Western Ideas Research Articles

The Chinese idea of a university in flux: academic freedom and institutional autonomy under entrepreneurial reforms in the GBA

ABSTRACT The complexity of the idea of a university has been intensified globally as more universities pursue entrepreneurship. For modern universities in China as latecomers, contemporary entrepreneurial reforms are implemented against a backdrop of ongoing interactions between Chinese and Western ideas of a university, with the Western established as the formal system and the Chinese functioning informally yet powerfully. Through 71 semi-structured interviews at four universities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, this study explores how academic freedom and institutional autonomy are perceived by Chinese academics under entrepreneurial reforms. The study has two major findings through Clark’s analytical framework of academic, government, and market forces: (1) A novel form of statist academic freedom is emerging, merging traditional Chinese scholarly values with state-driven entrepreneurial demands; (2) The adapted triple helix model in China emphasises competition and excellence, shaped by a unique blend of state influence and market dynamics. It offers a nuanced perspective on academic freedom and institutional autonomy amidst entrepreneurial reforms in China, highlighting a compatibility with Chinese idea of a university and a response to global entrepreneurial pressures.

Evolving heritage in modern China: transforming religious sites for preservation and development

This paper explores the intricate interactions between heritage and religion in modern China, as well as the broader social and political implications of these interactions in relation to national heritage policies and local developmental practices. By conducting a longitudinal analysis of the social history of Baosheng Temple, this research traces its transformations over the past hundred years from a historically religious site to a local built heritage dedicated to preserving and displaying religious relics. This transformation highlights a shift in the role of religious relics from carriers of practice and thought to focal points for heritage preservation, aimed at supporting nation-building and, more recently, promoting local development through the tourism industry. These changes reflect continuous local responses to broader social transformations towards a modern nation-state as well as the influence of Western ideas and practices. The findings of this research illuminate the evolving values associated with religious heritage and the corresponding implications for Chinese modernity within a secular state context.

Rabindranath Tagore: A Tale of a Humanist

Rabindranath Tagore is beyond an artist or a poet, who through his creative thinking and writing has given a new meaning of human life and existence. His urge towards freedom is to go beyond the narrow boundaries of religious affiliations, caste, creed, etc. and to love the fellow humans. It is the love for each other which is reflected as the passion for God. On the one hand, he acknowledged and appreciated Western thoughts and ideas, whereas on the other hand he becomes strongly critical about the Western perspective on the fragmentalization of nation-state in reference to identity and social existence. The logic of hierarchization of society, technologization of human spirit is something that bothered him the most. He emphasized on free will and freedom of human beings through coexistence and mutual respect that would give the ideal space of a nation to grow. It cannot be something which is external, coercive or imposed; rather the feeling of Nationalism has to be within, which is only possible through realization of self and the appreciation of the others. In Spite of his love for Gandhi and his practices of life, he chose to differ from him in the ways of attaining freedom from the Britishers. He believed that boycotting western products could not liberate the Indians, as the Indians themselves could liberate themselves from servocracy and aristocracy.

Decolonisation and Downshift-Knowledge Reproduction in Africa

Colonialism established a system of racial oppression, both mentally and physically, by impeding pre-colonial African education, which was originally intended to reflect the realities of pre-colonial African societies. Before the colonial administration, Africans were already developed people with different educations for different age groups, making them functional and inclusive within the larger political sphere. Decolonisation only reflects a shift in political power and the withdrawal of colonialists from African territories, but it has not resulted in any fundamental shift in the mentality of political leaders and nation-building in the decolonised nations. The education curriculum left behind by colonial governments was designed to make African nations economically and technologically dependent on developed nations. Such a pattern of education was not geared toward African technological development, but rather conditioned African nations to be consumers rather than producers, with the resulting loss of initiative among the Africans. The curriculum is insidious in terms of principles and implementation across all levels of educational institutions, slowly destroying the economies of African nations that were once ahead of European nations during the pre-colonial epoch. Instead of accelerating the socio-economic development of decolonised African nations, the curriculum based on Western principles and ideas further subjugates African economies to imperialist influence and hegemony through the instrumentality of international financial institutions, which frequently dictate exploitative asymmetric relationships between the developed and developing African nations. African nations must therefore look inward for an African-oriented and culturally appropriate educational curriculum to meet the demand for socioeconomic advancement and growth.

