Introduction of Major Institutions

Chinese Civilisation Center, City University of Hong Kong: A
Modern Approach to Chinese Tradition
Since its establishment in 1998, the Chinese Civilisation Center (Zhongguo
Wenhua Zhongxin) has designed courses in Chinese civilization for undergraduate students of the City University of Hong Kong. The center’s mission
is to enable students to understand and appreciate various aspects of China’s
cultural heritage, as well as to provide different channels for the public tobecome familiar with China’s cultural heritage and for cultivating cultural
education in Hong Kong. But more important, as pointed out by Professor
Cheng Pei-kai (Zheng Peikai), director since the center’s establishment,“Learning about Chinese culture could help students build their confidence
and take pride in their identity.” It can also promote the postcolonial conceptof Hong Kongers ruling Hong Kong, for “how can we supervise our placeand have a vision for the future without having knowledge of our culturalachievements?” (“Chinese Culture Course ‘Will Build Confidence’ ” 1998).
Teaching
Following the idea of promoting web-based instruction by Professor H.
K. Chang, former president of the City University of Hong Kong, Professor
Cheng Pei-kai led the center in developing a unique combination of conventional classroom teaching, web-based course material, serial lectures, and field
trips. The courses cover a wide range of topics, including traditional Chinesemusic, Chinese archaeology, ancient ceramic art, traditional Chinese women,
traditional family life and education, Chinese Buddhist thought, classicalpoetry writing, Chinese concepts of life and death, and Chinese burial rituals.
In addition to classroom teaching, the center also offers a web-based, multimedia platform for teaching and learning. Students have password-protected
e-folders on the website, through which they can register for courses online,
download lecture notes, and participate in online discussions. Students mustalso attend lectures or art demonstrations given by scholars and artists from
China and overseas. Two visiting professors in 2009 are Rong Xinjiang of

82

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

Peking University and Fu Jie of Fudan University. Professor Rong, who has
carried out numerous field trips to Xinjiang in recent years and made new
discoveries overseas, held a series of lectures on Dunhuang and the Silk
Road. Professor Fu, whose research focuses on the modern Chinese author
Qian Zhongshu (1910–1998) and his famous work Guan zhui bian (Limited
Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters), gave an in-depth analysis of this famous
Chinese writer. For hands-on experience, the center organizes excursions tocultural spots in Hong Kong, such as Tin Hau (Mazu) Temple and Tam Kung
(Tan Gong) Temple, and longer tours to places in China famous for their richcultural heritage, including Beijing, Hangzhou, Xi’an, and Shandong.
Research
The center has a strong and devoted team of academic scholars specializedin various fields of traditional Chinese studies, including the history ofChinese medicine, Chinese arts, ancient porcelain art, Chinese language andlinguistics, Buddhist monastic discipline, traditional architecture andgardening, and East-West cultural exchange. Current research projects include“China Westward: Porcelain and Sino-Portugal Trade in the 16th century,”“Bridging Chinese and Western Medicine in Colonial Hong Kong (1950s–
1960s): A Study of Two Medical Journals Xiandai Zhongyiyao [Modern
Chinese medicine] and Zhongguo xin yiyao [New Chinese medicine],” “AnInteractive Digital Teaching and Learning Platform for Chinese Culture:
Chinese Music Culture and Musical Instruments,” and “Monastic Discipline
and the Life of Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Medieval China.”
Service to the Community
Catering to the local community are such activities of the center as open
lectures, art performances, and exhibitions. Among special activities in 2009
was a performance of the Story of the West Garden by the Zhejiang Kunqu
Opera Group. The center also held the exhibition “400 Years of Love: Hsu
Pei-hong’s Love Affair with Kunqu Peony Pavilion,” which displayed photographs that Hsu Pei-hong (Xu Beihong) took at opera performances in various
theaters around the world, including both on-stage and behind-the-stage shots.
The center worked with the Hong Kong Arts Festival to bring to the center
the director of Shanghai Yueju Opera Theater, Li Li, along with actors andactresses, to introduce the artistry of Yue opera.
Publications
The results of research projects and academic events have been publishedin about forty books, including sourcebooks on Chinese civilization, aseminar series, and exhibition catalogs. Most recently, the center copublished,Introduction of Major Institutions

