Sinology

Office: Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften (SKW), 5th floor room 05.B137
Phone: +49(0)69/798-28796
Email: c.buettner(at)em.uni-frankfurt.de
Consultation hours: by appointment

Photo: © 2018 Association for Asian Studies

• Key research areas
• Curriculum Vitae
• Publications, lectures and events
• Courses
• Professional memberships

2000-2008
Study of Sinology, Newer and Newest History, and Political Science at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

2002-2003
Study of Chinese language at Fudan University Shanghai (GAES scholarship)

2006
Study of Chinese language at Beijing Language and Culture University (HSK scholarship)

2008
Magister Artium degree at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

SoSe 2008
Librarian at chair for Sinology at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

Since WiSe 2008/09
Research fellow and lecturer (post-doc since Sep. 2015) at Faculty 09: Linguistics, Cultural and Civilisation Studies – Chinese Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

↑ top ↑

Master and PhD theses

• Magister Artium (M.A.): Chen Huanzhangs Entwurf eines staatsreligiösen Konfuzianismus [Chen Huanzhang’s Draft of a Confucian State Religion], Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 2007.
• PhD thesis: Chinese Military Professionalization and the Rise of Warlordism, 1895-1915 (English manuscript), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, 2015.

Publications

• “Vorwort [Preface],” with Michael Lackner. In Zwischen Selbstbestimmung und Selbstbehauptung. Ostasiatische Diskurse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts [Between self-determination and self-assertion: East Asian discourses in the 20th and 21st centuries], edited by Michael Lackner, 8-15. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2008.
• Translation of Pál Nyíri: “Chinesen im Ausland” [The Chinese overseas]. In: Länderbericht China [Country Report China] (= Schriftenreihe Band 631), edited by Doris Fischer and Michael Lackner, 379-401. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 2007 (3rd and revised edition).
• Translation of Jin Yan 金燕: “Tradition als Konzept bei der Schaffung der Ideale des ‘Jungen China’ [‘Shaonian Zhongguo’ lixiang goujian zhong de chuantongguan 少年中國”理想構建中的傳統觀; Tradition as a concept in creating the ideals of ‘Young China’].” In Zwischen Selbstbestimmung und Selbstbehauptung. Ostasiatische Diskurse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts [Between self-determination and self-assertion: East Asian discourses in the 20th and 21st centuries], edited by Michael Lackner, 210-221. Baden- Baden: Nomos, 2008.
• Translation of Zhang Qing 章清: “Zwei Formulierungsweisen für einen Befund: Hu Shi über die chinesische Kultur [Hu Shi dui Zhongguo wenhua de zhenduan: liang zhong butong de yanshuo fangshi 胡適對中國文化的診斷:兩種不同的言 說方式; Two wordings for one finding: Hu Shi on Chinese culture].” In Zwischen Selbstbestimmung und Selbstbehauptung. Ostasiatische Diskurse des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts [Between self-determination and self-assertion: East Asian discourses in the 20th and 21st centuries], edited by Michael Lackner, 290-310. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2008.
• Translation of Liang Mingxiong 梁明雄: “Jiang Weishui und Taiwans Bewegung für Neue Kultur [Jiang Weishui yu Taiwan Xin Wenhua Yundong 蔣渭水與台灣 新文化運動; Jiang Weishui and Taiwan’s New Culture Movement].” In Taiwans unvergänglicher Antikolonialismus: Jiang Weishui und der Widerstand gegen die japanische Kolonialherrschaft: Mit einer Übersetzung von Schriften Jiang Weishuis aus dem Chinesischen und Japanischen [Taiwan’s everlasting anti- colonialism: Jiang Weishui and the resistance against Japanese colonial rule: with a translation of Chinese and Japanese writings of Jiang Weishui], edited by Thomas Fröhlich and Yishan Liu, 131-172. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2011.