Nahua Fasting in a Series of Don'ts: An Interpretation of the Precontact Nezahualiztli Practice

Although the precontact Nahua nezahualiztli ritual received significant coverage in historical sources, the Christian discourse of these sources misinterpreted it as either fasting or penance, inscribing nezahualiztli in the Western idea of the sacred. In order to learn more about the Nahua worldview, this article uses methods derived from philology, cognitive linguistics, and anthropology to reconstruct the meaning that nezahualiztli had for the precontact Nahua. I review numerous mentions of this ritual in the sources and discuss three examples involving nezahualiztli. I conclude that avoiding some hygienic practices, fasting, and abstaining from sex, among other forms of abstinence, allowed humans to assimilate with the deities and dead who inhabited the world beyond. The Nahua observed nezahualiztli whenever they needed to enter a liminal state, such as during funerals, travel, or creative actions. This insight adds to our understanding of the Nahua sacred, particularly the relationship between humans and gods.

Power and Epistemology: How the Western Idea of “Nation” Triumphed Over Its Indigenous Counterparts

Power and Epistemology: How the Western Idea of “Nation” Triumphed Over Its Indigenous Counterparts

Losing the Battle and Awareness of Unveiling the Postcolonial Struggle Against Western Philosophical Hegemony in Indonesian Aesthetic Textbooks

Objective: The objective of this research is to explore the hegemonic construction of Western philosophical concepts in Indonesian aesthetic textbooks, the methods of their construction, and the factors reinforcing this hegemony. Theoretical Framework: In this topic, can be analyzed through key postcolonial and orientalist frameworks, including Edward Said's concept of orientalism, which examines how Western discourses construct and dominate Eastern identities. Method: This study employs a qualitative research methodology with a naturalistic paradigm, utilizing a hermeneutic approach and descriptive qualitative analysis based on the Miles and Huberman model. Results and Discussion: The results show that Western hegemony is evident in the content of aesthetics textbooks in Indonesia, both in the substantive content domain of the subject matter and the figures. This hegemonic construction is propagated through persuasive methods. The enduring nature of Western-biased knowledge construction, mainly fuelled by the orientalist-postcolonial system, significantly reinforces this hegemony. Therefore, this research underlines the scenario of culture losing the battle and especially the effort to build awareness of unveiling the struggle to overcome the dominance of Western philosophy that is permeating Indonesian aesthetic education. Research Implications: The study reveals that Indonesian aesthetic textbooks heavily feature Western philosophical concepts, constructed, and reinforced through persuasive, non-coercive methods. Utilizing a qualitative research approach, it uncovers that Western hegemony is evident both substantively and in the representation of key figures within these textbooks. This enduring Western bias, perpetuated by orientalist systems, significantly influences Indonesian aesthetic education, highlighting the deep-rooted nature of this hegemonic knowledge construction. Originality/Value: This study offers original insights into the pervasive influence of Western philosophical concepts in Indonesian aesthetic textbooks, highlighting their construction and reinforcement through persuasive methods rather than coercion. Employing a qualitative methodology with a hermeneutic approach and descriptive analysis, it uncovers the substantive and figure-level dominance of Western ideas, driven by orientalist systems. This research contributes valuable understanding of the enduring nature of Western-biased knowledge construction in Indonesian aesthetic education, emphasizing the need for a critical re-evaluation of curricular content.

Publishing and literature sale in Russian and foreign languages as a means of modernization of Russia in the first quarter of the 18th century

