Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Chinese Philosophy and its Religious Minorities: ethnicity, religion, and national identity in modern Chinese thought and the discipline of ""ethnic minority philosophies""" "Bart Dessein" "Department of Languages and Cultures" "This project seeks to rethink the history of modern Chinese thought by providing the first ever study of the academic discipline of “ethnic minority philosophies” in the People’s Republic of China. It will focus on the much neglected relation between the imported categories of “philosophy” and “religion” and conceptions of ethnicity in twentieth-century and contemporary Chinese thought. The field of ethnic minority philosophies emerged in the 1980s after the Maoist period, but can be traced back to earlier conceptions of the nexus between philosophical, religious, and ethnic identity in the work of the first generations of academically trained Chinese philosophers in the Republican era (1911-1949). This relatively new discipline reflects the increasing ideological and institutional pressure to which (religious) minorities are subject in contemporary China. As such, the problem of ""minority philosophy"" will be studied against the backdrop of the ongoing revival of Confucian philosophy as a ""civil religion"" in the People's Republic. The project is organized around three central questions: 1) How has modern Chinese philosophy conceived of its relation to religion and ethnicity? 2) How did ""ethnic minority philosophy"" come into existence and what is its broader relevance for Chinese intellectual history? 3) What can the triangular relation between philosophy, religion, and ethnicity teach us about the practice and conditions of philosophy in contemporary China?" "A dynamic perspective on the relationship between motivation and identity negotiation in heritage language contexts:The case of Chinese Heritage Learners in Belgium" "Kris Buyse" "Leuven Language Institute (ILT)" "Thanks to globalization, the presence of Chinese-speaking people in Belgium is growing, and so are Heritage Learners (HL) among them. Due to the influence of the linguistic environment, local languages such as Dutch and French become the first language of Belgian Chinese descendants, while Chinese becomes their Heritage Language (HL).In the field of HL studies, both identity and motivation are prominent themes (Leeman, 2015; Li & Duff, 2014), and learners’ identity and motivation are closely intertwined (He, 2010; Li & Duff, 2014). However, the majority of research has focused on their static and attribute-like nature, and only a few scholars have paid attention to the dynamic changes and interaction between motivation and identity (Choi, 2018). Since most Belgian Chinese descendants have ""bicultural identities"" and are ""bi(multi)lingual"", their dynamic identity trajectories in the process of learning Chinese is worth investigating.Therefore, this research project will adopt the theoretical framework of the L2 motivational self-system (L2MSS) and Identity Negotiation Going (INT), and research tools such as semi-structured interviews, quantitative analysis and questionnaires in order to conduct a longitudinal study on the interaction between identity and motivation of Chinese descendants studying Chinese in Belgian Chinese language schools. The project is innovative in that it establishes the context for Chinese HL research in a non-English speaking context, examines the dynamic interaction between identity and motivation, and examines the Chinese HL learning of Belgian Chinese immigrant descendants from the perspectives of culture, psychology, and personal experience. The research attempts to improve academic support for this group and produce helpful recommendations for Chinese HL teaching." "The horizons of the mind: Confucianistic neotraditionalism and Chinese identity in Tang Junyi's philosophy" "Bart Dessein" "Department of Languages and Cultures, Department of Languages and cultures of South and East Asia" "In this research project the work of philosopher Tang Junyi will be studied as a representative (traditionlist) orientation in contemporary Chinese thought. By investigating his ""Exictence and the horizons of the mind"" we will analyze how Tang attempts to reinterpret and reaffirm the value of Confucianism for China and the global community in the face of modernity." "Musical Chineseness: contemporary chinese vocal music between localism and globalization" "Camilla Bork" "Musicology, Leuven" "This research examines contemporary Chinese vocal works in the circumstance where there is a strong tension between globalization and localism. Many representatives of the so-called “New Wave” are observed to use vocal and vocal techniques of traditional Chinese music. At the same time, these composers integrate and combine such techniques with the idioms of Western music. Their works are closely linked with a critical discourse that centers on the question of how to define the Chinese identity in music. The vocal works are appropriate for this research because the way in which a voice is used musically, as perceived and understood by the audience, is closely related to