Knowing the Future, Improving the Present, Taming the Past : The Ideology of Progress in Modern China

Conférence  de Thomas Fröhlich, Professeur à l’Université de Erlangen-Nuremberg (en délégation actuellement à l’Université de Hambourg), spécialiste renommé de la pensée chinoise contemporaine, historien de l’histoire sociale. organisée par l’UFR Langues et Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale et l’Institut Confucius. Porteur du projet : Prof. Sébastien Billioud, LCAO

Date

Jeudi 3 décembre 2015

In Europe and America, the period between 1800 and 1870 is sometimes considered to have been the high tide of a widespread belief in “progress” – in scientific discourse, but also political, social and philosophical discourses, as well as in literature. However, at the turn of the 18^th and 19^th century, warnings of the detrimental effects of “materialist” (technological and scientific) progress on society gained prominence alongside dystopian visions of repressive mass societies. Thereafter, waves of optimism and pessimism regarding progress swept Europe and America throughout the 20^th century. In China, too, such waves can be observed, yet they differ in scope and occurred at different intervals. Overall, it seems that optimism regarding progress prevailed in China, both before and after 1949, whereas skeptical voices remain comparatively rare. The present talk will trace the rise of optimism regarding progress in China back to the late 19^th century and examine its expressions in various intellectual fields (such as political ideas, cultural thought, social theory, the reception of psycho-analysis) over the course of the 20^th century. It will be held that optimism regarding progress had a paradigmatic status within Chinese reflections on modernity

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Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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