Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge

01/10/2026

[China Research Seminar] Fei Huang (University of Tübingen) “Hot Springs in China: A Therapeutic History (1000-1945)"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Thursday 8 October, 14:00-15:30

Abstract:

In contrast with the abundant research on the history of hot or mineral springs in Europe, Japan, America, and their colonial regions, research on Chinese hot springs, both in the premodern and modern period, has remained largely neglected. Focusing on sites along the Qinling mountains range, including the famous Huaqing Hot Springs, the book situates local case studies within broader national and global exchanges of knowledge about healing waters. It reveals that hot springs in China were not merely natural sites of leisure but contested therapeutic landscapes. At these sites, official and religious managers of the bathhouses, self-treating patients, medical pilgrims, lay medical intermediaries, and ordinary bathers and travelers from diverse regions, classes, genders, and occupations encountered one another. It traces the transformation of these sites from premodern sacred therapeutic landscapes into modern spas and sanatoria. Yet important continuities remained in how hot spring treatments were understood and experienced. By tracing transformations alongside continuities across the longue durée, the book shows how the therapeutic landscapes of hot springs emerged through ongoing negotiations among natural environments, spatial reconstructions, intellectual and scientific inquiries, cultural imaginations, and lived bodily experience.

Bio：

Fei Huang is Professor of Chinese History and Society, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen. Her research interests concentrate on the interdisciplinary combination of landscape studies, environmental history, history of the body, cultural geography, historical anthropology, art history and material culture studies on China and the dynamics of globalization between the 16th and 20th centuries

06/07/2026

Just a reminder that this talk is taking place today！

[Special Talk] Yuri Pines 尤銳 (Renmin University/ HUJI)"The Rise and Fall of the Rules-Based Interstate Order:Lessons from the Springs-and-Autumns China"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Monday 6 July, 16:00 - 17:30

Abstract:
China witnessed numerous periods of political fragmentation but those were invariably considered aberrations destined to end with the renewed unification of All-under-Heaven. Only once—during the Springs-and-Autumns (Chunqiu, 770-453 BCE) period—the multistate system was considered a normal state of affairs, and efforts were invested to make it fully functional. In my talk I shall explore how contemporary statesmen tried to replace interstate anarchy with the rules-based order, and why the experiments with unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar worlds all failed, leading to the war of all against all. What lessons can modern IR scholars glean from this failure to create a viable multistate system? Why did the attempts to ensure coexistence of competing states fail? And what was the long-term impact of this failure on China’s subsequent historical trajectory?

Bio:
Yuri Pines 尤銳 is Chair Professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program in the Renmin University of China and Michael W. Lipson Professor of Chinese Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on early Chinese political thought, traditional Chinese political culture, early Chinese historiography, history of preimperial (pre-221 BCE) China, and comparative studies of imperial formations worldwide. He published nine monographs, including China’s Aristocratic Age: Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period (Princeton, 2026) and The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy (Princeton, 2012), and edited and co-edited eight volumes, including The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared (Cambridge, 2021).

04/07/2026

[Special Talk] Yuri Pines 尤銳 (Renmin University/ HUJI)"The Rise and Fall of the Rules-Based Interstate Order:Lessons from the Springs-and-Autumns China"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Monday 6 July, 16:00 - 17:30

Abstract:
China witnessed numerous periods of political fragmentation but those were invariably considered aberrations destined to end with the renewed unification of All-under-Heaven. Only once—during the Springs-and-Autumns (Chunqiu, 770-453 BCE) period—the multistate system was considered a normal state of affairs, and efforts were invested to make it fully functional. In my talk I shall explore how contemporary statesmen tried to replace interstate anarchy with the rules-based order, and why the experiments with unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar worlds all failed, leading to the war of all against all. What lessons can modern IR scholars glean from this failure to create a viable multistate system? Why did the attempts to ensure coexistence of competing states fail? And what was the long-term impact of this failure on China’s subsequent historical trajectory?

Bio:
Yuri Pines 尤銳 is Chair Professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program in the Renmin University of China and Michael W. Lipson Professor of Chinese Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on early Chinese political thought, traditional Chinese political culture, early Chinese historiography, history of preimperial (pre-221 BCE) China, and comparative studies of imperial formations worldwide. He published nine monographs, including China’s Aristocratic Age: Politics and Power in the Springs-and-Autumns Period (Princeton, 2026) and The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy (Princeton, 2012), and edited and co-edited eight volumes, including The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared (Cambridge, 2021).

18/06/2026

New publication by Professor Hans van de Ven:
"Blood Dawn: WWII and the Making of Modern Asia"

Hans van de Ven’s Blood Dawn: WWII and the Making of Modern Asia analyses the transformation of Asia, focusing on China, India, and Indonesia, from a region dominated by European empires and Japan into one of sovereign nation-states in the 1939-1955 period.

To support independent UK bookshops, it is now available for pre-order at a discount at Bookshop.org.

17/06/2026

CANCELLATION_We regret to inform you that this week's China Research Seminar lecture, "Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts" by Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University), has been cancelled.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to welcome Professor Gentz to the seminar series at a future date.

