Max Junbo Tao

Relational and Atomised: Yu Xie’s Reflection In 2025 and 2026, the Chinese-born American sociologist Professor Yu Xie delivered a series of lectures at Princeton University and The University of Hong Kong examining ancient, contemporary, and Western traditions that shape Chinese scholars.

As the Chinese historian Lyu Simian observed in 1935, the utopian project proposed by Confucius (551–479 BCE) will be captivating for anyone interested in utopianism. Unlike those ideas that place hope in supernatural powers or great material abundance, the Confucian project emphasises the potential of an in-depth reshaping of people’s thoughts and behaviours to construct a harmonious, morally homogeneous culture.

On 9 February 2002, the Algerian Civil War that had lasted for more than a decade and caused more than 150,000 deaths finally came to an end. The civil war, fought between the Algerian government and several Islamist rebel factions, concluded with the practical disappearance of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA, Groupements Islamiques Armés) following the death of its emir, Antar Zouabri. After twenty years, the causality of Algeria’s civil war is still controversial.