On the evening of October 29th, 2019, the School of Foreign Language held a lecture entitled “Building a Community of Human Destiny from the Perspective of Comparative Culture”. The keynote speaker was Professor ZHOU Min of Shanghai International Studies University, and undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students and relevant professional teachers from the School of Foreign Studies attended the lecture. The lecture was presided over by Vice President Jiang Ling and commented by doctoral supervisor Professor Gao Jihai.
At the beginning of the lecture, Professor ZHOU talked about the concept of the community of human destiny put forward by China under the background of western universal values. Taking Canadian literature as an example - an article published by the Canadian Writers Association caused the conflict between the native Canadian and mainstream culture, Professor ZHOU introduces the main contents of the lecture: the history of multiculturalism, the dilemma of multiculturalism, interculturalism (taking Canada as an example) and the community of human destiny.
Professor ZHOU explained multiculturalism in detail by introducing concepts related to it such as cultural pluralism and cultural mosaic. She pointed out that multiculturalism is a kind of cultural view, historical view and public policy. It emphasizes the existence of cultural differences, advocates cultural equality and respects the differences between different cultures. However, its connotation varies with different contexts and implies multiple frames of reference. Professor Zhou said that although multiculturalism is of great significance in the background of globalization, with globalization experiencing the process of deglobalisation, the disadvantages of multiculturalism are becoming more and more prominent. Supported by the views of scholars such as Slavoj Žižek, she put forward her own view that the cultural equality advocated by multiculturalism is inconsistent with human experience and practice, and may even lead to the fragmentation of the country. It is no longer the most convenient discourse weapon in a politically correct corpus. Then, taking Quebec as an example, she analyzed the characteristics and problems of interculturalism. She pointed out that interculturalism was based on a binary model and aimed at unity and pluralism, emphasizing dialogue and interaction between different cultures. But in essence, interculturalism is not an alternative to multiculturalism, but just another version of it. In view of the fact that neither of these two concepts has proposed a solution to the major problem of “how should individuals in the world get along with others”, the concept of a community of human destinies embodied by China’s wisdom came into being. This concept takes note of the characteristic of human being as a “community”, takes human destiny as the starting point, conforms to the world trend and advocates temporarily suspending differences, returning to integrity and establishing universality beyond self-particularity, which will become the theoretical guide to solve the current global differentiation.
At the end of the lecture, Professor ZHOU patiently answered the questions raised by the audience. She and the foreign professors invited to the lecture discussed with the audiences some literary topics such as “human style”, science fiction, post-colonialism, etc., and suggested that we should focus on the text in academic writing. Professor Gao Jihai made wonderful comments on the lecture and encouraged everyone to pay attention to the aesthetic value of literary works and devote themselves to reading.
This lecture was brilliant and packed. Professor ZHOU’s profound knowledge, rigorous argumentation, broad vision and humorous words immersed the audience in the academic ocean and provided new directions for cultural research and literary research.
ZHOU Min, Post-Ph.D. in British and American Literature, professor and doctoral supervisor ofShanghai International Studies University, outstanding talents of the Ministry of Education in the new century, senior “Fulbright” research scholar of Columbia University in the United States, chair professor of Klagenfurt University in Austria, part-time researcher of Foreign Literature Research Institute of Henan University, director of New Media Literary Theory Society, member of International Aesthetics Society, member of International Media Ecology Society, and deputy editor-in-chief of “Essays on British and American Literature”. In addition to academic research, she is good at conference interpretation. She has worked as simultaneous interpreter and alternate interpreter for such events as visits to China by national leaders and Nobel laureates, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Expo and ICOM and so on.（author: Xue Xiaoying）
