Topic: The Potential of Cultural Interaction Studies

Speaker: Prof. UCHIDA Keiichi

MC: Dr. HE Nan

Date: Tuesday, Jan. 14th, 2025

Time: 4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Venue: SIN Wai Kin International Conference Centre(W201), West Wing, Administration Building

Language: Chinese

Abstract: 

A significant wave of cultural interaction between East and West, known as the "Eastward Spread of Western Learning," began in the late 16th century. This era introduced numerous innovations to China, encompassing modern science and facets of modern civilization. Cultural Interaction Studies, an emerging academic discipline previously termed "Cultural Exchange Studies," offers a framework for understanding these exchanges. The discipline is characterized by its interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, trans-regional, and multi-directional approach, often employing a periphery-to-center perspective. This lecture will first delineate the scope and content of Cultural Interaction Studies. Subsequently, it will examine the methodological strengths of the periphery-to-center approach, with a particular focus on its application in Western sinological research. Furthermore, by examining various aspects of language contact research, such as the nature of translation and the case of "Pidgin English" as a prime example of language contact, the lecture will highlight the diverse potential of "Cultural Interaction Studies".

Speaker Profile:

Keiichi Uchida is a Professor Emeritus at Kansai University, Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, Kansai University, and Research Fellow at the Research Centre for East-West Language Contact in Modern Times, School of History, Beijing Foreign Studies University.

His past leadership roles include Director of the Open Research Centre for Asian Studies at Kansai University, Director of the Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies at Kansai University, Curator of the Kansai University Library, President of the Society for Modern Chinese Language, Vice President of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching, Executive Vice President of the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia, and Chairman of the Board of the Society for Testing Chinese Proficiency, Japan.

His research spans the fields of Chinese linguistics and Cultural Interaction Studies. Over the past two decades, his work has centered on linguistic contact between modern Eastern and Western languages and cultures, with a particular emphasis on the study of Chinese by Western missionaries.

His major publications include: Jinghua Zashi - Eight Beijing Mandarin Materials (March 2022), A Study of ‘Foreign Cookery in Chinese’ (March 2020), A Collection of Nanjing Mandarin Materials (March 2020), A Study of the ‘Instruction Pour les Visites de Mandarins’ (March 2019), A Comprehensive Study of Beijing Mandarin – with Facsimiles and a Vocabulary Index (3 volumes, March 2018), A Study of Cultural Interaction and Linguistic Contact Approaching Chinese Linguistics from the Periphery (2017, V&R Unipress), A Collection of Ryukyu Mandarin Textbooks Preserved in the Nagasawa Collection of Kansai University (March 2015), Chinese Translations of Aesop’s Fables (February 2014, unius), Cultural Interaction and Linguistic Contact: A Periphery Methodology (2010), A Study of Linguistic Contact between Modern Eastern and Western Languages and Cultures (2001), among over 30 monographs, and more than one hundred academic papers.