Shuchen Xiang
Biographic Data
| ID | 461880 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shuchen Xiang |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shuchen |
| FAMILY NAME | Xiang |
| SIGNATURE | XIANG S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Xidian University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5686-0390 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 25 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Decolonising academia
In this interdisciplinary dialogue, Syed Farid Alatas reflects on the major themes of his intellectual journey and continuing work to decolonise academia. Whilst there are reasons for optimism about the future of decolonisation – such as increasing global multipolarity – challenges nonetheless remain. The global rise of neoliberalism in university systems, along with uncritical adoption of standardised metrics and performance indicators, poses a …
A dialogue between Confucian hehe and African ubuntu
This article is based on an interview conducted by China Africa Talk between Shuchen Xiang, an expert in Chinese philosophy, and Edwin Etieyibo, an expert in African philosophy. The dialogue that follows focuses on the Chinese concept of hehe or “harmony” and the African concept of ubuntu. The two philosophers discuss the characteristics of each concept and how they structure their respective world views. Also discussed are the striking similarit…
Decolonizing the Fact-Value Distinction
This paper argues that the central thesis of Wael Hallaq’s The Impossible State is that traditional Islamic cultures as shaped by Sharīʿa did not abide by a fact-value distinction. Hallaq’s incisive account of traditional Islamic socio-political culture has relevant repercussions beyond the Islamic context from which he draws his conclusions. The importance of Hallaq’s project stems from how it reconstructs a specific tradition—Islam—to contest l…
Whiteness and the Inheritance of Our Pasts
In light of Nabolsy’s discussions of Chinese Cosmopolitanism, this paper further elucidates the central arguments of the book. Among these is the function of the ‘barbarian’ in racial ideology and its relationship to civilization. This paper also clarifies the central methodology of Chinese Cosmopolitanism as one of ‘philosophical anthropology’. Finally, it considers the importance of knowledge production about the ancient Greek and Roman world i…
Interculturality, Pluriversality, and the Disciplined Art of Remaining in Relation
This paper addresses the comments made by Magaña-Huerta, Sousa and Li, and Bhatt in relation to Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea. The article emphasizes that the dominant sentiment of their three commentaries is a desire for a situated engagement with others that leads to mutual understanding. Indeed, this is the dominant message of Chinese Cosmopolitanism. The message of Chinese Cosmopolitanism is thus, in its own w…
Must Great Power Politics Necessarily Be Tragic
This text contrasts two perspectives of power. The first is represented by John Mearsheimer’s “realism”, under which, power is only real when it is coercive, military might and which is comparable to the concept of li (力) in traditional Chinese political theory. This paper presents an alternative conception of power—de (德)—a non-coercive power achieved through co-empowerment. It is only under the first conception of power that forces us to the c…
Qing 情 as the Basis of Civilization
This paper explains the moral dimensions of Onto-Hermeneutics through a three-tiered exposition of qing . First, as seen from the Xici , the hermeneutical is grounded in the interplay between qing and its patterning and constitutes the basis of the institutions of civilization. Secondly, the continuum between the “ontological” and the “hermeneutical” is reflected in the meanings of qing itself. Lastly, as seen through the Yue Ji , whilst all huma…
Culture and Normativity
This article shows how Confucian thinking about normativity or the ethical is premised on culture (wen, 文). Underlying this relationship between culture and normativity is the Confucian assumption that humans are instinctively social. For Confucianism, humans are socio-cultural beings who have the sprouts of an other-regarding instinct internal to them. This defining attribute of humanity, however, is not constant but requires acculturation to be…
Problematizing the critique of culture
It is well known that colonial power perpetuates itself through knowledge production. In the humanities, there is a pervasive tendency to view criticality in terms of the deconstruction of normative socio-cultural relationships, especially in traditional, non-western cultures. Such a framework serves a colonial agenda as it promotes the atomization of communities, thus rendering peoples more susceptible to colonial exploitation. In place of such …
Culture as Human Nature in Vital Dispositions come via Mandate ( Xing Zi Ming Chu , 性自命出)
Qing (情), Gan (感), and Tong (通)
