Tuesday 22 April 2014

JUXTAPOSE 2014 CALL FOR PAPERS: 24 & 25 September, JNU, Delhi, India

International Call for Papers
We invite academic papers, creative works and online contributions for a multi- and interdisciplinary conference featuring comparative work on contemporary China and India.

Juxtapose 2014:
Comparative Research, Creative Collaboration, Methodological Challenges in
Contemporary China and India
A 2-Day Conference organised through the South Asia Research Cluster (SARC) of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, in cooperation with the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.
Date and venue:
24 & 25 September 2014
Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India.

2014 Themes:
Day 1 - Internal Migration
Day will include two panels of 3-4 papers each, and a session of creative work.
Possible topics in this theme include comparative or collaborative work related to: social, economic, infrastructural, geographic, emotional, cultural, environmental or political ramifications of the phenomenon of internal migration that has accompanied and enabled development and urbanisation in the contemporary eras of India and China.

Day 2 - External Relations
Day will include two panels of 3-4 papers each, and a session of creative work.
Possible topics in this theme include comparative or collaborative work related to: regional and inter-regional conflict, collaboration and cooperation, in the economic, technological and political fields from the perspectives of India and China; Collaboration and confrontation in cyberspace, policy, culture and business facing the wider region and the world.
Abstracts must be submitted by Friday June 27th 2014. See submission criteria below which includes guidelines for academic papers and creative works.

Lead Organisations:

       South Asia Research Cluster, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
     Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, Delhi.
Organising Committee:
     Senior member: Professor Barbara HARRISS-WHITE, Co-ordinator, Wolfson South Asia Research Cluster, University of Oxford.
     Danielle K.J. DE FEO-GIET (co-founder), DPhil researcher, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.
     MA Yuge (co-founder), DPhil researcher, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.
     Aadya SHUKLA, Research Scientist, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Science, Technology and Public Policy Fellow Associate, Kennedy School, Harvard University.
     ZHANG Yang, MPhil scholar, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

With the kind support of:
     Prof Srikanth KONDAPALLI, Centre for the East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU
     Prof Varun SAHNI, Chief Advisor (International Collaboration), JNU
     Volunteer Team, JNU

Introduction:
Over the past 20 years, India and China have experienced rapid economic growth which has transformed their positions in the world, their view of themselves, and their impact on the planet.

However, with growth have come the burdens of development: environmental degradation, social and regional inequality, physical and mental health problems, mass migration, and grassroots riots. New infrastructural and technological challenges have arisen and international relationships have shifted. India and China tackle their similar challenges in very different ways, reflecting their contrasting political and social systems.
In recent years, the fascinating tension created by the similarities and differences between the two has attracted a rich multi-disciplinary scholarship of Sino-Indian comparative work. Previous comparative research has suggested that what and how we compare depends heavily on theoretical approaches dominant in each country. These approaches however, are neither consistent nor cohesive, and given that the global reality is also diverse, it is surprising that we should expect them to be so.
How are these theoretical problems to be overcome? Could we form a better comparative framework to understand India and China in our changing world? And if so, then how? How is this challenge being tackled in different disciplines and industries, and what can we learn from different approaches to collaboration and comparison in use today?
At Juxtapose 2013, through presented research projects and informative discussion, we made headway on new comparative paradigms. A book of abstracts and film of the conference is available through our website http://indiachinaresearch.blogspot.co.uk.
Juxtapose 2014 Aims:
This year we are expanding academic, creative and industry pathways to further different approaches to this discussion. We are growing to include two days of academic presentations, creative projects and industry contributions clustered around two themes that encourage comparative and collaborative work.
We retain the requirement that each participant should include in their presentation a portion on their methodology in performing comparative or collaborative work, especially with regard to tackling any challenges that arose in dealing with both Indian and Chinese sources, and how they were overcome. Juxtapose 2013 introduced new paradigms on the general nature of comparison, why and how it should be accomplished, and with what aims, a discussion spurred by Prof. Harriss-White’s opening remarks. We also were able to exchange ideas about how to overcome data discrepancies, and develop different tools for measuring disparate data from the two sources. This discussion enables all attendees and participants to have enriched understanding of this expanding field.

We are proud to present this year’s 2-day conference in cooperation with the Centre for East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India’s leading centre for the study of East Asia, in one of the country’s leading Universities. We expect fresh perspectives and collaborations, a stimulating experience, and a platform for future cooperation between JNU, other Indian Universities, Chinese Universities, and the University of Oxford.   
What is Juxtapose?
The Juxtapose Conference Series is devised simultaneously as a platform for scholarly gathering, with invited guest speakers and global contributions, an outlet for creative cooperation, an opportunity for in-person discussion and problem-solving, and an online space at http://indiachinaresearch.blogspot.co.uk/ where contributions can be made by academics, policy-makers and other interested parties. It is intended to be truly inter- and multidisciplinary.

In an effort to dislodge the unevenness of access to conferences and events, Juxtapose places importance on the use of technology as a tool to bring thinkers together, despite geographical distances and economic constraints. Our ambition is to bring these two realms, the online and the physical, together as seamlessly as possible, and as interactively as possible. We invite international participants (or any who wish to) to give their papers through online conferencing Skype and Google +, or filmed remarks, and we encourage the submission of presentations, essays or thoughts from a broad range of academics, practitioners and policy makers, as well as traditional academic papers. We aim to bring papers and works from 2013 and 2014 together in a printed or e- volume.

