1PrefaceForeword
Marc Andre Matten*

In the long tradition of the annual meetings of SCIEA the FriedrichAlexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg had in 2019 the honor ofholding the 11th conference for the first time outside of East Asia. Taking
place from 11 to 12 May 2019 the annual meeting was dedicated to the topicof “Moving Knowledges in East Asia and Beyond—Global Networks in theHistory of Science and Technology.”
Its more than 150 participants discussed issues related to the global histories of circulating knowledges by focusing on transnational networks inknowledge production and dissemination, questioning the role of rationality
and objectivity in knowledge making and pointing to the important role ofbureaucracy and institutions in the transformations of 19th and 20th century
East Asia. In nearly 30 panels did participants from China, Japan, Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Germany discuss the various paradigmatic changes
in the history of science, ranging from the postcolonial and poststructuralist
turn to the cultural and social turn. These changes considerably shifted ourunderstanding of the social, political and cultural function of knowledge in a
rapidly globalizing world, as the panels proved during the conference.
The title of the panels organized and presented by senior scholars as wellas PhD candidates were International Peace after World War I: Shibusawa
Eiichi’s Philanthropic Activities and his Foresight, Sinology as a Medium ofKnowledge Sharing in Nineteenth Century East Asia, Digital Archive andHumanities, Modern Concept of the Space in East and West, Historical
Development of Concept/Cross-Cultural Acceptance and Language, The
Impacts of Entrepreneurs’ Activities on Modern East Asia, Science,Scholarship and Popularization in Late Imperial and Republican China: The
Vulnerability of the History and the Knowledge, Chinese Writing andKnowledge Sharing in Global History, Modern Travelers and Their Memoirs,	  * Marc Andre Matten is professor for Contemporary History of China at FAU ErlangenNuremberg and current president of the Society for Cultural Interaction in EastAsia.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 11 2020

Cultural Interaction in the field of Art, Modern East Asia and the Role ofIndustrialist, The role of political, cultural, and academic institutions inknowledge transfer and exchanges, Literature and scientific approach,Knowledge, Value and Society in Modern China, Study of Language Contactbetween East and West, A Comparative Study of Private Business in theBakumatsu Meiji Era – Focusing on Eiichi Shibusawa, Foreign Travelers andTheir Records, The Cross-Cultural Experience of Missionaries, Modern Asian
Practical Books and Global Circulation of Knowledge, Literature and CulturalExchange, Different Aspects of Cultural Interaction on Language in Modern
East Asia, Acceptance of Foreign Thoughts, Study on the Language Contactand Language History, Literature and Cultural Exchange, Different Aspects ofCultural Exchange, Acceptance and Transition of Western Philosophy inModernization of Japan, Modern Sino-Japanese Social Network of Literati,and Different Aspects of Cultural Exchange.
The two keynote speeches were given by professor Thomas Mullaney(Stanford University) on Forget Everything You’ve Heard about ‘Character
Amnesia’: Chinese, Electronic Writing, and the Birth of the Hypograph andprofessor May Bo Ching (City University of Hong Kong) on Rethinking
Media History in Modern China. Both keynotes, accidently but wonderfully,interacted with each other and demonstrated to the audience how media andtechnology impact knowledge production and vice versa in 20th centuryChinese history.
The upcoming 12th annual meeting of SCIEA will be held at the ResearchCenter for the Civilization of Chinese Characters at Zhengzhou University inChina. The conference with the title “The Chinese Character as a Medium ofCultural Interaction: Its Dissemination and Influences” is dedicated to thedissemination of Chinese characters and classical texts and their influences on
East Asia civilization and beyond.