Upcoming Conference “Current Issues in Contemporary Chinese and Oriental Studies” organized by the Chinese Studies Program at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria, on the event of its 25-th anniversary

Sofia University, Bulgaria
1st Dec 2017
Deadline: 15th Jul 2017

The Chinese Studies Program at the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” has the pleasure of inviting you to participate in the conference “Current Issues in Contemporary Chinese and Oriental Studies” on 01 December 2017. The academic event will mark the 25th anniversary of the Chinese Studies Program at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” The aims of the conference are to present the latest research and current issues in Bulgarian and international sinology, to provide a platform for an academic discussion of the various topics in oriental studies, to unite several generations of Bulgarian sinologists and orientalists, and to give young scholars in the fields of Chinese and oriental studies an opportunity to present their contributions.

The forum will cover the following topics:
1. Current issues in contemporary Chinese linguistics and the study of Eastern languages.
1.1. New trends in the study of Chinese phonetics and phonology. Developing phonetic reductions in contemporary Chinese. Tone sandhi, partial and full tone changes. Lexical and phrasal stress, intonation contours of different types of phrases, the relation between tone and intonation. The characteristics of prosody in contemporary spoken Chinese.
1.2. Studies in the Chinese grammatical system. New approaches to determining the semantic-functional classes of words and their prototypical (primary), secondary and  non-standard functions. The variability, polyfunctionality, optionality and contextual interaction of grammatical markers in contemporary Chinese. New directions in Chinese phraseology, linguostylistics, socio- and psycholinguistics, etc.
1.3. Current studies in Chinese paleolinguistics. Runic and proto-writing symbols, and the development of the Chinese writing system.
1.4. New concepts in the methodology of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
1.5. Topics in Chinese and Bulgarian translation.
1.6. Current issues in contemporary oriental linguistics.
2. Current issues in Chinese and oriental literary studies and culturology.
2.1. Studies in Chinese mythology, ethnology and folklore.
2.2. Ancient religious and spiritual teachings, ancient Chinese cosmology and models of transcendence in Chinese culture.
2.3. New approaches to the study of ancient and medieval Chinese literature. The view of the world in the Chinese literary mind.
2.4. Artistic schools and trends in the development of contemporary Chinese poetry and prose.
2.5. Studies and new concepts in ancient, medieval and contemporary Chinese philosophy, ethics and values.
2.6. Chinese ethnopsychology.
2.7. Current issues in contemporary oriental literary studies and culturology.
3. Current studies in history, socio-economic development, and international relations between China and the countries of Asia.
3.1. New studies in the field of ancient and medieval Chinese history, and political, economic and ethno-cultural developmental processes.
3.2. Current issues in contemporary Chinese history. The characteristics of the Chinese model of political and economic development. Scientific and technological development and innovation.
3.3. The role of China in the contemporary system of international relations and global processes. China’s concept for a new type of foreign policy, and the current development of international initiatives and projects launched by China. The “One Belt, One Road” strategy and the initiative for cooperation between China and the 16 states from Central and Eastern Europe – opportunities and challenges for Bulgaria. The conference working languages will be Bulgarian, English and Mandarin Chinese.

Deadline for submitting applications (see attached Application form) and a brief
abstract (up to 400 words): 15 July 2017.
Acceptance notice for the applications: until 30 July 2017.
Applications should be sent via email: conference.sinology25@gmail.com
The papers will be published as the Anniversary Conference Proceedings.
Deadline for submitting full papers for publishing: 30 September 2017.

Sincerely yours,
The organizational committee
Chinese Studies Program

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Venue: Sofia University, Bulgaria.

Language of the conference: English

Date: 1st December, 2017

Abstracts submission deadline:  15th July, 2017; Announcement of accepted abstracts: 30th July, 2017

Applications should be sent via email to: conference.sinology25@gmail.com

No conference fee

All detailed information may be found in the attached file.