In Focus: Pattberg

Thanks to Global Asia for publishing the story. There's so much cronyism and nepotism in the Ivy League... Here's a video on that topic:

China needs — no, it deserves — its own Harvard (and Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, and so on)

"Chairs in Chinese Studies — both in China and the West — have become extremely valuable assets, as political as the highest political offices, and have become monopolized by patriarchs and their acolytes."

Elite universities like Harvard in the United States are a growing lure for well-heeled Chinese students. The attraction to the Ivy League is enhanced by high-profile donations from mainland businesspeople and a two-way traffic in visiting lectures by professors. The downside of sending top young scholars to the West, writes Thorsten Pattberg, is that China’s own elite universities lose out on some of the best talent. [READ AT GLOBAL ASIA (Online-Registration required)]

Chinese American Confucianism Vs. American Chinese Confucianism

The two modes of Confucianism in the United States: Chinese American Confucianism means that Chinese language elements slowly sink into American society. American Chinese Confucianism, on the other hand, refers to English words fueling a bit on Chinese meanings. [...]  [READ ARTICLE HERE]

Pattberg Urges “China Experts” To Use Chinese Terminologies in Their English Reports

THORSTEN PATTBERG, Peking University

Pattberg Urges “China Experts” To Use Chinese Terminologies in Their English Reports

In this op-ed piece to China Daily, cultural critic and activist Thorsten Pattberg warns China against importing history and terminologies from the West; instead, he says, China must contribute its own originality to world history, and Chinese terms to global language. In the long run, both East and West would benefit: China can keep its inventiveness, while the West learns something new. As an example, we are reminded of Japan which has contributed far more loanwords into the English language than China.

Pattberg also criticizes the “China experts” from a CCTV “Special” program about the “Chinese Dream”. The program – telecast nationwide - invited five foreigners or Western-educated Chinese to explain the Chinese Dream and the future of China; they did so in English and without ever using a single Chinese terminology. [The ‘Chinese Dream’ originally reads ‘Zhongguo Meng’]

[In fact, there were six guests on the program: The “foreign” experts were: Daniel A. Bell(Canadian), Zhang Xudong (New York University), M. D. Nalapat (India), Einar Rangen (American), Tu Weiming (American), and Wang Jianfei (PhD Berkeley).]

Pattberg thinks that such an awkward situation could only happen in China: Not only is China importing its own history from the West, that history also comes totally Chinese-free!

“[…] whenever Western readers come across the term "Chinese Dream", they will try to understand it through their concept of the American Dream.”

Ironically, they talked about how China must provide global knowledge and universalism. How is it going to do that, if China can’t even keep its own terminologies?

Dr. Thorsten Pattberg (Peking University) publishes widely on the East-Westdichotomy, Shengren, Language imperialism, Comparative cultural studies, Globallanguage, World history, the Competition for terminologies, the End oftranslation, and the Rise of non-European terminologies.

*****

Read article by star journalist Frank Ching about ‘Who is aChinese?’ in which he explains why the Chinese government seems to think that all ethnic Chinese belong to China even though they are often nationals of a foreign power.

Peking University - Rise of the junzi

Peking University - Rise of the junzi

PKU is the mother lode of Chinese education, and Confucianism (rujia) wants to cultivate the 'junzi' - the ideal scholar. At the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Pattberg explains how an old tradition is on the march again. [BACK TO MAIN]

Professor Tu Weiming Master Confucianist Funny Magic Card

This rare Professor Tu Weiming Magic Card is adorable: Make the world a more humane place, or simply steamroll your opponent with an army of your Confucian Junzi creature tokens: 

Summon the legendary cottage The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies. It let's your disciples fly:

Art Work sent in by MyaTold. [BACK TO MAIN].

Thorsten Pattberg and Iranian Gholamreza Aavani in Beijing

"For the perfect mystic, a person that made this spiritual journey, God is never absent, never has been absent, once he reached there." – Gholamreza Aavani is a leading Islamic philosopher, historian of the Persian intellectual tradition, and the former head of the Iranian Academyfor Philosophy.

Prof. Aavani accepted the invitation of Tu Weiming to conduct research and teaching at PKU during spring term 2013. (IAHS, Peking University, April 3, 2013).

Pattberg Interview in Istanbul

Pattberg on 'Building Bridges Gateway' program by Gökalp Barlan, Oktar Babuna, Ahmet B. Sezgin in Istanbul, Turkey. (March 26, 2013). Topics discussed are: globalization, cultural diversity, the rise of China, faith and brotherhood, Islam and the West, Turkey and the European Union, global language, and intercultural dialogue.

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Oktar Babuna

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Ahmet B. Sezgin

Pattberg on Building Bridges Gateway with Gökalp Barlan

The Confucian Way of Europe

BEIJING/SHANGHAI - Published first in China's flagship media Shanghai Daily on July 25, 2012, and China Daily as Europe's path to a new humanism on Dec 10, 2012, the article has gone viral on the internet. 

Thorsten Pattberg - Europe's Path to a New Humanism;
photo: Dong Guisheng

Here's a link to the uncensored piece entitled The East is a Promotion.

Thorsten Pattberg - The East is a Promotion Series;
photo: Dong Duisheng

On CCTV, Dec 24 2012

CCTV-4

While China Network Television CNTV came to record images of our Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies (IAHS) at Peking University, we had a group discussion on the future of Confucianism:

Pattberg at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University

It turned out that Tu Weiming was about to get awarded with the CNTV Personality of the Year 2012 prize for disseminating Chinese Culture to the world.

Pattberg: Ruxue, also know as Confucianism, is little understood in the West; that is because Western scholars use erroneous biblical and philosophical translations, instead of adopting China's originality and concepts.

Santa Confucius and Christmas in China, anyway!