Rutgers Philosophy Department, Esther Goh and Frederick Choo, served as rapporteurs, taking notes on each presentation and on...

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) releases a new report, "China Studies in North America." Click on the title to get the full report. The following is taken from the ACLS website: This report summarizes the Group’s findings and reflections, with a focus on the specific challenges involved in the production of new knowledge on China and on the obstacles faced by the emerging generation of PhDs...

Congratulations to Nancy Rao, a professor in the Department of Music at Mason Gross School of the Arts, who received the Board of Trustees Award for Excellence in Research for the 2020-2021 academic year! Here's the announcement: https://academicaffairs.rutgers.edu/2020-2021-faculty-year-end-awards

Tao Jiang's new book, Origins of Moral-Political Philosophy in Early China: Contestation of Humaneness, Justice, and Personal Freedom, is just published by Oxford University Press. It is available in both paperback and hardcover. From the publisher's website: This book rewrites the story of classical Chinese philosophy, which has always been considered the single most creative and vibrant...

Over Spring 2021, the Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies teamed up with the University of Michigan Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) for a dynamic series of international workshops entitled “Covid Tech & China.” A series affiliated with the Chinese-English Keywords Project (CEKP), the four 2-hour zoom workshops took place between February and April and were co-organized by Silvia...

March 11, 2021 Members of the Rutgers Community: We are deeply troubled by the rising anti-Asian sentiment and increasingly violent hate crimes targeting the Asian community. These heinous acts cannot be ignored, and our hearts go out to the victims of these crimes, and all members of the Asian community who find themselves questioning their basic safety during an already distressing time. Harm...

From Rick Lee (Director of Global Programs and Partnerships at Rutgers Global): Rutgers Global is pleased to announce the 2021 Rutgers Global Grants. These modest seed grants are offered yearly to all tenured, tenure-track, clinical, or NTT faculty with Rutgers appointments. This year, there are four categories of grants: International Collaborative Research Grants, Global Health Seed Grants,...

The mediated lives of gay men in China came in for nuanced treatment when Brown University’s Cai Yifeng made a visit to Louisa Schein’s class “Introduction to Critical Sexualities Studies” on November 11th - all the way from Shanghai. Anthropology PhD candidate Cai - who is conducting fieldwork, writing his dissertation and otherwise situated in China because of the pandemic - was generous enough...

On October 14, Avery Goldstein, a prominent scholar of International Politics from University of Pennsylvania, spoke to a broad audience on the US-China relations through Zoom, moderated by Xian HUANG (Rutgers Political Science). In his talk, titled "The Present as Prologue: The Gloomy Outlook for US-China Relations," Goldstein reviewed the evolution of US-China relations in the past decades...

As he watched the sunrise in Suzhou, China, Professor David S. G. Goodman spoke eloquently to an evening crowd on the east coast of the United States and to audience members around the world. A truly international individual himself, Dr. Goodman hails from Britain, was educated at University of Manchester, Peking University, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London, but...

On Friday, September 25, 2020, Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies (RCCS) virtually hosted Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer-Prize winner and one of the most prominent Western journalists on China, in front of a global audience. People participated in the Zoom webinar from diverse locations in Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, United...

Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies (RCCS) hosted a truly global workshop on Chinese-English Keywords on Saturday, September 19, 2020. Co-hosted by Louisa Schein of Rutgers and Fan Yang of University of Maryland Baltimore County, the event was titled “Pandemic Technologies in Two Social Registers: A Chinese-English Keywords Project Workshop.” The event was the 19th in a series of international workshops...

On Thursday evening, September 10, the RCCS inaugurated its plan for global programming this year co-sponsored by Rutgers Global-China Office, making the best of the university demands for virtual meetings and social distancing. Professor GUAN Kai, Dean at Yunnan University, spoke on “Will COVID-19 Reconfigure Social Institutions? A View from China”. Dr. Guan has degrees in French Literature (Peking...

Congratulations to Louisa Schein and her colleagues for receiving a Rutgers grant to study the impact of Coronavirus! Schein drafted and received this grant with Bridget Purcell of Anthropology on behalf of eleven diverse Rutgers faculty. The project now includes 5 research assistants as well.

