Is there a “Chinese way” to democracy ?

Anne Cheng est Professeur au Collège de France, titulaire de la Chaire "Histoire intellectuelle de la Chine". Depuis près de trente ans, elle a mené ses travaux d’enseignement et de recherche sur l’histoire intellectuelle de la Chine, en particulier sur le confucianisme, d’abord dans le cadre du CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), puis de l’INALCO (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), avant d’être nommée à l’Institut universitaire de France et, tout dernièrement, élue au Collège de France.

Descriptif de la conférence (en anglais):

"For the past hundred years or so, ever since the early 20th century, the issue of the possibility for China to develop a democratic political system has been hotly debated, both by Chinese and Western theoreticians. Among the numerous propositions that have emerged, one of the most prominent is the attempt made by some “new Confucians” (most of them chose to leave Communist China after 1949) to delve into the resources offered by the Chinese intellectual tradition with a view to dig out indigenous antecedents of democracy. Ever since the 1980s, when mainland China jumped in its turn on the “new Confucian bandwagon”, such mobilization of traditional culture has taken a rather more aggressive turn, with the search for a specifically “Chinese way” which remains to be examined from a critical and historical viewpoint."

Anne Cheng