Submission Criteria:
For the Conference at JNU:
Research papers are invited from faculty and research scholars with an abstract of 500 words latest by Friday June 27th by e-mail to juxtaposeproject@gmail.com. You will be informed if your submission has been selected by July 25th.

The abstract should provide an outline of the main themes/questions of your work and methodology. Papers must be original work that takes a comparative approach to study of India and China today. Submissions that show a robust theoretical framework, are well substantiated, and display an ability to discuss methodological challenges in their study will be favoured. Please take special note of the requirement to discuss methodology highlighted in the aims of the conference.

The paper should have contemporary relevance, contribute to the existing body of knowledge, be framed with conceptual and analytical clarity,and be presented in an academic style and in readable English. It should also contain appropriate and full references. Further, authors own the copyright of article only up to publication. Please make sure that your abstract includes the following: Title, name of the author, affiliation, complete contact details and a short author bio.

Style Guide:
The article should be typewritten preferably in Arial font with 12 pt (English) and Kruti Dev font with 14 pt (Hindi) in MS-Word. In the case of all Chinese, Hindi, or other non-Roman language terms, the pronunciation should be given in Romanised form in brackets. For Chinese please use PinYin Romanisation. Further, the paper should be double spaced on A4 paper having margins of 1.5” on left side and 1” on the other three sides. Final paper should be 5,000 to 10,000 words. 

Footnotes must be included for all quotations, following bibliography style. Footnotes should be presented in pt 9.

Bibliography of all referenced and source material at the end of the paper must provide complete information. Arrange references in alphabetical order by the last name of the author and then by his/her initials. The following style of reference may be strictly followed:

      In the case of a journal paper: Authors last name, initials, year of publication, name of the paper in quotation marks, name of the journal (italic), volume number, issue number and page numbers (p-p).
      In case of a Book: Authors or editors last name, initials, year of publication, title of the book (italic), name of publisher, place of publication and page numbers.
      In case of an essay / chapter in an edited book: Authors last name, initials, year of publication, name of the editor, title of the book (italic), name of publisher, place of publication and page numbers.
      In case of institution/Govt. report: full name of the institution/ministry, year of publication, place of publication.
      In case of other media: Films should be referenced as books in order of director name, and detailing production house. Please consult with the editors in the case of other media sources used.

For Juxtapose online:
Contributions of all kinds on the subject of China and India in comparison are invited from faculty, research scholars, policy-makers, and interested parties. Please email danielle.defeo-giet@orinst.ox.ac.uk, or yuge.ma@wolfson.ox.ac.uk with a proposal for more information and to be given full access. We will accept and post some academic papers online, so if you would like your academic paper to be considered for our online collection, please submit according to the criteria for the conference above.

Creative Works:
Visual artworks, creative writing, performance and works of music will be considered for inclusion in the allocated sessions. Artists should submit digital photographs of the work or samples of performance in video or audio form as well as a short description of the work, its background and how it addresses the themes of the conference. Collaborative works between practitioners from India and China are especially encouraged.

About the Organisers

JNU Team:
This year we are delighted to have the support of an extraordinary senior team at JNU.

Dr. Srikanth Kondapalli is Professor in Chinese Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is also an Honorary Fellow at Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi and Research Associate at Centre for Chinese Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. He served at Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses, New Delhi for nearly 12 years. He is widely published and a noted lecturer on the subjects of Modern Chinese History and International relations in the current changing climate.

He is a guest faculty member at College of Naval Warfare, Army War College, Indo-Tibetan Border Police Academy and Border Security Force Academy. His full profile is available on our website.

Prof. Varun Sahni is Professor in International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Chairperson of the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament (CIPOD). He edits South Asian Survey, an international peer review journal of repute, speaks regularly (since 2006) at the National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi and has been Jury Member of the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. He has an extensive, international career and numerous awards, fellowships and affiliations to his name, as well as substantial publications and editorial posts.
He is Chairman of the Programme Committee of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New Delhi and a Member of the FIST Advisory Board of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. For his 'outstanding contribution to research and teaching', he was conferred the VKRV Rao Prize in Social Sciences for 2006 by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.
He researches and writes on nuclear deterrence issues, regional security, emerging balances in the Asia-Pacific, evolving security concepts, emerging powers, international relations theory, borders, Latin American issues and, most recently, river waters. He is also interested in understanding the impact of technology in the field of education.
Juxtapose Organising Committee:
Professor Barbara Harriss-White is our senior member, an Emeritus scholar, and co-ordinator of the South Asia Research Cluster (SARC), Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Widely published and an influential leader in her field, she co-organised the British Academy China-India Conference in 2010 and co-edited China-India: pathways of economic and social development (2014, Oxford, Clarendon Press for the British Academy).

Yuge Ma (BA, Tsinghua University; MA 1st year Jawaharlal Nehru University; Msc University of Oxford) and Danielle K.J. de Feo-Giet (BA, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; MA, Harvard University) are DPhil students who are conducting frontier comparative work on India and China. They are the founders of Juxtapose.

