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Fascination and Understanding

In line with two other international conferences held at Smolenice Castle near Bratislava (Slovakia) earlier, "Interliterary and Intraliterary Aspects of the May Fourth Movement 1919 in China" (March 13-17, 1989)1 and "Chinese Literature and European Context" (June 22-25, 1993),2 the Monumenta Serica Institute, Sankt Augustin (Germany), conducted from 21 to 25 February 2003 the International Conference "Fascination and Understanding. The Spirit of the Occident and the Spirit of China in Reciprocity." The conference, initiated by the Monumenta Serica Institute, was also the result of discussions and talks with the organizer of the previous conferences at Smolenice Castle, Professor Marian Galik (Department of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences), whom the participants of the conference honoured on the occasion of his 70th birthday in a special Festakt in Bratislava on 21 February 2003. There were various reasons for the organizers to focus on the question of fascination and understanding in the Western-Chinese encounter. The prime idea, however, was to provide an opportunity for the exchange of views between scholars whose research touches on various levels and in various dimensions upon the spirit of the Occident and the spirit of China. Thus, the participants were invited to elucidate and interpret the meaning of seminal ideas in the Occident (Abend/and) and China which on. one side arouse fascination and lead to attempts for understanding and comparison but on the other side might prevent understanding (Verstehen) and lead to misunderstanding. In this context the following questions were proposed to the contributors: Which and where are the hermeneutical underpinnings of fascination and understanding in the encounter between East and West? What is the "Spirit of the Occident" that fascinates and attracts the Chinese? What is the "Spirit of China" that fascinates and attracts Westerners? Is there a shift in mutual reception and understanding, e. g., are there differences in the reception of the "Spirit of China" in