“Rupture and Reconstruction: Multiple Perspectives on Modernity” Series

From June 2023 to February 2024, “Modern Time: Masterpieces from the Collection of Museum Berggruen / Nationalgalerie Berlin” is held at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Shanghai and Beijing. The exhibition sets the background of Europe between the nineteenth and twentieth Centuries, when there occurred an irreconcilable split between modernity as a historical epoch and Modernism as an aesthetic concept. Inspired by the implications of this inner contradiction, the Berggruen Institute China Center, together with UCCA, will present a series of lectures on “Rupture and Reconstruction: Multiple Perspectives on Modernity” from July 2023 to February 2024. The series will touch upon fields including intellectual history, sociology, philosophy, and religion, and it will invite leading scholars in China to share insights from their research and elucidate the many complex meanings of modernity.

The first event was held on July 1 at UCCA Beijing, and it focused on “the Philosophy Behind Social Sciences.” The event featured Professor Zhao Dingxin from the Department of Sociology at Zhejiang University and Professor Sun Xiangchen from the School of Philosophy at Fudan University. They discussed the influence of pragmatism on American science and sociology, China’s cyclical view of history, and the need to establish China’s own ontological framework to develop a system for Chinese social sciences.

The second event will be held on August 27 in Shanghai, and Professor Gong Jun from Sun-Yat Sen University will talk about “Humanistic Buddhism and Modernity. ”