the particular individual and the political, historical, social, religious and cultural contexts. On one hand, a human voice can express an ethnic and cultural affiliation to show who we are; on the other hand, it can also be instrumentalized in socio-political terms to voice out who we would like to become. The subjects of this research are vocal works of Chinese composers who belong to the generation of 'New Wave' as well as have a polycultural biographical background and international renown. Since the number of these composers’ vocal works is about 80, a pre-selection is necessary. Living in the U.S. and France respectively, composer Tan Dun and Chen Qigang attract the interest of this research as many of their vocal pieces were composed since 1985 and they live in two different countries. Thus - at least the hypothesis - two different perspectives on the relationship between globalization and localism could be examined. Works such as On Taoism (1985) and A Sinking Love (1995) by Tan Dun, and Poeme Lyrique II (1990) and Iris Devoilee (2001) by Chen Qigang often use local or Chinese vocal styles, such as elements from the traditional chant or the local opera, although these pieces to a large extent are composed under the commission of western clients or premiered in the West. In these works, there is a reflexive and dependent relationship between globalization and Chinese identity: on one hand, Chinese composers living abroad often use Chinese elements as a marketing strategy and unique selling proposition; on the other hand, such works are products of the multicultural environment in which the composers live. This shows the ambivalence of globalization, in which not only the similarities but also the differences between cultures are strongly emphasized. Methodically, the composition background, the compositional process, the role of language, the implementation of Chinese vocal techniques, the notation, the reception history and the social-historical background are examined in more detail. Historical-musicological research methods are combined with methods from music ethnology and postcolonial studies with a focus on identity research." "Local Identity and Global Entanglements of Cantonese Literati during the Ming-Qing Transition (1644-1680s)" "Angela Schottenhammer" "Early Modern History (15th-18th Centuries), Leuven" "In seventeenth-century China, the identity crisis that arose from a dynastic changeover not only raised a discussion on ethnicity, but also led to inter-national cultural interactions in premodern East Asia. Chinese scholarly literature on historiographies of the Ming-Qing transition has neglected the crucial phenomenon of a so-called “localist-turn'' in Guangdong, especially in the context of Sino- European maritime encounters. This project will re-write the narrative of the conflict between the Han Chinese and the Qing Manchus using both historical and literary evidence. By offering novel perspectives of local and global entanglements from peripheral Cantonese literati and the complex Sino-Manchu tension, this research will unfold the creation of local identity, and multifaceted intellectual and cultural interactions between indigenous Cantonese and European merchants. Through both local and global historical lenses, this project will examine the life and work of a Cantonese Ming-loyalist scholar, Qu Dajun (1630-1696), who was the leading figure of the elite circle in Guangdong. Also, it will analyse how the notion of “Guangdong Culture” was created collectively by the Cantonese literati. Their perceptions of the “other”, self-proclaimed identity of “our Cantonese” and newly-defined “barbarians”, including the Japanese, Dutch, and Portuguese, deserve a thorough study which can shed fresh light on Sino-Manchu, Sino-Japanese and Sino-European entanglements in maritime Canton." "Searching for Home in the Migration Context: Exploring Small and Big Home-Making Experiences through Belgian Taiwanese Immigrants' Life Story Narratives" "Liao Da-chi, Lin Pang" "Leuven International and European Studies (LINES)" "For this thesis, I chose Taiwanese immigrants in Belgium as my research subject and examined a series of questions regarding the notion of home in the migration context and the immigrant’s daily life while living in a foreign land. The main research questions guiding this study are: What are Taiwanese immigrants’ experiences of homemaking (「家」的製作」) in Belgium? What are their experiences of managing dual home relationships between home and host countries? What does the concept of “home” mean for them in an immigrant context? How can they feel at home in their daily life? This research also considered other important issues related to the notion of “home” in the migration context, as well as how the immigrants identify themselves culturally and ethno-nationally. In order to explore the life and homemaking practices of Taiwanese immigrants in Belgium, both anthropological and qualitative interview methods were used to collect data. Between 2017–2020, I conducted online participant observations in several Belgian Taiwanese immigrant virtual communities on Facebook and also offline fieldwork at the Ecole