December 21st, 2012.

       Prof. QIAN Han, Associate Professor of the Research Center for the Arts at Beijing Normal University, presented the topic “What is considered foreign?” The lecture was moderated by Dr. LIU Min, and over 30 students from IICE attended the event.
      “What is considered foreign land?” Since the outbreak of the two Opium Wars, the humility and catastrophe of war left two vivid questions in Chinese intellectuals: “What empowered the Westerners?” and “Why did the Chinese civilization falter?” Since the May Fourth Movement, Chinese intellectuals embodied a strong sense of responsibility to seek answers to the two questions above. If we look at things from where we stand today, we would probably ask the same question U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did, “What makes the Chinese civilization so tough, enduring the destructive storms of history, and emerging as the only survivor amongst the ancient civilizations?” Prof. QIAN led the lecture trying to make sense of the past-and-present of Chinese civilization. Using the daily manipulation of the characters “ZHONG” and “WAI,” Prof. QIAN explained the transformation of word choice in Chinese language. He pointed out that from early literature records of “ZHONG QIU ZUO ZHUAN,” the change of word choice and the misconceptions of “Foreign” have resulted in the drastic differences in cultural attitudes.
       Prof. GU Mingyuan advocates for the cultural models in Comparative Education, making cultural research the basis of education research. Prof. QIAN’s lecture offers a new perspective for the field of comparative education; he encourages researchers and scholars to objectively study education.

Prof. QIAN at the lecture