Sinology, Sinologism, and New Sinology

Sinologism 汉 学 主 义 is a recent cultural theory that focuses on Sinology, China-West studies, and cross-cultural knowledge production.Since its proposition at the turn of the 21st century, it has aroused substantial interest and given rise to discussions and debates both in and outside China.The special issue has selected seven articles in full or excerpted form to offer an initial introduction to the topic.Sinologism 汉学主义is a cultural theory that focuses on Sinology, China-West studies, and cross-cultural knowledge production.It is a theory proposed mainly by Chinese scholars in China and abroad.As a recent coinage that has yet to be defined and accepted into a dictionary, the term first appeared around late 1990s.In 1998, two scholars, Kam Louie and Adrian Hsia, used the term around the same time, though they had rather different intentions.While the former considers "Sinology" an obsolete and inexact term for China studies that should be replaced by Sinologism, the latter, inspired by Edward Said's Orientalism, used the term as a branch of Orientalism in China studies. 1 In 2004, Zhou Ning, a scholar in Xiamen University, published an article, "Sinology or Sinologism," that employed Said's Orientalism and other Western theories of ideological criticism and proposed the notion of Sinologism as a conceptual category for critiquing issues and problems in Sinological studies. 2 Then the idea went into dormancy until 2010, when Ming Dong Gu published three articles with Sinologism as their theme and focus in three leading Chinese journals.Acknowledging initial indebtedness to Orientalism and postcolonialism, Gu reconceives Sinologism as a cultural theory that should go beyond the political and ideological orientations of Orientalism and postcolonialism.This new conception rekindled a strong interest in the concept and led to the publication of a dozen articles in various Chinese journals, which argue for or against proposing Sinologism.At the end of 2012, Routledge Press published Sinologism: An Alternative to Orientalism and Postcolonialism with a preface by J. Hillis Miller (Chinese translation, 2015).It constructs ideas related to the topic into a cultural theory of self-conscious reflection and critique on Sinology, China-West studies, and crosscultural knowledge production.It marked the establishment of Sinologism as a coherent topic for theoretical and critical discussions and debates in Chinese academia.As a term yet to be defined, "Sinologism" has multiple meanings and dimensions.It is, however, most directly related to Sinology, New Sinology, Sinophone studies in