RELEVANCE. The problem of studying the relationship between the originality of Russian culture and the degree of foreign influence on its development is currently acquiring significant relevance. At the same time, the culturological approach, which describes the development of domestic social thought in the paradigm of “progressive – reactionary”, “ours – not ours,” gives way to an analysis of the specifics of the Russian reality of culture as an object of transfer, adaptation and reception of ideas and concepts taking place at different stages of social development. and reception of ideas and concepts taking place at different stages of social development. The purpose of the study is to comprehensively characterize the publishing business and the sale of literature in Russian and foreign languages in the first quarter of the 18th century.MATERIALS AND METHODS. In our opinion, for a comprehensive study of the problem of modernization in Russia in the 18th century, it is necessary to take into account hidden factors that reveal the experience of transmitting Western ideas. The most important of them include the practice of distributing European literature, which ensures the formation of a certain cultural environment.RESULT AND DISCUSSION. Purchasing foreign publications from foreigners living in Russia became an extremely common practice. It was in this way that the “Universal and Historical Lexicon” in German arrived in the library of Peter I. The autocrat personally ordered the purchase of this publication from foreign guests of St. Petersburg and a Russian translation of this work. Those books that could not be purchased personally were purchased by enterprising readers in the Baltic states or ordered from abroad through foreign merchants and Russian travelers.CONCLUSION. A study of the issues of book printing and book sales of Peter the Great’s time shows the enormous importance of published literature for the dissemination of progressive ideas and scientific knowledge in all layers of reading society. In a short period of time, Peter I was able to organize the production of a huge number of printed works and create conditions for their distribution throughout the country.

Korean Traditional Thoughts and Moral Education

Purpose: This study aims to explore the characteristics the Korean traditional thoughts and show some implications to improve the modern moral education in South Korea. Method: This study looked at books from the past that contained much of Korean traditional thoughts. Also, I referred to how Korean traditional thoughts were described in moral ethics textbooks. Results: Through this study, the following research results can be discovered. First, contents necessary for moral education can be found in Korean traditional thoughts. Second, the idea of piety for heaven [敬天思想], the spirit of harmony [調和精神], Craftsmanship, the idea of respect for the elderly and filial piety [敬老孝親思想], the spirit of “Seonbi” [선비精神] give many implications to current South Korea. Third, there are many contents in Korean traditional thoughts that are distinct from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Conclusion: In conclusion, the idea of piety for heaven, the spirit of harmony, Craftsmanship, the idea of respect for the elderly and filial piety, the spirit of “Seonbi” are currently having a great influence on South Korea. These ideas must continue to be passed on to future generations through moral education. Korean traditional thoughts was Koreanized [韓國化] and developed through interaction with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Therefore, our people's ideology cannot be explained solely by the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The same goes for moral education. Moral education cannot be found only in Western and Eastern ethical ideas. Moral education must be found in Korean traditional thoughts, which has both Western and Eastern values. In addition, Korea's unique spirit of loving peace and caring for others is a task that needs to be further explored in the future.

LATE MODERN ANXIETY AND DIGITAL JIHADIST ALTERNATIVE IN ANNA ERELLE’S IN THE SKIN OF A JIHADIST AND TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV’S PROFILE

For almost a decade, ISIS has held the status of the West’s radical other, its symbolic and real challenge to the western idea of modernity becoming ever more prominent and threatening with a growing accessibility of online propaganda content and recruitment via social media platforms in a largely unregulated social networking environment. In that context, the paper discusses Anna Erelle’s book In the Skin of a Jihadist and its film adaptation Profile as two distinct but complementary visions of the West and its other. My argument is that Timur Bekmambetov’s adaptation, as a Baumanesque critical reading of the West’s late modernity, is supplemental to the original text and its liberal views of jihadist otherness. Profile thus views the West and ISIS as two universalist visions of the world so that by facing the dangerous alterity on the computer screen, the West should not only see the morally inferior enemy to be exposed, transformed or eventually defeated but the reflection of its own late modern failures, disappointments and frustrations.

An Overview of Foreign Literature Studies in China from 1949 to 2019

In retrospect of foreign literature studies in China from 1949 to 2019, we have to acknowledge two fundamental facts. Firstly, although in the initial 30 years of this period foreign literature studies in China largely followed the Soviet model, neglecting Western literary and cultural traditions to some extent—with over a decade under the influence of extreme “leftist” trends—it was during this time that the groundwork for the academic framework of foreign literature studies was painstakingly laid. Secondly, with the influx of Western ideas, foreign literature studies during the subsequent 40 years underwent a complete paradigm shift, providing the spiritual nourishment for and playing a pioneering role in liberating thought and rectifying disorders. However, this period saw a conspicuous adoption of Western paradigms in foreign literature studies, thereby somewhat abandoning certain valuable traditions and academic stances that ought to have been upheld. Meanwhile, foreign literature studies in this period also experienced an undiscriminating acceptance and hasty integration of ideas, leading to a mixture of the good and the bad. This essay provides an important overview of 70 years of foreign literature studies in China, though the specific situations are much more complex. In recent years, as the ideas of cultural confidence and a community of shared future for mankind deeply resonate with the public, the principles of serving the Chinese people and Chinese socialist cause are increasingly becoming significant recognitions within China’s foreign literature scholarly community.