83

with Guangxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe(Guangxi Normal University Press), thefollowing books (in Chinese): Along the
Silk Road: East West Cultural Exchange(2009), Cultural Identity and Language
Anxiety (2009), Tea and Chinese
Civilization: Culture, Research, and theIndustry (2009), and The Rapport
between China and Korea in History:
Classical Korean Works in Chinese andCultural Exchange (2009).
Since 2003 the center has also
published, jointly with Fudan Daxue
Chubanshe (Fudan University Press), thejournal Jiuzhou xuelin (China
Scholarship), containing peer-reviewed
articles by leading scholars, bookreviews, and research notes. The journal, a merger of two journals, ispublished in two versions, the center producing a version in traditional
Chinese characters and Fudan University Press producing another version in
simplified characters, the contents being identical. Covering a wide range ofsubjects—including premodern Chinese history, classical Chinese literature,
Chinese philosophy, and Chinese art—it offers a medium for disseminating
academic ideas and serves as a forum for intellectual discussion in the fields
of Chinese culture and history.
Academic Links
The center also initiates and maintains close ties with institutions andscholars around the world, whether to co-organize conferences, copublish
titles, or deliver lectures. With the Harvard Yenching Institute, it co-organizes
the Chinese Culture Forum, which usually takes place at the end of each year.
The center has also formed partnerships with the Center for Confucian
Entrepreneurs and East Asian Civilizations at Zhejiang University, theInstitute for Cultural Interaction Studies at Kansai University, and the
National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University,
whose Academic Board of Directors includes Professor Cheng. To enhance
regional cooperation, the National Central University (Taiwan), the Shanghai
Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Singapore, Sichuan University,and the center established the Asian New Humanities Net.
At the conference “Teaching and Learning Complementing Each Other
and Cultural Inheritance,” held in 2008 to mark the tenth anniversary of the84

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

center, Jonathan Spence, Sterling Professor at the Department of History, Yale
University, gave a keynote speech. Other visiting scholars include Professor
Göran Malmqvist, renowned sinologist and translator, who in 2004 gave alecture on the translation of Chinese literature, and Professor Pai Hsien-yung(Bai Xianyong), who in 2005 gave a series of lectures on Kunqu opera, withartists from Suzhou performing a modern version of Mudan ting (The Peony
Pavilion).
Website and Contact Details
More details about the center’s teaching program, past and future activities, and publications are available on its website, http://www.cciv.cityu.edu.
hk, which also hosts the blog “Pulse,” an English-language forum forexchanging views and news on Chinese culture. To keep scholars up-to-date,the center provides free subscriptions to an electronic newsletter. The centercan be contacted at ci@cityu.edu.hk.
Reference“Chinese Culture Course ‘Will Build Confidence.’ ” South China Morning
Post, September 24, 1998.











Department of Japanese Kanbun Instruction and Research
Program, Nishōgakusha University
Since its inception in 1877 as a private academy of Chinese learning,Nishōgakusha University (二松學舍大学) has focused on Japanese kanbun
language instruction and research. In 1928 it became the Nishōgakusha
Specialist School. It was chartered as a university in 1949 in the new postwar
educational system on the strength of its Faculty of Letters (Department ofJapanese Literature and Department of Chinese Literature). In 1966 theGraduate School of Humanities was opened, offering MA and PhD degrees in
Chinese studies and an MA degree in Japanese literature. In 1986 a doctoral
program in Japanese literature was established. In 1991 the school also added
an undergraduate Department of International Politics and Economics,
followed by a master’s degree course in the same field in 2001.

Introduction of Major Institutions85

In 2004 the research institute at the university, originally established as
the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1969, merged with the graduate program in
Wang Yangming Studies (Neo-Confucianism), which was established in 1978.
Also in 2004 the research institute and the Establishment of a World
Organization for Kanbun Studies (a research and educational project on
Japanese kanbun studies based primarily on the degree programs in Chinesestudies and Japanese literature) were selected by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology to receive funding as a member of
the twenty-first-century Center of Excellence (COE) Program. Selection by theministry has enabled the nineteen full-time COE program members (including
faculty members in both departments, the program director Takayama
Setsuya, and Machi Senjurō) to work toward the following objectives:• Building a database for Japanese kanbun materials• Training young scholars and specialists in cataloguing and bibliography• Sponsoring international exchanges among researchers and joint research
projects• Advancing kanbun education
As part of the first goal, we are making our Japanese kanbun texts available to the public by uploading our Japan kanbun catalog on the Internet(http://www.nisogakusha-kanbun.net). We are also joining in the effort tocompile the Confucian canon (rucang 儒蔵) at the invitation of Peking
University.
To achieve the second goal, our university annually recruits young
researchers trained in kanbun-related fields and sponsors public lectures on
cataloging and bibliographies.
Regarding objective number
three, we have been entrusted withcoordinating the interaction of foreign
research organizations with scholars
from ten Japanese research centers.
Toward this end, we have been
actively participating in exchanging
information, sponsoring symposia,
promoting research exchanges, andpublishing the results.
To achieve the fourth goal ofadvancing kanbun education, we havebeen fostering interest in kanbun bothat home and abroad by developing
curricula for university students inJapan and offering lectures overseas.

