Preface
Let me take this opportunity to present the origin of the Society for Cultural
Interaction in East Asia and its mission. In his keynote speech at the opening
ceremony of Kansai University’s Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies(ICIS), held on October 4, 2007, Princeton University Emeritus Professor
Ying-shih Yu, recipient of the 2006 John W. Kluge Prize (often described as
the Nobel Prize in the humanities) compared the theories of civilization ofArnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) and Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008). He
also encouraged the launching of a society to promote research on culturalinteraction in East Asia, since the proposed new academic research field ofcultural-interaction studies attempts to transcend the analytical units ofnational and ethnic bonds and to explain the total state of cultural interaction
from a diverse and synthetic viewpoint. At the ceremony, the ICIS proposal
was also well received by distinguished guests from Academia Sinica, Fudan
University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Huazhong Normal University,
the City University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore,
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, theUniversity of Erlangen, the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, OsakaUniversity, Nishōgakusha University, and the Shibusawa Ei’ichi MemorialFoundation.
Afterward, we gradually established ICIS liaison offices in Beijing,
Shanghai, Taipei, and Seoul, and took opportunities such as the international
symposia at Fudan University (held by the National Institute for Advanced
Humanistic Studies in December 2007 and by the Institute for Chinese
Historical Geography in December 2008) to exchange opinions with a wide
range of interested parties on how the society should function. We finallyreached the following consensus.
First, the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia (SCIEA), as we arecalling the society, aims to carry out creative research activities that bring
together perspectives from around the globe. Its research focus is culturalinteraction in East Asia, which we conceive as including cultural interaction
between East Asia and the rest of the world and cultural interaction between
the various regions of East Asia. In addition, rather than analyzing such
cultural interaction (generation, contact, conflict, transformation, and integration) from one-to-one perspectives, such as between two countries or tworegions, we propose conducting analyses from the perspective of many-tomany, in other words, as among as many countries and regions as possible.
Second, to achieve the aforementioned goals, we will hold research meetings of the society each year to exchange research results and promote

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critiques of methodologies and the sharing of resources. These annual meetings will be held in different countries and regions on a rotating schedule,
which will enable us to listen to the views of researchers in those countriesand regions.
Third, regarding organization, the society will be run mainly by an
Executive Committee and Council according to the articles of the society. The
Secretariat in charge of the daily operations of the society will be located atKansai University for the first three years, and we also plan to establish anEditorial Committee to edit the society’s journal.
Here I would like to illustrate our research mission again, as I did when
delivering my presidential address at the founding congress of the Society for
Cultural Interaction in East Asia held at Kansai University on June 27, 2009,by quoting a few lines from an article titled “On the Culture and Civilizationof Nations,” written by the prominent Japanese historian Naitō Konan (1866–1934) for the Osaka Mainichi Shinbun newspaper after his research trip toEngland and France in late 1924 and early 1925. “The goal of a nation’sexistence is not for accumulating wealth, but for creating a culture that canraise the level of people’s wellbeing all over the world.” “The culture of anation does not mean the nation’s wealth and power, economic organizations,the development of industries, and the improvement of people’s life, butrather means the nation’s cultivation and dignity shaped during the course ofsome five hundred or a thousand years.” “People cannot live a true cultural
life just by subjugating the natural world or the physical world. That is not thehighest level of a nation’s life. Cultural life can only become true to form
when people pay attention to protect the natural world and live in the natural
world with the resources that the natural world provides.” I like these lines
because I truly believe that the mission of this academic society lies not only
in describing how the cultural interaction of the world has occurred anddeveloped to date, but also in finding and imaging, through our transnational
research, a better way of life and new rules of the game for the future. IfNaitō was then concerned that excessive pursuit of material life would
degrade the people and nation, we have more reasons to be concerned about
the same thing and, moreover, to worry about the danger of undermining thephysical basis of human life with excessive development, because our planet
has now become so weak and small and has reached the limits of human
exploitation.
De-min Tao
Director, ICIS
President, SCIEA
January 1, 2010

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The First Annual Meeting of the Society for Cultural Interaction inEast Asia
Theme: New Approaches to Multicultural Interaction
Centenary Memorial Hall, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan
June 27, 2009
The first annual meeting of the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia(SCIEA) was held at Kansai University on June 27, 2009. It was organizedby the Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies (ICIS) of Kansai University.
More than 300 participants gathered on that day, and 20 papers werepresented in five special panels. The program of the first meeting was asfollows:

