Author Chan Koonchung on His Role as an Activist Public Intellectual

Memo #95

On June 28, 2011, we published our first interview with Chan Koonchung (陈冠中), the author of the novel Shengshi-Zhongguo 2013 (盛世 – 中国 2013) or, The Fat Years. In this second installment he speaks about his role as an activist public intellectual. In 2010, he started an e-mail discussion group and NGO, Minjian China because he found that other Chinese intellectuals were not concerned with China’s impact outside of China, despite China’s role as a rising power. “Minjian” is one term for civil society. He has tried to identify scholars interested in China’s impact on the broader world, starting with Southeast Asia. He recently started a second online discussion group on China-India relations.

Part 1 – Mr. Chan’s NGO: Minjian International (1:18 min)

Part 2 – China’s Interest in India (1:17 min)

Part 3 – China-India Academic Links (1:29 min)

Part 4 – 我 們 研究歷史的就看到清朝的乾隆啊大清啊。。。您也 反思 这個呢 (1:20 min)

Related Memos:

• See Chan Koonchung’s Interview on his novel, Shengshi-Zhongguo 2013 (Memo #92)

• Our Theme on Chinese Literature

• Our other Memos about China