Berlin, Germany (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science): 23 Mar, 2026
Cambridge, UK (NRI): 24 Apr, 2026
Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong Space Museum): 12 Sep, 2026 [in Cantonese 粵語演講]

德國柏林（馬普所）：2026年3月23日 [線上線下]
英國劍橋（NRI）：2026年4月24日 [線下聚會]
中國香港（香港太空館）：2026年9月12日 [粵語進行]

https://www.routledge.com/Foreign-Astral-Sciences-in-China-From-the-Six-Dynasties-to-the-Northern-Song/MMak/p/book/9781138477599

Some months ago, my Indian colleagues asked me to write an article commenting on the (non)response of local Chinese Buddhists to the planned auction of the Piprahwa gems in Hong Kong earlier this year. The gist of my paper is that contact relics, such as the Piprahwa gems, are not considered the same as the Buddha’s bodily relics. Without a continuous history of worship, they are just archaeological discoveries of antiquarian, not spiritual, interest.

My questions, however, turned to India: How should contact relics such as the Piprahwa gems be returned to the Buddhist communities? Since the Peppé family received from the British colonial government only 20% of the gems, what happened to the remaining 80% retained by Indian museums?

PM Modi inaugurates Grand International Exposition of Sacred Piprahwa Relics related to Lord Buddha

The Delhi exposition may preempt some of these tricky questions from the Buddhist communities.

In my experience, Asian students are not used to asking questions. This is likely because many are never encouraged or even allowed to ask questions in a variety of settings, including classrooms. On the other hand, Western students likely ask more questions. But honestly, not all questions are helpful. Perhaps this book sheds some light on how to ask good questions, or what good questions are.

A curious note is that the word for question 問題 also means problem in modern Chinese. So a “person with questions” also means a “person with problems.” To a lesser extent, such usage is also found in English, e.g., a “questionable person.” But conflating questions with problems may be one of the reasons why Asians do not like to openly ask questions, which are perceived to be problematic and confrontational.

This conflation did not seem to exist in classical Chinese. I wonder if it is a transfer from the Sino-Japanese “mondai” 問題 in the early 20th century.

https://book.douban.com/subject/37154260/