Danielle’s research, under Dr. Margaret Hillenbrand (Oxford) and Prof. Rachel Dwyer (SOAS) focuses on popular entertainment films in the two countries treating them as popular cultural texts and consumer goods in a changing political and economic climate. She examines how these films are reflecting and crafting changes in cultural identity as part of the substantial social transformation arising in the wake of economic reform. In addition to her academic work, Danielle has worked in development and heritage sectors in South, Southeast and East Asia, Europe and the US.

Yuge’s DPhil thesis, supervised by Dr. Anna Lora-Wainwright, Prof. Barbara Harriss-White,and Dr Nick Eyre explores how different institutional environments and political economy affect the relationship between state regulation and low carbon development in India and China. She is also author of Grow Up in India, a first-of-its-kind book on contemporary India from a Chinese student’s perspective, published in Chinese in the PRC in 2013.

This year we are pleased to introduce two new committee members who we feel round out the team, representing collaboration from a truly wide cross-section of fields and practises:

Aadya Shukla is a Research Scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, with numerous fellowships and publications to her name as well as extensive experience in the private sector. She is currently working on computational approaches for the analysis and evaluation of norms and models of governance in cyberspace. In addition, as the Science, Technology and Public Policy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School (2010-2013/2013-14) her research has focused on aspects of cyber security, construction of computational models to conceptualize cyberspace, comparative analysis of national cyber strategies, including research on India and China and their respective approaches, formulation of frameworks to measure the impact of innovative semantic technologies in the public domain, and use of trustworthy computing in electronic government. She has taught at Harvard (School of Engineering), Oxford (Computer Science) and the Stanford University Centre, Oxford. Her full bio and all affiliations can be found on our website.

Zhang Yang’s research, under Prof Srikanth Kondapalli, explores cultural diplomacy between China and India from Xuan Zang’s time to the contemporary discourse. He holds a BA in musicology from Beijing Normal University and an MA in Buddhist Studies from Delhi University. He composes music exploring the bittersweet nature of communication between the two countries.

Logistics
Authors of accepted papers will be invited to the conference. The conference will provide accommodation on the JNU campus to all the registered participants free of charge. For international participants, the workshop will provide official documents to support visa application if required.

For more information, please contact yuge.ma@wolfson.ox.ac.uk or danielle.defeo-giet@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Monday 21 April 2014

New Committee Member Announcement: Aadya Shukla

We are delighted to have Aadya Shukla on board as the newest addition to the Juxtapose organising committee. We feel that her skills round out our team to give a broad cross-section of disciplines and perspectives in tackling India/China comparative and collaborative work and practice today.

Aadya is a Research Scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, working on computational approaches for the analysis and evaluation of norms and models of governance in cyberspace. In addition, as the Science, Technology and Public Policy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School (2010-2013/2013-14) her research focused on aspects of cyber security (construction of computational models to conceptualize cyberspace (cyber ontology construction and mapping), comparative analysis of national cyber strategies, formulation of frameworks to measure the impact of innovative semantic technologies in the public domain, and use of trustworthy computing in electronic government.  Before joining Harvard in 2010, Aadya was elected Microsoft Research Doctoral Scholar at the Department of Computer Science, Oxford researching on semantic interoperation problem in large-scale information systems. Aadya has worked (2000–2006) as a Software Engineer for the Siemens Limited (Germany), EMBL-Cambridge and Medical Research Council-Oxford engaging in research in computational biology, bioinformatics, expert system design, ontology, and large-scale data integration. She has taught at Harvard (School of Engineering), Oxford (Computer Science) and the Stanford University Centre, Oxford. Aadya has co-published extensively including in Nature Genetics. Aadya was elected Great Eastern Fellow at St. Catherine's College, Oxford and prestigious Royal Dutch Shell Centenary Scholar at University of Edinburgh.

New Committee Member Announcement: Zhang Yang

We are pleased to add the talents of researcher and musician Zhang Yang to our committee this year. 

Zhang Yang’s research, under Prof Srikanth Kondapalli, explores cultural diplomacy between China and India from Xuan Zang’s time to the contemporary discourse. He holds a BA in musicology from Beijing Normal University and an MA in Buddhist Studies from Delhi University. He composes music exploring the bittersweet nature of communication between the two countries.

Juxtapose 2014 is coming!

Following the success of last year's gathering, this year our annual Juxtapose conference on comparative and collaborative research on India and China is expanding to two days.

The conference will be held on the 24th and 25th of September at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Please mark your diaries.

Full call for papers to follow. See a summary of this year's aims below.

Best,

Team Juxtapose.

At Juxtapose 2013, through presented research projects and informative discussion, we made headway on new comparative paradigms. A book of abstracts and film of the conference is available through our website. 

Juxtapose 2014 Aims:
This year we are expanding academic, creative and industry pathways to further this discussion. We are growing to include two days of academic presentations, creative projects and industry contributions clustered around two themes that encourage comparative and collaborative work.

