The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) was envisaged as “a two-arched bridge between the past and the present, the East and the West.” While conflict arguably outweighed collaboration during the second half of the nineteenth century, the much longer span of time between the Ming and early Qing-dynasties saw an encounter between our two great traditions that took place on a much more equal-footing.
The encounter is visible in the books published in this period, which the CUHK Library has been collecting. These books highlight the most important areas of mutual interest in early China-Western relations, which to a large extent mirror the modern faculties and departments of our University. Using the Library’s growing collection of rare books, this exhibition shows how the geographical and cultural distance between China and Europe was bridged. As such, it invites visitors to consider the overlapping and connected Chinese and Western origins of many of the most dynamic areas of our modern University, from the study of China’s philosophy and earliest dynastic history, to biomedical science and mechanical engineering.
It brings together scholars from across Hong Kong and the world to address the intellectual and cultural interactions between early modern China and Europe, 1500-1800.
The Speaker
Prof Stuart M. McManus is a humanist and legal historian working on law, slavery and empire in world history from a global and multi-ethnic perspective. He also has interests in the history of classical scholarship and Chinese humanities. He received his Ph.D. in history (secondary field in classical philology) from Harvard University, where he also studied civil law. Prior to coming to CUHK, he taught Mexican and ancient Mediterranean history for two years at the University of Chicago, where he was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow at the Stevanovich Institute on the Formation of Knowledge. His book, entitled Empire of Eloquence, on the global history of renaissance humanism (based on primary research in 13 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia) was published Cambridge University Press in 2021, and he is beginning work on a second book on the global legal background of the famous 1619 slave voyage to Virginia. In 2019, Professor McManus was on leave at Princeton University’s Davis Center for Historical Studies as part of the Center’s “Law & Legalities” theme, and in 2021 he was a visiting fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
In addition, he is the author of more than 30 articles and book chapters that have appeared in the American Historical Review, Hispanic American Historical Review, Gender & History, Latino Studies, Catholic Historical Review, Colonial Latin American Review, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Renaissance Quarterly, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte and other similar venues. Several of these have received prizes, including the Royal Historical Society’s 2021 David Berry Prize. He has also served as a reader for the American Historical Review and other journals and presses.
Venue: Exhibition Area, University Library, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Admission: $100 for members, $150 for guests /non-members. Walk-in guests are welcome depending on availability. Cash payment will be collected at the event day. Please prepare the exact payment.
Registration: Please email membership@royalasiaticsociety.org.hk and provide your membership number, if applicable, at the time of registration.