Shame and Safety Pins: Dress Controversy and ‘Moral Technologies’ in 1900s Urdu Magazines for Women

This article interrogates the changing bodily practices of shame (sharm) in colonial India at a time when a Muslim national identity was being shaped and gender expectations were being questioned with the growing presence of women in the public sphere. Focusing on a controversy on Muslim dress reform in two Urdu periodicals for women, Tahzīb un-Niswān (Ladies’ Culture, a weekly from Lahore) and Ḵẖātūn (Madam, a monthly from Aligarh) in 1905–7, I examine the way upper- and middle-class women navigated Islamic prescriptions and Western ideas of ‘progress’ while debating the contours of community identities. In the quest to safeguard their modesty, the new technology of the safety pin offered a creative solution. This article argues that it played an active role in allowing for new practices of female modesty and in creating tensions around group (qaum) formation in British India.

Letters of Indonesian nationalist Sjahrir to his beloved Maria Duchâteau; A transcultural case of travel writing

The letters Indonesian nationalist Sjahrir wrote between 1932 and 1940 to his Dutch beloved Maria Duchâteau illustrate a transcultural case of travel writing. They also illustrate how much he was convinced that Western ideas and attitudes could assist Indonesian people to develop and gain sufficient self-confidence to shake off the colonial yoke. Born into an elite Minangkabau family, Sjahrir studied in Java and The Netherlands, before taking up campaigning for a non-cooperative political party which emphasized the importance of education. This article discusses the period between early 1932 and 26 February 1934, before Sjahrir’s arrest and following imprisonment and exile. In this period of relative freedom (but without Maria, who on 14 May 1932 had been extradited to Holland), Sjahrir travelled a lot throughout Java. In his letters, he gives examples of social injustice and colonial abuse, of the contrast between the beauties of nature and the poverty-stricken inhabitants of Java, and of differences along the lines of ethnicity, social class, and gender.

A meta-theory of ubuntu: Implications for responsible leadership in Africa

Purpose: This study provides an outline of a meta-theory of ubuntu to illuminate how responsible leadership might be understood and enacted in African settings.Design/methodology/approach: This study presents an initial theory on ubuntu and appeals to realist philosophical principles to provide an approach to understand the structures that make ubuntu possible. The study tests and refines that initial theory using evidence about reconciliation in Africa where ubuntu has been revealed. It then discusses the key concepts of responsible leadership using ubuntu as a lens.Findings/results: Ubuntu is an important basis for responsible leadership in many African communities. It can manifest, to varying extents, when individuals engage with their environments and are exposed to an apology. Apology reveals the rights, privileges, obligations and responsibilities of individuals. It provides an environment for transformative conversations that improve understanding and promote harmony.Practical implications: Theories of responsible leadership based on ubuntu will prioritise engagement with African cultures and issues in a holistic manner. Leaders who activate ubuntu will be less interested in stakeholder management and more in citizenship. This approach decentres organisations and foregrounds humanity.Originality/value: This study contributes to the theory of ubuntu and proposes that it can support the conceptualisation and implementation of responsible leadership in African settings. It clarifies the nature of responsibility and indicates to whom that responsibility is owed. It helps bridge African and Western ideas to reverse the marginalisation of African systems of thought by positioning ubuntu as an important socio-philosophical idea.

