From 12 through 15 January, the Graduate School of Letters (GSL) and two academic institutes in China -- the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University, and the Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong (CityU) -- jointly held the fourth Doctoral/Postdoctoral East Asian Humanities Workshop at Fudan University, Shanghai.
The annual workshop was conceived by GSL and launched in 2013 in collaboration with Fudan University. The 2014 and 2015 events took place in Shanghai and Kyoto, respectively, and the 2016 workshop was the first to be joined by CityU.
Taking part in this year's workshop from GSL were 12 doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers affiliated with four departments -- Chinese Language and Literature, History of Chinese Philosophy, Geography, and Sociology -- as well as Professor Bunri Usami and Associate Professor Hideki Midorikawa.
Following congratulatory speeches by Professor Masao Kitano, Kyoto University's Executive Vice-President for Education, Information Infrastructure, and Evaluation (through a written message), and Professor Ge Zhaoguang of Fudan University, the 12 participants from GSL were joined by 15 from Fudan and three from CityU in eight consecutive sessions held over two days: "Classical poetry and novels", "Contemporary language and literature", "Historical thought-worlds", "Iconology: flowers and birds, people, and hills and waters", "Study of writing and Confucianism", "Religions and cultural exchanges in East Asia", "Urban studies", and "Ancient landscapes and contemporary tourism". In each of these sessions, the participants made presentations, took part in Q&A, and engaged in animated discussion in Chinese and English.
The next two days were devoted to field research. Activities on the 14th centered on the "Pagoda of Suzhou", and covered the Precious Belt Bridge ( bao dai qiao ) and Shangfang and Ling Yan Mountains as well as the Ruiguang Pagoda, while those on the 15th took place at archaeological sites and museums related to the "Waters of Shanghai".
The next East Asian Humanities Workshop is scheduled to take place in 2017 at CityU.
Workshop in progress
