Aporia of Ethnicity and the State: Multi-civilizational tensions in Modern China

University of California, San Diego's Fudan-UC Center hosts a discussion with Naran Bilik and Dan Smyer Yu on the state and ethnicity.

Speakers: Naran Bilik (纳日碧力戈), director of Centre of National Minorities Studies, Fudan University

Dan Smyer Yu (郁丹), founding director Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies, Yunnan Minzu University

Modern China, like other multi-ethnic nation-states, faces the aporia of the state and ethnicity. By treating the contestation between the state and ethnicity as a global cultural issue, the speakers intend to diachronically discuss the evolution of Chinese state’s policy on ethnic diversity.

Bios:

Naran Bilik (纳日碧力戈) is currently a distinguished professor at Fudan University. His research areas are linguistic anthropology, ethnicity and race, culture change, minority education, Inner Asia study and East Asia study. Prof. Bilik was the Bernstein Chair of Asian Studies and Anthropology, Carleton College in the United States from 2005 to 2009.

Dan Smyer Yu (郁丹) is an anthropologist specializing in the studies of religious revitalizations, charismatic communities, commercialization of religious spirituality, and the relationship between eco-religious practices and place-making in contemporary China. He is the founding director of the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University.