Last week the university celebrated China Week 2010, organised by the Confucius Institute at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 (CIRU). The CIRU supports the teaching of Chinese in the School of Languages, and works to stimulate interest in Chinese culture both at Rhodes and in the wider Grahamstown community.
This year, the third in which a China Week has been held, saw a full programme of lectures and seminars arranged to highlight areas of interest to students, academics and community members alike. Throughout the week an Exhibition in the Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Library Foyer showcased photographs of the June 2010 study tour to China by the Chinese I and II students. Also highlighted was the community engagement project undertaken by Chinese II students with a local NGO, Upstart, which focuses on literacy. In addition, glass cabinets of Chinese curiousities and documents provided a view of the rapidly developing Chinese holdings in the Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 Library.
Lectures by Haiquing Yu, from the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of New South Wales, discussing Internet and Everyday Life in China, and Dr Kenneth King, Emeritus Professor of Edinburgh 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, who presented a lecture on Chinese Involvement in Higher Education, gave the week a truly international feel. Mimi Zou, Research Fellow at the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research, presented a well-attended seminar on 'People's Rights in China'. Zou explained that on her first visit to South Africa she toured the Human Rights Court in Johannesburg and was very taken with the concept of “justice under the trees”, a motif which highlights openness and transparency in justice.
Her seminar looked at the recent resurfacing of Confucianism in China, and explored the receptor approach to promoting human rights. This method, based on a biofeedback model, looks at how local receptors can be affected by international human rights instruments. The South African concept of Ubuntu, based on respect and understanding between individuals, is similar to Ren (benevolence), the Confucian concept of justice, ethics and moral autonomy. In the receptor approach, culture is seen as a dynamic notion. By using local values such as Confucianism as a point of departure, a stronger language of human rights can tap into Chinese cultural traditions.
Dr Melanie Hillebrand of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in
Port Elizabeth presented a detailed slide show and talk on the Museum's small but representative collection of Qing Dynasty costumes and textiles. Her walk through the history of the later period of Qing rule made for an extremely interesting lecture.
Another fascinating presentation was the Chinese Poetry Project. Initiated by Professor Marius Vermaak, Director of the Confucius Institute, the project was guided by well-known local poet Robert Berold and involved the translation of a poem by Du Fu (a poet of the Tang Dynasty) into Afrikaans, English, French, German, Latin and Xhosa. The translations were read and discussed at the presentation, and bound into a booklet. The poem, and its translations, presents a touching look at the reunion of two old friends, long separated. Thirteen centuries after the original was written, the meeting of Du Fu and Wei Ba came alive again in Grahamstown.