Peking University, Nov.9, 2012: The panel “The Common World, Different Perspectives” focused on different views and perceptions with Germany and China as the main pivot.
On behalf of the hosting institution, Professor Chen Hongjie, director of the Center for German Studies at PKU (ZDS) warmly welcomed all participants. He furthermore expressed his happiness over the wide range of topics presented at the panel. Topics ranged from the fields of communication studies, through to literature research, to gender and political studies. Professor Chen also introduced the work of the Center for German Studies which enables close cooperation with major German universities, cutting edge Germany-focused study programs and frequent exchange of students from Peking University to Germany.
The first session started with Professor Jürgen Henze of Berlin Humbolt University who introduced his research on the term of “Chineseness” in the context of communication research and China-specific intercultural trainings for foreigners. His presentation was followed by others, such as “The German Image in Official Chinese News Report,” presented by Professor Fan Rong, East China Normal University Shanghai. During his elaborations he pointed out the positive image of Germany in Chinese news media and prominent, though surprising, examples. “The hundred year old sewers of Qingdao are praised for their reliability by Chinese and seen as a masterpiece of German construction work we should consider as example to follow,” explained Professor Fang during his talk.
Two other highlights of the panel, besides the diversity of topics, were clearly the heterogeneous background of the participants and the poster presentation of graduate students. Uniting scholars of various disciplines and from many different countries, including China, Germany, France, Poland, USA and Japan, creates the tremendously inspiring atmosphere that panels of the Beijing Forum are famously known for.
In addition, the very innovative concept of graduate students poster presentation gave young scholars the opportunity to present their research and discuss it with experienced experts in an appropriate though relaxed environment. Asako Takashima, a PhD student at Tokyo University, was proud to present her very up-to-date research on a well designed informative poster. “Japan and Germany share a similar history and similar domestic conditions regarding foreign policy,” she stated, “Though, Germany is much more engaged in international peace politics. According to my hypothesis this is related to different multi-party politics and I want to verify this with my research”.
The panel started on Thursday evening with a public discussion between German journalist Georg Blume and the famous Chinese writer Yu Hua (e.g. “To Live”) and was concluded by a final session on Sunday morning. All participants thanked Professor Chen Hongjie and Peking University, as well as the cooperation partners, for the organization of this panel and agreed that they will return home with the experience of inspiring presentations, discussions and Chinese hospitality.
Reported by: Armin Reinartz, Xu Xinyi, Xuyang
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