The theoretical and moral bedrock of Western colonialism has been its claim to “universalism.” Central to this universalism is a Cartesian dualism in which only the disembodied mind has access to the universal, and the body, as a mere particular, does not. This paper (Part 1) and the following paper (Part 2) propose an alternative model of “universalism” as the totality of interactions between embodied particulars. This model of “universalism” is…
Qing (情) Gan (感) and Tong (通)
Cartesianism is deified as the mythical beginning of Modern Western Philosophy. This paper draws on evaluations of the epistemology and colonial context of Cartesianism from Latin American philosophers to show how the Cartesian project of universalism has been detrimental to non-Western cultures. In contrast to this exclusionist universalism, this paper provides an alternative model of universalism that is premised on the interaction between embo…
Chinese Cosmopolitanism
A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism , Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughou…
Why the Chinese Tradition Had No Concept of “Barbarian”
This article argues that the concept of the “barbarian” is inapplicable to the Chinese tradition. By contrasting the Greek and later European view on what it means to be human with the image of the authentic human in Chinese philosophy, this paper argues that the Chinese tradition did not have a conception of what the Greeks understood as “barbarian”. In the former, the ideal of the human is understood through an investigation of the concept of o…
Decolonising Sinology
The previous generation of Sinologists were of the overwhelming consensus that race consciousness did not exist in pre-modern China. However, in recent decades there has been a revision of this consensus. This paper frames this shift in terms of Sinology’s complicity with white supremacy, imperialism and the military-industrial-academic complex. Contemporary Sinology sets itself up as exposing a colonial mentality in pre-modern China. The irony i…
Sinophobia, American Imperialism, Disorder Without Responsibility
This paper argues that Sinophobia and its relationship to American imperialism can be understood through Jean-Paul Sartre’s analysis of anti-Semitism, which is characterized by an evasive attitude. Under this attitude, the bivalent values of good and evil are pre-existing ontological properties such that the agent promotes the good insofar as she destroys evil. This evasive attitude can also be seen in the economy of the American empire. Revenue …
Chinese Processual Holism and Its Attitude Towards “Barbarians” and Non-Humans
The Persistence of Scientific Racism
This article argues that Ernst Cassirer's views about the concept of substance and his views on mythic consciousness are applicable to the concept of race. By analyzing examples from the most influential and representative racial theories, this article shows that the concept of race functions like the concept of substance whereby random, large-scale, and irreducibly complex phenomena is explained through the deterministic behavior of a smaller, m…
A Philosophical Defense of Culture
History of Chinese Philosophy Through Its Key Terms
The Symbolic Construction of Reality
This paper, unlike scholars who ascribe to it a copy theory of meaning, argues that the logic of the Xici is best described through “philosophy’s linguistic turn,” specifically Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Cassirer’s concept of the symbol as a pluralistic, constitutive, and functional yet concrete and observable form , is comparable to the symbolic system in the Xici 系辭: xiang 象, gua 卦, yao 爻, and yi 易. Their similarity is due t…
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part II)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an anti-essentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's humanness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part I)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an antiessentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's human-ness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
The Ghostly Other
The overwhelming motif of nineteenth century anti-Semitic discourse is the metaphor of the Jew as a ghost. In all cultures, the ghost represents the antithesis of what is categorically human: it represents the other par excellence. By using the heuristic of the ghost to interpret how Enlightenment discourse has dealt with the other, this article will argue that the Enlightenment model of the self and its relation to others was a contributing fact…
The irretrievability of the past
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part I)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an antiessentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's human-ness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
Decolonising Sinology
The previous generation of Sinologists were of the overwhelming consensus that race consciousness did not exist in pre-modern China. However, in recent decades there has been a revision of this consensus. This paper frames this shift in terms of Sinology’s complicity with white supremacy, imperialism and the military-industrial-academic complex. Contemporary Sinology sets itself up as exposing a colonial mentality in pre-modern China. The irony i…