Overhead modernity: airplanes, skywriting, and heterotopia in the sky

Screenology, or Media Archaeology of the Screen, has occupied me for over twenty years. I am more and more convinced that its investigations must be taken far back in time and also beyond the Western world. Media screens can be understood as dedicated artifacts that are distinct from the forms and contents that keep appearing on them. In brief, they are interfaces that connect the close and the remote, the present and the absent, the material and the discursive. To understand their genealogy from extended spatiotemporal perspectives, it is important to pay attention to “screen-like” things that may not even have been called “screens”, “écrans” or “Leinwands” by their creators and users. One example of such screen-like objects that commands attention are the “screens” produced in East-Asian cultures like Japan and China since times immemorial. They have specific histories, interconnections, forms, iconographies and uses. Although such objects do not seem to match the later Western idea of media screens (their decorations and the pictures they carry are permanent), they deserve attention from a screenological perspective not only as what they are, but also because they became integrated into the cultural, political and economic processes that brought different parts of the world together. We can talk about “traffic in screens”, which has become an extensive phenomenon. Oriental “screens” were transported to different parts of the world, including Europe and Latin America. They became submitted to cultural trends and were given signification by the receiving cultures. Obvious examples are the Western trends Chinoiserie and Japonisme, which saw these “screens” in very different ways compared with those who had conceived and produced them. Western “Orientalist” (E. Said) interpretations influenced how these objects were seen in the environments where they had been produced. In this paper, I will suggest that making sense of such cross-cultural exchanges will add important insights to our efforts to understand the formative developments of media screens from perspectives that go beyond Western views and ideological formations.

Shooting and Fishing Prohibitions in the Water Bodies of Ajmer–Pushkar During Colonial Period: The Case of Marginalised Communities

Popular perception views the colonial regime as totally unconcerned about the notions of propriety and sentiments associated with the native population. Such a view does not bar us from studying colonial governance and the public works that it undertook under normal governance. The case study of fishing prohibitions imposed on the lakes of Ajmer–Pushkar highlights not only the regard that the colonial government had towards the religious sentiments of the masses but also the influence of modern Western ideas of environment conservation. Parallel to this runs the narrative of communal tension that erupts due to the prioritisation of religious sentiments of the majority community by the British State. The poor, whose sustenance is dependent on fishing, find ways to breach the colonial prohibitions, thereby challenging the regime’s authority. Similarly, the representatives of the vegetarian merchant class use their influence to compel the British administrators to take the steps they favoured. No consensus or conclusion is reached due to the complex nature of the whole affair, but the reading of the correspondence that emergence to and from the Chief Commissioner’s Office of Ajmer–Merwara on the subject may give us an insight into the various factors that influenced the functioning of the colonial administration and the diverse kinds of reaction that these elicited from the native population.

An index of longing

Feminist epistemology positions knowledge in relationship to, or as contingent on, its knower. From this framework, drawing can be situated as a relational and embodied form of knowing the phenomenal world. Drawing opens a space in which we can explore the margin between perception and representation as an epistemological problem. It asks: ‘How can we locate the relationship between knowers and what is known across time through the canon of drawing?’. Drawing is the enactment of this problem. It bridges the gap between the phenomenal and the constructed world of knowledge and, in doing so, visualizes the relationship between our senses and our sense of self. My research reflects on the visual history of ‘The Corinthian Maid’, a Roman origin story for the first act of drawing, and on its use in my own creative practice as a framework to explore the evolution of western ideas on gender, embodiment, knowledge and creativity. The Corinthian Maid functions as an access point through which to consider new understandings of the relationship between knowledge and the body, with drawing as our guide.

The Reciprocal Promotion of Community and Translation in Chinese and English Culture

Translation makes communication between different languages possible, and in the process of communication, the common pursuit of great ideas further deepens the desire for communication. Both Chinese and Western cultures have long histories of collective thought, and the historical blending of Chinese and Western ideas has also proven that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between collective thought and the act of translation. This article will illustrate the inner essence and relationship between community and translation.