[China Research Seminar] Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University) “Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Thursday 18 June, 14:00-15:30

Abstract:

Having tried to come up with explanations of literary figures of parallelisms in early Chinese texts over the last decades, I have often wondered what exactly our underlying assumptions of such explanations are. What do we think the texts are doing when they use parallelisms and why are we thinking so? What cultural theories inform our own explanations of such figures in ritual, divinatory, poetic, religious or philosophical texts? To seek some clarification on how we generate our theories about the meaning and function of such figures in early texts, the paper, in a first part, examines how parallelisms were explained by earlier scholars who discussed them on the basis of a number of rather diverging assumptions and theories about the cultures of antiquity. Since the term “parallelism” originates in geometry, the paper, in a second part, adopts spatial perspectives in an analysis of textual parallelisms. Taking a further step from my earlier studies into literary forms of argument, and following Chinese diagrammatic traditions, the paper uses visual methodologies to analyse textual compositions as spatial constructs. For this purpose, it analyses the geometry, functions and effects of parallelisms and repetitions in early Chinese pictorial stone reliefs and applies them to text analysis to develop a set of new conceptual questions that might enrich our interpretation of early Chinese texts.

Bio:

Joachim Gentz studied Sinology, Religious Studies and Philosophy in Berlin, Nanjing and Heidelberg. He acted as Assistant Professor for Classical Chinese at the University of Heidelberg (1999–2002), Junior professor in Religious Studies at the University of Göttingen (2002–2006), and Visiting Professor in Tokyo (2000) and Bayreuth (2008). In 2006 he moved to Edinburgh and worked at the Cultural Studies Programme, taught in Religious Studies and the Asian Studies Department in Edinburgh where he served for many years as Research Officer and Head of Department and now holds the position of Chair of Chinese Philosophy and Religion. Joachim's main research focus is on Chinese history of thought. His work crosses the disciplinary boundaries of Sinology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies. He has published on early Confucian commentarial traditions, Chinese ritual and divination, Chinese interreligious discourses, early Chinese forms of argumentation, Chinese visual traditions, modern Chinese religious policy and Cultural Studies theory in both German and English. In collaboration with Sarah Queen, he has just finished an NEH-funded ca 1000pp. long translation of the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries.

12/06/2026

[China Research Seminar] Joachim Gentz (Edinburgh University) “Parallelisms in Images — Parallelisms in Texts: A Geometrical Approach to Early Chinese Texts"

Venue: AMES rooms 8/9

Time: Thursday 18 June, 14:00-15:30

Abstract:

Having tried to come up with explanations of literary figures of parallelisms in early Chinese texts over the last decades, I have often wondered what exactly our underlying assumptions of such explanations are. What do we think the texts are doing when they use parallelisms and why are we thinking so? What cultural theories inform our own explanations of such figures in ritual, divinatory, poetic, religious or philosophical texts? To seek some clarification on how we generate our theories about the meaning and function of such figures in early texts, the paper, in a first part, examines how parallelisms were explained by earlier scholars who discussed them on the basis of a number of rather diverging assumptions and theories about the cultures of antiquity. Since the term “parallelism” originates in geometry, the paper, in a second part, adopts spatial perspectives in an analysis of textual parallelisms. Taking a further step from my earlier studies into literary forms of argument, and following Chinese diagrammatic traditions, the paper uses visual methodologies to analyse textual compositions as spatial constructs. For this purpose, it analyses the geometry, functions and effects of parallelisms and repetitions in early Chinese pictorial stone reliefs and applies them to text analysis to develop a set of new conceptual questions that might enrich our interpretation of early Chinese texts.

Bio:

Joachim Gentz studied Sinology, Religious Studies and Philosophy in Berlin, Nanjing and Heidelberg. He acted as Assistant Professor for Classical Chinese at the University of Heidelberg (1999–2002), Junior professor in Religious Studies at the University of Göttingen (2002–2006), and Visiting Professor in Tokyo (2000) and Bayreuth (2008). In 2006 he moved to Edinburgh and worked at the Cultural Studies Programme, taught in Religious Studies and the Asian Studies Department in Edinburgh where he served for many years as Research Officer and Head of Department and now holds the position of Chair of Chinese Philosophy and Religion. Joachim's main research focus is on Chinese history of thought. His work crosses the disciplinary boundaries of Sinology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies. He has published on early Confucian commentarial traditions, Chinese ritual and divination, Chinese interreligious discourses, early Chinese forms of argumentation, Chinese visual traditions, modern Chinese religious policy and Cultural Studies theory in both German and English. In collaboration with Sarah Queen, he has just finished an NEH-funded ca 1000pp. long translation of the Gongyang and Guliang commentaries.

11/06/2026

Dear all,

Please notice today's lecture at AMES, forwarded from the Sino-Hellenic Network group:

The Sino-Hellenic Network is pleased to welcome Prof. Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard University, for a seminar next week.