Sun Yat-sen (旅比華僑中山學校) in Brussels. These online and offline fieldwork experiences provided good opportunities for me to get more familiar with and become closer to this immigrant community and to meet new people by inviting them to participate in the study. In total, 42 Taiwanese immigrants were recruited to participate. Additionally, through simultaneously using both semi-structured and photo-elicitation interview methods, I collected textual and visual data regarding Taiwanese immigrants’ life and homemaking experiences in Belgium. Since the author had developed varying levels of closeness and friendship with each participant, and in order to keep their narratives in context and complete, eight of the research participants’ life stories are demonstrated in full in this thesis. The remaining participants’ stories and narratives also played a vital role in helping me to understand Taiwanese immigrant life in Belgium on a broader scale, and some of these narratives are discussed in the thesis where appropriate. In this thesis, a new theoretical concept of intersectional home (交織的家) is proposed, which revises the concept of intersectionality (交織性) that originated from gender and black women’s studies. Like intersectionality, the main argument of “intersectional home” I proposed in this study stresses that the notion and meaning of home for immigrants in the migration context is dynamic, fluid, and multidimensional, rather than static or unchangeable, and there is no single domain or factor that can cover all aspects of the notion and meaning of home for immigrants. More importantly, the notion and meaning of home for immigrants is influenced by the intersection of an individual immigrant’s distinct lived circumstances and his/her personal background. In addition, it is also important to point out that the notion of home in this thesis could be classified into two different types: small home and big home, as proposed by Magat (1999). The concept of small home refers to the notion of home that is embodied in an individual immigrant’s personal and private life domains. Conversely, the concept of big home refers to an individual immigrant’s cultural and ethnonational sense of belonging and identity. By analyzing the research data, especially the eight life stories presented in this thesis, it is clear that both small home and big home are not unidimensional; rather, they are multidimensional and changeable, according to an individual immigrant’s lived circumstances and their practical needs in immigrant life. This study found that the notion and meaning of home for Taiwanese immigrants can be tangible or intangible, ranging from physical dwellings, daily religious practices, transnational social spaces, furniture or personal belongings, familiar foods, neighborhood mobility, family letters, a sense of belonging, ethnonational identity, and interpersonal relationships. Moreover, the narratives further reveal that the notion of home in the migration context is an outcome that is socially constructed by dialogical and mutual interactions between individual immigrants, their cultural environments, and lived circumstances, both in local and transnational contexts. Accordingly, the findings of this study challenge conventional perspectives regarding the notion of home, which is consolidated in a physical building and rooted in a specific place. On the contrary, the homemaking experiences shared by the Belgian Taiwanese immigrants in this study demonstrate that the notion of home for them is not necessarily a physical building or dwelling. Immigrants living in a foreign land can further obtain a sense of feeling at home (家的感覺) through different locality scales, including private dwellings and familiar environments or surroundings in a community, city, or even country. Furthermore, many of the Taiwanese immigrants who participated in this study maintain close interactions with their families in Taiwan and regularly travel back and forth between their home and host countries. In this regard, they construct a transnational social space, not only connecting their previous life in Taiwan with the current one in Belgium, but also through transnational connections and communication practices that extend their notion of home beyond the limits of a single national border.  International immigration does not only mean that people leave their home country and (re)build a new home or search for a sense of home in their new place of settlement. It also means that people leave behind their previously familiar culture and lived circumstances. In this perspective, immigrants face difficulties in navigating differences between their own and host cultures and have additional problems in identifying themselves culturally and ethnically and in searching for their sense of belonging and identity of their big home while living in a foreign land. This is due to the fact that people’s ethnonational identity is not merely decided by themselves, but also affected by how others see them. With regard to the big home and subjective ethnonational identity, it is interesting to find that, in this study, the research participants apply different ethnonational-identity