{"id":7116,"date":"2015-02-02T08:23:25","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T08:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/?p=7116"},"modified":"2015-02-02T08:23:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T08:23:25","slug":"call-for-chapters-interculturality-in-chinese-language-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lantern.humanities.manchester.ac.uk\/?p=7116","title":{"rendered":"Call for chapters: Interculturality in Chinese language Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call for Chapters<\/b><\/p>\n

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Interculturality in Chinese Language Education<\/b><\/p>\n

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Eds. Tinghe Jin (IOE, London, UK) & Fred Dervin (University of Helsinki, Finland)<\/p>\n

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Deadline for abstracts:\u00a0<\/b>1st May 2015<\/p>\n

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Volume to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in\u00a0the\u00a0<\/a>Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective<\/a>\u00a0(Eds. Dervin\/Du)<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.\u201d<\/em>
\n(Confucius,\u00a0The Analects, ch. 14)<\/em><\/p>\n

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The teaching of Chinese is currently booming<\/p>\n

around the world. Thousands of initiatives at all levels of the curriculum are taking place, promoted by Chinese authorities or local organisations. The same goes for Chinese teacher education and professional development.<\/p>\n

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Teaching the Chinese language requires also teaching about China, Chinese worlds and the Chinese themselves. But even though China is often described as a\u00a0\u201cmonochrome forest\u201d (Cheng, 2008),\u00a0the country is an extremely diverse country of 1.3 billion inhabitants, comprising very different social, ethnic and linguistic groups. People from Yining (northwest of China in the Mongolian Uplands), Qiqihar (in the north-eastern part of the country) or Nanning (southern China) may have very little in common with each other, even though they share a passport. One does not even need to change regions; in Beijing for example, one can easily meet diverse people in a different district or even on a different street.<\/p>\n

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The concept of culture – as in Chinese culture – has often been the emphasis of Chinese language education, providing students with facts about China and recipes on how to meet the Chinese. This has often created some sort of \u2018cultural taxidermy\u2019 of the Chinese, which leads to limiting how Chinese\u00a0people are perceived. Chinese culture, like all cultures, does not constitute an organic and close whole.<\/p>\n

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In the 2010s Chinese language education should invest in teaching interculturality between China and the rest of the world, China and the West but also among Chinese worlds (different\u00a0regions of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.). But how does one teach interculturality in relation to Chinese, especially if one wants to move beyond limited, solid and somewhat essentialising understandings of culture (see bibliography at the end of this call for definitions)?<\/p>\n

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In this volume interculturality refers to encounters between individuals who are from different geographical spaces (national, regional but also social) who are interested in questioning their views and opinions of the \u2018other\u2019 and the \u2018self\u2019 in order to construct a space of\u00a0diverse diversities<\/i>, social justice, and honest encounters. In relation to China, this means \u2018show(ing) that there is not one unique way of thinking in China and to recognize the fact that China did not stop thinking in Ancient times, or when Western modernity was introduced to her\u2019 (Cheng, 2007, p. 11). China, just like any other country, is a rich and complex place, with very diverse people. How could one take that seriously into account in Chinese language education?<\/p>\n

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The editors are interested in initiatives having taken place around the world\u00a0to promote intercultural awareness, dialogue, and encounters in Chinese language education. The contributions should discuss and examine the inclusion of interculturality in Chinese language education.<\/p>\n

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The following topics can be dealt with:<\/p>\n

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–<\/p>\n

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