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Announcement of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Society for
Cultural Interaction in East Asia___________________________________________________________________________________
A global perspective on the past is a new perspective and methodology inhistoriography and historical writings based on systemic and related outlooks comprised ofmacroscopic and microscopic perspectives of world history or the transcending of ethnic
and national perspectives regarding transnational historical phenomena.
The American global historian Jerry H. Bentley (1949-2012) believed that systemic
global development is embodied in a true universality that has three major social
processes: population growth, advances in and dissemination of technology, and increasing
interaction between unlike societies. In the East Asian nexus, there is constant knowledgetransfer as well as various new technologies and interaction of new concepts and beliefs.
Different societies are all ceaselessly seeking new means and schemes—conquering or
being conquered, symbiotic integration, and immigration—for social cooperation. Throughinteraction with outsiders, these hidden issues will be brought to the forefront, and in the
global era, East Asia will again become cognizant of its own cultural values and offer a newperspective for reexamination.
Wu Yujin (1913-1993), a Chinese scholar of twentieth-century world history, once
proposed that the morphology of human society from the lower to the upper stages andlateral development in each region of the world, from mutual seclusion to gradual opening,from mutual separation to a gradually close horizontal development, together constitutethe issues of world history. In terms of the aspect of methodologies for the considerationand depiction of the horizontal development of East Asia, global history can also offer
instructive examples. We can use the global perspective of history to examine interactions
among the different cultures of East Asia, to explain the form and content of mutual
influences among different cultures, and to emphasize construction of mutually relatedprocesses, thereby revealing mechanisms of change. Understanding knowledge transitions
and interaction in East Asia from the perspective of global history is a brand-new methodof constructing history; it is only through interaction that we can truly understand thechanging world of East Asia and its concomitant knowledge transitions.
The 2017 annual meeting of the Society will be hosted by Beijing Foreign Studies
University. The Society will use the perspective of global history in research to review thesubjects of cultural interaction studies, methods, interdisciplinary studies, and means ofdigitalization to emphasize new advances with which to construct an inclusive history ofeach country in East Asia by using a perspective that transcends individual national
histories through mutual understanding of East Asian cultural interaction in a changing
world.
The significance of the conference mainly lies in implementation of the following
three aspects of discourse methodologies. First, trans-cultural perspectives: truly breaking

down borders of nation-states by traversing national, regional, ethnic, cultural, andlinguistic historical phenomena that constitute the subjects of research. Second,
interactive viewpoints: emphasizing research on related histories within interactive social
networks, from mutual understanding of the histories of East Asia and all nations in theworld—people in different regions, ethnic groups, and cultures—through contact
economically, politically, culturally, as well as achievement of interaction in other multiple
fields. Third, integrated implementation of interdisciplinary research methodologies: using
anthropology, sociology, economics, geography, and methodologies in various types ofnatural sciences to study East Asian cultural interaction.
The Institute for Global History at Beijing Foreign Studies University will host the2017 annual meeting of the Society for Cultural Interaction in East Asia. The conference
will use a “global perspective on the past” for the themes in each panel session, aiming totransmit the scholarship of researchers of East Asian history and culture to create a global
historiographical perspective. We look forward to everyone’s participation in the effort tomake new contributions to the field of East Asian cultural interaction studies.
We sincerely hope that all Society members will participate in this year’s conference!
Conference Theme this Year: A Global Perspective on the Past and Knowledge Transitions
in East Asia
Panel Themes:
1. Global perspectives on the past and East Asian cultural interaction studies
2. East Asian and Western concepts of transitions
3. Research on the history of individual East Asian countries under the rubric of a global
perspective on the past
4. Formation and development of perspectives on East Asian early modern history
5. East Asian early modern publications and knowledge circulation
6. Dissemination of new knowledge in early modern East Asia and the legacy oftraditional lifestyles
7. Big data and research on early modern East Asia
8. Literature, history, philosophy, and translation in the process of knowledgetransmission
9. Research on new cultural history, life histories, and memory10. Miscellaneous topics in research on the history of East Asian knowledge
Meeting Schedule
Arrival: May 12, 2017 (Friday)
Annual Meeting: May 13-14, 2017 (Saturday and Sunday)
Departure: May 15, 2017 (Monday)

Application Schedule
The conference will be divided into four categories: keynote speeches, panel sessions,individual presentations, and papers presented by PhD candidates.
We encourage each Society member to refer to the above titles for the composition ofeach panel. Panels will be allotted two hours and will be comprised of four to fivepresenters, one moderator, and one or two discussants. Presenters can also serve asmoderators or discussants. Please submit your application and abstract (400 characters) tothe Organizing Committee by the deadline if you wish to participate.
The deadline for application submission is January 16, 2017. After the Organizing
Committee reviews your application and abstract, we will send you a formal letter ofinvitation around the middle of February.
Conference Expenses
With the exception of specially invited presenters, all participants are responsible for
their own roundtrip transportation and lodging expenses. In addition, in accordance withthe decision made at the last SCIEA conference, the 2017 conference fees will be 400 yuan
for full members and 200 yuan for PhD students. Fees include a welcome banquet, lunches
for both days at the conference, and the cost of the published conference proceedings.
Please submit payment in cash (Chinese yuan) on site. (Credit cards and foreign currency
will not be accepted.)
To apply for participation, contact:
The Organizing Committee: sciea2017@outlook.com
Members of the Organizing Committee for the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Society for
Cultural Interaction in East Asia:
Head organizer: Li Xuetao, Vice-President (Professor, Beijing Foreign Studies University)
Auxiliary organizers:
Uchida Keiichi, President (Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Kansai University)
Cheng Pei-kai, Councilor (Professor, City University of Hong Kong)
Fujita Takao, Councilor (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
Tao De-min, Councilor (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
Nakatani Nobuo (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
Azuma Jūji (Professor, Faculty of Literature, Kansai University)
Secretary:
Shen Guowei, Secretary General (Professor, Faculty of Foreign Languages, KansaiUniversity)
Ma Chunling (The Office of The Institute for Global History, Beijing Foreign Studies
University)