Congratulations to Xian HUANG, whose book, Social Protection under Authoritarianism: Health Politics and Policy in China, is published by Oxford University Press!

Kuang Yu Chen, distinguished professor (emeritus) of chemistry and Asian studies, was invited as one of the keynote speakers in an international conference at Anyang, the last capital of Shang Dynasty (1600-1146 BCE), as part of celebration of the 120th anniversary of the discovery of Shang oracle bone inscriptions (OBI) in October 2019.

Wendy Swartz, professor of medieval Chinese literature in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, was interviewed by Esquire. The interview appears in an article on heroism, "On Their Best Behaviour," in the April edition of Esquire (Singapore, International Edition).

Tao Jiang, director of Rutgers Center for Chinese Studies, was interviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer about some alarming racist incidents against Chinese and people of Chinese and other East Asian descent in the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.

Nancy Yunhwa Rao, a professor of musicology in Mason Gross School of the Arts, received this year's National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Congratulations, Professor Rao! During her fellowship leave, she will work on her book, Transpacific Operatic Imagination: Chinese Americans in Opera.

On July 21, 2019, Tao JIANG was interviewed in Mt. Jiuhua by iFeng News 鳳凰網, a popular Chinese-language news network headquartered in Hong Kong.

From Tao YANG, East Asian Librarian: I am pleased to announce that Rutgers library has acquired the online Hanyu Da Cidian (漢語大詞典) and Kangxi Zidian (康熙字典). These two dictionaries are useful reference tools for the study of Chinese language, literature, and culture.

From Tao YANG, East Asian Librarian: We would like to announce that we have subscribed to the database China Data Online. China Data Online provides detailed official statistics on the population and economy of China. It is divided into four parts: China Statistics, Census Data, Free China Maps, and Sample Data. It also includes the newsfeed Latest China Statistical News. 

Eddy Keming Chen, a doctoral candidate in the Philosophy Department who recently defended his Ph.D. dissertation, has just accepted a tenure-track position at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He will start in July as assistant professor of philosophy there. Congratulations, Eddy!

From Tao YANG, East Asian Librarian: Rutgers has acquired university-wide access to the Chinese National Social Sciences Database. Hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Social Sciences Database provides about 10 million full-text articles from over 2,000 social sciences and humanities journals.

On Friday, November 9, 2018, Weijie Song and Xiaojue Wang organized a one-day workshop, "Sinoglossic Narrative in Modern Chinese and Comparative Literature." On the workshop, prominent scholars from China shared their research with Rutgers faculty and students. Click here for the workshop program and poster.

On June 7, 2018, Tao JIANG participated in a panel discussion at the China Institute on "Religion and the Rebuilding of China's Moral Foundations," with freelance writer Ian Johnson (Pulitzer-prize winner and the author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao), moderated by Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick.

The Fourth Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy (RWCP) was held on Friday, April 13, 2018. The theme was “Engagement with Western Philosophers.” The workshop brought together 13 leading scholars in Western analytic philosophy and Chinese philosophy for a vigorous and fruitful engagement. Here is the link to the program.

Congratulations to Wendy Swartz, whose book, Reading Philosophy, Writing Poetry: Intertextual Modes of Making Meaning in Early Medieval China, was just published by Harvard University Asia Center!

Louisa Schein organized and convened an international workshop, titled: “The Social Lives of Keywords: Lenses on China,” in Hong Kong on January 9-12, 2018. This was funded by a competitive grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

This workshop is part of a larger research project, “Theology of Joy and the Good Life,” being carried out at Yale University. Our contribution focuses on exploring Confucian conceptions of joy and the good life as well as their critiques.

The Third Rutgers Workshop on Chinese Philosophy (RWCP) was held on Friday, April 15, 2016. The theme was “Conversations with Western Philosophers,” The workshop brought together eight leading scholars in Western analytic philosophy and Chinese philosophy and paired them up in order to facilitate fruitful conversations.