Joint Conference between National Cheng Kung University and the Academy of Sinology at UWTSD Explores Early Medieval China
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) is pleased to highlight the success of a jointly organised international conference with National Cheng Kung University, held on 24–25 April 2026 in Tainan, Taiwan.
The 8th Conference on Wei–Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Literature and Thought & the 2nd International Sinology Academic Symposium brought together leading scholars to examine the period between 220 and 589 CE,known in Chinese historiography as the Wei–Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period, and more broadly in English-language scholarship as Early Medieval China.
Representing UWTSD were Dr Thomas Jansen, Associate Professor in Chinese Studies, alongside the Provost of the Academy of Sinology, the Venerable Shengmiao, Dr Sufan Chen (Programme Manager, MA), and several current and former students of the Academy.
Dr Jansen delivered one of the conference’s two keynote lectures, presented in Chinese and titled “Tradition and Innovation: Lived Experience and the Expansion of Chinese Identity in Early Medieval China”. His lecture explored multiculturalism in the oasis town of Dunhuang during the early sixth century CE. Once a frontier garrison on the Silk Road, Dunhuang is now widely known for the Mogao Caves, a complex of 492 grottoes richly decorated with Buddhist statuary and frescoes.
Reflecting on the experience, Dr Jansen noted:
“It was a great honour to be invited as a keynote speaker at this prestigious university in Taiwan. It allowed me to reconnect with one of my research interests, multiculturalism and Chinese identity in the Early Medieval period, which is currently garnering attention in the context of current debates around cosmopolitanism in Chinese history and its implications for transcultural exchange and the legacy of European colonialism in East Asia today.”
Using Mogao Cave 285 as a case study, Dr Jansen demonstrated how its syncretic visual language and spatial organisation can deepen understanding of Dunhuang as a multi-ethnic and multicultural centre in medieval China.
During his visit, Dr Jansen also delivered a seminar in Chinese to master’s students at National Cheng Kung University on the Welsh missionary Timothy Richard (1845–1919) and his translation of the Chinese novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji). Published as A Mission to Heaven: A Great Chinese Epic and Allegory (1913), this was the first English translation of the influential text.
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