The Center for the Comparative Study of Antiquity
I. Workshops and Conferences
(1) Conference on “Women, Law and Belief in ancient and medieval China,” 11-13 May, 2012. Selected graduate students and young faculties form CUHK and China, Taiwan, Singapore (20 total) were invited to participate and present research papers. Two senior scholars, Robin Yates from McGill University, and Lisa Raphals from UC Riverside, were invited to give key note speeches. Selected papers from the conference have already been published in 2013.
(2) Workshop on “Old Society, New Faith: Religious Encounter and Cultural Identity in Early Medieval China and Europe”. This was a workshop in Collaboration with the Asia Institute, UCLA, held at UCLA, on Dec 1, 2012. This was a preparatory workshop that led to the organization of an up-coming international conference entitled “Old Society, New Faith: Religious Transformation in China and Rome, 1-6 centuries CE” which held in CUHK in June 12-15, 2014. This conference was the first international conference that compared early Buddhism in China and early Christianity in Late Roman Empire, and had received enthusiastic response from scholars on both sides. A selected team of 14 international scholars submitted papers and participated in the discussion.
(3) Graduate Student Workshop co-organized with the History Department: “Hong Kong-Taiwan History Graduate Students Workshop,” held at CUHK, on 24-26 May 2013. Eight students from National Central University, and four students from National Cheng-kung University met with 14 students from the History Department of CUHK.
(4) Conference on “流離與歸屬： 二戰後港臺文學與其它”, co-organized with Research Institute for the Humanities, held at CUHK, on 14-15 Feb, 2014.
This conference focused on the theme of dislocation and sense of belonging as expressed in the literature of the post-Second World War China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, covering as well as the fields of arts, religion, and architecture. The conference volume will be published by Taiwan University Press.
(5) Conference on “Old Society, New Faith: Religious Transformation of China and Rome, ca. 100-600 CE”, held at CUHK, on 13-15 June, 2014.
This conference focused on the religious transformation in Rome and China, during ca. 100-600 CE. We’ve invited the related scholars from different places like USA, Australia, Singapore Taiwan, etc, who are famous in this area. It was held on 13-14 June. 2014 at Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, at least 20 students and faculties attended the conference. All the participants were divided into seven sessions, each session had two speakers and two commentators. Lisa Raphals from UC Riverside, was invited to give key note speech together with Prof. Poo during the end of the round table.
II. Lectures and Symposiums
Lectures:
(1) “A Radically Interdisciplinary Approach to the Origin of Religion and Morality” by Prof. Edward Slingerland, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. (27 Sep, 2011)
(2) “Sexuality in the Age of Augustus” by Prof. Robert Gurval, Department of Classics, UCLA. (23 Feb, 2012)
(3) 中國宗教與進香傳統 and比丘尼與當代的臺灣佛教 by Prof. Yu Chun-fang, Department of Religion, Columbia University. (10 &11Dec, 2013)
(4) 斯土斯神：從上古中國到當代臺灣 and拼陣：從民俗技藝到技藝表演by Prof. Lee Fong-mao, Graduate Institute of Religious Studies, National Chengchi University. (20 Jan., 2014)
(5) 伊斯蘭的研究與教學by Prof. Lin Chang-kuan, Department of Arabic Language and Culture, National Chengchi University. (4 Sep, 2014; co-organizer)
(6) “Greek Historiography” by Prof. Michael Flower, Department of Classics, Princeton University. (12 Sep, 2014)
(7) 秦漢的自言：談秦漢國家與社會的溝通渠道by Prof. Bu Xianqun, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (22 January, 2015)
(8) 卜算文化與心理健康：台灣宋史學者的觀點by Prof. Liu Hsiang-kwang, Department of History, National Chengchi University. (1 April, 2015).
(9) 民國史研究的方向與命題 by Prof. Wong Young-tsu, Graduate Institute of History, National Central University. (16 April, 2015; co-organizer)
(10)道教科儀講座之一: 贛西北民間道教授籙儀 by Dr. Lu Pengzhi, The Centre for the Comparative Study of Antiquity, Research Institute for the Humanities, Chinese University of Hong Kong. (27 June, 2015)
(11)道教科儀講座之二: 香港道堂度亡科儀 by Mr. Yip Changqing, Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong. (4 July, 2015)
(18). On June 2, 2015, Prof. Grace Fong from McGill University also delivered a talk with the topic “Romancing or Lamenting: Women’s Reflections on Aging and Bodily Change in Qing China”.
