Sinology in Poland: Epistemological Debates and Academic Practice

This study looks at how an understanding of sinology as a discipline evolved among Polish specialists on China against the background of the epistemological debates on the study of China in the Western world. Based on interviews and focusing on two periods in the history of postwar Polish sinology – the 1950s-1960s and then the 1990s and thereafter – it provides insights into the discourses among academics. The findings from an analysis of the interviews demonstrate that the epistemological divide on the study of China in Western intellectual spheres has been particularly marked in academic circles in Poland. This is evident in the debates among Polish scholars who struggle both to establish the meaning of sinology and, at the same time, to determine the future of their profession. Whereas this divide has greatly influenced the program of sinological training at the University of Warsaw, it has not had an influence in Poznań and Łódź, the two other centers of sinology in Poland.