Humanities Fall Conference 2022 keynote speaker, and one of China’s foremost social anthropologists, Professor Xiang Biao, shares the English translation of Self as Method: Thinking through China and the World (Self as Method | SpringerLink).

This recently released book is Open Access, free to read and download.

Professor Xiang shares: “The book reflects on my journey from my hometown Wenzhou to Beijing, Oxford, Singapore and Oxford. It is both personal and intellectual in the context global geopolitical shifts. Apart from the content, the book can be excellent for practising English too, especially for overseas students from China. The text includes theoretical thinking, personal life experiences and macro historical analysis. I feel this kind of ‘organic’ way of expressing thought through concrete observation and plain language is often lacking among Chinese students, which is certainly true in my case.”

In the book, Professor Prasenjit Duara, Humanities Research Center’s Advisory Board Member, and Oscar L. Tang Family Distinguished Professor of East Asian Studies at Duke University, is mentioned a couple of times and is a major influence on Prof Xiang.

Download your copy: Self as Method | SpringerLink

Biography

Biao Xiang is a one of China’s foremost social anthropologists. He studied sociology at Beijing University, China,  received his PhD in social anthropology from the University of Oxford, UK, and worked at Oxford from 2004-2021. Xiang is the winner of the 2008 Anthony Leeds Prize for his book Global Bodyshopping and the 2012 William L. Holland Prize for his article ‘Predatory Princes’. His 2000 Chinese book 跨越边界的社区, published in English as Transcending Boundaries (2005) was reprinted in 2018 as a contemporary classic. His work has been translated into Japanese, French, Korean, Spanish, and Italian. Since September 2021, Biao Xiang has headed the Anthropology of Economic Experimentation department at the Max Planck Institute for Ethnological Research, in Germany.