20.04.2023

Lecture: LI Ji, "At the Frontier of God’s Empire: Everyday Life and Religion in Manchuria"

Prof. Dr. LI Ji (Hong Kong University) "At the Frontier of God’s Empire: Everyday Life and Religion in Manchuria", a lecture in the colloquium "History and Culture of China"

Dienstag (Tue), 25. April 2023, 12:00 c.t. Hybrid-Veranstaltung Präsenz in Wilhelmstraße 133 Raum 31
Zoom ID: 927 5367 8184, Passcode: 985868

Drawing on the remarkable personal archive of a French Catholic missionary, Dr. Li Ji’s new book, At the Frontier of God’s Empire: A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China (Oxford 2023) examines Manchuria during the tumultuous early twentieth century. With vivid vignettes illustrating everyday interaction between indigenous Chinese people and international players, each story and record personalizes the Catholic Church’s expansion in East Asia, the interplay of missions and empire, the intense transformation of Chinese local society, and their profound consequences on the making of modern China. In this talk, Dr. Li will share her experience of discovering the archives, deciphering the manuscripts, and organizing the missionary’s daily writings. She will reflect on the valuable insights gained from working with private and personal documents.

Li Ji is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong. She received her B.A. and M.A. at Peking University and her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the relationship between religion, local society, and the making of modern China in a local and global context. She is the author of God’s Little Daughters: Catholic Women in Nineteenth-Century Manchuria (Washington 2015), Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) and China since the Seventeenth Century to the Present (ed., Brill 2021), and At the Frontier of God's Empire: A Missionary Odyssey in Modern China (Oxford 2023).