{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Buddhist Studies","slug":"new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606","podcast_index_feed_id":851606,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT8948303572","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/religion-faith/buddhist-studies/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/b391c9ba-ecf5-11e8-908d-53b9e7cf016b/image/a37eb6d9dc7eaa5c9949983662b71010.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":416,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies","last_synced_at":"2026-06-27T14:21:55.893820+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606"},"episode":{"title":"Shuchen Xiang, \"Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea\" (Princeton UP, 2023)","slug":"shuchen-xiang-chinese-cosmopolitanism-the-history-and-philosophy-of-an-idea-princeton-up-2023","published_at":"2026-01-04T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606/shuchen-xiang-chinese-cosmopolitanism-the-history-and-philosophy-of-an-idea-princeton-up-2023","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3641496409.mp3?updated=1701198566","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK3641496409.mp3?updated=1701198566","summary":"A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference. Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophic: the extermination and displacement of aboriginal populations, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism. China, however, took a different historical path. In Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea (Princeton UP, 2023), Shuchen Xiang argues that the Chinese cultural tradition was, from its formative beginnings and throughout its imperial history, a cosmopolitan melting pot that synthesized the different cultures that came into its orbit. Unlike the West, which cast its collisions with different cultures in Manichean terms of the ontologically irreconcilable difference between civilization and barbarism, China was a dynamic identity created out of difference. The reasons for this, Xiang argues, are philosophical: Chinese philosophy has the conceptual resources for providing alternative ways to understand pluralism. Xiang explains that \"Chinese\" identity is not what the West understands as a racial identity; it is not a group of people related by common descent or heredity but rather a hybrid of coalescing cultures. To use the Western discourse of race to frame the Chinese view of non-Chinese, she argues, is a category error. Xiang shows that China was both internally cosmopolitan, embracing distinct peoples into a common identity, and externally cosmopolitan, having knowledge of faraway lands without an ideological need to subjugate them. Contrasting the Chinese understanding of efficacy--described as \"harmony\"--with the Western understanding of order, she argues that the Chinese sought to gain influence over others by having them spontaneously accept the virtue of one's position. These i…","meta_description":"A provocative defense of a forgotten Chinese approach to identity and difference. Historically, the Western encounter with difference has been catastrophi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5370,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606/episodes/shuchen-xiang-chinese-cosmopolitanism-the-history-and-philosophy-of-an-idea-princeton-up-2023/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-buddhist-studies-851606/shuchen-xiang-chinese-cosmopolitanism-the-history-and-philosophy-of-an-idea-princeton-up-2023.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}