With the recovery of a substantial number of women’s poetry collections from the Qing period, we are provided with a potentially significant sample of texts, including prefaces, poems, and and biographies, in which we can locate records of women’s experience of the process of bodily change and age. One subgenre of poetry – poems written on their birthdays by women or women’s birthday poems – seems especially germane to this investigation. A preliminary gathering of samples of women’s birthday poems shows that such poems tend to be written on decanal birthdays, beginning at the age of twenty. Significantly, the number of poems written on birthdays increase dramatically for the fortieth and fiftieth birthdays, bracketing precisely the last years of the reproductive phase and the onset of old age. Through analysis of these texts, Prof. Fong intended to provide a picture of the discursive patterns, topical range, and embedded social and medical meanings in women’s experiences of and reflections on old age and associated bodily changes.
(19). On 13 June, 2016, Prof. Robin D. S. Yates from McGill University lectures in CUHK with the topic “Female Commoners and the Law in Early Imperial China: Evidence from Recently Recovered Documents with Some Comparison with Classical Rome”.
The lecture focused on the broad issues regarding the female commoners and the statute in early Imperial China, namely in Qin and subsequent Han dynasty. Quoting from the newly published primary sources and recovered documents, also by some comparison with the female in Classical Roman age, Prof. Yates analyzes several early cases recorded on the bamboo slips or wooden tablets, excavated in Shuihudi, Zhangjiashan in today Hubei Province or Liye in Hunan which reflected the possible social status and living condition of Chinese female commoners in the mentioned dynasties.
(20). Prof. Robin Yates gave another lecture on June 16, 2016, named “A Brief History of Chinese Military Medicine”. Through this lecture, Prof. Yates briefly went through the development of Chinese military medicine from pre-Imperial period to the late Imperial era to clear out the inheritance and transformation. By exampling the ancient concepts and characters to illustrate different wounds inflicted by different weapons, Prof. Yates bounded the development of military medicine to the development of the weapons and tactics applied to the battlefield, showed us a close-relation of complicated elements in the development of material culture and technical culture.
(21). On June 20 at 4:00-5:30pm, Prof. Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University, delivered a speech with the topic “Empires and Christianity: the Christian Mission in Late Imperial China”, this lecture was co-organized by our centre.
Looking back from the catastrophe of the Boxer Uprising, in which Chinese and Christian civilizations seemed to be on a course of collision, this lecture returns to the origins, when Jesuit missionaries encountered the Ming and Qing Empires on a very different basis. Instead of serving as vanguards of western imperialism, Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries served the Chinese imperial state as diplomats, astronomers, cartographers, painters, and musicians. The transformation of that first Christian mission into the second, from cultural encounter to imperialist domination, is the subject of this presentation.
(22) On 29 April, Rev. Ip Cheung Ching, Director of Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong Ltd, delivered a speech with the topic "the Xiantian hushi jilian youke Circulated in Hong Kong". This is sponsored by the "Daoist Ritual in Comparative Perspective Project", supported by a grant from Fei Ngan Tung Buddhism and Taosim Society.
(23) On 8 May, Our centre held a Lecture and Workshop on Ancient Divination and Research Methods. Professor Lisa Raphals (UC Riverside) delivered a speech with a topic ""Health, Divination and Fate in Early China and Greece". After that, Professor Lisa Raphals, Professor Poo Mu Chou and Dr. Huang Tsz Hsuan (Sun YatSen University) conducted a workshop on research methods with presenters Li Hua (Department of History, CUHK), Xu Dongni (Department of History, CUHK), Yu Miaonan (Department of History, Xiamen University), Ma Qianhui (Department of History, Xiamen University). This is sponsored by Taiwan Research Centre.
Symposiums:
(1)Symposium on “Famous Women in History: China, Rome, and Egypt.” We invited Prof. Robert Gurval of the Department of Classics at UCLA, and Prof. Leo Lee of CUHK, together with Prof. Poo Mu-chou, to hold a symposium open to the students and faculties. It was held on 27 Feb, 2012; about 30 students and faculties participated.