We retain the requirement that each participant should include in their presentation a portion on their methodology in performing comparative or collaborative work, especially with regard to tackling any challenges that arose in dealing with both Indian and Chinese sources, and how they were overcome. Juxtapose 2013 introduced new paradigms on the general nature of comparison, why and how it should be accomplished, and with what aims, a discussion spurred by Prof. Harriss-White’s opening remarks. We also were able to exchange ideas about how to overcome data discrepancies, and develop different tools for measuring disparate data from the two sources. This discussion enables all attendees and participants to have enriched understanding of this expanding field.

We are proud to present this year’s 2-day conference in cooperation with the Centre for East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India’s leading centre for the study of East Asia, in one of the country’s leading Universities. We expect fresh perspectives and collaborations, a stimulating experience, and a platform for future cooperation between JNU, Chinese Universities, and the University of Oxford.   

What is Juxtapose?
The Juxtapose Conference Series is devised simultaneously as a platform for scholarly gathering, with invited guest speakers and global contributions, an outlet for creative cooperation, an opportunity for in-person discussion and problem-solving, and an online space at  http://indiachinaresearch.blogspot.co.uk/ where contributions can be made by academics, policy-makers and other interested parties. It is intended to be truly inter- and multidisciplinary.

In an effort to dislodge the unevenness of access to conferences and events, Juxtapose places importance on the use of technology as a tool to bring thinkers together, despite geographical distances and economic constraints. Our ambition is to bring these two realms, the online and the physical, together as seamlessly as possible, and as interactively as possible. We invite international participants (or any who wish to) to give their papers through online conferencing like Skype and Google +, or filmed remarks, and we encourage the submission of presentations, essays or thoughts from a broad range of academics, practitioners and policy makers, as well as traditional academic papers. We aim to bring papers and works from 2013 and 2014 together in a printed or e- volume.


Central University of Jharkhand Celebrate Chinese New Year

Central University of Jharkhand celebrates Chinese New Year (Spring Festival)

The Central University of Jharkhand was established through the Central Universities Act 2009. In the last four years, it has introduced twenty different subjects ranging from Applied Sciences and Engineering to Far East Languages which includes Chinese language. The Centre for Far East Languages (Chinese) was established in 2012. During these few years the Centre has introduced 5 Year Integrated (Bachelors + Masters) Degree Course and One Year Diploma and Six Months Certificate Courses. At Present there are 5 faculties and 36 students enrolled in different Programs in the Centre. Apart from Chinese language and Literature, there are courses on various aspects like Chinese History, Geography, Politics, and Culture etc. These courses include extensive usage of the Audio-Visual Language Lab, which makes the courses interesting and efficient. Along with these courses the centre has been trying to include more and more extracurricular activities to provide a better language learning environment for the students. These include time to time Chinese movie shows and Interactive sessions with faculties from Universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University and overseas.   
Speaking about extracurricular activities, this year the Centre has endeavored to solemnly celebrate the most important festival of China which is commonly known as the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival (春节). As this was the first time the Centre was celebrating the festival, therefore to make the people acquainted with extensive knowledge about China and its culture, the Centre has invited few international scholars from China. These international scholars include Ms. Ma Yuge (马宇歌), D.Phil from University of Oxford, Mr. Zhang Yang (张洋), research scholar in Jawaharlal Nehru University and Mr. Wu Weixing (武伟星), student from Visva-Bharati (Santiniketan). All the three international scholars enthusiastically took part in the celebration and imparted their knowledge to the students.
The first day (12/02/2014) of the celebration started with a quiz and speech contest. The topics were extensively based on China. Students from different centres took part in the competition and showed their zest for China and its culture. The second day (13/02/2014) celebration convened by the Chinese folk art and culture imparted by Mr. Wu Weixing. He bestowed the students with his knowledge of paper cutting (剪纸) and Chinese calligraphy (书法). Students enthusiastically took part in the activity and learned the paper cutting of ‘Double Happiness’ (双喜). This activity was followed by Chinese Tea Culture. The students were delighted to taste the different varieties of teas brought by the teachers from China.  In the very day afternoon, Ms. Ma Yuge delivered her lecture on Juxtapose: a global odyssey of knowing China and India. She was accompanied by Mr. Zhang Yang in her presentation on his guitar. In the interactive session, she was asked about different issues on Sino-India bilateral relations and Chinese politics. Ms. Ma Yuge enlightened the audience with her knowledge and wisdom. The Centre summoned the students to interact with the three Chinese scholars to share their heart with the students. Mr. Zhang Yang shared his view on skills of learning Chinese with the students. The last day of celebration (14/02/2014) convened by some Chinese cultural extravaganza performed by the students of Chinese Centre. The students of Chinese Centre performed two short plays in Chinese, performed dances on Chinese songs and sang Chinese songs. The whole auditorium was mesmerized by their fluent Chinese. In this program Ms. Ma Yuge and Mr. Zhang Yang sang one Chinese song which is Zhang composed with the Chinese ancient poem  and one Hindi song for the audience. During the cultural activity Ms. Ma Yuge, Mr. Zhang Yang and Mr. Wu Weixing were felicitated by the Vice chancellor of the University. The Registrar delivered his keynote on the need to bridge the gap between India-China cultural traits. Ms. Ma Yuge presented her book ‘Grow up in India去印度成长to the library of the univeristy. Mr. Wu Weixing also presented his paper cutting to the Vice chancellor.
During interactive session, after the lecture delivered by Ms. Ma Yuge on the topic Juxtapose: a global odyssey of knowing China and India, I strongly felt that the two ancient nations are still dwelling on some speculations of each other. As the famous Chinese quotation goes “have only  partial understanding of a situation“(但知其一,不知其所以然), both India and China has the same understanding of each. They only know one facet of the situation and deduce conclusion without any concrete fact. For example one student asked Ms. Ma Yuge that what is the number of Chinese students in China, who are learning Hindi. Apparently the student also didn’t know how many Indian students are learning Chinese within India. To answer this question I feel that the Chinese Govt. is promoting their language, and as culture is an indispensable part of language, therefore one may say that China is promoting its soft power. One can easily fetch a colossal amount of money after mastering the basics in Chinese. The question lies that why don’t Indian Govt. also promote its soft power? Only if the Indian side promotes its language and culture, can Chinese people understand India in a new holistic way. Only if we understand each other, can we solve many disputed issues. We should start thinking in new horizon of wisdom that whether to settle all the bilateral issues by nuclear weapons or by understanding each other and settle the issues by peaceful negotiations. As Ms. Ma Yuge has rightly pointed out that there are many issues yet to be discussed in public, only if we stop speculating out of imaginations and start re-pondering issues based on concrete facts. 


