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Call for Translation Proposals

Contemporary Debates on Historiography in China

This book introduces contemporary Chinese debates on the development of various modes of writing history in China that engage with and react to Western theories and methods in historical studies. Especially since the beginning of Xi Jinping’s regime, these debates have turned to indigenous traditions and the ideology of socialism, leading to numerous publications dedicated to writing history with Chinese characteristics (whatever this may mean). These—often officially sanctioned—publications are increasingly disseminated outside of China. Academic publishers such as Springer, Palgrave, Brill, and others have established series to introduce Chinese authors to a non-sinological audience. While this, in general, is to be welcomed given the long-standing dearth of Chinese voices in global academia, these translations (that can considerably differ in quality) are often presented without the necessary paratext, making it difficult for the non-sinologist reader to situate the texts in the proper social, political, and cultural context.

In contrast to these translations, our aim is to compile a handbook that combines the annotated translation of two to three recent academic papers for each of the historiographic fields listed below with an introduction of 15-20 pages. The inclusion of Chinese voices is key to understanding the different positions in the PRC’s academia, and the choice of texts takes into consideration that existing translations (often financed and promoted by the Chinese party-state) tend to privilege famous and/or mainstream scholars (such as Wang Hui, Zhao Tingyang or Ge Zhaoguang, for instance) while overlooking authors of the younger generation, female scholars, or intellectuals of non-Han Chinese origin. Ideally, the texts, being published in official and non-official media, inside and outside PR China, should be post-2000 to highlight the changes in Chinese academia caused by the regime change after 2012.

We invite scholars to submit proposals for translation that allow insights into the recent developments of the following fields of historical research. The translations are made possible by the generous funding of the VolkswagenFoundation as part of the project “Writing History with China” (https://www.writing-history-with-china.phil.fau.de).

Please send proposals for texts to be included to Marc Andre Matten, marc.matten@fau.de.

 

Topics

  1. Cold War History
  2. Conceptual history
  3. Cosmopolitanism
  4. Economic history
  5. Environmental history
  6. Gender history, women’s history
  7. History of ideas
  8. Maritime history
  9. National nihilism
  10. New Qing history
  11. New social history
  12. Party history
  13. Postcolonial history
  14. Postmodern history
  15. Public history
  16. Regional history/area studies
  17. Socialism, historical materialism, Marxism

 

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