performance and negotiation strategies in their daily life in order to fulfil their practical needs and further correspond to distinct lived circumstances and interpersonal relations. Although “Taiwanese” is the most acceptable and popular ethnonational identity label applied by the majority of participants in this study to depict their cultural and ethnonational identities, some of the research participants still accept and apply other ethnonational labels or sentences to describe themselves, including “I am Chinese from Taiwan,” “Chinese,” and “Taiwanese for being, Belgian for learning.” Moreover, it is interesting to note that some of the research participants are more likely to perform the Taiwanese part of their identity in their private life or at home, although they devote more effort to performing as Belgian in public life or while interacting with their Belgian counterparts. However, since discussing ethnonational identity issues is sensitive to some degree, especially when Taiwanese immigrants interact with their mainland Chinese counterparts, “downplay” and “transvaluation” are two of the most frequent ethnonational identity negotiation strategies that are applied by the majority of Taiwanese immigrants in this study. These two strategies can help to avoid embarrassing situations or even potential conflict when interacting with mainland Chinese. Similarly, as with small homemaking experiences, the meanings of big home for Taiwanese immigrants vary, and participants utilize distinct strategies to find a sense of belonging toward their big home and to perform their ethnonational identities in different lived circumstances in order to fulfil practical needs. It is important to note that the aim of this study is not to try to provide a generalized conclusion or a scientific model. The life and homemaking experiences presented here are subjective and also inter-subjective, particular, context based, and intersectional affected by each immigrant’s distinct lived circumstances and personal background. However, the author expects that this thesis will assist people to better understand the diversity of Taiwanese immigrants’ real-life and homemaking practices in a foreign country. Moreover, as all of the research participants are first-generation Taiwanese immigrants in Belgium, this study is lacking in voices from different generations. Since the notion of generation has been confirmed to be one of the most vital factors influencing an immigrant’s life experiences, future studies could consider the voices of different immigrant generations with regard to the above issues. In addition, future studies could also compare how distinct lived circumstances and contexts in different host societies further influence Taiwanese immigrants’ life and homemaking experiences in foreign lands." "New Co-operative Development in China: An Institutional Approach" "Patrick Develtere" "Leuven International and European Studies (LINES)" "In China, under the transition from a central-planning to a socialist market economy, new cooperatives, as member-based organizations pursuing economic and social objectives, are evolving at fast pace. They have played an important role in rural local development in times of crises thathave made most of the rural population of 700 million people the largest vulnerable group in Chinese society. The new co-operatives in China that are under review in this dissertation are known as shareholding co-operatives. Generally speaking, this shareholding co-operative system is regarded as a hybrid form of co-operation, combining orthodox co-operative principles with an alternative shareholding system. Shareholding co-operation based on land use and agricultural production are the two most common types. On the one hand, these new cooperatives resemble the recent organizational forms that have been defined as social enterprises emerging in the West, due to their features of multiple stakeholder ownership, their multi-purpose character and their community orientation. On the other hand, the shareholding co-operatives operate in a different way than the ones recognized by the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA), due to their investors profile in capital acquisition (i.e. potential dominance of members with large shares and allowing investment from outsiders) and governance systems (i.e. a flexible voting system rather than a prescriptive system of one member one vote). The departure point of most traditional theoretical reflections on the new co-operative development in China is its inconsistency with the internationally recognized ICA-type of co-operatives. But with regard to why and how these new co-operatives operate in a deviated way from the ideal, orthodox co-operative model, academic writings are unable to provide a consistent explanation. The absence of a sound explanation for the peculiar development of the Chinese co-operative model has made this research exploratory in nature. The general approach of this study is theory elaboration, formulated by grounded theory methodologists. This is operationalized through a multiple-case study design. Cases were identified by using a theoretical