The Future of Sinology and the Confucius Institutes

Guy Alitto
The University of Chicago

The question I bring for roundtable discussion is: What is the relationship between the “rise” of China, the Confucius Institutes and the future of “Sinology?” Have Sinological studies communicated Chinese culture worldwide? Will the Confucius Institutes become the centers for future Sinological studies?

“Sinology” can be defined as the study of Chinese things– language, history, and culture. The first Sinologists were Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit missionaries in the late 16th century. For the subsequent centuries they were the only conduit of Chinese culture to the world at large. The Chinese model they communicated became a major inspiration for the 18th century European Enlightenment.

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Sinology’s role changed greatly. Missionaries were still the major communicators of Chinese culture to the world, but they were joined by the “China watcher,” and the “China hand” who focused primarily on contemporary China. By the late 20th century, moreover, many China Watchers were not trained Sinologists, but rather journalists and social scientists with smatterings of sinological skills and knowledge.

During the same period, Sinology and related studies in history, literature, and other disciplines, flourished outside China. After World War II, the academic“ center of Gravity,” including Sinology, shifted to the U.S.

In the past decade, however, the Chinese government has launched an effort to move the center of Sinological gravity to China through, among other measures, the establishment of the Confucius Institutes.

An aspect of the “rise of China,” rarely mentioned, is the “rise of Chinese” worldwide. How does this worldwide rise of Chinese relate to the transmission of Chinese culture?

Will the Confucius Institutes and scholarship programs, acting in concert with the rise of China and Chinese, have effects as broad as the old Sinology?

汉学与孔子学院的未来

艾恺
芝加哥大学

我为此次圆桌座谈提出的问题是：中国的“崛起”、孔子学院，以及“汉学”的未来这三者之间有怎样的关系？汉学研究是否已将中国文化传向全世界？

“汉学”可以被定义为中国事物之学，包括语言、历史以及文化。历史上第一批汉学家是16世纪末的利玛窦和耶稣会传教士。他们传播而树立起来的中国典范曾成为18世纪欧洲启蒙运动兴起的主要动力。

在19世纪末和20世纪，汉学的角色发生了重大变化。传教士仍然是将中 国文化的主要传播者，但他们却与主要关注当代中国的“中国观察家”和“中国问题专家”联结在一起。而且，到了20世纪末，许多中国观察家已不是受过训练的 汉学家，而是对汉学技能与知识一知半解的记者与社会科学家。

同一时期，汉学与历史、文学和其它学科的相关研究在中国以外的地方兴盛了起来。二战后，包括汉学在内的学术“重心”转向了美国。

然而，在过去的10年中，中国政府为了将汉学的重心移至中国做出了努力，其方法之一就是建立孔子学院。

“中国崛起”极少被提及的一个方面是世界范围内“中国文化的崛起”。那么，如何将中国文化在全世界范围内的崛起与传播中国文化相结合呢？

与中国及中国文化之崛起步调一致的孔子学院与奖学金项目如何能像从前的汉学那样有着广泛的影响力呢？