Symposium: Contemporary Chinese Philosophy and ideology

China's economic and political grip on the rest of the globe continues to grow ever stronger, and with economic sovereignty also comes an ambition for cultural sovereignty. China is not satisfied with the neighboring countries’, as well as those of Europe and the US’s, ever-increasing dependence on China's Promethean industry. In our time, China has devoted increasing amounts of money and energy to the project of constructing of an alternative academic and political culture that can rival that of the West. The CCP has invited intellectuals to shape a world philosophy that aims at synthesizing elements of earlier Chinese philosophy and jurisprudence, with Marxist and Maoist communism.

Understanding China has become more geopolitically urgent than ever, but the Norwegian public still has little knowledge of the great empire in the east. We have therefore invited sociologist and sinologist Eric Hendriks to Bergen to meet editors of the philosophical journal Salongen in a conversation about contemporary China's ideological and philosophical landscape. Dr. Eric Hendriks is a Dutch researcher at The Danube Institute in Hungary and has lived for many years in China where he has devoted his time to understanding totalitarian and authoritarian political structures. The aim of the conversation is to increase knowledge about the contemporary philosophies in China and to inspire thinking about international relations – particularly how Europe should relate to the growing Asian superpower.

110/60,– (stud./honnør).