Event

The Self in the West and East Asia: Being or Becoming

Date: July 27, 2026
Location: All Sages Bookstore (4F U-Center, No. 28 Chengfu Road, Haidian District, Beijing)
Language: Chinese, machine translation available

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People may have an intuitive sense of what those from Western or East Asian heritages are like, but few understand the deeper reasons behind these differences. This question of “why” lies at the center of the human self. Beyond individual characteristics, our sense of self owes much to the philosophy of our culture. Dr. Jin Li will give a presentation on her new book: The Self in the West and East Asia: Being or Becoming. She will explore the philosophical origins of the self in both cultural systems, synthesizing the findings of cutting-edge psychological research to reveal a fundamental contrast.

Speaker

LI Jin

Professor of Education and Human Development at Brown University

Dr. Li’s research focuses on East Asian virtue-oriented and Western mind-oriented learning models and how these models shape children’s learning beliefs, parental socialization, and achievement. The Berggruen Fellowship (2015—17) supported her book project entitled The Self in the West and East Asia: Being or Becoming, published in 2024. In this treatise, Li synthesizes philosophy with psychological research to examine how the self is conceptualized and functions in these two cultural systems. Currently, Dr. Li is writing a new book on the philosophy of affect in the West and East Asia and related psychological research. Li received her B.A. in German from Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Languages, China, 1982. She earned her first Ed.M. in education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988, her second Ed.M. in Administrative Planning and Social Policy in 1991 and her Ed.D. in human development and psychology in 1997 from Harvard University.

Commentator

CHENG Lesong

Dean and Professor, Department of Philosophy and of Religious Studies, Peking University

Professor Cheng earned his PhD in Culture and Religion from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2006. His research focuses on early Daoist thought, the history of Daoist ideas, and intellectual history during the Han Dynasty. Adopting a perspective that views religion in terms of faith, he employs methods in textual and intellectual history to analyze Daoist classics within their ancient cultural contexts, thereby contributing to an academic understanding of Daoism in Chinese cultural history. Professor Cheng also teaches a range of courses on Daoism and religious studies, including Daoist history, Daoism and folk religion, and the principles of religious studies.

About The Berggruen Institute

The Berggruen Institute’s mission is to develop foundational ideas and shape political, economic, and social institutions for the 21st century. Providing critical analysis using an outwardly expansive and purposeful network, we bring together some of the best minds and most authoritative voices from across cultural and political boundaries to explore fundamental questions of our time. Our objective is enduring impact on the progress and direction of societies around the world.