The Qinghua-Harvard Forum on Postcolonialism was held Tuesday in Beijing with about 100 academics from Asia, Europe, Australia and North America attending.

The forum is the first cooperation and scholarly exchange between Qinghua and Harvard in humanities, said sources with Qinghua University.

Homi K. Bhahba, the Anne F. Rothenberg professor of English andAmerican literature and language at Harvard University, delivered a speech entitled "The Black Savant and the Dark Princess". Bhahba's lecture concentrated on the construction of critical discourse in the Third World and minorities, which aroused great interest among those attending.

Postcolonialism is a strong theoretical thought following postmodernism, said Wang Ning, director of the academic committee of the English department in Qinghua. According to Wang, postcolonialism challenges and is critical of cultural hegemonism and is closely related to the anti-colonialist struggles in the Third World.

Academics from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan also made presentations at the forum. Their discussions with the Harvard professor will encourage the study on postcolonial culturein China onto an advanced international level, said experts.

Qinghua University, established in 1911, is famous for its science and engineering courses. Known as China's Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the world famous university is making more efforts to increase its involvement in the study of humanities, sources said.

( Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2002 )