Chinese Civilisation

Tan Chung
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Tan Chung: Mc Giffert House, #2 5751 South Woodtown Avenue, Chicago IL 60637, USA. E-mail: ctang@hotmail.com

China Report, 2005, vol. 41, issue 2, 113-129

Abstract: Civilisation is usually not allotted the front seat in social science discourses except for being treated as a whipping boy. This is precisely what the ‘Clash-of-Civilisations’ school has done. Nevertheless, we should thank Professor Samuel Huntington of Harvard University for bringing ‘civilisation’ into sharp focus. Huntington and others have initiated a civilisational discourse in the world forum on international political affairs, inviting much echo and more critique on their Great Divide between ‘us’ (the Western Judaic-Christian liberal-capitalist mainstream) and ‘them’ (all non-Western, non-Christian, particularly the Islamic and ‘Confucian-Chinese’ traditions) in the comity of nations and peoples. In anthropology, the ‘culturalists’ have been challenging the sociologists for many decades. I worked exactly throughout this challenging period as a culturalist or civilisationalist in a small circle of Chinese studies in Delhi from the mid-sixties up to 1999. My most enthusiastic sympathiser and supporter is the very person whom we are remembering today. How I wish Giri Deshingkar were standing here in my place, instead of dedicating this talk to his memory!

Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:chnrpt:v:41:y:2005:i:2:p:113-129

DOI: 10.1177/000944550504100201

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