(Working title)
For more than fifty years, the discourse on a ‘Chinese Enlightenment’ has established itself in international comparative studies. However, the origin of this analogy of the unequal—Chinese ideas and political history on one side and ‘Western’ on the other—has rarely been examined. My research project systematically problematizes this analogy by methodically identifying those elements of the Enlightenment that have developed a transregional political attractiveness since their emergence in the 18th century and that eventually also arrived in China around 1900 or gained significance. It is relevant to explain the long duration of their validity despite the heterogeneous historical power relations and to illustrate the transformation of phenomena through case studies.