Contacts with an economically and militarily superior Europe from the middle of the 19th century onwards, have led Chinese intellectual circles to reflect on the Chinese traditional values and to formulate strategies on how China could respond to the European challenge. Rather than a total acceptance of the European model or a radical reformulation of Chinese identity, the majority of Chinese intellectuals advocated a middle path, known as 'Zhong ti, Xi yong' (China as essence, the West as function). China's economic development since the late 1970s has not only changed the geo-economic and geopolitical global order, but has also led to a revaluation of Chinese tradition and individuality. The project 'Global China: tradition and modernity' will focus on how the revaluation of traditional philosophical and political concepts is taking shape in contemporary global China.