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For centuries, Western scholars portrayed China either as a land of superior morality, economy, and governance or as a formidable country of pagans that posed a global threat to Western values. Idealized images of China were used to shame rulers for their incompetence, while China was demonized as an external threat to cover up domestic political failures. In the twentieth century, the geopolitics of global capitalism have facilitated more nuanced perspectives, but the diversifying of knowledge about China is far from complete.
In his new book The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear, Ho-fung Hung finds that both Western elites and China's authoritarian regime today continue to promote many Orientalist stereotypes to advance their economic interests and political projects. He shows how big-picture historical, social, and economic changes are inextricably linked to fluctuations in the realm of ideas. Only open debate can overcome extremes of fantasy and fear.
Talk and discussion on 25 March 2026
Ho-fung Hung is the Henry M. and Elizabeth P. Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy in the Department of Sociology and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Protest with Chinese Characteristics (Columbia, 2011), The China Boom (Columbia, 2015), City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule (Cambridge, 2022), Clash of Empires: From “Chimerica” to the “New Cold War” (Cambridge, 2022), The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear (Cambridge, 2026) and Greenback Empire: Global Dollar Dominance and the New Cold War (Chicago, 2026).
Daniel Fuchs moderates this talk. He is assistant professor at the Institute for Asian and African Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and member of the Berlin Contemporary China Network. He recently co-edited the books Die Zukunft mit China denken (Mandelbaum, 2023) as well as Eine gerechte Weltwirtschaftsordnung? Die „New International Economic Order“ und die Zukunft der Süd-Nord-Beziehungen (Transcript, 2024).
This is a joint event organized by the Berlin Contemporary China Network, the taz, the Han Sen Asiatalk and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.