86

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

For our lectures on kanbun for overseas institutions of Japanese studies, see
Machi Senjurō, “Kaigai no Nihon kenkyūsha ni okeru Nihon kanbun no juyō
to taiō” (The Demand for Kanbun among Overseas Japanologists andResponses to This Demand) (Tōhōgaku, no. 118, 2009).
Our participation in the COE program terminated at the end of March
2009, but we then revised the program designation as An International
Research Project Based on Kanbun Sources to Reconstruct a View of Japanese
Culture Studies. Professor Satō Susumu has taken the lead in continuing thevarious tasks related to research and education in Japanese kanbun. The
fundamental objective of this program is to continue the work of the COE
program, to pursue research in Chinese literature and learning and Confucian
philosophy, as well as to conduct new research in Japan’s philosophicalculture through the study of Japanese kanbun.
While participating in the COE program, we published Kanbun-gakukenkyū (Journal of Kanbun Studies), as well as various research papers aslisted below. We will continue publishing some fundamental texts.
• A text on the history of Japanese sinology: Kuraishi Takeshirō kōgi: Honpōni okeru shinagaku no hattatsu (The Kuraishi Takeshirō Lectures: The
Development of Sinology in Japan)• A text on deciphering Japanese readings: Kanbun bunpō to kundoku shori:
Hen’yaku “Bungen bunpō” (Kanbun Grammar and Processing of Japanese
Kun Readings: Compilation and Translation of Wenyan wenfa, or “Phrases andGrammar”)• A university kanbun text: Nishō kanbun• Medieval musical works: Fujiwara no Michinori shiryōshū (Fujiwara no
Michinori Collection), Gagaku shiryōshū (A Collection of Ceremonial Court
Music), Shōmyō shiryōshū (A Collection of Buddhist Liturgical Chants)• Edo and Meiji period sinology texts: Edo Meiji kanshibun shomoku (Catalog
of Edo and Meiji Period Chinese Poetry and Literature), Edo kangaku
shomoku (Catalog of Edo Period Sinology), Mishima Chūshū kenkyū (Studies
on Mishima Chūshū), Kinsei kindai kangaku shiryōshū (Early Modern andModern Sinology Collections), Nishōgakusha to Nihon kindai no kangaku(Nishōgakusha and Early Modern Japanese Sinology), etc.
• Commentaries on the Four Books: Honkoku Daxue tingchen, xu zhi bu(Preface to the Japanese Daxue tingchen)• Medical history texts: Manase Dōsan: Ko isho no kanbun o yomu (Kanbun
Readings in Texts on Traditional Chinese Medicine by Manase Dōsan)Finally, in the center’s repository, besides texts on Song and Ming studies
and Wang Yangming inherited from the Wang Yangming Neo-Confucian
Studies Center, we have been collecting and organizing Japanese kanbun
materials as part of the COE program. We have also been purchasing new

Introduction of Major Institutions

87

acquisitions and accepting donations of books and journals related to thestudy of Japanese kanbun. Our collection numbers over 1,000 works, mainly
on Chinese poetry and literature from the Edo and Meiji periods. We areconsidering how to make these texts accessible to the public.











Faculty of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza University of Rome, a coeducational, autonomous state university, is the largest European university and the second biggest in the world,
after Cairo University. It was founded by Pope Boniface VIII, who, in 1303,
issued the papal bull “In supremae praeminentia dignitatis” to create an institution for theological studies in Rome. The Pope thus hoped to make theeternal city a center of culture and science. His attempt proved successful.
According to the “Academic Ranking of World Universities,” published by
the Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Sapienza
University of Rome ranks among the top thirty European universities and is
one of the best Italian universities, together with those of Milan, Pisa, andBologna. It offers instruction in a wide range of fields of study, conferring the
BA and MA in 370 fields and offering over 300 professional university
master courses. It carries out scientific research in various fields, producing

88Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010high-standard results acknowledged both nationally and internationally. In thelast academic year, 2008/9, Sapienza University of Rome consisted of 21
faculties, over 100 departments, and 30 research centers. It enrolled more than
140,000 students, including around 5,000 foreign students. Incoming andoutgoing Erasmus students number about 1,000 per year. There are more than
4,500 professors, and the administrative and technical staff consists ofapproximately 5,000 individuals.
The Faculty of Oriental Studies is the newest faculty of Sapienza
University of Rome and is the only faculty of oriental studies in Italy. It was
founded in 2001 to fulfill the growing demand in Italy for knowledge about
Asian and African countries and cultures. Though young, the faculty inherited
a noble and authoritative tradition of oriental studies in Italy, which started
with the teaching of Hebrew in 1482 and of Arabic in 1575. A significant step
toward the founding of the faculty was the creation, in 1994, of the degree
course in oriental languages and civilizations.
In the last eight years the Faculty of Oriental Studies enrolled a growing
number of students, reaching almost 3,000 full-time equivalents in 2008. Its
teaching staff offers almost a hundred courses in five different fields: linguistics, philology, archaeology and art history, religion and philosophy, andhistory. The geographical and cultural areas covered are the ancient Near
East, Islam, South and Southeast Asia, and the Far East. Ten major languages
are taught: Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Tibetan,
Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Being well grounded in the relevant
languages, students can study various aspects of ancient and modern eastern
societies. The faculty offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in oriental
languages and civilization and a doctorate, for which there are almost fifty
candidates, in the civilizations, cultures, and societies of Asia and Africa. In
2008 the faculty was engaged in various projects of international cooperation,in particular with East Asian countries, collecting funds amounting to almost
1 million Euros.
To study in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, one must be strongly motivatedto learn Oriental and African languages. Students have to travel and reside forlong periods abroad, especially in the countries where the languages andcultures they chose as their major subject are present. Theoretical knowledge
is thus integrated with first-hand experience. For this purpose, the faculty
actively supports various initiatives aimed at promoting the students’ international mobility. In particular, under a series of bilateral agreements, thefaculty awards credits for courses taken in foreign universities. More than 150
students every year benefit from scholarships to attend language courses in
China, Japan, Korea, Iran, Syria, Yemen, India, and Pakistan.
Owing to their in-depth knowledge of at least one Oriental or African

Introduction of Major Institutions

89

language and of the history and culture of the country where that language isspoken, graduates of the faculty can find suitable working positions in various
domains, such as cultural services and institutions, journalism, tourism, andcultural mediation between European and Asian or African realities. They canalso help train development workers in multiethnic and multicultural contexts
and can work for nongovernmental organizations, for international institutions, and for trading enterprises operating in the relevant countries.
The faculty is located at Via Principe Amedeo 182b, between Piazza
Vittorio and Termini railway station. The area is called Esquilino and represents the oriental heart of Rome. Besides classrooms, its building hosts thedean’s office, administrative offices, teachers’ offices, and a common room forreceiving students. Students also benefit from an information desk and, above
all, from three newly equipped linguistic laboratories, where more thanseventy students at a time can study oriental languages through modern technologies. In addition, the faculty also contains a relevant section of the
Library of the Department of Oriental Studies, where it houses Arabic,
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials.
In the field of Sinology the faculty has one full professor, one associate
professor, two researchers, and six PhD students. Their research focuses
mainly on linguistic issues concerning the formation and evolution of modern
Chinese from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, with special attention to
the contribution of the Jesuit and Protestant missionaries to the study andcodification of the language. The faculty in 2001 hosted the second conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics and in September
2010 will organize the third conference of the Shijie Hanyu Jiaoyu Shi Yanjiu
Hui (World Association for the Study of the History of Teaching Chinese).
From September 2006 the faculty has hosted the first Confucius Institutein Italy, opened with cooperation from Beijing University of Foreign
Languages, with support from the Chinese Ministry of Education. This initiative was aimed atstrengthening educational and scientificexchanges between Italy
and China and at
promoting mutual
understanding between
the two countries. The
Confucius Instituteprovides language
courses at various levels,
including elementary,

90

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

intermediate, and commercial Chinese, and these courses are open to anyone
interested in Chinese culture. It also organizes lessons, conferences, andmeetings to promote Chinese language and culture in Italy, prepares students
for the Chinese national exam of language proficiency (Hanyu Shuiping
Kaoshi), and organizes periods of study in China for its students. Through theConfucius Institute, the Faculty of Oriental Studies actively promotes cultural
exchange in an international context, one of its statutory aims.











Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies, Kansai University

Objectives
The Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies seeks to develop culturalinteraction studies as a new academic discipline based on distinctive research
into the history of cultural exchanges between China and Japan, its primary
focus, and to further the training of young researchers in the techniques of the
new discipline. Its activities are informed by the following three objectives:
1. To train young, independent researchers who have international drive andwho share a multifaceted outlook that approaches the world of East Asia as acultural complex of multilateral relationships.