*(The piece is open for editing except the views expressed by the author). 

A Global Odyssey of Knowing China and India: Speech and Notes from Ma Yuge and Zhang Yang's talk and Performance at CU Jharkhand

A Global Odyssey of Knowing China and India
----Central University of Jharkhand’s 2014 Chinese New Year Lecture

Speech by Ma Yuge (University of Oxford, UK)
Music by Zhang Yang (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

13 Feb 2014, Auditorium, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi, India



Growing Up is after all only the understanding that one’s unique and incredible experience is what everyone shares.
Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook, 1971


The encounter with the Other, with other people, has always been a universal and fundamental experience for our species…People thus had three choices when they encounter the Other: They could choose war, they could build a wall around themselves, or they could enter into dialogue.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Other, 2005[i]



It is our great honour to come to the Central University of Jharkhand (CUJ), and be part of your first Chinese New Year Celebration. We would love to congratulate the Chinese Department of CUJ for successfully organising such a wonderful Chinese New Year Celebration. We are so amazed and proud to know that you are learning the Chinese language and the Chinese culture in Ranchi, the emerging capital of India’s most resourceful land. We also want to sincerely thank Mr Sandeep Biswas for facilitating the whole programme for this lecture.

Today, we will share with you our understanding about China and India based on our interaction with India for the past a few years. I will speak about my study, research and newly published book that talk about the bittersweet journey of bridging the two different cultures; my colleague Yang will present his composed music on the same theme.


An Entangling Story between China and India

China and India are Asia’s biggest neighbours and two of the oldest living civilisations. They have had exchange of people, ideas and goods for centuries. However, for the past century, China and India have frequently experienced rivalrous relations, and have chosen different pathways in many aspects of both domestic development and foreign policy. Those tensions and differences, despite of their increasing economic interests, have significantly reduced the frequency and depth of their mutual communication.

My entangling story with India dates back to 2009, when I came to India to be an MA student at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Many Chinese people asked me why I was going to India. The university where I completed my undergraduate studies, Tsinghua University, is one of the best universities in China. The current President of China and his predecessor, both are alumni of my university and one third of the graduates continue their studies in top universities in the West. Chinese people believe that studying in ‘the more advanced and more developed countries’ can help us achieve the Chinese dream of prosperity, happiness and harmony. In people’s minds India was not part of that group. So my decision to embark on further postgraduate studies in India was hard for my peers to understand.

However, I did, get some support from Professor Xue Lan, the Dean of the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua. He wrote the foreword to my newly published book Grow Up in India and mentioned how he felt about this decision, “When Yuge told me about her idea of going to India, I was truly thrilled. It has been quite a few years since China has embraced the global economy, and I am glad that Chinese students have finally started exploring the real world and the rich diversity it offers. Now that South Asian, African and Latin American students are increasingly studying on our campus, our own graduates are now thinking of discovering these emerging counterparts.”


Coming to India with a Dream

I came to India with a dream - a dream which is under a threat in the multi-polarising world.

Ever since the Chinese President Xi Jinping developed the idea of the China Dream as one of his key motifs, the international community, including India has been discussing and closely watching the actual content of China’s Dream, and what it will bring to the world. To my understanding, the China Dream is deeply rooted in the wisdom of the Chinese civilisation: Shi Jie Da Tong - global integration. In the past 20 years, the emergence of new economic powers is posing challenges to the existing international order-from development, trade, energy, nuclear disarmament, climate change, cyber security to international crime. In a multi-polar world, it is crucial to build mutual understanding and cooperation between emerging countries, as well as between the emerging countries and the rest of the world; because without it, the global integration and thereupon - the effective international cooperation essential for tackling pressing common challenges - is hard to achieve.

