Teaching Ancient Chinese philosophy in cross-cultural environment

Julius Vaitkevicius

Nanjing University

论文摘要Paper Abstract：The article (speaker) discusses various challenges and issues of teaching more than 2000 years old ideas and practices of Ancient China to young modern day students coming from completely different cultural backgrounds from all around the world. Most of the biggest challenges are due to obvious or apparent conflict between past and present, old and young, mature and immature, West and East, as well as the difference between so called philosophies of life taught organically in natural daily surroundings and academic discipline delivered in an artificial environment where only strict and bare logical reasoning is valued.

How can a lecturer meet those challenges and deliver a course that would cross forementioned cultural and social barriers? In this article (speech) the author is addressing these challenges and questions basing his research on several years of experience of actually lecturing Ancient Chinese thought to international students.