Zhu Pengfei
Zhu Pengfei got his PhD in Ethnology from Minzu University of China in 2024, and as a Visiting PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cape Town from 2021 to 2023. His research interests lie in ethnic politics and nationalism, as well as cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. His research focuses on the regions of Southern Africa and the Balkans. He had completed 3 years fieldworks in South Africa from 2016 to 2017 and from 2021 to 2023, and currently leads one project under the National Social Science Fund’s Academic Societies Research Program: ‘Historical and Contemporary Studies on Cross-border Ethnic Issues in the Balkans’. He was awarded the 2024 University-level Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award by Minzu University of China; and the 9th Yu Tian-xiu ( 余天休) Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in Sociology (2025).
Capital Normal University
Session
This panel examines cross-border encounters, entanglements, and comparisons between China and the West from historical, conceptual, and social perspectives. Bringing together research in intellectual history, comparative politics, global history, art history, and migration studies, the panel explores how ideas, institutions, and practices have circulated across different regions and periods. The papers address the cross-cultural interpretations of the ancient Chinese “Chaogong” in Western scholarship and reflects on the concept of the “tribute system”, contrasting trajectories of nation-building in China and the Balkans, mutual learning between China and Yugoslavia, the exhibition of Chinese art through UNESCO during the Cold War, and Chinese migration to Italy in relation to labor, family, and community formation. Taken together, the panel highlights the interconnected and relational character of China–West interactions, and shows how comparison, exchange, and mutual perception have shaped broader historical processes across political, cultural, and social domains.