However, unlike the OECD countries, which share similarity in both economic systems and political ideologies, the emerging countries, for example each of the BRICS, though having common economic interests in general, has been practicing very different cultural, social and political values. This divergence in economic interests and kinds of soft power has created obstacles for collaboration among emerging countries and has also challenged the realisation of global integration.

Carrying the dream of an integrated world, where multi-stakeholders – cross-nationals, nationals, sub-nationals, and other kinds of organisations, as well as various individuals– despite of their different backgrounds, can equally voice and participate in global governance which brings common goods to all human kinds, and where cross-cultural relations are built on real understanding, instead of manipulated imagination, I went to India. I believe that collaboration and integration is built on trust, and that trust comes from authentic mutual understanding. While most Chinese students are looking at the West, there is a dangerous knowledge gap about ‘the rest’. India is not only one of the most important emerging powers, but also an unavoidable neighbour of China. More importantly, in many ways India has taken a different pathway in development compared to China. Facing similar challenges, the Indian experiences may inspire China’s reflection on itself.


Before we move to the next step of the journey, I would like to share with you a piece of music composed by Yang. When we discuss about the journey of bridging China and India, we feel like something is difficult to describe with only language. Then we started to try to use music to express the unspeakable feelings gradually generated in this journey. The following music is one of the experiments.


Where Can China meet India

Lyric and Music: Zhang Yang

Where is the sun 
where is the love
where is the god

where is the way
where is the police
where is their mum

Where is the garden
where is the home
where is the shop

Where is the guru
where is the tree
where is the river

It's in your song
It's in your mind
It's in your eye

where is the change
where is the dream
where is the hope

where is the key
where is the bridge
where is the peace

It's in your mind
It's in your hand
It's in your eye

It's in your song
It's in your mind
It's in your eye



Bittersweet Journey of Knowing Each Other

As former Chinese Consul in Kolkata, Mr. Mao Siwei recently said in an interview,[ii]India has always been China’s teacher throughout history. It is well-known to the world that in the early Tang Dynasty (7th Century), Xuan Zang, the famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator went to India and studied in Nalanda University for almost two decades. His writings and translations inspired by studies of India had greatly enriched the development of Buddhism in China. The flourishing of Buddhism, reflecting the openness and inclusiveness of the then Asian society, witnessed China’s reaching one of the climaxes of its civilisation – Tang Song culture.

It is also well recognised that studying in a country is the best way of understanding it, and modern transportation has made the journey between China and India much easier and faster compared to Xuan Zang’s time. However, when I really encountered India, a huge country with endless diversities, pursuing a clear route to understanding it seemed impossible. To get deep into Indian society, the classroom is necessary but not sufficient. So I started to learn the local language, make Indian friends, read extensively, travel and research across the country. I wrote about conversations, observations, questions and confusions, and published them on various media in China. From the intensive interactions with the Chinese public that resulted, I got to understand their growing interest to know India and at the same time, common misunderstandings and misinterpretations that are deeply rooted.

Slowly, my publications gained more and more interesting responses from Chinese audiences, reflecting the bittersweet process of getting to know one another. Someone wrote to me after reading my article on the human experiences of rapid urbanisation in Assam, “What Indians are experiencing sounds so similar to us. Why can’t we learn from each other’s experiences and try to avoid those tragedies in modernisation?” Someone else responded to my article on local democracy in Tamil Nadu, “It is hard to imagine that a country with so many poor and illiterate is really suitable for democracy. It seems that India is trying to break this curse! I get to know more about democracy from the Indian experience than from the West!” There are also people who do not quite agree with my writing, for example, “I read your article about the dilemma between economic growth and climate change in India. Obviously, China never wastes time on such unproductive discussion. India should learn something from us.”

During my year of study in India, I tried every means at my disposal to know about India and to look for a channel to rebuild the mutual understanding between the two. However, the more I experienced India, the more confused I became, because I did not have an efficient way of combining my enriching but fragmented local experience into an insightful and systematic understanding. Then, I was inspired by reading Journey to America, the notes of the pioneer French thinker Alexis De Tocqueville’s 9 months stay in America from 1831 to 1832. In contrast to the two masterpieces called Democracy in America (1 & 2) which came out in France 3 and 8 years after that journey, de Tocqueville’s first hand journal was fresh and original, but fragmented. Real understanding requires not only fresh experience, but also systematic thinking, intellectual debate, and comparative perspectives.  

So after one year of studying in India, in 2010, I went to Oxford to further my understanding and read for the MSc in Contemporary India. In 2011, I also had the opportunity to join the Brookings Institution as a Guest Researcher, conducting comparative research between China and India. The next year, I came back to Oxford, and with the support from my supervisor Professor Barbara Harriss-White and Wolfson College, my colleague Danielle de Feo Giet and I founded the Oxford Juxtapose Project-a multi-disciplinary platform for scholars to discuss China and India, and to promote mutual understanding through academic and cultural innovations. [iii]

This bittersweet journey of knowing one another gives us the courage and chance to grow up, and to realise the dream that we have been carrying from the very beginning. Here I would like to share with you a song, which tries to express the feeling of growing up from exploring the unknown.


