PANEL 3: The Learning about China in Central Asia

Knowledge Production About China in Central Asia: Oral History Interviews with Senior China Experts and Sinologists

Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

This presentation is part of the project on Comparative Epistemology of China Studies, which has been conducted for more than a decade under the leadership of Prof. Chih-yu Shih at National Taiwan University. Prof. Shih has collected oral history interviews from sinologists and senior China experts from many parts of the world. This presentation focuses on analyzing the results of oral history interviews conducted by the author in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and by Olga Adams in Kazakhstan. A comparative epistemological approach is used to examine how Central Asian intellectuals’ research and knowledge of China are affected by the conditions of their societies and time, as well as how this has further implications for Central Asian countries’ contemporary relations in education exchange and in political and economic links with China.