Wang Hui | What is equality?

What does equality mean in a world shaped by multiple languages, cultures, religions, and civilizations? Wang Hui, Professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing and one of the most influential contemporary intellectuals, reflects on equality not as an abstract principle, but as a question rooted in the historical formation of societies, in everyday forms of coexistence, and in the possibility of imagining a shared future beyond the limits of the nation-state. Starting from the concept of a “trans-systemic society”, Wang Hui examines communities in which different languages, beliefs, ethnicities, and cultural traditions are not external to social life, but become internal components of it. From the multi-ethnic villages of southwestern China to the long history of Chinese civilization, his analysis challenges nation-centred interpretations of history and invites us to understand identity as plural, dynamic, and interconnected. The conversation then turns to the limits of modernity: nationalism, the linear idea of progress, ecological crisis, and the tension between modern knowledge systems and traditional forms of wisdom. Within this framework, Wang Hui revisits the concept of tianxia — “all under heaven” — as a way to rethink equality through justice, interdependence, and the relationship between human life and nature. Rather than offering a fixed definition, the video opens a broader question: how can equality be reimagined in a world that is already deeply interconnected, yet still structured by division, hierarchy, and dependence?