INDIAN DREAM

Lyrics: Zhang Yang, Ma Yuge
Music: Zhang Yang

Ganga, are you asleep
Have you forgotten me

Ganga, have you had a dream
I was coming to meet you

You gave me a chance to grow up
You gave my soul a place, to stay
                                   
Ganga, have you forgotten the memories we have made
Ganga, do you still continue your dream

你给我成长的力量面对未知的勇气
You lead me to the unknown, and make me brave
无数次我曾回望  陷入众人的引力
But I used to look the way back, driven by the common
你用温热的光芒 等待着我迷途的归期
Your lights silence in warm, shed my lost and waited for me
终于听到你的呼唤 黑夜里再次奔向你
In dream I hear the call rang, coming back was my only last will


The heated China Debate in India

Last year, I came back to India for field research. In the two months, I was associated with Aspen Institute India as an Avantha International Fellow. The most impressive part of my stay in Aspen was the heated and intensive debate about China in the Indian policy cohort as well as among the general public. Nearly every public event held I participated, though not directly relate to China, would develop into a serious debate on how China will make an influence to the discussed topic, and what India should do to engage with it.

The first two weeks of my tenure coincidentally overlapped with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China: 22-26 October 2013.Accordingly, my assignment was to prepare the background paper for the then forthcoming Aspen China Strategic Dialogue to be jointly held with the China Reform Forum in Beijing. To write the paper, I went through published reports and news coverage of the China-India relationship in different perspectives – security, economic, military, energy, global governance, and social challenges - from China, India, US, and the UK, in both English and Chinese, for the previous six months in 2013.This intensive reading showed that the majority of the reports did not hold positive views about the China-India relationship. Interestingly, the two most positive pieces of coverage on this front came from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s official speech during his visit to India in May 2013, and Indian Premier Manmohan Singh’s speech delivered in his China visit. Apart from these two official gestures of friendliness, the distrust between the two set the dominant tone for this relationship.

The escalating tension in the Chinese and Indian media and think tanks to a large extend, reflects people’s opinions towards each other. Several published surveys and academic papers seem to buttress these negative public opinions with more solid data –in one study conducted by Pew Research Global Attitude Project in 2013, 83% of Indians surveyed consider China as a threat to Indian security[iv]; an earlier piece of research published in 2011, focused on the Chinese online forum participants, shows that90% of the studied hold negative perspectives toward India in general.[v] In both countries, with their different political systems, public opinions more and more engaged in the discussion of their foreign policy. The active engagement of the educated public, which is equipped by the flourishing usage of the internet and social media, is no longer an easily ignored factor by the governments in making foreign policy. Therefore the increasingly negative public opinions among Chinese and Indians, that are largely based on lack of mutual understanding and long-lasting distrust, are obviously not healthy for a peaceful and prosperous China-India relationship.


People-to-people contact

Public opinion is formed by exposure to information and discussions. Though the coverage of the other country is emerging in both China and India, information based on first-hand data is still limited. Analysis solely relying on second-hand information is embedded with unknown bias and often leads to rush judgements. To overcome this challenge, more people-to-people contact is in urgent demand.

Promoting people-to-people contact recently has got more and more attention from both sides. During Premier Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, I was asked by China Youth Daily - one of the most influential Chinese newspapers to interview leaders from the Indian industry on recent progress in China-India’s economic relationship. Mr Tarun Das, funding trustee of Aspen India, who leads the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 40 years kindly accepted my interview request. When asked about the perspective on the future of China-India relations, he argued strongly:“The most important agenda is for the people of China and India to know each other. There had been a huge information and communications gap over decades, which has led to a lack of mutual understanding. Increased people-to-people interaction and economic cooperation will help to address this problem.”When this interview, titled 'China-India Relationship: the next 50 years will be VERY DIFFERENT from the last 50 years', was published on the last day of the Indian Premier’s visit, Oct 26 2013,[vi] this argument on promoting people-to-people contact between the two as the key for a brand new China-India relationship was quoted by many major media outlets in China.

Nowadays, China-India communication is not only limited, but also imbalanced. In 2012, 610,200 Indians visited mainland China, while only 169,000 Chinese visited India, barely a quarter of the Indian visitors to China.[vii] A few years ago, the difference was even larger, when 500,000 Indians visited China and merely 100,000 made the reverse. India’s strict visa policy is one of the most complained reasons from the Chinese side. Apart from the policy obstacles, further reasons lie in mentalities.

Last summer, before the trip to India, I toured China on book launches with widely ranging Chinese audiences. We had many interesting discussions about the complexity of Indian society, the controversial relationship between China and India, and the bittersweet journey of getting to know people from another culture and more about oneself as a result. I had personally always believed that there was a yet-to-be-explored interest in knowing India, the mysterious and unavoidable neighbour. I knew that this interest was just around the corner. The passionate audiences full of inquiring minds exceeded my expectations. Their criticisms and sophisticated questions surprised me but I was conscious at the same time of the fact that their deep-rooted concerns about the topic were not sufficiently reflected in the public and political spheres. We, both China and India, still have a long way to go on this front.


