Marc A. Matten

Prof. Dr. Marc A. Matten

His research focuses on historical memory discourses in modern China and the history of political ideas in modern East Asia, with special attention to conceptual history and the question of how to integrate Chinese intellectual traditions into a more global understanding of history. Instead of confining China or Taiwan to the area studies, Chinese history should be made part of the methodological disciplines such as cultural studies and historical sciences.

He has published numerous academic books and articles, among them the 2012 edited volume Places of Memory in Modern China—History, Politics, and Identity and the 2016 monograph Imagining a Postnational World—Hegemony and Space in Modern China.

Most recently he published Globalgeschichten aus China—Aktuelle Debatten in der Volksrepublik (2023) and The Transnational Development of China’s Modern Historiography—The Role of Chinese Doctoral Students at American Universities during the Republican Era (1912-1949) (2023).

 

Bücher

Herausgegebene Bände

Beiträge in Fachzeitschriften

Beiträge in Sammelwerken

Übersetzungen

Sonstige

Current Projects

2020-2027 Writing History with China—New Approaches in Global History, VolkswagenFoundation (PI)
2022-2026 Research Training Group: The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics, funded by German Research Foundation (DFG) (Co-PI)
2023-2026 KoWinChi – Competent Scientific Interaction with China, joint project with University of Würzburg, funded by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Co-PI)
2023-26 Memoryscapes of Collective Suffering: Memorializing Natural Catastrophes in Contemporary China, DFG (Co-PI)

 

Completed Projects

2018-2023 Producing and Consuming Authenticity—Politics of the Past in the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Sinophone Sphere, DFG (PI)
2019 Panel Discussion and Poster Exhibition: “Political Rituals and Performance of Potency in Global Comparison”, funded by by Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and German Rectors‘ Conference (HRK) as part of “Week of Small Disciplines” at FAU, October 2019.
2017-2019 Trilateral Workshop Series Transcontinental Perspectives on Knowledge Production, with University of Tokyo und Yonsei University (Korea), PAJAKO Program of DAAD  (PI)
2013-2015 Science, Modernity and Political Behavior in Contemporary China (1949-1978), Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation (PI)

 

Key Notes and Invited Lectures (selection)

Keynote: “Viewing Chinese Students abroad. A Global History from Multiple Perspectives” (Lecture in Chinese, 从多视角看全球史中的留学生现象), Symposium on the History of Scholarly Exchange and the Formulation of Modern Disciplines in China, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 24 May 2023.

“Practices as the Criterion of Truth: Ruptures and Continuities of Scientific Knowledge Discourses in 20th Century.” Lecture series China—The Next Science Superpower?, Berlin Contemporary China Network, 11 Jan. 2023.

“`Dem Volke dienen´—Individuelle und kollektive Selbstaufopferung im modernen China”, Dimensionen des Verzichts—Gestern, Heute, Morgen, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1-2 Feb. 2024.

“The Power of Translation—How to Remove Eurocentrism in Global History Research” (lecture in Chinese, 翻译的力量—如何实现全球史的去欧洲中心主义), Institute of Global History, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 12 Dec. 2023.

“Memory Politics in the European Society—the Contributions of Pierre Nora and Aleida Assmann” (lecture in Chinese, 歐洲社會的記憶工作–以Pierre Nora 和Aleida Assmann的方法為例), Research Center for Chinese Cultural Metaverse in Taiwan, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, 4 Oct. 2023.

“Sven Hedin and his Travels to China and Central Asia—The Significance of the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Northwest China 1927-1935” (lecture in Chinese, 斯文赫定在中国与中亚的考察活动—以1927-1935年的中瑞西北科学考查团为例), School of History and Culture, Henan Universität, China, 6 June 2023.

“Confucian Political Philosophy and World Order Conceptions in 20th Century China.” Lehrstuhl Soziologie in Afrika, Universität Bayreuth, 1 Dec. 2020.

“Making the Past serve the Present—Ancient Chinese World Order Conceptions for the Contemporary World?” 11th German-Israeli Frontiers of Humanities Symposium, Positioning Self and Society, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities—Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Jerusalem, 17-20 Nov. 2019.

“The Transnational Dimension of Chinese and Soviet History in the Cold War” (lecture in Chinese, 冷战时期的中苏跨国史), Institute of Global History, Beijing Foreign Studies University, 9 Nov. 2020.

“Keine Angst vor der strahlenden Zukunft—Zum Optimismus im chinesischen Atomkult der maoistischen Ära.” Graduate School China in Europe, Europe in China: Past and Present, University of Hamburg, 13 June 2018.

“Removing the Dictator from Public Memory – Political Representation and Identity in Contemporary Taiwan.” Conference Discourses of Weakness and the Futures of Societies, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1095: Discourses of Weakness and Resource Regimes, 28-30 June 2018.

Keynote: “Places of the Past and for the Past: Crafting Authentic Memories in the Postmodern Era.” Workshop Forging Literary Memory in Taiwan: The Commemoration of Writers in Museum Space, Heidelberg University, 11 Dec. 2015.

“National Sovereignty and National Self-determination in Modern China—A Conceptual History” (lecture in Chinese, 近代中国国家主权与民族自决的概念史), Institute of Advanced Studies, Nanjing University, 24 March 2014.

