Short Biography

Weihua He is currently Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Central China Normal University. He is also the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Foreign Language and Literature Research, the Secretary General of the International Ethnic Literature Commission of (China) Association for Comparative Studies of Languages and Cultures, the Executive Director of the International Association for Ethical Literary Criticism, Hubei Foreign Literature Association, and the Executive Director of Hubei Comparative Literature Association. He received his Ph.D. from Tsinghua University in China. His research areas include the modern transformation of China, comparative literature, and western literary theory. He has published extensively in journals such as European Review, Journal of Modern Literature, Neohelicon, Comparative Literature Studies, Cultural Dynamics, Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, Contemporary Foreign Literature and Foreign Literature Studies.

Project

Plague threatens, disrupts, and shapes the course of human history. The competition for territories, sustenance, and the rights to live on earth has never ceased. Our memories of infectious diseases like Marburg virus, AIDS, mad cow disease, SARS, Ebola, and bird flu are still fresh when the world was struck by COVID-19 in 2019. The whole world responded quickly to this unprecedented crisis. However, travel restrictions, the banning of social gatherings, and strict quarantine measures made international travelling almost impossible during the pandemic. With the severely affected international cooperation and the altered course of globalization, it is of great significance to come up with new terms, visions and schemes for re-imagining the world order in the post-pandemic world. This project not only examines the origin, inner logic, and political implications of “tianxia”, but also looks into its differences from cosmopolitanism, its cultural and political manifestations, and its relevance and theoretical significance.