Current Announcements

Renata Vinci. Il sinologo che non c’era: Alla riscoperta delle opere di Giuseppe Barone (1861–1924)

Giuseppe Barone (1861–1924), a brilliant and versatile Neapolitan scholar, devoted himself to the study of Chinese civilisation, culture, and literature. Although he produced a remarkable body of essays and translations on China, his work has long remained largely overlooked within the historiography of Italian sinology. This volume brings together a selection of Barone’s writings, the result of extensive research conducted in Italian libraries and archives. By recovering and contextualising these largely forgotten texts, the book sheds new light on the early development of Chinese studies in Italy and highlights Barone’s original contribution to the interpretation and dissemination of Chinese literary and cultural traditions. Through a combination of essays and translations, the volume reconstructs the intellectual profile of a remarkable yet neglected figure, restoring Giuseppe Barone to his rightful place within the history of European sinology. The book will be of interest to scholars of Chinese studies, intellectual history, translation studies, and the history of sinology.… Read more ⤻

Sounds of Ink / 水墨的声音, Luo Qi and 30 Years of Calligraphyism / 洛齐与书法主义30年

The volume documents and provides an in-depth analysis of the Chinese contemporary calligraphy exhibition entitled “Sounds of Ink: Luo Qi and 30 Years of Calligraphyism” (INKiostro di voci: Luo Qi e 30 anni di calligrafismo) held from October 12 to November 5, 2023, at the International Museum and Library of Music in Bologna. This exhibition brought an international experience to Bologna thanks to the incredible works – some exhibited as world premieres – of the master Luo Qi, one of the most important living Chinese calligraphers and professor at the Hangzhou China Academy of Art, the most prestigious in China.
The exhibition celebrated the 30th anniversary of the foundation of one of the main currents of contemporary Chinese calligraphy called “Calligraphyism”, of which Luo Qi is the founder. Through his revolutionary works, the artist aims to establish a genuine visual and sonic dialogue between his music-inspired calligraphy and the International Museum and Library of Music—a dialogue between the art of calligraphy and music, as well as between Eastern and Western cultures.… Read more ⤻

Kieser, Annette. Sekundäre Zentren Der Sechs Dynastien : Untersuchungen Zu Gräbern Am Yangzi-Mittellauf. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2025.

Maurizio Paolillo (ed.), China and the West on the Silk Roads. Perceptions of the Other and Encounters from the Warring States to the Modern Era, Edizioni dell’Orso, Alessandria 2025

The term “Silk Road” (Seidenstrasse), coined by F. von Richtofen in the 19th century, refers to the network of land routes that, since ancient times, have facilitated not only the circulation of goods from one end of Eurasia to the other, but also, and above all, the movement of ideas. The need to refer to the “Silk Roads” in the plural has been repeatedly emphasised, including not only the continental routes but also the maritime routes that connected the southern coast of China with the Mediterranean.
The essays collected here, ranging from the Warring States period (4th century BCE) to the present day, present the often overlooked reality of contacts between China and the West from different angles: linguistic, literary, historical and religious.… Read more ⤻

The editors of the EACS Journal are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 6.2 (2025). The contents are accessible, as always, via https://journals.univie.ac.at/index.php/jeacs/issue/view/745

We thank our authors and reviewers for their work and wish all a happy new year.

The Editors
journal@chinesestudies.eu… Read more ⤻

Katherine Ngo & Kelly Ngo, eds., Traditional Chinese Children’s Primers: A Sourcebook, Lever Press.

This Open Access book is the first anthology of traditional Chinese children’s textbooks in a European language. The selection of eleven primers, spanning over two thousand years of Chinese education history, remains well-known in East Asia and the global diaspora of Confucian heritage cultures. These texts represent an important genre of children’s literature and education materials that were employed to teach basic vocabulary, develop cultural literacy, and start students on their journey toward greater fortunes in the imperial examinations. This sourcebook covers texts from the second-century BCE to the late twentieth-century, and a range of subject areas, including etiquette instruction, literacy training, character education, and Confucian and Daoist thought. The Classic of Family Reverence (Xiaojing), for example, opens a window onto early Confucian thought in ancient China, while the Extended Wise Sayings (Zengguang xian wen) represents the eclectic worldviews and beliefs of the seventeenth century, and Lord Wenchang’s Essay on Quiet Merits (Wenchang dijun yinzhi wen) introduces readers to the tradition of popular morality books.… Read more ⤻

Walden, Lauren. Surrealism and the People’s Republic of China : From Mao to Now. Routledge, 2026

Chapter 4 ‘Chinese Surrealism in the 1980s’ is available open access and the introduction is available as a preview pdf. See here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003382393/surrealism-people-republic-china-lauren-walden.

The attached flyer contains further details and a discount code valid for both the hardback and ebook versions. Please do consider ordering a copy for your library.

Luo Maodeng (罗懋登) The Epic Tale of Palace Eunuch San Bao Voyage to the Western Ocean, 三宝太监西洋记通俗演义, Borevskaia Nina (Transl.)

In October 2025 the full Russian translation of the Chinese classical novel by Luo Maodeng （罗懋登） “The Epic Tale of Palace Eunuch San Bao Voyage to the Western Ocean (三宝太监西洋记通俗演义, for short “西洋记”, 1597) made by the EACS’ member Nina Borevskaia was published by Shans publishing house in Moscow in 3 volumes: each about 600 pages with almost 1000 comments and references, colourful illustrations and an appendix on Ming era army organization and arms. This travelogue describes Zheng He expeditions in the first half of the XVth century by combining the documentary notes and mythology. Not counting an English translation of the final fifteen chapters (Laurie Bonner-Nickless: To the Gates of Fengtu, 2017) which in fact describe only the voyage to the Other World, the novel as a full has never been translated into any language before now.… Read more ⤻

Salmenkari, T. 2025, Global Ideas, Local Adaptations: Chinese Activism and the Will to Make Civil Society, Edward Elgar.