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part II)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an anti-essentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's humanness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
The irretrievability of the past
The Ghostly Other
The overwhelming motif of nineteenth century anti-Semitic discourse is the metaphor of the Jew as a ghost. In all cultures, the ghost represents the antithesis of what is categorically human: it represents the other par excellence. By using the heuristic of the ghost to interpret how Enlightenment discourse has dealt with the other, this article will argue that the Enlightenment model of the self and its relation to others was a contributing fact…
The irretrievability of the past
The Symbolic Construction of Reality
This paper, unlike scholars who ascribe to it a copy theory of meaning, argues that the logic of the Xici is best described through “philosophy’s linguistic turn,” specifically Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Cassirer’s concept of the symbol as a pluralistic, constitutive, and functional yet concrete and observable form , is comparable to the symbolic system in the Xici 系辭: xiang 象, gua 卦, yao 爻, and yi 易. Their similarity is due t…
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part II)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an anti-essentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's humanness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
Why the Confucians had no concept of race (Part I)
This paper argues that Confucianism had an antiessentialist conception of selfhood. This understanding of self means that they did not have, and could not have had, a concept of "race" in the sense that one's essence determines one's becoming. In the Confucian canon, the embodiment of cultural norms/performance of culturally appropriate actions defines one's human-ness. This account of human agency in becoming human can be seen in the Confucian e…
History of Chinese Philosophy Through Its Key Terms
Chinese Processual Holism and Its Attitude Towards “Barbarians” and Non-Humans
The Persistence of Scientific Racism
This article argues that Ernst Cassirer's views about the concept of substance and his views on mythic consciousness are applicable to the concept of race. By analyzing examples from the most influential and representative racial theories, this article shows that the concept of race functions like the concept of substance whereby random, large-scale, and irreducibly complex phenomena is explained through the deterministic behavior of a smaller, m…
A Philosophical Defense of Culture
Sinophobia, American Imperialism, Disorder Without Responsibility
This paper argues that Sinophobia and its relationship to American imperialism can be understood through Jean-Paul Sartre’s analysis of anti-Semitism, which is characterized by an evasive attitude. Under this attitude, the bivalent values of good and evil are pre-existing ontological properties such that the agent promotes the good insofar as she destroys evil. This evasive attitude can also be seen in the economy of the American empire. Revenue …
Qing (情), Gan (感), and Tong (通)
The theoretical and moral bedrock of Western colonialism has been its claim to “universalism.” Central to this universalism is a Cartesian dualism in which only the disembodied mind has access to the universal, and the body, as a mere particular, does not. This paper (Part 1) and the following paper (Part 2) propose an alternative model of “universalism” as the totality of interactions between embodied particulars. This model of “universalism” is…
Qing (情) Gan (感) and Tong (通)
Cartesianism is deified as the mythical beginning of Modern Western Philosophy. This paper draws on evaluations of the epistemology and colonial context of Cartesianism from Latin American philosophers to show how the Cartesian project of universalism has been detrimental to non-Western cultures. In contrast to this exclusionist universalism, this paper provides an alternative model of universalism that is premised on the interaction between embo…
Chinese Cosmopolitanism
A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism , Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughou…
Why the Chinese Tradition Had No Concept of “Barbarian”
This article argues that the concept of the “barbarian” is inapplicable to the Chinese tradition. By contrasting the Greek and later European view on what it means to be human with the image of the authentic human in Chinese philosophy, this paper argues that the Chinese tradition did not have a conception of what the Greeks understood as “barbarian”. In the former, the ideal of the human is understood through an investigation of the concept of o…
Decolonising Sinology
