Abstract: many people, the Keywords Re-Oriented course is a reflection of something that obviously was out there in the intertextually structured general academic discourse.Many people have helped me in the writing of this book and I would like to thank all of them for their valuable support.I am especially grateful to Ella Chmielewska, who brought me into the project and encouraged me to work further in the complex world of Cultural Studies.We designed and taught the courses together and our many hours of brainstorming were the most enjoyable and delightful time spent in the creation of this book.Hannah Sommerseth and Jack Burton contributed the chapters on gender (JB for the Western part), art (HS), representation (JB) and reality (HS), Chen Jie searched out, copied and scanned the many texts used as sources for the project, and Jennie Renton has spent hours and days patiently working with me through the whole script, discussing and rewriting most of the sentences in a most thoughtful way to make it comprehensible for an English readership.Finally, my wife Natascha Gentz, was of invaluable help in realizing the Chinese Studies side of the course.Thanks also go to the EU for its generous funding of the project, and to our colleagues from the main team in Göttingen -Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, Irmy Schweiger, Corinna Albrecht and Cordula Hunold -who have facilitated the work in its many complicated administrative aspects and have been open and patient in dealing with any questions and problems which have arisen.For those issues which remain, responsibility fully rests with me.