Our Common Destiny

During my this stay in India, I used to take the Delhi metro as part of my daily transport. When I crossed a tributary of the holy Yamuna River, right beside my then residence to the nearby metro station, the strong and stinking smell of the drying river and the accumulating garbage floating in it made every passenger cover their nose immediately and tightly. Moving between the two cities with equally smoky skies[viii], Beijing and Delhi, and watching them exhaust every piece of energy to chase each other’s pace in both developing and polluting, sometimes I would wonder: while this fast modernising process makes human life more convenient and efficient, will our life become more enjoyable with the disappearing animals and biodiversity and decaying nature?

Whenever I think of this common destiny of India and China, which is also the paradox of the whole (developing) world today, the need for us to collaborate in tackling these challenges becomes urgently pressing. Meanwhile I wonder whether our common destiny lays down more commonalities, instead of differences for us to face each other and the future?


A Common Dream of China, India and the world

After 4 years of my first visit to India, my first book, Grow Up in India based on one year of study and research in India (2009-2010) came out coincidentally with the Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to India in late May 2013. Li wrote in his famous speech ‘A Handshake across the Himalayas’[ix]on his first foreign visit as Premier:

“An Asian century that people expect would not come if China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, failed to live in harmony and achieve common development…Our common development will benefit people of the two countries and offer the world more and better opportunities.”

Our entangling story with India is just personal experiment of the long process in mutual understanding between India and China, learning from each other, and getting to know oneself more. Mutual understanding is a continuous endeavour and a strategic investment. With this endeavour, we invest in the solid foundation of trust-building for a great dream. An integrated world is not only a dream of Chinese destiny, but also a dream for India, Asia and the world.


In the end, we would love to conclude this lecture with a song. This song is inspired by the journey of knowing the other and oneself, and the journey of realising a dream together. I will join Yang for the singing this time.


To be Close to You and Freedom
Lyric: Zhang Yang (Chinese), Tsetan Dolkar (English)
Music: Zhang Yang

It might have been that I lived partly,
是我活得不够洒脱
It might be that pains make me rise higher,
还是苦难想托起我
When I look at the sunset quietly,
每当望着夕阳 低下头
I wonder if I am same as before or wiser.
我还是不是昨天的我

It seems as a moment of awakening,
梦召唤我  来到陌生的河
With a note where my pains are trickling,
虚无在音符上  得到解脱
It turned into a beautiful song
把梦想化作  美丽的歌
With forgetting all those wounds and wrong.
回头看时  曾经是那样

True there you and me,
真实的  存在着   你和我
Longing kids to be free.
向往着 自由的孩子
Could not suppress the tears welling
在黑夜里踱步
Unshackling the tied heart set free.
眼泪抑不住 夺眶而出

I am aspiring to move higher
是什么 在前方闪烁
To realise my own dreams lucidly
让我疲惫的心  挣脱枷锁
I greet this moment of awakening
受伤的做错的 醒悟的时刻
To be closed to you and freedom.
一直往前走  只为接近 你和自由



About the speakers:

Ma Yuge is DPhil Candidate in Environmental Change Institute (ECI), University of Oxford. She is now doing research with The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) and the Institute for Economic Growth (IEG) in New Delhi. Before that, she was a guest researcher with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and Beijing (2011-2012), a GG2022 fellow (gg2022.net), and an Avantha International Fellow 2013 with Aspen Institute India. She is co-founder of the Oxford Juxtapose Project, which is a multi-disciplinary platform for comparative studies on contemporary China and India. Her first book Grow Up in India is published in China in 2013 (the photo is the book cover).


Zhang Yang is an MPhil researcher from the School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University. He got the MA in Buddhist Studies from Delhi University and his Bachelor Degree in Musicology from Capital Normal University (Beijing). He composed music with his experience of 3 years study in India, combining the Indian musical elements, such as the Indian traditional music instrument Sitar and Tagore's poem, as well as his feelings about knowing the Indian civilisation. He also composes music for Chinese ancient poems and shares the Chinese Culture with people from other cultures. Now he is working with Ma Yuge and composing music related with her book Grow Up in India, to explore the meaning of growing up in a different culture and to know oneself better by communicating with the people from the other culture through the plural ways.



The opinions expressed in this lecture are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any of their affiliations. For any question, please contact Ma Yuge via yuge.ma@wolfson.ox.ac.uk and horsecsc@gmail.com, and Zhang Yang via zhangyang1986@gmail.com.






[i] KAPUSCINSKI, R. (2005), Encountering the Other: The Challenge for the 21st Century. New Perspectives Quarterly, 22: 6–13. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5842.2005.00759.x

[ii]Mao Siwei on China-India Communication, sina.com (2013): http://blog.sina.com.cn/lm/c/2013-05-20/265465.shtml

[iii]Website of Wolfson College, University of Oxford (2013): https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/content/1568-problems-comparing-india-and-china

[iv]PewReserch Global Attitude Project (2013)

[v] Simon Shen (2011). Exploring the Neglected Constraints on Chindia: Analysing the Online Chinese Perception of India and its Interaction with China's Indian Policy. The China Quarterly, 207, pp 541-560. doi:10.1017/S0305741011000646.

[vii]Data from the Chinese and Indian Foreign Ministries