Author-Meets-Readers: Shuchen Xiang in Conversation with Sungmoon Kim, Bryan W. Van Norden and Don J. Wyatt

This author-meets-readers discussion centers Shuchen Xiang’s synopsis of her recent book Chinese Cosmopolitanism: The History and Philosophy of an Idea (2023a), which argues against assumptions that European global colonization and racial atrocities were consequences of human nature. Sungmoon Kim, Bryan W. Van Norden and Don J. Wyatt engage with Xiang about her thesis that historical China upheld a worldview that underscored cross-cultural exchange, mutual flourishing, and growth through cultural encounter. This worldview did not drive it to colonize the world. In contrast, its European counterpart fought difference and therefore sought to conquer the world.