An online discussion on modern local history from a world history perspective was held.
The author of The Missionary's Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village and two professors of history discussed about challenges in Chinese modern history research on September 29.
The book The Missionary's Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village has drawn wide attention in academia since its release in 2013, its Chinese version in 2021. The book written by Henrietta Harrison, professor of modern Chinese studies at Oxford University, tells a 300-year history of a Catholic village in North China, indicating an interaction between world history and microhistory.
Various forms of materials were used during the writing of this book, including paintings, sculptures, memories, letters, and oral reports. The question of how to approach historic individuals using these archive materials and field studies has been an inevitable challenge to historians.
To further discuss the challenges faced by contemporary historians, an online dialogue themed “Time, Space, People: Modern Local History with A World History Perspective” was held on September 29. Two history professors from Fudan University, Ge Zhaoguang and Liu Yonghua, as well as the author Professor Henrietta Harrison, shared deep insights into topics including time and space, microhistory and world history, literature and field, and ritual and society.
The discussion was hosted by Zhao Yanjie, Chinese translator of Henrietta Harrison’s previous book The Man Awakened from Dreams.
- Translated by Grace Song
