Time: 28 May 2021  (Friday)  1：30-3：30pm  (Beijing Time)

Venue: Room 1127, Block A, Creative Building, Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University

Language: Chinese

Topic: Rising Outside the System

Abstract: War and change were the leitmotif of the late 19th and the early 20th century. Japan’s rapid ascent in East Asia fundamentally changed the Tianxia system. After the Meiji restoration, Japan became an industrialized country capable of raising a modern army—defeating Czarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. Together with Japan’s ascent as the new regional hegemon in East Asia was a new way of organizing inter-state relations. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the following analytical questions. First, why did Japan overthrow the regional architecture, which had been established for centuries and undergirded by Chinese superiority. Second, what were the crucial factors that determined not only a hegemonic change, but also changes to the Chinese hegemony. Third, what lessons can we draw from Japan’s ascent to understand today’s changing world. Truly, the ‘Celestial Dynasty’, with its small agrarian economy, collapsed in the advent of modern, capitalist production. More importantly, Japan supplanted the rules of the game because its rise was outside of the Tianxia system. A different mode of production led to a different understanding concerning how interstate relations ought to be organized. Therefore, Japan not only challenged China’s position as the hegemon, but also challenged the very hegemony that China had created. The key lesson is that, considering debates on the rise of China and the future of the liberal international order (LIO), we must gauge whether China is trying to change the core values of the LIO or its position within the LIO.

Lecturer: Karl Yan, Associate Researcher, Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University

Moderator: Qiaolin He, ZJU100 Young Professor,  Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University

Commentator: Luyang Zhou, ZJU100 Young Professor,  Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University