Georg Simmel in Taichung

I went to the annual meeting of the Taiwanese Sociological Association this past weekend. That’s the only professional association of which I’m a member these days. (Adieu science politique – ye cruel mistress). At the conference there were lot’s of papers on subjects ranging from the problems of aging in Shanghai to high-tech industries in India and the future of Chinese-style capitalism.

The last session was on Georg Simmel. A lecture hall packed with students and 5, 6 professors. For some two hours they went through the man, his life and thought, in excrutiating detail. It was very lively; questions, critique and jokes were flying through the air; students were laughing, the professors were strutting their stuff and vigorously disagreeing with each other.

No, Simmel is not dead. He is alive and well and living in Taichung, Taiwan. He has lots of friends here, more friends than he had in his first incarnation. They are young, easily excitable, and they talk about him until their heads start spinning.

It’s weird though. This deification of old Europeans. All intellectual debates in Taiwan seem to concern an old European and what he possibily could contribute to an understanding of topic X or Y. Why is Taiwanese academia so hung up on Europeans? Where for example is the Chinese tradition? It’s just like Taiwanese factories in the end, churching out products invented and designed elsewhere. They are very, very good at it but also pretty unoriginal.