On January 20, 2014, dean of Harvard University led a delegation to visit the PKU Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. President Tu Weiming presented an overview of the Institute, and secretary general Chen Jiahong of the World Ethics Center made a introduction of the Center and Misha Tadd provided assistance.

President Tu Weiming expressed his thankfulness for the coming of the dean-led delegation to this “young” institute and hoped Harvard University could help Chinese higher education become more international and advanced. He introduced to the delegation three major centers of the PKU Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences: Culture China, Dialogue of Civilizations and Yenching Center. Professor Tu Weiming pointed out man is an integral whole, and cultural exchange and religious dialog are extremely important, as they aim to eliminate the ingrained thinking of oriental-occidental conflict and improve globalization through building cultural diversity. He stressed despite tremendous benefits brought to man since the Enlightenment, the concepts of instrumental rationality and economic man have led to ecological damage and oppression of man. So other traditions on the earth must serve to complement social values in modern world, and that’s why professor Tu considered it necessary to introduce oriental values underpinning harmony, responsibility and compassion and develop spiritual humanism so as to break away from ideological constraints of the Enlightenment.

Chen Jiahong made a brief introduction of the World Ethics Center, especially Confucian Businessmen Program. Associate researcher Lu Yin attended 2013 International Conference on Ming-Qing Studies held in Taiwan and published research paper
Between December 5 and 6 of 2013, associate researcher and executive director Dr. Lu Yin of Yenching Center (planned) headed for Taipei Academia Sinica to attend “2013 International Conference on Ming-Qing Studies” and published research paper.

This conference was co-hosted by “Academia Sinica” Ming-Qing Studies Council and Institute of Taiwan History. The event was open to application in the form of paper panel, and 28 panels out of 67 applications were selected based on three themes (literature, history, philosophy), which took place at three venues simultaneously and involved nearly 300 attendees. The theme for Dr. Lu Yin’s paper panel was “Knowledge Transformation and Style Change—New Literary Genre and Style in the Late Qing Dynasty”. It was assessed by chair professor Zheng Yuyu of Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University.

Diversified writing experience brought by transformation of knowledge in the late Qing Dynasty has long been concealed by the picture of evolutionary literature the “May 4th” generation constructed and fragmented by modern western literary concept, genre pattern and realistic idea. Genre consciousness and style experience unique to the late Qing Dynasty fail to be acknowledged in the framework of literary history. For this reason, the paper panel chose mystery novel, new novel, game theory and textbook to explore new literary genre and style in the late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of “studies of compositional style”.

On December 5, Dr. Lu Yin published his paper titled Imagine One Type of “Chinese Literature”: New Style Consciousness of Enlightening Textbook in the Late Qing Dynasty. The paper pointed out new enlightening textbooks and Chinese textbooks emerged in the process of educational system incubation and establishment in the late Qing Dynasty. These new enlightening books stemmed from western and Japanese “reader”, and were closely linked with “textbooks” of Japanese primary schools; as the style was influenced by the concept of “common literature” in the Meiji period, it concentrated on the training of practical ability.

Unlike previous textbook focusing on “children’s discovery”, Dr. Lu Yin’s study revolved around adult writers’ writing consciousness and literary imagination. The so-called “Chinese literature” at that time was neither vernacular Chinese proclaimed by later mandarin Chinese scholars nor ancient Chinese language stated by traditional scholars, and it was a conception of practical new style from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, which was overwhelmed by “Chinese Language Movement” and “May 4th” new literature in later periods. Aside from attending the academic seminar, Dr. Lu Yin also presented an academic report on “Chinese Literature Education in the Late Qing Dynasty” on December 7 in the class of “modern literature” given at the Department of Chinese Literature, National Taiwan University.