The first general assembly of the society
De-min Tao, Presidential Address

Congratulatory messagesHirano Ken’ichirō, Director, Center for Area Studies, National Institutes for

the Humanities; Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo; ProfessorEmeritus, Waseda University; University Professor, Waseda University
Tsuchida Kenjirō, Vice-President, Waseda University
Kojima Tsuyoshi, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities andSociology, University of Tokyo; Representative of the international
project “Maritime Cross-Cultural Exchange in East Asia and theFormation of Japanese Traditional Culture”
Pei-kai Cheng, Professor and Chairman, Chinese Civilisation Centre, CityUniversity of Hong Kong
Choi Gwan, Professor and Director, Center for Japanese Studies, KoreaUniversityNguyen Cao Huan, Professor and Director, Department of Science andTechnology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Rudolf G. Wagner, Co-director, Cluster of Excellence, “Asia and Europe in a
Global Context,” Heidelberg University

Memorial lecture“The Making of the New East Asian Cultural Zone and the Role of Academicand Cultural Exchange,” Aoki Tamotsu, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs;
Professor Emeritus, Osaka University; cultural anthropologist

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Plan for the 2010 Annual Meeting

Huang Chun-chieh, Dean, Institutes for Advanced Studies in Humanities andSocial Science, National Taiwan University

Plan for the 2011 Annual Meeting

Zhu Ying, Director, Institute for Modern Chinese History, Central China
Normal University

Ceremony for Conferring an Honorary Doctorate and MemorialSpeech

Introduction, Kawata Teiichi, President, Kansai University“A Transnational Moment,” Iriye Akira, Professor Emeritus, Harvard
University“Cultural Interactions with Japan: A Personal View,” Martin Collcutt,
Professor of East Asian Studies and History, Princeton University

Keynote speech“Some Observations of the Study of the History of Cultural Interactions inEast Asia,” Huang Chun-chieh, Dean, Institutes for Advanced Studies in
Humanities and Social Science, National Taiwan University; Center of
Excellence Visiting Professor, Kansai University

Introduction of Eminent Libraries

Harvard-Yenching Library, Ma Xiao-he, Librarian for the Chinese Collection,Harvard-Yenching LibraryKansai University Library, Tao De-min, Director, Institute for Cultural
Interaction Studies, Kansai University

Round table 1“The Potential of Linguistic and Literary Research as Cultural Interaction
Studies”
Chairperson, Uchida Keiichi, ICIS, Kansai University
Federico Masini, Sapienza Univeristy of Roma
Zhang Xiping, Beijing Foreign Studies University
Kizu Yūko, Kyoto University
Kin Bunkyō, Kyoto University
Choe Yong Chul, Korea University
Commentators
Zhou Zhenhe, Fudan University
Takekoshi Takashi, Aichi Prefectural University

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Round table 2“The Potential of Historical Research as Cultural Interaction Studies”
Chairperson, Tao De-min, ICIS, Kansai University
Matsuura Akira, ICIS, Kansai University
Ge Zhaoguang, Fudan University
Huang Yi-long, National Tsing Hua University
Li Changsen, Macao Polytechnic Institute
To Wing-kai, Bridgewater State College
Commentators
Wang Fan-sen, Academia Sinica
Nakami Tatsuo, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Round table 3“The Potential of Intellectual and Religious Research as Cultural Interaction
Studies”
Chairperson, Azuma Juji, ICIS, Kansai University
Rudolf G. Wagner, Heidelberg University
Ha Woo Bong, Chonbuk National University
Horiike Nobuo, University of Tsukuba
Jang Woncheol, Gyeongsang National University
Lee Cheuk Yin, National University of Singapore
Commentators
Kim Tae Chang, Kōkyō Tetsugaku Kyōdō Kenkyūsho (Institute forCooperative Research in Public Philosophy)
Sawai Keiichi, Keisen University

Round table 4“The Potential of Research on the Periphery in Cultural Interaction Studies”
Chairperson, Fujita Takao, ICIS, Kansai University
Nguyen Cao Huan, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Noma Haruo, ICIS, Kansai University
Oda Yoshiko, ICIS, Kansai University
Kumano Takeshi, ICIS, Kansai University
Inoue Mitsuyuki, ICIS, Kansai University
Commentators
Itō Toshikatsu, Aichi University
Lu Yan, University of New Hampshire

Round table 5“The Potential of Japanese Studies as Cultural Interaction Studies”
Chairperson, Harada Masatoshi, ICIS, Kansai University

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Choi Gwan, Korea University
Wang Min, Hosei University
Machi Senjurō, Nishōgakusha University
Willy Vande Walle, Catholic University of Leuven
Kate Wildman Nakai, Sophia University
Commentators
Yan Shaodang, Beijing University
Tsujimoto Masahi, Kyoto University