sampling during the fieldwork in three municipality-level locales in Zhejiang province between 2009 and 2011. Following a constructivist approach within the grounded theory methodology, this research uses an institutional approach as a theoretical focus. The objective of this current study is twofold. First, it aims at analyzing how new cooperatives in China emerged and evolved, and particularly, how the change in the organizational field may have engendered the emergence of formal, regulative institutions (i.e. the national co-operative law). Second, this study attempts to explore why and how new cooperatives behave the way they do, which tends to deviate from the ideal, conventional cooperative model. Through these explorations, the dissertation makes a heuristic attempt to understanding the Chinese state-society relationship from an alternative perspective. To these ends, the research first re-examined the discourse on civil society dynamics in China by analyzing it from the perspective of the new rural co-operative movement. It then looked at the new co-operative practice in rural China by providing its historical account and powerand- resources related analyses, by examining its capital formation and its decision-making mechanisms. Afterwards, the concept of social economy was proposed inthe Chinese context. Based on the results of the exploratory research, a theoretical framework was conceptualized at the end of the dissertation. This framework revealed the underlying dynamics of phenomena that played out over time. The theoretical framework integrated theories located at three distinct levels of analysis. At the level of the external environment, it analyzed how shifts in the broad environments engender or transform the opportunities and constraints to create formal institutions. At the institutional level, it provided an analysis of the opportunities and constraints bounded by emergent, formal institutions and how those opportunities and constraints influence the ways actors behave. At the level of actors, it focused on the action arena in which actors behavior took place depending on exogenous variables found in local situations (i.e. situations indicating both informal and formal institutions), together with actors recognition of identities and preferences. Overall, the key findings of this exploratory research suggested that an institutional change process has taken place, either as a result of institutionalization, or because of the process of rule interpretation and adaptation. This theoretical framework explains the new co-operative development in China as a context and process-specific phenomenon. It can help to understand how new co-operatives behaved the way they did, and how they emerged, evolved, and operated in reality. It can be used by future scholars in organizational behavior and co-operative studies, to interpret how the reality is constructed. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism uncovered by this theoretical conceptualization reflects a constitutive approach, to understand the interplay between actionsand institutions. Hence, it contributes to the literature bridging the intra-organizational and institutional levels of analysis. After elaborating the theoretical framework, I provided an overall reflection from conceptual, theoretical, methodological and policy perspectives. Conceptually, the examination of shareholding co-operatives as new hybrids clarified how they can transform from a traditional into an innovative form of social enterprises, and how they can fit into the Chinese context of rural society at the same time. Theoretically, this research,by developing multiple-lens explanations of the new co-operative practice, helped to enrich ones understanding of cooperative development froma context-and-history perspective. Methodologically, the present study contributed to ongoing discussions on general fieldwork methodology literature by sharing extensive empirical experience. Besides, it provided an example of risk minimizing strategies in the application of groundedtheory. Finally, the research contributed to the policy debate on the shareholding co-operative system and its potential as a possible solutionto the rural problems in China." "Exploration of an integrated zone for Sino-European cultural Exchange during the Early Qing Dynasty" "Nicolas Standaert" "Chinese Studies, Leuven" "China missionaries who were active from the late 16th century through the 18th century never published a Chinese-language Bible insofar as the Sacred Books of the Catholic Church were only published in Latin at the time. Nonetheless, the Chinese, Christian converts included, still had both knowledge of and access to the Bible despite not being able to read Latin. This dissertation studies the Chinese reception of the Bible in the absence of a Chinese Bible translation during the late Ming and early Qing. It focuses on one biblical narrative in particular—the foot-washing prototype from the Latin Vulgate Bible (John 13:1–15)—exploring the narrative’s appearance in a wide variety of Chinese Christian texts and examining how these texts presented the foot-washing narrative to different