Introduction of Major Institutions91

2. To develop cultural-interaction studies as a new academic discipline bymoving beyond the paradigm of cultural-exchange research confined to traditional bilateral relations and traditional disciplines, and to promote research
into theory, methodology, and specific case studies in this area.
3. To link with an international network, research into such topics as cultural
exchange and the history of foreign relations, which is presently conductedindependently worldwide, to lead cultural research throughout East Asia, andto build a research hub anchored by an international association.
Organization
Kansai University’s Graduate School of Letters was reorganized to add aprogram in cultural-interaction studies, and this program, which started in
April 2008, serves as the organizational basis for the institute’s efforts to train
professionals in the field. At the same time, the Institute for Cultural
Interaction Studies was created to serve as the organizational basis for implementing the Center of Excellence (COE) program, including its research
activities. All project members and supporting staff (visiting professors, assistant professors, fellows, postdoctoral fellows) belong to the institute. In addition, a new Global Center of Excellence Council, chaired by the university’spresident, was set up to facilitate the development of a support structure forfocusing the efforts of related university departments by speeding decision
making and university-wide coordination and by managing program progress,
while offering necessary advice.
Young Researcher Training Program
Teaching multilingual communication skills. To overcome a poor ability tocommunicate internationally—a weakness that plagues Japanese humanities
research—students must learn to communicate information in multiple
languages, including their native tongue. As preparation for writing papers
and making presentations at conferences, the program in cultural-interaction
studies offers small-group classes designed to bolster students’ language skills,
enabling students to achieve proficiency in English and two Asian languages(from among Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) for the purpose of communicating academic information.
Inculcating international leadership qualities. To help students develop theability to augment their own research efforts, the institute will convene anannual international academic forum of young scholars by organizing fellow
researchers, planning and spearheading research projects, building international networks, and exercising leadership. The forum will attract overseas

92

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

researchers of the same generation, and its proceedings will be published injournal form.
Cultivating a multifaceted approach. Students entering the Cultural
Interaction Studies Program will complete coursework in a variety of humanities disciplines. Yet the program also requires students to move beyond thenational and single-discipline research frameworks, as described above. Thesedemands are not contradictory: young researchers will develop the multifaceted approach expected by the program by establishing a core research field
and then challenging themselves to move beyond it and explore new possibilities, overcoming the limits of their own knowledge and coming into
contact with other fields.
Research Activities
The approach to cultural-interaction studies that we are attempting toestablish seeks to move beyond the traditional analytical units of nations andpeoples by focusing on a cultural complex that encompasses all of East Asia.
This new field of academic research pays attention to a range ofphenomena—including the generation, transmission, contact, and transformation of culture inside that complex—as part of an effort to investigate thetotal reality of cultural interaction from a multifaceted and comprehensive
point of view. A faculty seminar in cultural-interaction studies for all institutemembers has been formed and charged with developing the necessary methodologies and providing a general overview of associated research activities.
Organizationally, this faculty seminar will preside over four regional researchgroups, mentioned below.
Transcending traditional boundaries. Cultural-exchange studies used toprimarily compile case studies conducted within specific disciplines such as
language, thought, ethnology, religion, literature, and history. In this framework, nation-states have been regarded as the basic unit of approach. For
example, individual research projects into Chinese-Japanese cultural
exchanges have tended to be limited to Japanese and Chinese national frameworks. Cultural-interaction studies serve as a stage for transcending theselimitations to realize a more sophisticated form of academic research, even as
researchers utilize the results of traditional research on cultural exchanges.
Cultural-interaction studies targeting East Asia seeks a fresh analysis thatincorporates the various perspectives of disciplines in the humanities. In termsof research methodology, the approach avoids establishing any fixed cultural
centers and shuns investigating the cultures of any country or region separately from the others. Instead, it approaches East Asia in the context ofIntroduction of Major Institutions

93

multilateral relationships and posits East Asian culture as a cultural complex
that developed through a series of unending cultural contacts.
Research nodes. The
institute posits thefollowing three research
focuses as broad-based
axes for organizing avariety of cultural interactions in an inclusive
manner and moving
beyond research frameworks based on individual nations andacademic disciplines:
1. Aspects of cultural interactions from the standpoint of mediation. Thisfocus includes such far-ranging research subjects as people (as both individuals and groups), objects (books, traded products, etc.), and means of transportation (shipping, trade routes, and the international relations that definethem). Research conducted at the institute not only approaches these topics
individually from the standpoint of a variety of areas of specialization but
also assimilates them into the larger context of East Asia.
2. Regional cultural contacts and their effects. This focus identifies particularregions in East Asia and seeks to compare their cultural interactions withthose of other regions. Research concerning the four regions of Northeast
Asia, Coastal Asia, Inland Asia, and outside Asia will initially address thequestion of how each region approached its relationships with Chinese culture
and then pursue joint research on the place of each region’s culture in thegreater context of East Asia.
3. The formation of cultural identity and external perspectives on the culture.
This focus addresses the gap between self-images and how other people see
the culture, as well as how other people’s self-perception is related to one’s
own cultural identity. This problem inevitably emerges when researchersconsider contacts between different cultures, and it embodies an essential
point of view for this program, given its approach to East Asia as a culturalcomplex.
Dissemination of information. Bulletins describing research results and a
newsletter reporting on daily activities are published not only in Japanese but
also in a variety of other languages, including English and Chinese. In addi-

94

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

tion, a website (http://www.icis.kansai-u.ac.jp) introduces the institute’s activities and program content in Japanese, English, Chinese (traditional andsimplified), and Korean, and the institute is building and publicizing a database for use by researchers worldwide.