Exploring the boundaries, fringes, and inner workings of civil society, Taru Salmenkari investigates local forms of political agency in China in light of the globalization of political values, practices, and institutions. She provides a theoretical framework for globalization, examining new forms of governance emerging with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and how these have reconfigured social power in China.

This topical book outlines how civil society has been promoted globally since the 1980s, as NGOs advance development cooperation, democratization, and neoliberal third-sector service production. Salmenkari studies the outcomes of these processes in China, where civil society promotion met strong localizing forces rising from NGO activists” own values, governmental regulation, and local society. Evaluating various forms of Chinese self-organizing, she discusses the social omissions of Chinese environmental NGO agendas, Confucian ties in global translations, gay self-organizing, and the idea and practice of Minjian.… Read more ⤻

Lives and Power. Biographical Writing in Sima Qian’s Work and Beyond, in Ancient China and Rome, Coédition Hémisphères/Maisonneuve & Larose, 2025

In this volume derived from an international symposium held at the Collège de France in Paris in 2022, a panel of European, North-American, and East Asian scholars reflects on the biographical and autobiographical genres in the ancient East Asian and Mediterranean worlds. The twelve collected essays trace the sociopolitical conditions of emergence and production of both genres, analyze their various narrative functions and delineate their historical evolution.

Member’s Publication: Halina Zawiszová, Giorgio Strafella, and Martin Lavička (Eds.) Olomouc Asian Studies, 2025

“Embodied Entanglements: Gender, Identity, and the Corporeal in Asia.” Edited by Halina Zawiszová, Giorgio Strafella, and Martin Lavička
We are excited to announce the publication of a new edited monograph, “Embodied Entanglements: Gender, Identity, and the Corporeal in Asia.” Edited by Halina Zawiszová, Giorgio Strafella, and Martin Lavička from the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic.
This book highlights complex links and interactions that bind these three interpretative axes. Cutting across the quotidian and the avant-garde, activism and art, violence and pleasure, as well as the intimate and the political, it sheds new light on Asian cultures and societies, spanning India, Indonesia, Japan, mainland China, Taiwan, and Thailand, affirming thus the region’s significance in broader debates on biopolitics, gender, and human dignity.
The book represents the third volume in our Olomouc Asian Studies series.… Read more ⤻

Simon Yongjun Zheng 郑永君 2025, A Study on the history of CICM in China and its Dutch-speaking Sinologist Jozef Mullie, 上海古籍出版社

Newly launched publication in China: A Study on the history of CICM in China and its Dutch-speaking Sinologist Jozef Mullie by Simon Yongjun Zheng 郑永君, Researcher at the Verbiest Institute KU Leuven

In no doubt, there are countless fascinating stories about Sino-European encounters that are filled with intriguing characters, and missionary activities played a significant role in it from very early in history until the early 20th century. The Belgian missionaries, in particular the Flemish, have been mentioned in Chinese sources in a number of ways. Their handwritten materials, such as the writings of van Rubroeck, Verbiest, and more recent ones of the late 19th century, whose numbers are much greater than their forerunners, provide us with a wealth of information about China from their perspective. Due to this, the Scheut missionaries, a remarkable group of Flemish clergy with a long history of carrying out missions in northern China, captured my attention and piqued my interest, so much so that their works and stories became the focus of my PhD research.… Read more ⤻

Vinci R. (ed.) 2024, Navigating the Mediterranean: Through the Chinese Lens: Transcultural Narratives of the Sea Among Land, Firenze University Press

The volume Navigating the Mediterranean: Through the Chinese Lens: Transcultural Narratives of the Sea Among Lands, edited by Renata Vinci, Firenze University Press, 2024, is now available in open access and can be fully downloaded at the following link:
https://books.fupress.com/catalogue/navigating-the-mediterranean-through-the-chinese-len/15330

Synopsis:
In the postnational era, as scholars investigating the circulation of reciprocal knowledge between China and foreign countries, we are called to reconsider the relevance of national borders in our own research. This comes as a response to an extended demand to rethink the ties imposed by concepts such as nation, language and heritage in favour of essential inclusive sentiments of shared interests and belonging. This volume is the initial outcome of the research project The Mediterranean Through Chinese Eyes (MeTChE), which aims to investigate the perception and representation of the Mediterranean region in Chinese sources, conceptualising this ‘region among lands’ as a transcultural and debordered space, as advanced by contemporary Mediterranean Studies.… Read more ⤻

Ngo, K. (2025) Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China. Ann Arbor: Lever Press

New Open Access book on the Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林)
The is the first major European study of the Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林), a traditional Chinese children’s primer from Qing dynasty China.
In recent years, renewed interest in traditional Chinese elementary educational material has led to an increased use of these texts as teaching materials in Chinese schools, as well as in popular literature and academic research. Unlocking the Treasury seeks to address the gap in Occidental scholarship regarding pre-modern Chinese primary education, its theories, and textbooks. Using the concept of interpretive communities, this monograph explores the impact of socio-political influences and differences in Qing schools of thought, including the school of principle, the school of heart-mind, and practical learning. As such, this study examines the Treasury through three critical readings of the text: as a handbook for practical learning, a child-oriented reading of the school of heart-mind, and the instrumental perspective of education as examination training.… Read more ⤻