audiences.This dissertation identifies 41 fragments rendering the foot-washing account into Chinese; these fragments are found in 33 Chinese Christian texts. By doing a close reading of the foot-washing excerpts and the Christian texts that contain them, this study develops its own textual approach. The dissertation’s first part focuses on the foot-washing prototype and its Chinese renditions, adopting a structural method of narrative analysis to scrutinize the Latin verses and the individual Chinese foot-washing excerpts. It demonstrates how the foot-washing prototype was transformed from the version presented in the Latin Vulgate Bible into its diverse Chinese renditions. The second part of the dissertation investigates the 33 Chinese Christian texts, exploring their inherent textuality and intertextuality in search of their respective readerships and genres. It eventually characterizes individual texts and collects together those with shared audiences and uses.This study thus shows the trajectories of the foot-washing narrative from its prototype in the Latin Vulgate to specific Chinese audiences. It demonstrates that the foot-washing narrative was diffused in the Chinese Christian texts in a specific pattern: the Chinese renditions were incorporated into Christian jing texts, texts open to outsiders and texts intended for insiders, thus ready to engage with different types of audiences. This dissertation argues that the Bible was in fact received in late Ming and early Qing China, at least at the level of biblical narratives, despite the absence of a complete Chinese Bible translation. The reception of these narratives was mediated by Christian texts which bridged the Latin Bible and Chinese audiences. Through the Christian texts, the Chinese who encountered the biblical narrative were informed of the Bible and of the ways in which it related to specifics of Christian religiosity. They also engaged with these texts in different manners, thereby sharing a common textual experience within the Christian discourse. The audiences of these texts thus formed a Chinese Christian textual community in which members came from different backgrounds but created a common identity." "Printing and Christianity in Late Ming China" "Nicolas Standaert" "Chinese Studies, Leuven" "The proposed PhD dissertation seeks to contribute to the study of communication circuit of texts between China and Europe by defining the process of interaction in late Ming China. It does so by putting the text and process of publication under scrutiny; here the text is not treated simply as a carrier of religious message, but rather as a unique reality in which people connected with each other and build a new communal identity founded on it. More precisely, the thesis will further investigate on the mechanism of textual production and identity building by addressing the following questions: 1. What kind of network was formed from the process of text production? In which ways did it relate to the external society? 2. How did members identify themselves within and without such a network? How was a textual community created? Specifically, the dissertation proposes to analyse these questions within the works of the late Ming converts such as Li Jiugong李九功 and Li Jiubiao李九標." "A Cultural Psychological Approach to Acculturation." "Jozefien De Leersnyder" "Social and Cultural Psychology" "In the current research program, I further develop and empirically test a cultural psychological approach to acculturation that centers on the notion of ‘cultural fit’ – i.e., the extent to which an individual’s pattern of psychological functioning is similar to the typical pattern of others in the socio-cultural context. I start from the cultural psychological insights that people are encouraged and rewarded to fit their socio-cultural context. I then bring these insights into acculturation psychology to argue that when people migrate to another socio-cultural context not only their explicitly endorsed cultural attitudes and identities may change – as has been the focus of traditional acculturation research – but that their new cultural engagements may also affect the ways in which they feel, think and act, such that immigrant minorities may come to fit their new/other socio-cultural context. Over the next 10 years, I plan to focus on four research lines to empirically test this novel theory, thereby drawing on both my expertise and previously gathered preliminary evidence in the domain of emotion. Whereas Research Line 1 aims to document the acculturation of a wider range of psychological processes and Research Line 2 aims to map the complex interplay between the acculturation of explicit (e.g., identity) and implicit (e.g., emotion) domains across time and across different social contexts, Research Line 3 focuses on the micro-processes of socialization that occur in intercultural interactions, and that may account for psychological acculturation and cultural fit. A final research line cuts across all other three to address the question how acculturation – in its complex, multi-faceted and context-dependent form – is associated with minorities’ well-being and educational outcome."