1PrefaceForeword
LI Hsiao-ti*
The 10th Annual Meeting of SCIEA, held in Hong Kong in May 12 and13, 2018, took “Maritime East Asia---Network, Exchanges, and Mobilities asits main thesis. Just like in the 11th Annual Meeting, our hosts take theHistory and Technology as the main theme of the German meeting, whichbespeaks German’s proud tradition of science and technology, our Hong Kong
meeting attempted to highlight the status of Hong Kong as a coastal city.
With this awareness in mind, we designed some general topics for theparticipants’ consideration. These topics included: transportation networks andmobility of products; Hong Kong as viewed from the perspective of EastAsia; immigration and cultural identities; cultural productions and representations; religious beliefs and rituals; spread and production of knowledge; aswell as cold war and order in East Asia and harbor cities.
Over 150 participants attended this meeting. In addition to three keynote
speakers, the 134 participants who gave papers were divided into 29 panels.
The titles of these panels are: modernity in East Asia, the education of thepromoters of modernization, cultural exchanges among Asia in modern times,
Korea in the history of East Asia, studies on modern words, studies on thetransfer of knowledge and the history of study abroad, development of thestudies on the history of exchanges in the maritime space of East Asia,
language and religious mission, cultural exchanges between East and West,studies on the 20th century Kyoto school, Hong Kong from the perspective ofEast Asia: on the literary interactions between East Asia and Hong Kong, thecollision of Western and Eastern thoughts, studies on “Beijing Guanhua”,
Chinese studies by Naito, linguistic contact between East and West, theacceptance in Modern Japan of Western philosophy and Eastern thought,
modern states and Sinology-state system-external knowledge-teaching, experience across borders and cultural interactions, practical publications in thecultural interactions of modern East Asia, the interpretation of modern	  * LI Hsiao-ti 李孝悌 is a director of Chinese Civilisation Centre, City University ofHong Kong and President of the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia.

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Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 10 2019Japanese Buddhism and philosophical thought, the Mage network and knowledge scene iin modern East Asia, and War and Japanese Literature.
A quick look at the titles of these panels show that the subtitles of themajor themes of the 10th annual meeting—network, exchanges, and mobilities---were to great extent explored. Hong Kong and maritime world of East
Asia also attracted attentions from scholars and Ph. D. students.
However, what impressed us most from these panels were people’s
concerns with the cultural interactions between different cultures and areas.
While some discussed cultural exchanges within East Asian, more people
were enthusiastic about the relationships between East West. Five panels wereinterested in the cultural exchanges between East and West, while two panels
explored the topic of the collusions of Eastern and Western thoughts.
These very facts remind us again that when we talk about cultural interactions of East Asia, we must bear in mind that the issue is never merely thebusiness of East Asian people or countries. In the making of modern East
Asia, western cultures and forces played significant roles. For this very
reason, we are glad to see that our 11th annual meeting is holding in a
reputed centuries-long university in Germany. It’s the right time to view East
Asian culture from a global network.