The theme of the Global China Research Centre (GCRC) postgraduate and ECR seminar series, China as Method: Encounters, Narratives, and Heritage, draws on the conceptual framework developed by Mizoguchi Yūzō, who called for rethinking global perspectives by viewing China not simply as an object of study but as a constitutive element of the world itself. We understand 'China as Method' not as a prescriptive model, but as a flexible framework that encourages researchers to place approaches grounded in Chinese contexts at the centre of their inquiry and to reflect critically on how these perspectives interact with broader global formations.

1.History of Encounters: China and the Global Otherness

This panel invites papers that examine the construction of the Other and the production of exotic knowledge within historical literature from the medieval period onward, with a focus on the Chinese context. We seek papers that explore how China was represented and understood as a site of otherness in premodern global discourse; and how foreign lands and peoples were conceptualised within historical Chinese texts. Topics may include, but are not limited to: depictions of the East and China in historical literature from a Global Medieval Perspective; accounts of China by early modern Western travellers and missionaries; and conceptions of ‘the Other Land’ (yiyu 异域) in Chinese historical sources from the 11th century onward.

2.Circulating Stories: Narrative, Media, and China’s Global Connections

This panel examines how stories – told from both Chinese and non-Chinese perspectives – (re)shape our understanding of China’s role and relationships in the world. We are interested in how narratives about cultural identity, historical memory, and future possibilities are constructed, circulated, and received across different cultural and political landscapes. Topics may include, but are not limited to: cross-cultural translation, adaptation, and reception; science fiction and the imagining of alternative Chinese and global futures; digital platforms and the (re)shaping of narrative power.

3.Heritage and Modernity: Value, Authenticity, and Authorised Discourses

This panel explores how heritage has served as a key arena for negotiating modernity in China. It considers how different actors (such as state institutions, experts, and local communities) construct and contest ideas of value, authenticity, and authority. We are particularly interested in how Chinese approaches have interacted with Western models of conservation, as well as how local cases offer alternative ways of thinking about heritage. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: heritage and politics, heritage and cultural memory, heritage legislation and institutional practice, museum building and knowledge production, and ritual or landscape traditions that complicate material notions of value and authenticity. 

University of Exeter Global China Research Centre (GCRC) 

The ExGCRC Seminar Series is made possible by the support of the University of Exeter’s Department of Languages, Cultures, and Visual Studies.

Seminar Convenors

• Ms Yining Fu

• Ms Yizhou Feng

• Mr Shunran Tu