Our library, accessible at the same hours as the bookstore, contains more than 4,000 sinological works for our members to consult.
The Paper Pagoda
In December 2020, the Belgium-China Association created the Youtube channel “The paper pagoda.”
With this series of Dutch-language videos with French subtitles, we aim to make the rich sinological heritage known to the general public. In each video, Koen De Ridder, a qualified sinologist who lived in China for 22 years, discusses a work from our library collection. Much attention is paid to the social, political and historical context in which each work was created. The books discussed cover a multitude of topics ranging from popular storytelling (e.g., Narrations populaires by Léon Wieger) the to classical poetry (e.g., The Poetry and Career of Li Po by Arthur Waley) and from traditional philosophy (e.g., The Chinese Classics by James Legge) to the history of science (e.g., Science and Civilization in China by Joseph Needham). Despite this rich diversity of themes, our book reviews still form a coherent narrative in which certain major themes run like a thread throughout. These include the importance of the Christian mission in the development of sinology, the influence of Confucianism on contemporary Chinese society and the painful legacy of the “unequal treaties” that ushered in the “century of national humiliation.”
Are you also fascinated by the Western encounter with Chinese culture in all its aspects?
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