Zhou Yuguang
Zhou Yuguang ( 周禹光) is a lecturer at the Institute of Global and Area Studies, Capital Normal University in Beijing, China. He earned his PhD in East and Southeast European History at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2025. His research explores the history of Yugoslavia(s), nationhood as both ideology and lived experience, and the transnational entanglements of socialist ideas and practices. He is currently working on a new project examining how China and Yugoslavia drew on one another’s experiences of revolution (e.g. the Long March) and construction (e.g. Yugoslavia's self-management).
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.