Mar 15 2025 to Mar 15 2025 6 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

China: Confucius in the Shadows by Poonam Surie is a study of Confucius and the Confucian philosophy of being non-confrontationist, benevolent and with values such as filial piety and harmony. It covers an array of themes including Qufu: Confucius Country, Music and Poetry across China, Chinese Foreign Policy, Philosophy and China’s Legal System.

A talk by the Author will be followed by a panel discussion with Nitin Pai and Q&A session with the audience.

Speakers

Poonam Surie
Author & Adjunct Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi
Poonam Surie, an economist by training from the Delhi School of Economics, does academic writing as an Independent Researcher. She is Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi and has been Visiting Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs and Research Associate at the Nalanda Sriwijaya Centre of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. Her professional experience covers teaching at Delhi University and then subsequently as an educator in Bhutan, New York and Beijing. Besides writing, education remains a key area of interest.

Poonam Surie’s writing ranges across academia, poetry and journalism. The experience of having spent the last four decades living across different continents and observing varied cultures and ethnicities forms the basis of her writing across genres. She has had the experience of meeting and interacting with people from different cultures and with the Indian diaspora. This provides a diverse content, perspective, and versatility to her work. As an author she has written about the philosophical underpinnings of civilizations, religion, and contemporary Chinese society. She has made presentations at several national and international conferences. She has in the past freelanced for a number of newspapers, writing on contemporary issues, including as a columnist for the Financial Express, for which she had written a column NY Notes on issues such as gender, art and culture and the Indian diaspora while she was in New York.

She has an abiding interest in Chinese studies and has written extensively on Chinese culture, religion, and philosophy. Her first book, China: A Search for its Soul (2009, Konark) deals with ancient links between China and India, the evolving Chinese society today and the return of religion, particularly Buddhism to the country. Her second book, written for the ICWA, China: Confucius in the Shadows (2015, Knowledge World) deals with Confucian philosophy and its relevance in contemporary China. Her third book, Contemporary China: Tradition and Modernity (2024, Knowledge World) is about how Chinese society has evolved and how traditions and modernity are part of the warp and weft of the country. She also has two published books of poetry.

Nitin Pai
Author & Director, the Takshashila Institution
Nitin Pai is co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy. His current research includes information warfare, high tech geopolitics and the Indo-Pacific. He teaches international relations, public policy and ethical reasoning at Takshashila’s graduate programmes.

His most recent books are The Nitopadesha – Moral Tales for Good Citizens (Penguin Random House 2023) and India’s Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order (ed) published in 2020. He is currently a columnist with Mint. He is an adjunct senior fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore and serves on the board of WaterAid India.

Pai spent over a decade in the Singapore government as a technology policymaker, and has worked in the undersea cable, satellite and mobile communications sector. He was a gold medalist from the National University of Singapore’s LKY School of Public Policy, an undergraduate scholar at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and an alum of National College, Jayanagar, Bangalore.