Center for Japanese Studies, Korea University

Introduction to the Research Center
On August 13, 1999, Institute for Japanology ( 日本学研究所 ) attached to
Korea University was established with the purpose of carrying out systematicand generalized studies of South Korea’s neighboring country Japan, withwhich South Korea increasingly needs to cooperate for geopolitical considerations. As we enter the global era of the twenty-first century, to actively
respond to the need to create futuristic research methodologies and carry out
systematic research, the title of the institute has been changed to Center forJapanese Studies (日本研究センター), and the organization has been greatly
modified and enlarged.

Introduction of Major Institutions95

In 2006 Gwak Yuji(Gwak Chŏngsan) and Yu Bongsik, respected Korean
entrepreneurs residing in Japan and the chairman of Kyoto ANA Hotel andMK Group respectively, made considerable donations as a contribution
toward the development of the research center. As a result of these donations,in June 2007, for the first time in Korea, an exclusive building speciallydesignated to carry out research about Japan was established.
In addition, in November 2007 the center was selected as the only institute to carry out research about Japan as part of the Humanities Korea
Project, a national project that seeks to foster world-class institutes. The
center will work on the Humanities Korea Project for the next ten years,
endeavoring to become a world-class organization researching Japan.
Also, from 2008, as we increased cooperation with native and foreign
Japan research organizations, we set up the basis for building an international
network to research Japan through accumulating and providing information
about Japan and fostering specialists of Japan. We are pursuing not only independent research that includes both Korea and Japan, but also general andsystematic research suited to this era of globalization, information, andculture. From this foundation, we aim to become a research organization thatcan contribute to East Asia and even to the whole of human society.
Recent Accomplishments of the Research Center
As one of our top priorities, we plan to publish in our first period a Japaneseculture dictionary. This dictionary will be the first dictionary published by an
institute of a Korean university to cover all Japanese culture. This research
project will require the cooperation of the center’s three boards and six
offices. A taskforce team has already finished classifying and selecting topics
according to departments. This publication will further the goals of the
Humanities Korea Project and prove a valuable research aid.
The center will also publish a Japan yearbook. The publishing teamconsists of researchers
from each field of thethree boards and six
offices of the center. To
overcome the limits ofanalytical thinking, we
will pursue subjectoriented research, and wewill follow Japaneseyearbook practice by
including a yearly forecast of the relationship

96

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

between Korea and Japan. We are currently working on newly found material
gathered by intensive research and examining material not previously
disclosed. To present the topic of the year, we are asking for new material
from external specialists. Publication of the Japan yearbook will encapsulate
the era and enhance understanding of modern Japan.
Several major scholarly activities were held in 2009. In March and
September the center hosted two international scholarly symposia, and it has
another scheduled for November. In May an invited speaker gave a lecture. In
August the center held the second workshop in literature, linguistics, andhistory conducted by domestic scholars. In December there is a winter workshop.
In addition, monthly colloquia and other events were also held.











Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University

The Institute for Research in Humanities (Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūsho) of
Kyoto University is a research organization specializing in the humanities andsocial sciences. Established in 1929 for sinological studies under the name of
the Kyoto Institute (Kyōto Kenkyūsho), it was renamed the Institute ofOriental Studies (Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūsho) in 1938 and was restructured inIntroduction of Major Institutions

97

1949 by incorporating the Institute of Humanistic Studies (Jinbun Kagaku
Kenkyūsho, founded in 1939) and the Institute of Occidental Studies (Seiyō
Bunka Kenkyūsho, formerly the Deutsches Forschungsinstitut, founded in1934 and restructured under this name in 1946). The primary purpose of theinstitute is to promote systematic study of the world’s cultures and societies.
Until March 2000, the Institute comprised twenty research sections. In
April 2000 those sections were reorganized into the following five researchdivisions:• Cultural Research Methodologies, which explores new methodologies andobjects of study in the humanities• Cultural Processes, which studies cultural formation, transmission, andextinction• Cultural Representation, which pursues oriental archaeology and relatedsciences• Cultural Composition, which undertakes studies in oriental history andphilology• Cultural Interrelationships, which studies cultural mobility and interactions
The institute also houses the Center for Informatics in East Asian Studies,
the Humanities International Research Center (inaugurated in April 2006), andthe Center for Research on Modern and Contemporary China (inaugurated in
April 2007).
Interdisciplinary studies constitute the main research activity of the institute. The staff of the institute includes 21 professors, 19 associate professors,
19 assistant professors, 1 visiting professor, 1 visiting associate professor, and2 visiting fellows (from overseas). These scholars engage in collaborative
projects or seminars, as well as their own research. Because it regards asimportant international exchanges relating to advanced studies in the classics
and history, as well as field surveys, each year the institute accepts approximately 25 researchers from abroad.
The institute has carried out scientific group surveys in China (1939–1944), Central and Western Asia (1955, 1959–1967), Eastern Africa (1958,
1961–1965), Southwestern Europe (1967–1972), and the Middle East andEastern Europe (1977–1982). During the last two decades, overseas surveys
have become more specialized and diversified, ranging from internationalarchaeological surveys in Southern China to searches for surviving Vedic texts
in Southern India.
The Institute publishes three annual academic journals: the Tōhō Gakuhō(Journal of Oriental Studies), the Jinbun Gakuhō (Journal of Humanities), andZinbun: Annals of the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University.
In 2010 the institute will become a joint research center recognized by
the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology under the

