An Introduction to Ethnic Minority Philosophy in China

The academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophies” appeared in the People’s Republic of China only in the 1980s, but can be traced back to conceptions of philosophical, religious, and ethnic identity in the work of thinkers from the Republican period (1911-1949).  In this lecture I will trace the emergence of "ethnic minority philosophy" against this historical background, and explore its relation to the ongoing “Confucian revival” in mainland China. The academic discourse surrounding Hui and Uyghur “minority philosophies” will be used as a case study to address the following three main questions: How has modern Chinese philosophy conceived of its relation with religion and ethnicity? What sort of discourse accompanied the birth of "ethnic minority philosophy"? What is the broader relevance of this sub-discipline for our understanding of Chinese intellectual history and the complex relation between philosophy, religion, and ethnicity in contemporary China?

About the Speaker

Dr Ady Van den Stock is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Ghent University in Belgium. His research is focused on modern Chinese philosophy, religion, and intellectual history, specifically Sino-Islamic traditions of thought and "New Confucianism". He has published a monograph devoted to the latter topic entitled The Horizon of Modernity: Subjectivity and Social Structure in New Confucian Philosophy (Brill, 2016) and translated the work of Chinese thinkers such as Li Zehou, Yang Guorong, Feng Qi, Ge Zhaoguang, and Tang Wenming.