• “Der Versuch einer Reintegration des Konfuzianismus in den Staat: die religiöse Begründung der chinesischen Staatlichkeit [An attempt at reintegrating Confucianism into the state: a religious explanation of Chinese statehood].” In Religionen und gesellschaftlicher Wandel in China [Religions and social change in China] (= Frankfurt East Asian Studies Series; 2), edited by Iwo Amelung and Thomas Schreijäck, 60-89. München: Iudicium, 2012.
• Review of China’s civil war: a social history, 1945-1949 by Diana Lary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), in Asian Studies Review 40,4 (2016): 636-637.
• Review of Confucianism as Religion: Controversies and Consequences by Yong Chen (Leiden: Brill, 2013), in Philosophy East and West 67,2 (April 2017): 569-571.
• Review of The Cultural Revolution at the Margins: Chinese Socialism in Crisis by Yiching Wu (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014) in Journal of Contemporary Asia 47,2 (2017): 322-324.
• Review of The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China: The Art of Governing Soldiers by Nicolas Schillinger (Lanham et al.: Lexington Books, 2016), in Journal of Chinese Military History 8 (1) (2019): 110-113 (invited book review).
• “Chinese Dreams of National Strength and Global Belonging: ‘Iron and Blood’ and the Forces of Evolution, 1895-1918.” In Colonialism, China and the Chinese: Amidst Empires, edited by Matthew P. Fitzpatrick and Peter Monteath, 15-31. London & New York: Routledge, 2020.
• “The Boundaries of the Chinese Nation: Racism and Militarism in the 1911 Revolution.” In Revisiting the “Sick Man of East Asia:” Discourses of Weakness in late 19^th and early 20^th Century China, edited by Iwo Amelung, 283-333. Frankfurt & New York: Campus, 2020.
• Review of Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal by Patrick Fuliang Shan (Vancouver and Toronto: University of British Columbia Press, 2018), in Twentieth-Century China, 45 (1) (2020): E-3-E-5.
• Review of War and Geopolitics in Interwar Manchuria: Zhang Zuolin and the Fengtian Clique during the Northern Expedition by Kwong Chi Man (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2017), in The China Journal 83 (2020): 219-221.
• Review of Curse on This Country: The Rebellious Army of Imperial Japan by Danny Orbach (Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2017), in The Journal of Military History 84 (1) (2020): 289-291.
• Review of Agents of Disorder: Inside China’s Cultural Revolution by Andrew G. Walder (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019), in Journal of Contemporary Asia 51 (4) (2021): 691-693.
• Review of Rethinking Chinese Politics by Joseph Fewsmith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), in Historische Zeitschrift 316 (2) (2023) (invited book review).
• Review of Jindai Zhongguo zhi bianzhou: Junfa huayu jiangou, shengzhi biange yu guojia 近代中国之变轴：军阀话语建构、省制变革与国家 [The Axis of Change in Modern China: The Construction of the Discourse on Warlordism, the Reform of the Provincial System, and the State] by Weng Youwei 翁有为 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2021), in the Book Reviews section of the European Research Centre for Chinese Studies, 1 April 2023 (invited book review). https://erccs.hypotheses.org/1806
• “Liang, Qichao.” In 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, edited by Ute Daniel et al., issued by Free University Berlin, Berlin, 2023. https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/liang_qichao
• “The National Protection War and the Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Warlordism.” In Modern China, open access, online first, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231153331

