Homepage | Sinofon

Sinophone Borderlands

Interaction at the Edges

We aim to introduce a new research approach towards rising China, grounded in the dialogue between key regions on its borders.

About

The “SINOFON” project explores how the Sinophone world interacts with the Turco-Persophone, Slavophone, Tibetophone, Hispanophone and Austroasiatophone worlds. The research team that we have established consists of senior and junior researchers from various disciplines in the fields of the humanities, social sciences and political science whose qualifications go beyond the average. This allows for a cross-disciplinary dialogue and cross-cultural comparisons which will push the current discussion on the Sinophone world beyond the current limited disciplinary and national frameworks. We present the research results at conferences, and in books and papers.

0

SCOPUS and WoS Publications

What is new

The project supports the following research areas:

Methods

Research Methods: Surveys
Research Methods: Linguistic Data Collection
Research Methods: Material Culture

International Relations and Political Systems

Laws and NGOs in the People’s Republic of China
The Rise of China and its Impact in South-East Asia
One Belt One Road (OBOR) Campaign and its Impact in Central Asia

Linguistic and Cultural Interactions

Sociolinguistics and Discourses on Taiwanese Indigeneity and Ethnicity through Chinese Lenses
Cultural Encounters between China and the Borders: Tibet, Mongolia and Manchuria
Uzbekistani Perceptions of Chinese Presence
Chinese Peasants in Russia’s Far East

Influences on Material Culture

Aesthetic Sovereignty along the Russian Chinese Border
Regimes of Taste: the Rise of China, Architecture and Aesthetics of Development in Central Asia
Uyghur Senses of Tradition: a Cross-Compared Analysis of Uyghur Material Culture in Kazakhstan and Xinjiang

Research

Linguistic & Literature Reading Group

Political Science Reading Group

Material Culture & Cultural Anthropology Reading Group

SURVEYS: GLOBAL VIEWS ON CHINA

As part of the Sinophone Borderlands project, a series of representative online public opinion surveys have been conducted in 2020-2022, investigating global attitudes towards China and other related issues. Altogether, we have surveyed 56 countries worldwide (four of them twice) and have collected responses from more than 80 thousand respondents. We hired reputable market and social research agencies to collect the data, including NMS, Focus, and STEM/MARK, who collaborated with global partners such as Cint, Rakuten, Toluna, and others, to collect responses. The research has an ethical statement from the Palacky University Olomouc ethical board.

We are proud to cooperate!

Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Anthropological Museum Quai de Branly
Paris, France
Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
Centre for the Study of Asia and Africa
El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
El Colegio de Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala, Mexico

Institute of Ethonology and Anthropology
Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia
European University at St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Russia
Central Asian Studies Institute
American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Institute of European Studies
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Fudan Development Institute
Shanghai, China
Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu City, Taiwan

The project has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund. The whole project is administered and coordinated by the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic, and co-financed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Czech Republic.

Operational Program: OP Research, Development and Education || Reg. Project number: CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000791
Project duration: 1. 7. 2018 – 30. 6. 2023 || Project leader:Filip Kraus, Ph.D. || Recipient: Palacky University Olomouc
Contact person: Jiří Luňáček, Project Manager – jiri.lunacek@upol.cz

| Contact

Sinophone Borderlands
Reg. no. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000791
Excellent research

Palacký University | Faculty of Arts
Třída Svobody 686/26, 779 00 Olomouc
phone: +420 585 633 629
e-mail: sinofon@upol.cz
web: www.sinofon.cz

© Copyright Sinofon 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Political Science Reading Group

The reading group of political science section is focused on sharing knowledge, research methods and new theoretical approaches in studying politics, economics and cultural aspects of contemporary Sinophone world and its perception of the Western society. The members of the reading group are trained in various academic disciplines and theoretical traditions. In the research, they also apply different methodologies, ranging from qualitative case studies, cultural and critical approaches, or historical analysis to analysis of discourse, quantitative textual analyses or econometrics.

Within the reading groups, these theoretical approaches and analytical tools are shared in order to improve the groups understanding of the Sinophone world, especially the PRC, and its interactions with other regional countries such as Taiwan, ASEAN countries, Japan, Central Asia or Russia or other international players, such as the U.S., E.U. or various international organizations. Internationally, a special attention is paid to the dynamic development of relations between the PRC and Europe, especially the central and eastern parts of Europe. Domestically, the situation of PRC’s minority groups, the state-society relations and its authoritarian governmentality is of our focus.

The reading group is also a platform for cooperation with others academic institutions and researchers that are frequently invited to give a lecture or cooperate in the project’s research activities. The reading group is also a place to coordinate its members’ activities beyond the academia, such as operating a think tank (the Central European Institute of Asian Studies), participating in various public discussions (on issues related to the research project), or mediating knowledge for media and participating in policy making events.

Team Members

Alfred Gerstl
Kristína Kironská
Filip Kraus
Martin Lavička
Runya Qiao’an
Renata Sedláková
Richard Turcsányi

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Material Culture & Cultural Anthropology Reading Group

The Reading Group “Cultural Anthropology and Material Culture” consists of multiple international scholars with different research foci and discourses. And since the target area of the project, the Sinophone borderlands, is comparatively large, complex and heterogeneous in terms of geography, history, culture, and population, the geographical research foci are on selected areas within the Russian Federation, Inner and Central Asia (including Altai), Southeast Asia and Oceania (mainly Melanesia and Micronesia). Furthermore, the various case-studies of the group members are related to several kind of interactions along the Sinophone borderlands in terms of colonization, cultural exchange, economic development, ethnicity, food culture, historiography, migration, modernization, and land tenure. Additionally, the group member with focus on material culture put emphasis on the collection of specimens and artefacts as well as on analysing the artefacts in close cooperation with chemists within this project. However, the commonness of our group members is the methodological approach: By investigating and describing cultures and societies through fieldwork we all conduct ethnographic research.

The overall objective of this Reading Group is to give a valuable impact on the understanding of cultural traditions, intercultural borrowings and diffusions in the various contexts along the Sinophone borderlands. Thus, the focus on matters of transmission as social and cultural process inevitably leads to a greater awareness of how cultures are highly interwoven and interdependent.

The various research findings are not only presented at conferences and workshops, but are also published in international academic journals, edited volumes, and books.

Team Members

Jan Daniel Bláha
Daniel Dědovský
Vladimir Degtiar
Tereza Hejzlarová
Petr Horký
Sergei Ivanov
Svetlana Jacquesson
Yulia Koreshkova
Dušan Lužný
Azim Malikov
Martin Rychlík
Natalia Ryzhova
Martin Soukup
Rune Steenberg
Ute Wallenböck
Stephanie Ziehaus

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.