Guest Lecture by Dr. Zhiguang Yin

Thursday, April 11, 2019 - 19:30

Invited by Chinese Studies Department, Dr Zhiguang Yin from University of Exeter visited Maynooth University on Wednesday 10 April 2019 and delivered a lecture at the SMLLC Research Seminar which took place in the Seminar Room, Arts Building.

The title of the lecture is ‘People are God – Third-world internationalism and Chinese Muslims in the making of national recognition in the 1950s'. Dr. Yin addressed the construction of affinities, an aspect in the complex dynamic between the central authority and minority groups in society which has only recently begins to receive some scholarly attention from historians of empire. The lecture focuses on Muslim intellectuals and prominent religious figures who are ethnically Hui and examines the representation of and presentation by these Hui individuals in the public domain with a specific interest in understanding the way that Islamic religious discourse was entangled in consensus building in the early PRC period before 1958. Dr. Yin explains how the ethnic identity of Hui and the religious identity of Muslim reconcile and even resonate with the Chinese national identity of ‘Zhonghua Minzu’ (literally Chinese nation). His lecture helped the audience to understand the role of the discourse and politics of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial internationalism and human liberation in facilitating the making of the common political subjectivity known as ‘Zhongguo renmin’ (literally the Chinese people.

Dr. Zhiguang Yin is lecturer in Chinese Studies in the Department of Modern Languages at University of Exeter. His research interest lies mainly in the area of Chinese modern intellectual and legal history, 19-20 century history of international relations, and contemporary Sino-Middle Eastern relations. With a strong curiosity of understanding the formation of our modern “world-view” and the historical logic of contemporary world order, he enjoys investigating the complex stories behind the international travel of different “-isms”. He has published intensively in these fields in both English and Chinese languages.