Several internationally prominent scholars and authors met Friday night at Cabot Auditorium to discuss globalization and its effects on Chinese and American cultures. The speakers presented distinct perspectives on Chinese culture and the fusion of Eastern and Western culture while shedding light on China's economy, art, and political and legal systems.
The panel, which was titled "Global Culture: Mediating the Unique and the Universal," was part the China Institute's annual weekend symposium. China Institute fellows and students who attended the program spoke enthusiastically about diversity of opinions reflected during the panel.
"I'm looking at the panel and it's a phenomenal set of people, people whose books we've been reading, who are so important in this discourse of the globalization in China and culture," China Institute fellow Sarada Peri said.
Esther Won, Director and General Counsel of the Silk Road Project, spoke on behalf of Yo Yo Ma. The Silk Road Project founded by Yo Yo Ma to expand the horizons of his own musical experience and highlight the musical traditions of Asian countries.
In the short film on the Silk Road Project, Yo Yo Ma asks, "We're trying to bring people together who are great advocates of the traditions they come from, and if we make them meet, what happens?" The panel served just that function, as great minds with varying opinions were brought together in order to create a dialogue about Chinese culture.
Dr. Lawrence Harrison, an author and scholar at the Academy for International and Area Studies at Harvard University, pointed out the similarities between Western, East Asian, and Judaic values. The three are alike in their emphasis on the future, strong work ethic and achievements, and the importance of education, according to Harrison.
New York University Law professor Dr. Jerome A. Cohen spoke about the modernizing changes that the Chinese legal system is undergoing. He speculated that is possibly becoming a more federal, centralized system.
Not all of the panelists felt that to speak of cultures in terms of East and West was the best way to view global culture. Lionel Jansen of the department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Notre Dame disapproved of the way the Chinese and the Americans create a cultural chasm by dividing the world into two halves, the East and the West.
Kwame Anthony Appiah, a professor of Afro-American studies and Philosophy at Harvard University, delivered his perspective through a filmed presentation because he was unable to attend the panel. He stressed that cultures are not self-contained, closed-off unique entities, but are shaped by interactions with different people and societies.
Despite the differences in opinion, there was a general consensus among the panelists that China is presently undergoing a significant transition politically, economically, and culturally. All the speakers addressed the need to address this within an international context.
The students in attendance responded positively to the panel and praised it for presenting a diversity of opinions. Brian Cathcart, a Japanese major who is involved with Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) said that the panel was a good chance for students to learn about modernization and progress in China.
"This panel was particularly about what is important to develop," he said. "I think one of the good aspects of it was while there were people here that I did not agree with at all, various points of view were presented, and that allowed a chance for a genuine debate to take place."
"I've learned to appreciate that the intellectual community can really be fraught with dissent and disagreement which was certainly brought forth tonight at the panel," EPIIC student Matthew Isles said. "I am looking forward to discussion because I think there is going to be a lot of contention. I'm hoping for it, actually."
The China Institute, formerly known as Tufts Institute for Leadership and International Perspective, offers 14-20 Tufts students the opportunity to collaborate with students from Chinese universities to develop business and leadership skills. The students spend six weeks during the summer doing an internship in Hong Kong with students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University, and Peking University. The Chinese students then come to Tufts later in the year for an international leadership symposium.
China Institute students said that this weekend's programming gave them new insight into the culture of China.
"I think the fact that we also have students from China and Tufts working together in this context is so important in informing the student body about what these issues are. I think that these are issues that are not necessarily discussed on an everyday basis and yet form the way we live our lives," Peri said.
"The basis of the program, to create cross-cultural team building and leadership abilities, has been a success, basically," fellow Lisa Lake said. "I believe that each of us, though the exchange that we've had with someone from another culture, have gained an enormous amount, more than we even dreamed of coming into this program."
