The liberal-neo-Confucian debate is one of the most important cultural controversies in modern Chinese-speaking world. It is well-known that both liberals and neo-Confucians agree that democracy and science are the main goals of China's modernization. But their agreement stops here. Concerning the development of democracy and science in China, liberal thinkers criticize the deficiencies of traditional Chinese culture. By contrast, the neo-Confucians either explore the possibilities of absorbing democracy and science into Chinese culture, or even indicate that Confucianism contains the seeds for the development of democracy and science. Liberals and neo-Confucians hence dispute whether there is continuity between traditional Chinese culture and modernity. Basically, Chinese liberals adopt a pessimistic viewpoint assuming that traditional Chinese culture and modernity are incompatible, whereas the most neo-Confucians hold an optimistic attitude and make an effort to construct a philosophical justification for the reconciliation between Chinese culture and modernity. In this project, I intend to explore the debate between Chinese liberals and neo-Confucians in modern China and postwar Taiwan. In addition to the analysis of the viewpoints of two camps, I would attempt to inquire into the controversy from a contemporary perspective, especially such as the liberal-communitarian debate in the English-speaking world since 1980s. I believe although the opinions as to the nature of liberal-communitarian debate still vary, it will be very interesting and helpful for us to deal with the liberal-neo-Confucian debate in modern Chinese-speaking world. Besides, for the dialogues among scholars on liberal-neo-Confucian debate, I would also to organize an international workshop, which will be held around May, 2009. It would be helpful for the academic cooperation between Leiden, the other European universities and the universities in Taiwan.