The previous generation of Sinologists were of the overwhelming consensus that race consciousness did not exist in pre-modern China. However, in recent decades there has been a revision of this consensus. This paper frames this shift in terms of Sinology’s complicity with white supremacy, imperialism and the military-industrial-academic complex. Contemporary Sinology sets itself up as exposing a colonial mentality in pre-modern China. The irony i…
Culture as Human Nature in Vital Dispositions come via Mandate ( Xing Zi Ming Chu , 性自命出)
Culture and Normativity
This article shows how Confucian thinking about normativity or the ethical is premised on culture (wen, 文). Underlying this relationship between culture and normativity is the Confucian assumption that humans are instinctively social. For Confucianism, humans are socio-cultural beings who have the sprouts of an other-regarding instinct internal to them. This defining attribute of humanity, however, is not constant but requires acculturation to be…
Problematizing the critique of culture
It is well known that colonial power perpetuates itself through knowledge production. In the humanities, there is a pervasive tendency to view criticality in terms of the deconstruction of normative socio-cultural relationships, especially in traditional, non-western cultures. Such a framework serves a colonial agenda as it promotes the atomization of communities, thus rendering peoples more susceptible to colonial exploitation. In place of such …
Decolonising academia
In this interdisciplinary dialogue, Syed Farid Alatas reflects on the major themes of his intellectual journey and continuing work to decolonise academia. Whilst there are reasons for optimism about the future of decolonisation – such as increasing global multipolarity – challenges nonetheless remain. The global rise of neoliberalism in university systems, along with uncritical adoption of standardised metrics and performance indicators, poses a …
A dialogue between Confucian hehe and African ubuntu
This article is based on an interview conducted by China Africa Talk between Shuchen Xiang, an expert in Chinese philosophy, and Edwin Etieyibo, an expert in African philosophy. The dialogue that follows focuses on the Chinese concept of hehe or “harmony” and the African concept of ubuntu. The two philosophers discuss the characteristics of each concept and how they structure their respective world views. Also discussed are the striking similarit…
Decolonizing the Fact-Value Distinction
This paper argues that the central thesis of Wael Hallaq’s The Impossible State is that traditional Islamic cultures as shaped by Sharīʿa did not abide by a fact-value distinction. Hallaq’s incisive account of traditional Islamic socio-political culture has relevant repercussions beyond the Islamic context from which he draws his conclusions. The importance of Hallaq’s project stems from how it reconstructs a specific tradition—Islam—to contest l…
Whiteness and the Inheritance of Our Pasts
In light of Nabolsy’s discussions of Chinese Cosmopolitanism, this paper further elucidates the central arguments of the book. Among these is the function of the ‘barbarian’ in racial ideology and its relationship to civilization. This paper also clarifies the central methodology of Chinese Cosmopolitanism as one of ‘philosophical anthropology’. Finally, it considers the importance of knowledge production about the ancient Greek and Roman world i…
Interculturality, Pluriversality, and the Disciplined Art of Remaining in Relation
This paper addresses the comments made by Magaña-Huerta, Sousa and Li, and Bhatt in relation to Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea. The article emphasizes that the dominant sentiment of their three commentaries is a desire for a situated engagement with others that leads to mutual understanding. Indeed, this is the dominant message of Chinese Cosmopolitanism. The message of Chinese Cosmopolitanism is thus, in its own w…
Must Great Power Politics Necessarily Be Tragic
This text contrasts two perspectives of power. The first is represented by John Mearsheimer’s “realism”, under which, power is only real when it is coercive, military might and which is comparable to the concept of li (力) in traditional Chinese political theory. This paper presents an alternative conception of power—de (德)—a non-coercive power achieved through co-empowerment. It is only under the first conception of power that forces us to the c…
Qing 情 as the Basis of Civilization
This paper explains the moral dimensions of Onto-Hermeneutics through a three-tiered exposition of qing . First, as seen from the Xici , the hermeneutical is grounded in the interplay between qing and its patterning and constitutes the basis of the institutions of civilization. Secondly, the continuum between the “ontological” and the “hermeneutical” is reflected in the meanings of qing itself. Lastly, as seen through the Yue Ji , whilst all huma…
Philosophy (16 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (13 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · China (7 works) · Japanese History and Culture (7 works) · History (6 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (5 works)