98

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010name International Joint Research Center for All Fields of Research in the
Humanities.











The China Research Center of Overseas Sinology of the Beijing
Foreign Studies University

Established in 1996, the China Research Center of Overseas Sinology of
the Beijing Foreign Studies University is an academic institution that attaches
equal importance to scientific research and teaching. It adopted its present
name in 2006, when the university reorganized in order to broaden its
mission from introducing the world to China to also introducing China to theoutside world. Its purpose is to discover the extent of the spread and influence of Chinese culture among the various nations of the world. This is
expected to aid research on Chinese culture in the global arena. In particular,
we hope to discover the extent to which ancient Chinese classics spread toother parts of the world as part of cultural exchanges; to reveal the history oftranslation of Chinese cultural classics into other languages; to discover thetranslators and the various translated editions of Chinese cultural classics;
and, by studying the major foreign sinologists, their translations, andresearch, to paint in broad strokes a picture of the development of sinology
abroad.

Introduction of Major Institutions

99

The Institute of Chinese Modern History, Central China Normal
University

The Institute of Chinese Modern History is a specialized scientific research
institute directly under the management of Central China Normal University(CCNU). Its precursor was “The Institute of Historical Study”, which was
founded in 1984 by Prof. Zhang Kaiyuan, a well-known historian and president of CCNU. Prof. Zhang was the first director; Prof. Liu Wangling, Prof.
Luo Fuhui and Prof. Yan Changhong were the successors. In 1999, after
readjustment and reorganization, the Institute changed the name and Prof. Zhu
Ying has been the director since then. This institute was among the firstresearch units entitled to grant master and doctoral degrees after China’s
restoration of the academic degree system. In 2000, the Institute wasapproved as a “Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences in
Universities” by the Ministry of Education. Now, the Institute has a faculty of
16, and among them 11 are full-time professors. The Institute also invited
Prof. Sang Bing from the Sun Yat-sen University, Prof. Yu Heping from the
Chinese Academy of Social Science, Prof. Wang Qisheng from Peking
University, Prof. Wang Di from A&M University in U.S. and Prof. Tao
De-min from Kansai University in Japan as part-time Professors.
The Institute was initially well-known for its distinguished research on
the Revolution of 1911. After more than two decades’ development, its
research scope has extended to the whole modern era, covering China’s political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual and religious history. The
Institute’s main research projects include China’s early chambers ofcommerce and bourgeois, the early modernization of China, organizations of

100

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

guild and professional groups in modern China, the transition of social life ofmodern China, ideology and cultural transition of modern China, Christiancolleges and east-west cultural interaction. Volumes of monographs have been
published and earned a good reputation in China and the West, the History of
1911 Revolution (3 volumes, edited by Zhang Kaiyuan & Lin Zengping) was
one of the most distinguished contributions. The Institute has published anannual journal Jindai Xuekan (Journal of Modern Chinese History) since 2001.
Many graduates of the Institute have grown into backbones of historicalresearch in universities and institutes in mainland China. The Institute has alibrary of 60,000 volumes and more than 100 multi-language journals.
The Institute has paid much attention to international academic exchanges
since its establishment. There is on average one international conference every
year and many outstanding scholars have been invited to deliver lectures.
Now the Institute has established steady academic relationships with Yale
University, the University of San Francisco, Oxford University, Kyoto
University, Kansai University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, thePolitical University of Taiwan, and many distinct achievements have been
made in faculty alongside student exchange and cooperation in research projects.











The Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica

Founded in 1928, the Institute of History and Philology (IHP, Lishi Yuyan
Yanjiusuo) of Academia Sinica, Taipei, is one of the most accomplishedresearch institutions in the international Chinese studies community. It boasts
of an accomplished faculty, a library with rare and recent works of Chinese
history with few rivals in the world, enormous digital collections of Chinese
historical texts and images, an outstanding museum of Chinese history, and a
Taiwanese archaeology exhibition room.
IHP is one of the few institutions that still embraces the idea of a grandhistorical science focusing not only on conventional historical research, butalso on archaeology, philology, and fieldwork. The institute’s English name,Institute of History and Philology, reflects this idea, emphasizing the study ofIntroduction of Major Institutions

101

languages as the foundation of historical
work—a notion
predominant in Europe
when the institute wasestablished. The
founding faculty of theinstitute, a significant
number of whom hadreceived their training inEurope, realized thisideal in establishing theinstitute. At the outset,
the institute had three departments: history, linguistics, and archaeology; afourth, the department of anthropology, was added soon afterward.
Long hailed as a leading institution in almost all fields of Chinese studies,
the institute has recently undergone significant changes. In 1997 theDepartment of Linguistics became an independent institute. The instituteretained its original name, as philological research is still conducted at theinstitute. Since 2005 Recently, research at IHP has begun to expand into thefield of Western history, thus formally engaging in the study of areas outside
China.
IHP has developed one of the largest collections of digital resources available in Chinese and Taiwanese studies. Digitalization began in 1985 with theHistorical Documents Digitalization Project. The scope of IHP’s digitalization
project later expanded to include the creation of a full-text database ofChinese documents called Scripta Sinica, which has attracted the attention of
the international community in Chinese studies. The institute joined the
National Science Council’s National Digital Archives Program in 2001, using
the allocated funding to digitalize materials in five areas: rare books, archaeological artifacts, ink rubbings and ancient scripts, ethnological data, and thearchives of the Qing Grand Secretariat (Neige). Some of these resources are
already available online, accessible via the institute’s website (http://www.
ihp.sinica.edu.tw).
IHP’s accomplishments have become known mainly through its publications. The institute has its own publishing unit. The Lishi Yuyan Yanjiusuo
jikan (Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology) has been the mostprestigious Chinese-language journal in Chinese studies for decades. The late
Denis Twitchett of Princeton University headed the editorial board for IHP’s
English-language journal, Asia Major. Gujin lun heng (Disquisitions on the
Past and Present), published in Chinese, is intended to disseminate historical102

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia   Vol.1  2010

knowledge to a broader audience. In addition, the institute has also publishedspecial-topic monographs, archaeological reports, collections of historical
documents, and a variety of article collections, totaling roughly one thousand
volumes. During the early twentieth century, the first-generation IHP faculty
published many groundbreaking academic works in Chinese history in theinstitute’s monograph series. This body of publications constitutes an important collection in Chinese studies. In addition, the faculty can (and often do)
publish their works through other academic and popular publishers, both
domestic and foreign.











The National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan
University
Inaugurated on March 10, 2007, the National Institute for Advanced
Humanistic Studies (IAHS, Wenshi Yanjiuyuan) at Fudan University was set
up as a national base for original research in the humanities and was incorporated into the national 985 Project (Phase 2). It currently has 15 tenured
professors and 14 part-time professors specializing in the fields of literature,art, philosophy, history, and religion. The institute engages in the following
five research areas:• Views of China in bordering countries• International perspectives in sinology• The interweavings of cultural history• Literature and imagery materials about China held overseas• The synthesis of religion, ideology, and art in history
The institute annually accommodates 5 visiting professors and scholars.
Its postdoctoral program, currently with 8 fellows, recruits both from home
and abroad. Within Fudan University, the institute serves as an advancedresearch platform open to a broad group of about 300 faculty members, 500
graduate students, and 2,000 undergraduates, from the departments of literature, history, philosophy, cultural relics and museology, as well as the Guji
Yanjiusuo (Institute for the Study of Classics).
With cooperation from Zhonghua Shuju (Zhonghua Book Company,
Beijing) and Shanghai Guji Chubanshe (Shanghai Classics Publishing House),Introduction of Major Institutions

103

the institute has published the lecture series Fudan Humanities Lectures,
monographs in the series Fudan Humanities Collection, and conference
papers under the series IAHS Special Collection. It also publishes a quarterly
newsletter of the institute. In addition, the institute, in a joint effort with
Fudan Daxue Chubanshe (Fudan University Press), has compiled andpublished Yuenan Hanwen yanxing wenxian jicheng (越南汉文燕行文献集成,
The Full Collection of Vietnamese Yanxing Literature), Hanguo Hanwen
yanxing lu xuanbian (韩国汉文燕行录选编, A Selection of Yanxing Literaturein Korea), and Yanjiusheng xueshu rumen (Academic Guide Book for
Postgraduates).