Conference presentations

• “Konfuzianismus vs. Konstitutionalismus? Der Versuch der Etablierung einer konfuzianischen Staatsreligion in der frühen chinesischen Republik” [Confucianism vs. constitutionalism? Attempts at establishing a Confucian state religion in the early Chinese Republic]. Forschungszentrum für historische Geistewissenschaften, Kolloquium “Junge Forschung,” Goethe-University Frankfurt, January 2011.
• “Saviours of the Republic – but why? On the Motivation of Leading Officers of the National Protection Movement (Huguo Yundong).” Young Scholar’s Forum “Sinology and China Studies – Perspectives and Contributions of Young Scholars from China and Germany,” October 2012.
• “Turning civilians into soldiers: Militarism and the nation-state in early 20th century China.” International Conference: Discourses of Weakness in late 19^th and early 20^th Century China (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), December 4-5, 2015.
• “The power of professionalization: Praise and criticism of the professional soldier in early 20th century China.” Chinese Military History Society – 2016 Conference: Loyalty and Betrayal in Chinese Military History (Ottawa, Kanada); April 14, 2016 (sponsored by GAES).
• “Imperial expectations of strong nation-statehood: China’s military modernization strategy in the early 20^th century.” Symposium: Nation/Boundaries/Place (University of Oslo), June 2-3, 2016.
• “Soliciting Subordination from the Soldier: Military Legislation in Early Republican China.” 21^st biennial conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (St. Petersburg, Russia); August 23-28, 2016.
• “Die militärische Nutzung ziviler Ressourcen in Kriegszeiten: Chinesische Requisitions- und Wehrdienstgesetzgebung in den 1930er Jahren [Military utilization of civilian resources in wartime: Chinese requisition and military service legislation in the 1930s].” XVII^th  annual conference of the German Association of Chinese Studies (DVCS: Deutsche Vereinigung für Chinastudien) (Frankfurt am Main, Germany); November 12-13, 2016.
• “Bureaucratic idealism and wartime realities in Nationalist China: Military service, military requisitions, and general mobilization during the Second Sino-Japanese War.” Chinese Military History Society – 2017 Conference: Chinese Military History in Global Contex (Jacksonville, FL, USA); March 30, 2016 (sponsored by Vereinigung von Freunden und Förderern der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main e.V.).
• Commentator in the panel “Home Fronts at War.” Society for Military History - 84th Annual Meeting: Global War: Historical Perspectives (Jacksonville, FL, USA); March 30-April 2, 2017.
• Review of The Body and Military Masculinity in Late Qing and Early Republican China: The Art of Governing Soldiers, by Nicolas Schillinger (Lanham et al.: Lexington Books, 2016), in Journal of Chinese Military History 8, 1 (2019): 110-113 (invited book review).
• "Chinese Dreams of National Strength and Global Belonging, 1895-1918: The Allures of the German-Japanese Developmental Model and Social Darwinist Historiography." Amidst Empires: Colonialism, China and the Chinese, 1839-1997, Flinders University, Adelaide (Australia), 29-30 January 2018 (supported by IZO).
• "Professionalizing the Military – Undermining the State: Chinese Military Modernization and the Origins of Warlordism, 1895-1915." ANU China Seminar Series, Australian National University, Canberra, 1 February 2018 (supported by DAAD).
• Panel organizer: "A Military Republic: The Militarization of China’s State-Building, Nation-Building, and Modernization Efforts, 1912-49." Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2018 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (USA), 22-25 March 2018.
• "Defending the Nation, Dismantling the State: The National Protection War (1915-16) and the Unintentional Demise of the Chinese Republic." Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2018 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. (USA), 22-25 March 2018.
• "Reconciling National and Territorial Desires in China: The Borders of the Qing Empire, the Decline of Ethnic and the Rise of Militaristic Nationalism in the 1911 Revolution." Chinese Military History Society (CMHS) 2018 Conference: War, Peace, and the Chinese Landscape, Louisville, KY (USA), 5 April 2018.
• "Secularized Religion vs. Sacralized State in Early Republican China: Modernity, Legitimacy, and the Debate on a Confucian State Religion, 1912-17." Confronting Predicament: The Mentality and Patterns of Behavior of Chinese Intellectuals in the Second Millennium, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 25-26 May 2018 (supported by IZO).
• Panel Organizer, with Oleg Benesch: “Militarism and Nationalist Thinking in Republican China.” 22nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies, Glasgow (UK), 29 August-1 September 2018.
• “Reimagining the Chinese Nation: Militarism and the People, 1902-1912.” 22nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies, Glasgow (UK), 29 August-1 September 2018.
• Panel Organizer: "Bridging the 1949 Divide: The CCP Takeover and Continuities of the Chinese Nation-State-Building Project." Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2019 Annual Conference, Denver, CO (USA), 21-24 March 2019.
• "Militaristic Nationalism and the Chinese State Before and After the 1949 Regime Change." Association for Asian Studies (AAS) 2019 Annual Conference, Denver, CO (USA), 21-24 March 2019 (supported by DAAD).
• "The Teacher’s Need for Affirmation: Western Praise and the Japanese Emphasis on Spiritual Matters in the Early Chinese Military Periodical Press." Chinese Military History Society (CMHS) 2019 Conference: War, Peace, and the Chinese Landscape, Columbus, OH (USA), 9 May 2019.
• "'The Whole People in Arms': Communist State- and Nation-building During the Great Leap Forward Campaign." Eurasian Parliamentary Practices and Political Mythologies: Imperial Legacies, Diversities, and Representations in the 20th and 21st Century. Heidelberg, 17-18 June 2019.
• “New Polity – ‘New’ Nation: The 1911 Revolution and the Militaristic Reorientation of Chinese Nationalism.” 2019 Joint East Asian Studies Conference, University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, UK), 4-6 September 2019.
• “Zwischen Machtanspruch und Glaubhaftigkeit: Chinas ideologische Neuausrichtung unter Xi Jinping [The CCP’s Claim to Power and the Problem of Credibility: China’s Ideological Reorientation under Xi Jinping].” Novissima Sinica Lecture Series, China Centrum Tübingen (CCT), Eberhard Karls University (Tübingen, Germany), 22 January 2020 (invited lecture).
• “Recontextualizing the ‘Struggles’ of Xi Jinping: Comparing Current CCP Ideology to the New Life Movement of Chiang Kai-shek.” Chinese Military History Society (CMHS) 2021 Conference: Turning Points in Chinese Military History (online conference), 14 May 2021.
• Panel organizer, with Edward A. McCord (George Washington University, USA): “Military Conflicts, Organizations, Men, and Ideas in Republican China.” 23^rd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) (Leipzig, Germany), 24-27 August 2021.