Tradition and Development of Lithuanian Terminology

The development of Lithuanian terminology has undergone several stages. The first stage is characterised by elemental terminology development, marked by unsystematic progress before the Industrial Revolution. Due to Lithuania’s socio-cultural circumstances—such as the prevalence of science in international languages, the absence of a standardised public Lithuanian language, occupation, and its peripheral status within the empire—terminology primarily relied on the spoken folk language, lacking a structured scientific foundation. The second stage aligns with Lithuania’s industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century. With advancements in industry, science, education, the press, and the popular scientific literature, there emerged a demand for new, systematic Lithuanian terminology. The resources from previous centuries proved insufficient in both quality and quantity. Consequently, alongside original Lithuanian terminology, a considerable number of translated terms, calques, and foreign language influences emerged, leading to synonymy issues. Often a patriot or a man of science, who has returned or is returning to the Lithuanian language, has, to put it mildly, insufficient knowledge of Lithuanian word formation and grammar, and hence the rather poor quality of terminology emerges. The third stage of development marks the beginning of systematic and conscious work on terminology, the recognition of terminology as an important auxiliary scientific discipline, and the postulation of its principles in the first half of the 20th century. It is during this period that textbooks and systematic dictionaries were produced in various fields of science (mathematics, geometry, zoology, engineering, philosophy, law, etc.). Even administrative resources are used, with the creation of terminology commissions in various subject areas. It is at this moment that the terminology genius of Stasys Šalkauskis stands out because by creating and reflecting on the terminology of philosophy, he lays the foundations of the science of Lithuanian terminology. His ideas are in line with those of Eugen Wüster, who is considered to be the founder of terminology. The fourth stage of terminology development coincides with the Soviet occupation. Despite the complex situation and language dynamics, the publication of term dictionaries in diverse scientific fields flourished. Notably, all education, from primary school to dissertation defence, was available in the Lithuanian language. Although the influence of Russian was strong and the Soviet school dominated terminology science, this period witnessed substantial development. The fifth stage refers to the recent post-independence times. Terminology work has become much more lively and varied, acquiring a truly international character, and Western ideas of terminology have been widely adopted. A national language policy has emerged. Unfortunately, against the background of the general equality of the languages of the European Union, the language of science is increasingly becoming English, and the number of scientific publications in Lithuanian is decreasing. Therefore, it is sometimes worrying to think what lies ahead for the science of terminology in Lithuania and for the Lithuanian terminology. The science of terminology is young. Both in Europe and in Lithuania. It may have its roots in the early 19th century, but the time of its formation is the middle of the 20th century. However, during this short period of time, due to the efforts of terminologists—both linguists and specialists in the subject areas - the Lithuanian terminology has successfully played its proper role in the Lithuanian language of science and technology. The hope is that the morbidly perceived internationality will not overshadow the Lithuanian language altogether and that the new winds of life will not hinder the development of Lithuanian terminology, which will continue to serve the intellectual life of the Lithuanian nation, despite “occasional setbacks”.

The Need to Overcome the Cultural Hegemony of the West in Political Science on The Example of the Problem of Contemporary Islamist Terrorism

Using the example of the problem of contemporary terrorism, the article raises the question of the need to overcome the dependence of Russian science on the hegemony of the West. In the world in general and in Russia in particular, the period of admiration for the Western concept of liberal democracy and the concepts of globalization, human rights, soft power, civil society, democratic transition, terrorism, hybrid wars, etc., developed by liberal thought, is coming to an end. These theories are increasingly less accepted in as normative, universal, whose implementation necessarily requires Western supervision. These theories, developed during a unique historical process in Western countries, cannot be adequately applied to determine the direction of development of non-Western countries. In this study, we consider the problem of contemporary Islamist terrorism as a concrete example of the need for a critical revision of Western ideas. To do this, we turn to the ideas of a number of Russian authors, as well as Western representatives of postmodernism, neo-Marxism and left-radical thought, who sharply criticize the basic dogmas of Western liberal political science. This allows us to conclude that Islamist terrorism is not the result of the activities of individual radicals or a manifestation of the aggressive nature of Islam, but is reproduced by the conflict system of modern international relations. Thus, Islamist terrorism as a radical form of politicization of Islam is most often a reaction of the Muslim world to Western globalism, to the crisis of a number of Muslim societies as a result of Western intervention. The system-functional approach makes it possible to understand the place and role of Islamist terrorism in contemporary hybrid wars, which the West uses to maintain its global empire. Islamist terrorism can be viewed as an element of a system of hybrid wars. In this system, along with Islamist terrorism, there is an important phenomenon of combating it - anti-terrorism, and also, along with Islamist terrorism as the activity of non-governmental armed groups, there is state terrorism, mainly carried out by Western states.