(2)Symposium on “Warfare in the Ancient World: Egypt, Greece, and China” on 15 Sep, 2014. We invited Prof. Michel Flower from the Department of Classics of Princeton University, Prof. Puk Wingkin from Department of History, CUHK to share their views on ancient warfare in Egypt, Greece and China. Students also showed their interesting and presented their ideas on this topic.
(3)Symposium titled "Dialogue across civilizations: Ancient Mythologies and Modern Significance" on Dec.18,2015. We invited Prof. Zhang Wei from Fudan University, Prof. Qu Tianfu from Xiamen University and Dr. Sven Kilian from Free University of Berlin together with Prof. Poo Mu-chou to attend this symposium and discuss the meaning of Mythologies in Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and Egypt with their Modern Significance. Students who were interested in this had came and joined in the discussion, given their questions and opinions on this to
Past Events
(14)Recapping the academic seminar “Visual Reconstruction of Urban History: Image, Imagination and Chinese Urban Cultural Study” conducted by Prof. Wang Di on 6 Nov 2015.
Prof Wang demonstrated the modernization, urban change and public sphere of Chengdu from Late Ching to the Republican era through visual materials such as photographs, comics and folk art paintings. He further discussed how historical conception and methodology, personal experience, and historical sources contribute and confine the reconstruction of a city. Though personal sentiment and experience may contribute to the reconstruction of historical context, it shall be under the restriction of conception of history and methodology and remain skeptic to the understanding and use of limited historical sources and narratives.
(12) 佛光山講座之一：明代佛教的社會服務及其流變轉折 by Prof. Chen Yuh-Neu, National Cheng Kung University.(17 September, 2015)
(13)佛光山講座之二： Democracy's Dharma: A New Reflection on Buddhist Volunteers and Democratic Taiwan. A lecture conducted by Prof. Richard Madsen, Department of Sociology, University of California. San Diego.( 27 October, 2015)
(15)佛光山講座之三：比丘尼的天空——台灣民間/佛教的女性 by Prof. Chang Hsun. Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. Nov. 17,2015.
(16) A seminar conducted by Prof. Dorothy Ko titled "A Dialogue between Prof. Dorothy Ko and Graduate Students", Department of History, Barnard College, Columbia University. Nov.30, 2015.
(17) A lecture given by Prof. Robert Campany, The title was Buddism enters China in Early Medieval China. College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University. Dec. 4, 2015.
The macrohistorical event we summarily and metaphorically refer to as “Buddhism’s entry into China” was,when it comes to narratives circulated in early medieval China, a matter of all these particular sorts of events, and more…Seen from the perspective of these and similar narratives, Buddhism’s influx seems less a clash of monoliths than an almost infinite number of particular acts and events—a pointillist array of particulars. Prof. Campany believes that there exist, in fact, no such monoliths. The illusion that those stories do exist is just an epiphenomenon of language and a byproduct of metaphors by which we struggle to gain a handle on naming what was a furiously complex, multifaceted set of much more finely-grained processes and a much more granular ontology of objects and agents. It is those processes, objects, and agents Prof. Campany believes we ought to try to see and understand.
(6)Conference titled "International Conference on Taoist Ritual in Chinese Local Society in Comparative and Historical Perspective" was held on Dec.7- Dec.9, 2015.
Prof. Poo, as the Director of our center, gave a opening speech on the first day to thank all the participants from all over the world. CCSA was the organizer and invited many famous scholars in this field from Singapore, Japan, China, France and etc. to give speeches during the three days' conference. This conference was held in Esther Lee Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof. Tam Wai Lun, The Chairman of Cultural and Religious Studies of CUHK, and Prof. John Lagerwey, the Chair Professor of Chinese Study of CUHK also joined in the conference, made presentations relating to the Taoist Studies and discussed with other presenters. Prof. Lagerwey also gave two important keynote speeches during these three days. The conference was made up by several parts: Seven Panels, One special Panel, Two film-shows and Discussions, Representations of New Books on Local Taoist Ritual.
