Racism as an ideology or system of thought, in its variants with scientific pretensions, is a European invention, which did not fail to stigmatize China by spreading the myth of the "yellow peril". This tale of the threat of invasion of the West by the "yellow race" caused a veritable moral panic, affecting the whole of Europe at the time of the two wars won by Japan against Qing China, then against Tsarist Russia, in 1895 and 1905. But, in return, racial theories circulated in China from the end of the 19th century, leading Chinese intellectuals, in the empire and then in the Han nationalist and republican context, to formulate a race war to combat white domination. This raises the question of the persistence of these racial ideas to the present day, and their possible transformation.
The phenomenon of racism also exists in a variety of forms other than ideological ones: discrimination, segregation, violence, prejudice, stereotyping and so on. Can we identify expressions of racism in contemporary China, and with what historical depth? If so, is it part of a one-way flow from Europe to China?
This colloquium, organized by the Chair of Chinese Intellectual History under the scientific responsibility of a group comprising Anne Cheng, Annette Wieviorka, Michel Wieviorka and Régis Meyran, aims to examine the flows of racism by focusing on the axis that leads from Europe to China, without ruling out other circulations that end up in China, or that leave from there, or that operate within China alone. It will take into account the existence of a large Chinese diaspora, in all its diversity, its links with China, and the racism it can suffer, but also of which it can become the vector. As a multi-disciplinary project, it will consider the historical depth of these issues, as well as their anthropological and sociological dimensions.