Title: Gods, Goddesses, and Humans in Ancient Greece and China


Time: Thursday 11 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 BST Refreshments to follow



Venue: Room 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge

Sign up for Zoom participation here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5jey8YyPRd49yoLX-sdq8w3lSwN9OA-PoisEbo0yYp0bR8g/viewform
Alternatively, please join the Sino-Hellenic Network to receive updates and Zoom links for future events. We are grateful to the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge, the Needham Research Institute, and the Michael Loewe Fund for their generous support.

Time: Thursday 11 June 2026, 14:00-15:30 BST Refreshments to follow Venue: Room 8 & 9, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge Zoom joining instructions will be sent by email within 24 hours of the event starting. To sign up to the mailing list and receive links to futur...

04/06/2026

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！

[China Research Seminar] Paul Bevan (SOAS, University of London) “Will the Real Chuck Thode Please Stand Up! Charles Thode and his Song, ‘Butterfly Wu’"

Time: Thursday 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30
Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
This talk builds on the previous work I undertook on popular cultural themes in my book Intoxicating Shanghai and my forthcoming monograph Shanghai’s Shadow Waltz. The story takes place in Shanghai during the years 1935 and 1936, in and around the Paramount Ballroom, a popular nightclub that opened in the West of that city in 1934. Central to the story is the American pianist and songwriter Charles ‘Chuck’ Thode, who performed in the Paramount Ballroom together with band leader Serge Ermoll and a host of foreign cabaret acts. This talk looks specifically at the song composed by Thode in honour of the film star Butterfly Wu, as well as his highly controversial life as a performer and composer in China and the USA. The story has a cast of five: two Chinese singers; a Chinese poet and lyricist; an ethnically Russian dance band leader; and an American cocktail pianist. The paper charts the colourful lives of these individuals and explores how they came together as dedicatee, performers, and composer of a now forgotten song.

Bio:
Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Paul’s research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly with regard to periodicals and magazines. Paul’s first book, A Modern Miscellany – Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as ‘a major contribution to modern Chinese studies’; his second, ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’: Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines During Shanghai’s Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi’s review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: ‘Featured within the book’s densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies…’. Paul has translated two early twentieth-century novels: The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: an Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the story of her brother, Ma Yongzhen, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai (Earnshaw Books, 2024).

02/06/2026

[China Research Seminar] Paul Bevan (SOAS, University of London) “Will the Real Chuck Thode Please Stand Up! Charles Thode and his Song, ‘Butterfly Wu’"

Time: Thursday 4 June 2026, 14:00-15:30
Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
This talk builds on the previous work I undertook on popular cultural themes in my book Intoxicating Shanghai and my forthcoming monograph Shanghai’s Shadow Waltz. The story takes place in Shanghai during the years 1935 and 1936, in and around the Paramount Ballroom, a popular nightclub that opened in the West of that city in 1934. Central to the story is the American pianist and songwriter Charles ‘Chuck’ Thode, who performed in the Paramount Ballroom together with band leader Serge Ermoll and a host of foreign cabaret acts. This talk looks specifically at the song composed by Thode in honour of the film star Butterfly Wu, as well as his highly controversial life as a performer and composer in China and the USA. The story has a cast of five: two Chinese singers; a Chinese poet and lyricist; an ethnically Russian dance band leader; and an American cocktail pianist. The paper charts the colourful lives of these individuals and explores how they came together as dedicatee, performers, and composer of a now forgotten song.

Bio:
Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Paul’s research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly with regard to periodicals and magazines. Paul’s first book, A Modern Miscellany – Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei’s Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as ‘a major contribution to modern Chinese studies’; his second, ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’: Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines During Shanghai’s Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi’s review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: ‘Featured within the book’s densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies…’. Paul has translated two early twentieth-century novels: The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: an Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the story of her brother, Ma Yongzhen, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai (Earnshaw Books, 2024).

21/05/2026

Just a reminder that our event is taking place today！✨

[Book Culture in Buddhism and Beyond series] Benjamin Brose (University of Michigan) “A Hermit of the Zhongnan Mountains"

Time: Thursday 21 May 2026, 2:00pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Room 8 & 9

Abstract:
Gao Henian 高鶴年 (1872-1962), a devoted Buddhist practitioner and inveterate traveler, spent nearly thirty years on pilgrimages to Buddhist and Daoist mountains and monasteries across China. Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he kept detailed accounts of his experiences on the road, which were later collected and published together as A Record of Visits to Famous Mountains (Mingshan youfang ji 名山遊訪記). This talk introduces the life and work of Gao Henian, with a particular focus on the years he spent living in a small hermitage deep in the Zhongnan mountains.

Short bio:
Benjamin Brose is Professor of Buddhist and Chinese Studies in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. His most recent monograph is Embodying Xuanzang: The Postmortem Travels of a Buddhist Pilgrim (2023). He is also the editor of Buddhist Masters of Modern China: The Lives and Legacies of Eight Eminent Teachers (2025) and the co-editor of Inner Worlds: Individuals and Interiority in Chinese Religious Life (2025).