↑ top ↑

• Historisch-gesellschaftliche Entwicklungsverläufe im vormodernen China [Historical and social developments in premodern China] (WiSe 2008/09)
• Staat und Gesellschaft des modernen Chinas [State and Society in modern China] (WiSe 2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11)
• Kultur, Bildung und Medien des modernen Chinas [Culture, Education, and Media in modern China] (SoSe 2009, 2010)
• Chinesische Fachsprache und chinesisch-deutsche Fachtextübersetzung [Chinese academic language and translation of Chinese academic texts into German] (WiSe 2010/11)
• Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten in der Sinologie [Methods of scientific and academic work in Sinology] (SoSe 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
• Krieg und Krisen als Modernisierungsschübe? [Wars and crises as modernizing impetuses?] (WiSe 2011/12, 2012/13)
• Weltordnung und -deutung im vormodernen China [World order and world construction in premodern China] (WiSe 2011/12)
• Revolutionär und restaurativ? Nationalismus in der chinesischen Republikzeit (1912-1949) [Revolutionary and restorative? Nationalism in the Chinese Republican Era (1912-1949)] (SoSe 2012)
• Lektüre/Übersetzung chinesischer wissenschaftlicher Texte [Reading and translating Chinese scientific texts] (WiSe 2012/13, 2013/14)
• Militarisierte Politik und politisiertes Militär: Die politische Rolle der Armee im China des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts [Militarized politics and a politicized military: The political role of the armed forces in early 20th century China] (WiSe 2013/14, 2014/15)
• Lektüreübung zu Institutioneller Wandel, Transformation und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in China [Reading course institutional change, transformation and economic development in China] (WiSe 2014/15)
• Ideologie und Macht: Wirtschaftspolitik in der Volksrepublik China [Ideology and Power: Economic policy in the People’s Republic of China] (WiSe 2015/16)
• Lektüreübung zu “Media in China in the early 21st century” [Reading course Media in China in the early 21st century] (WiSe 2015/16)
• Legitimation und Partizipation: Das “Volk,” die “Massen” und politischer Herrschaft im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert [Legitimation and participation: The “people,” the “masses,” and political rule in the 20th and 21st century] (WiSe 2016/17)
• Lektüreübung zu Legitimation und Partizipation: Das “Volk,” die “Massen” und politischer Herrschaft im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert [Reading course for Legitimation and participation: The “people,” the “masses,” and political rule in the 20th and 21st century] (WiSe 2016/17)
• Kooperation und Konflikt: Außen- und innenpolitische Wechselwirkungen im China des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts [Cooperation and Conflict: Interdependencies between Chinese foreign and domestic policies in the 20th and 21st century] (WiSe 2017/18)
• Lektüreübung zu Kooperation und Konflikt: Außen- und innenpolitische Wechselwirkungen im China des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts [Reading course for "Cooperation and Conflict: Interdependencies between Chinese foreign and domestic policies in the 20th and 21st century"] (WiSe 2017/18)
• Rechtsstaatlichkeit vs. Einparteienherrschaft in der Volksrepublik China [Rule of law vs. One-Party rule in the People's Republic of China] (WiSe 2018/19)
• Lektüreübung zu Rechtsstaatlichkeit vs. Einparteienherrschaft in der Volksrepublik China [Reading course for "Rule of law vs. One-Party rule in the People's Republic of China"] (WiSe 2018/19)
• Formen der Herrschaftsausübung im chinesischen Staat [Exercising power in the Chinese state] (WiSe 2019/20)
• Lektüreübung zu Formen der Herrschaftsausübung im chinesischen Staat [Reading course accompanying the seminar “Exercising power in the Chinese state”] (WiSe 2019/20)
• Chinesische Außenpolitik und Ideologie im 21. Jahrhundert [Chinese foreign policy and ideology in the 21^st century] (WiSe 2020/21, 2022/23)
• Erziehung, Kontrolle, Teilhabe: Staatsbürgerschaft in der Volksrepublik China [Education, Control, Participation: Citizenship in the People’s Republic of China] (SoSe 2021)
• Übung [Reading course] accompanying “State – Nation – Army: Civil-military relations in the People’s Republic of China” (WiSe 2021/22)
• State – Nation – Army: Civil-military relations in the People’s Republic of China (in English, SoSe 2022)
• Übung [Reading and translation course] accompanying “Einheitsfronten und Bürgerkrieg(e)” (in English, SoSe 2022)
• Einheitsfronten und Bürgerkrieg(e): KPCh-GMD-Beziehungen und der chinesische Nationalstaat, 1921-1949 [United Fronts and civil war(s): CCP-GMD relations and the Chinese nation-state, 1921-1949] (SoSe 2022)
• Kritische Auswertung chinesischer wissenschaftlicher Quellen: Die Verbreitung von Xi Jinpings “Sozialismus chinesischer Prägung für eine neue Ära” [Critical assessment of Chinese academic texts: The dissemination of Xi Jinping’s “Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”] (WiSe 2022/23)

↑ top ↑

• Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
• European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS)
• Chinese Military History Society (CMHS)
• Society for the Study of Chinese Religions (SSCR)

↑ top ↑