„Theory, Method, and Implementation of Conceptual History—the. Contribution of Reinhart Koselleck” (Lecture in Chinese, 概念史的理论、方法及其应用–从德国历史学者Koselleck谈起), Nanjing University, 11 Sep. 2013.

“The Yellow Emperor—the Genesis of a Symbol of Chinese National Identity” (lecture in Chinese, 黃帝—中華民族認同的象徵及其形成), International Symposium on Politics and National Identity in the Qing Dynasty, Renmin University, Peking, 9-11 Aug. 2010.

“Isolation in Globalization – National Identity and National History in East Asia” (lecture in Chinese, 全球化中的封閉化－－民族認同對中日韓本國歷史認識的影響), Symposium The Problem of Identity in Intellectual History: State, Nation, and Culture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 13-14 Oct. 2005.

 

Organization of panels at international conferences (selection)

Panel: Structural Dimensions of Knowledge Circulation from and to China in the 20th Century, own paper “Institutionalizing Transnational Knowledge Transfer in Maoist China: The Role of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (1956-1990).” Annual Conference of Association for Asian Studies, 19-22 March 2020, Boston (canceled due to the pandemic).

Panel: Imaging the Invisible: Knowledge Production in Modern China, own paper “Communicating Nuclear Radiation in Maoist China.” Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, 31 March-3 April 2016, Seattle.

Panel: Science and Modernity in 20th Century China: The Renaissance of “Traditional Knowledge and Practice” Revisited, own paper “Promoting Scientific Thinking in Communist China – the Conceptualization of Science in Maoist China and Beyond.” 14th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, Paris, 6-10 July 2015.

Panel: A Voyage into Memory: East Asian Remembrances of the Two World Wars, Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, own paper “Hegemony and Resistance: Communicative Memory and Collective Identity in East Asia, 1900-1945.” Toronto, 15-18 March 2011.

 

Public Lectures and Outreach (Selection)

“China als die Gelbe Gefahr—Imaginationen und Repräsentationen seit dem 19. Jahrhundert und deren Auswirkungen bis heute.” Fortbildungstagung für Seminarlehrkräfte im Fach Geschichte am Gymnasium (A5), Akademie für Lehrerfortbildung und Personalführung in Dillingen, 16 July 2024.

Interview, “Richard Nixon 1972 in China. Über die Inszenierung von Staatsbesuchen.” Radio 3 RBB, 22 June 2024.

Interview, “Warum Indien China bei Einwohnerzahl überholt.” ZDFheute, 14 April 2023.

“Chinas Haltung im Ukraine-Konflikt.” Lecture series Der Ukraine-Krieg im Dialog, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, 30 June 2022.

“Chinas Wahrnehmung des Westens.” Vortragsreihe Geschichte: China—Reich der Mitte, Kulturamt Bad Nauheim, 16 May 2022.

Sinologie im Spannungsfeld von Politik, Moral und öffentlicher Erwartungshaltung, Öffentliche Podiumsdiskussion, University of Freiburg, 19 Nov. 2021.

“China übersetzen – Sprache, Ideen und Objekte.” Ferienakademie des Cusanuswerks, 29 Aug.-3 Sep. 2021.

Panel Discussion and Poster Exhibition: “Political Rituals and Performance of Potency in Global Comparison:” Part of “Week of Small Disciplines” at FAU, October 2019.

“Eine neue Weltordnung? Chinas Werte in der Globalisierung seit Beginn der Wirtschaftsreformen 1978.” Globalität und Globalisierung—Kontaktstudium für Geschichtslehrerinnen und Geschichtslehrer an der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 6 Oct. 2019.

“Von Peenemünde bis Peking – die VR China auf dem Langen Marsch in den Weltraum.” Lecture series Mondlandungen. Imaginations- und Rezeptionswelten, Museum für Kommunikation Nürnberg, 10 July 2019.

“Der Aufstieg des Reichs der Mitte—Kulturelle und politische Herausforderungen für Europa?” Q12-Seminar, Melanchthon-Gymnasium Nürnberg, 26 March 2019.

Interview “Weltmacht China—Vom Kaiserreich zum Global Player.” SWR2 Wissen, Sendung vom 18 Oct. 2018.

“Sino-Japanische Beziehungen 1895-1945.” Sommerschule Didaktik der Geschichte, organized by Augsburg University and East China Normal University, Shanghai, 9 July 2018.

CHINA im Kino: Interkulturelle Annäherungen, zwischen Tradition und Globalisierung, Film Talk to Zhang Yimou’s Hero, KIT Karlsruhe, 16 Oct. 2018.

Abschied von der Revolution? – Neue Forschungsansätze zur modernen Geschichte Chinas, Organization of a lecture series in collaboration with the Confucius Institute Nuremberg-Erlangen, winter term 2015, own lecture: “Anekdoten, Gerüchte und Skandale—Geschichtsschreibung und ihre Krise in der VR China.” Erlangen, 10 Dec. 2015.

“Mao-Bibel, Mangos und Märtyrer: Propaganda im maoistischen China.” Bildungscampus Nürnberg, 13 June 2013.