‘The West considers itself to be matter-of-fact and rational, invokes the legacy of the European Enlightenment, sees it realised in freedom movements and democratic institutions – and is surprised that the values it believes to have realised in this way are not finding favour all over the world.’ The fact that the West, and with it its claim to universality, has its limits is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the relation with China. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer points to a way out of this by no means inevitable confrontation. The key to overcoming the divisive, he argues, lies in irony and distancing – and China is particularly predisposed to this due to its written culture. Irony and Truth argues in favour of a new conception of a truly global universalism.
Essay
Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, born in 1948, is a sinologist and publicist. He has taught East Asian Studies in Munich and Göttingen since 1981, has been Director of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel since 1993 and has been Senior Professor at Eberhard Karls University and Director of the China Centrum Tübingen from 2016 until 2023. He has been researching Buddhism and its history for over half a century. Most recently published by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: Chinas leere Mitte. Die Identität Chinas und die globale Moderne (2018) and Der Edle und der Ochse. Chinas Eliten und ihr moralischer Kompass (2022).
