Cosmopolitanism with Chinese Characteristics: Explorations of Localized Universality (original) (raw)

By conducting a narrative analysis and a close reading this thesis explores modern cosmopolitan ideas that are rooted in Chinese culture and history. The thesis analyses Kang Youwei's Datong Shu, a selection of articles on 'harmony with a difference', and the 'tianxia system' as proposed by Zhao Tingyang. The purpose of this analysis is twofold: first, it attempts to show how selected Chinese authors propose to overcome specific challenges inherent to cosmopolitan propositions, namely, how to balance universality with diversity, and what should be the foundation of the relationship between insiders and outsiders? The other purpose of this thesis is to understand how and why the authors emphasise China's culture and history, this is done by analysing the narratives that the authors use. This thesis finds that the authors of the texts under analysis focus on China's culture and history for different purposes. The authors use historic continuity in an attempt to make sense of the constant changes in Chinese society and in order to give their ideas historical legitimacy. What they also try to do, is to emphasise 'the good' that can be found within Chinese tradition and can serve as guidance for the future. This thesis also finds that a strong emphasis on national cultural heritage can have disadvantages. Overemphasising Chineseness is sometimes a cause for overlooking several important issues and an obstacle to presenting a balanced view, coherent ideas or good examples. Although finding a balance between difference and universality and defining the relationship between insiders and outsiders are important challenges, not all the texts attempt to find solutions to them or to explicitly deal with them. The texts in this thesis take different positions in relation to these challenges. These range from proposing the complete transformation of difference and otherness into an all-inclusive universality to emphasising that differences are to be nurtured and respected, and that it is only through difference that there can be such a thing as global harmony. VI VII Acknowledgements First of all I would like to thank my supervisor, professor Rune Svarverud from the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at the University of Oslo. Rune took an interest in this thesis from its confused and incoherent beginnings and throughout the entire process patiently provided detailed comments and suggestions. Thank you for all the time and energy you have invested in supervising me. This thesis could not have been written without the university library. Besides having a great collection of books and access to online databases, the library also saw to acquiring multiple books I was interested in, for this I am very grateful. After six years of receiving studiefinanciering (study funds) from the Dutch Ministry of Education I feel that with the completion of my studies now is an appropriate time to thank everybody who has paid taxes to the Dutch government for providing me with financial support during my entire study. I am very grateful to have been a student at a time when Dutch society made higher education accessible to all of its citizens and am saddened to see this period in history steadily come to an end. Big thanks go to my sister Gwendolyn, who made a significant contribution by proofreading the thesis and offering constructive feedback. Finally I would like to thank Anna for always being there to help out, encouraging me and reminding me that it is important not only to read, reflect, and then read some more, but to also actually write my thesis.