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Thorsten J. Pattberg

Research Fellow, Peking University

Dr. Thorsten J. Pattberg (裴德思 Pei Desi) is a German writer, linguist, and cultural critic. 

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He attended Edinburgh University, Fudan University, Tokyo University, and Harvard University, and earned his doctorate degree from The Institute of World Literature at Peking University. He studied under the guiding stars of Ji Xianlin, Gu Zhengkun, and Tu Weiming, whom he considers his spiritual masters. 

Dr. Pattberg is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo; and a former Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University. He is the author of four monographs 'The East-West dichotomy,' 'Shengren,' 'Holy Confucius,' and 'Inside Peking University,' and some of his representative articles are 'Language hegemony – It’s shengren, stupid!,' 'Long into the West’s dragon business,' 'China: Lost in Translation,' and 'The end of translation.' 
Dreams of De-Westernization
BEIJING AND SHANGHAI – Every single Western writer in China will face a tough decision in 2014: “Do I translate Chinese terms or not? If negated, this could lead to […]
Trouble at Yasukuni Shrine
Spirit worship and possible side-effects TOKYO AND BEIJING – Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, shocked East Asia by visiting the controversial Yasukuni war shrine which hosts about 2.4 million […]
Philosophy Is A Syndicate
IN THE old days of the three European missions – imperialism, colonialism, and orientalism – scholars insisted on the existence of Asian “philosophies” and, naturally, they called Asian thinkers “philosophers.” […]
Ban Ki-moon: Good Morning China!
Does Ban Ki-moon see China as the next superpower? The General Secretary of the United Nations sent his warm greetings to Beijing Forum 2013, a governmental prestige project – thereby […]
Sex, China, Mistress Culture
THERE IS something I must tell you about China: It is rather morally creative in the usage of its women. There isn’t a hotel, massage parlor, ktv, or conference hall in town […]
No Quick Fix: Corruption in China
Rampant corruption causes headaches for China’s new leadership “They are notorious for deceiving wherever they can. […] Their frauds are most astutely and craftily performed, so that Europeans have to […]
The Resurrection of Non-Western Civilizations
Shengren, Junzi, Ruxue: The Chinese World is Coming Back in Full Circle “…the creator, when he arises, always finds himself overwhelmingly outnumbered by the inert uncreative mass…” – Arnold J. […]
American Confucianism
How the perfect American Confucianism ought to be constructed BEIJING – There ruminates a discussion, from east to west, as to how the perfect American Confucianismought to be constructed. Should […]
American Dream Vs Chinese Dream
China wants to challenge Anglo-Saxon monopoly on cultural soft-power? Don’t do it all in English! Why Zhongguo Meng, and not “Chinese Dream?” This we learn from history: Great powers (almost) […]
Global Language – The Chinese Dream, no wait, Meng!
WESTERN commentators translate the Zhongguo Meng as “Chinese Dream,” thereby patronizing China’s socio-cultural originality and marketing it as a franchise of the “American Dream”. But are the two civilizations really […]
The Coming of Post-Translational Society
LITTLE IS known about China in Europe and America. Although the Chinese were enviable thinkers for over three millennia, almost nothing of their originality has reached us intact. The reason […]
5 Big Ideas in the Year of the Snake
In the Chinese Zodiac, the snake is a mythical creature that symbolizes academia, wisdom, and the pursuit of knowledge. What better year than this to talk about the coming expansion of Chinese thought and the rise of China’s terminologies.