China Heritage

Tsinghua’s War with Tradition — How a Chinese University Decoupled Itself from its Better Angels, Again

Xu Zhangrun vs. Tsinghua University Upon taking up a position at Tsinghua College (later Tsinghua University) in 1914, the prominent thinker and political activist Liang Qichao (梁启超, 1873-1929) addressed a student audience on the need to support academically outstanding and socially committed men and women.… Read

Xu Zhangrun’s Fears & Hopes, July 2018-July 2020

Viral Alarm On 26 July 2018, Xu Zhangrun (許章潤, 1962-), a well-known professor of law at Tsinghua University published an essay titled ‘Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes’ 我們當下的恐懼與期待. Written in a succinct and powerful form of literary Chinese, Xu’s jeremiad analysed the authoritarian revanchism of what the Chinese media were hailing as the New Epoch of Xi Jinping Thought.… Read

China’s Heart of Darkness (Part IV)

Translatio Imperii Sinici &
a Lesson in New Sinology ‘The Beginning of the End’ is Part IV of ‘China’s Heart of Darkness’, Jianying Zha’s coruscating reflections on the legacy of the ancient thinker Han Fei and the Legalist school in Xi Jinping’s China.… Read

China’s Heart of Darkness (Part III)

Translatio Imperii Sinici &
a Lesson in New Sinology ‘The Revenant Han Fei’ is Part III of ‘China’s Heart of Darkness’, Jianying Zha’s coruscating reflections on the legacy of the ancient thinker Han Fei and the Legalist school in Xi Jinping’s China.… Read