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As a guest of our MCC Lunch Talks series, Dr Eric Hendriks, Dutch sociologist and MCC Visiting Fellow, gave a presentation on War of the Worlds – China’s Counter Cosmopolitanism.
In recent years, philosophy that analyses the world has received a lot of attention in Chinese academic circles. Its theorists attempt to redefine the concept of the "world" to counter the influence of American-centric and liberal worldviews. During Dr Hendriks' lecture, the students were able to gain an insight into the social, political, and cultural processes based on Chinese historical continuity. Also, they could learn about the Chinese political elite's perception of world harmony, or universalism based on particularism. The speaker kept the question open to all of us as to how realistic the Chinese position is, or whether it represents a utopian world view.
The purpose of the MCC Lunch Talks event series is to give MCC lecturers, guest lecturers and students the opportunity to discuss their academic work and research results.