【39th Talk】Dr. Lei Huanjie: “The Evolution of Chinese People’s Railway Cognition in the Late Qing Dynasty”
Upcoming Event
| Introduction | The 39th session of the “Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series,” organized by the Institute of International Education and the Tan Lark Sye Institute at New Era University College is now open for registration. This lecture features Dr. Lei Huanjie from the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), as the speaker. Dr. Lei will discuss the evolution of railway cognition among the Chinese during the late Qing period. While railways were powerful symbols of the Industrial Revolution and markers of modernity, they were a new and unfamiliar concept for the Chinese in the late Qing, having been introduced from the West. The lecture will explore the intellectual history of railway cognition during this period, focusing on key questions such as “What is a railway?”, “Should we build railways?”, and “How should railways be managed?”, offering a more complete picture of railway history. On one hand, examining railway cognition allows us to redefine the beginning of Chinese railway history and contributes to the study of the history of science and technology dissemination as well as the history of Western learning’s influence on China. On the other hand, railway cognition, formed by the diffusion of railway knowledge and technology, influenced social thought and played a role in shaping the transformation of modern society. |
| Speaker | Dr. Lei Huanjie (Associate Researcher, Institute of Philosophy, CASS) Lei Huanjie, PhD in Philosophy, is an Associate Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, CASS. He holds academic part-time positions as the Secretary General of the PST History Professional Committee, CSDN/PNST, and Deputy Director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at CASS. He has published A Historical Treatise of Railway Cognition in the Late Qing Railway, led a youth project funded by the National Social Science Fund of China (NSSFC), and authored multiple academic papers. His primary research interests include the intellectual history of science and technology, and STS. His recent work focuses on the history of PST, the history of scientific exchanges between China and the West, tracking sci-tech hotspots, and the exploration of significant scientific concepts and figures. |
| Moderator | Dr. Ng Khai Boon (Senior Lecturer, Institute of International Education, NEUC) Ng Khai Boon graduated with a Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He previously served as a research assistant at the Institute of China Studies and Malaysian Chinese Research Centre at the University of Malaya, as well as a teaching assistant and instructor at Nanyang Technological University. He is currently a senior lecturer at the Institute of International Education, New Era University College. His research interests include Confucian philosophy, political philosophy, and ethics. |
| Information | Date: 12 March 2025 (Wednesday) Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm Venue: ZOOM (ID & password will be sent to your mobile number and email) Registration Form: https://bit.ly/3seNHqc Registration is free. Please complete your registration by Wednesday, 11 March 2025. |
Trailer (Video)
Lecture Postscript
The 39th session of the Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series took place on 12th March 2025. This lecture invited Dr. Lei Huanjie from the Institute of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as the guest speaker, with the topic “The Evolution of Chinese People’s Railway Cognition in the Late Qing Dynasty.” In this lecture, the speaker shared the methodology for constructing a pre-service international Chinese teacher belief scale and tested its reliability and validity.
Dr. Lei Huanjie, the guest speaker, is an associate researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and holds academic positions as the secretary-general of the Committee on the History of Science and Technology Philosophy of the Chinese Association for Dialectical Materialism and the deputy director of the Center for Research on Science, Technology, and Society at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Lei has published the book A Historical Treatise of Railway Cognition in the Late Qing Dynasty and has led a project funded by the National Social Science Fund for young researchers. He has also published numerous academic papers. His main research interests include the history of science and technology thought, science and society, the history of science and technology philosophy, the history of Sino-Western scientific exchange, tracking science and technology hot topics, and important scientific concepts and figures.
In this lecture, Dr. Lei shared the history of railway perception in the late Qing period on a conceptual level, focusing successively on key issues such as “What is a railway?”, “Should railways be built?”, and “How should railways be managed?”, presenting a more comprehensive picture of railway history. Dr. Lei suggested that from the perspective of railway perception, the beginning of Chinese railway history could be redefined, which would be helpful for studying the history of science and technology dissemination and the history of Western learning’s influence on China. However, railway perception, which was formed by the diffusion of railway knowledge and technology, had a reciprocal effect on society and led to changes in the modern social atmosphere.
After the lecture, the audience and host actively engaged with the speaker during the Q&A session. The audience raised high-level questions related to railway topics, and the speaker patiently answered each one. The lecture was hosted by Dr. Ng Khai Boon from New Era University College and was attended by more than 170 audiences.
