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IIAS vision The Newsletter | No.57 | Summer 2011 From the Director | 3 ᯮ ມ ߦѣᇫ HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS Stepping Forth into the World e Chinese Educational Mission to the United States, 1872–81 Edward J. M. Rhoads hb 978-988-8028-86-3 pb 978-988-8028-87-0 Merchants’ Daughters Women, Commerce, and Regional Culture in South China Edited by Helen F. Siu pb 978-988-8083-48-0 e Old Shanghai A-Z Paul French pb 978-988-8028-89-4 200 color images Rebuilding the Ancestral Village Singaporeans in China Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce pb 978-988-8028-81-8 e Empress and Mrs. Conger e Uncommon Friendship of Two Women and Two Worlds Grant Hayter-Menzies hb 978-988-8083-00-8 Return Migration and Identity A Global Phenomenon, A Hong Kong Case Nan M. Sussman hb 978-988-8028-83-2 pb 978-988-8028-84-9 www.hkupress.org eBook portal: ebooks.hkupress.org I would like to reflect on the global character of IIAS. Just a few weeks ago, IIAS, as the secretariat of the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), worked closely with the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) to organize in Honolulu, Hawai’i, one of the largest ever conferences on the field of Asian studies. The success of this enterprise can be appreciated in a few numbers: over 5,000 participants, 770 panels, and a quite remarkably balanced representation of Asian, European, American, and Australian scholars. Philippe Peycam OF COURSE, THE EVENT’S LOCATION IN HAWAI’I and the island’s legendary hospitality contributed greatly to this success. The conference really served its purpose as a meeting-ground between scholars from different parts of the world and as a tremendous catalyst for new intellectual and institutional connections. ICAS 8 will again take place in Asia in the summer of 2013. The future host will, no doubt, draw inspiration from the 2011 AAS-ICAS joint conference. This latter achievement is the result of a longstanding collaboration between IIAS and the AAS. We will continue this dialogue, hoping to repeat such a unique global gathering of Asia scholars in a not too distant future. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor, Prof. Wim Stokhof, one of the principal architects of ICAS, and subsequently of the Hawai’i success. We at IIAS were moved when, prior to the AAS Presidential address, our American colleagues paid a special homage to Wim (the full text of this tribute is reproduced by my colleague Dr. Paul van der Velde on p.44). The Hawai’i achievement is quintessentially IIAS, with its ability to function as a truly global platform on Asia and Asian studies. This global vision is all the more perceptible in that IIAS recently embraced the idea of “Global Asia” as one of its new thematic clusters: forms of Asian connections and projection in the world, through transnational/regional and intercultural movements of people, ideas, goods, ideologies, etc. This also includes connections within and across different parts of the massive geographical region called Asia. A few recent initiatives taken as parts of this cluster are worth highlighting here. The first is this IIAS-Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore) original partnership aimed at encouraging research on intra-Asian connectivity. The joint IIAS-ISEAS fellowship positions now being offered are intended for young doctoral graduates whose work relates “to the ways in which Asian polities and societies have interacted over time through religious, cultural, and economic exchanges and diasporic networks”. The 2011-2012 sub-theme is about “tracing patterns of intra-Asian transnational connectivity throughout and across modern colonial empires”. Another new “Global Asia” initiative which IIAS is pursuing is rather more unusual and at an exploratory stage. The programme Asian Studies in Africa (ASA) aims to initiate what could become a triangular transcontinental capacity- building programme involving higher education partners in Africa, Asia and Europe. Its gestation is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the Institute for Humanities in Africa, at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the South- South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development (SEPHIS) in Amsterdam, the Africa Studies Centre in Leiden, and, of course, IIAS. A first workshop was held in Leiden last December. The programme’s rationale lies in the realization that although the countries and peoples of Africa and Asia have over centuries been connected through circuits of trade, socio-cultural exchanges as well as settlement of communities, the present forms of intensive relationships of capital investments, commerce, political alliances and cultural transfers of knowledge, call for more systematic scholarly engagements with the Asian and African realities. The initiators of the programme also recognize the need for a critical infrastructure of humanities and social science knowledge in both regions, in which a focus on Asian Studies in African institutions – and ultimately African studies in Asian institutions – becomes an essential part. I can not end these few words about IIAS’s global vision without mentioning the present newsletter, and especially its departing Managing Editor, Anna Yeadel, who, for the past four years, has devoted her energy and talent to making it the wonderful global periodical on Asian studies that it is today. On behalf of IIAS, I wholeheartedly thank Anna and wish her all the best and continuing success. I also wish to thank Marie Lenstrup, who has edited the present issue in Anna’s absence. In my previous note, I mentioned how we were in the midst of revamping our communication policy by building more synergies between this newsletter, our website and the various databases resulting from years of projects and partnerships. Two new positions have been recently filled: Sonja Zweegers is our new Newsletter Editor, and Sandra Dehue our new Content Manager. Both Sonja and Sandra have considerable experience in creative editing and communication, and both specialise on Asia. I am delighted to welcome them to the IIAS team! Philippe Peycam Director of IIAS [email protected] Follow IIAS on Twitter! Get all the latest news on IIAS events, research fellows and projects. Sign up today and follow @AsianStudies http:// twitter.com/AsianStudies
