전주대학교

Institute of Korean Classical Studies, Hosted the Invited Lecture by Professor Wang Xiaoming

On the last 19th at 3 PM, the HK+ Research Group (Director Jooseung Byun) of the Institute of  Korean Classical Studies at Jeonju University invited Wang Xiaoming, a professor of cultural research at Shanghai University, to give a lecture under the theme “The Age of ‘Small-minded’: Cultural Situation on the Chinese Continent.”

Professor Xiaoming Wang is the first Chinese cultural research scholar in China to establish a ‘cultural research department’ at Shanghai University, and concurrently serves as the director of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the Tang Dynasty, and is devoted to Chinese cultural research. In particular, Professor Xiaoming Wang analyzes Chinese society critically through the study of Chinese culture, and engages in practical academic activities that change Chinese society by intervening in Chinese realities.

In the lecture, professor Xiaoming Wang introduced the cultural situation of modern China, which has changed rapidly in the course of China’s reform and opening up and economic growth over the last 30 years. He noted that at present China consists of a national system that aims most to ‘maintain political stability,’ a market economy system of ‘Chinese characteristics,’ and a living system that pursues ‘urbanized home life.’

The culture of pursuing a ‘urbanized home life,’ which is equivalent to a living system in these three systems, refers to the pattern of life in which Chinese live in cities and seek out the meaning of their life through material consumption, and it makes Chinese ‘small-minded’ by leaving the hearts of modern city dwellers helpless and preoccupied with individual survival.

After the lecture, professor Xiaoming Wang talked in-depth about Chinese culture with participants, discussing whether the current problems in China were caused by ‘modern’ or ‘specialities of China.’

Meanwhile, Jeonju University’s Institute of Korean Classical Studies was established in 2011 and has been conducting research such as the Institute of Korean Classical Translation’s collaborative translation project of the Regional Foothold Institute and the basic data on Korean studies in the Academy of Korean Studies. It also invited experts from outside the country to review and reexamine Korea’s modern and contemporary Confucian culture based on the history and cultural situation of the country concerned.