he 10^th Annual Symposium of the Consortium for Asian and African Studies (CAAS) was held on October 19^th, 2019 at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). The theme of this year’s symposium was “Cultural Expression in the Era of Globalization”. Over 30 experts and scholars from the CAAS discussed frontier issues of Asian and African Studies, which strengthened international academic exchanges and cooperation in the area. This year’s symposium is also one of the featured academic activities of the 70^th anniversary of the founding of SISU. Jiang Feng, council chair of SISU, Jun Matsukuma, vice principal of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), Gilles Forlot, vice principal of the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) and coordinators from CAAS membership universities attended the opening ceremony.

In the welcome address, Jiang Feng pointed out that this year’s symposium had special meanings because it coincided with the 70^th anniversary of the founding of SISU, and that the era of globalization called for global thinking, a way of thinking built on the basis of the full mastery of national and regional knowledge. He also acknowledged the growing importance of international collaboration in Asian and African Studies nowadays. Using SISU alumni who are now playing an active part as diplomats as an example, Jiang illustrated the mission and aspiration of SISU, highlighting that they were highly compatible with the goal of the CAAS.

Jun Matsukuma stated in his speech that it would be difficult for a single university to cover all of the subjects in Asian and African Studies. Therefore, the CAAS was established to serve as a resource pool of what each of its membership university had to offer, with a view to concentrating the best efforts on solving frontier issues. He also praised the remarkable achievements reached through the cooperation between CAAS members.

Gilles Forlot also spoke highly of the role the CAAS had played in the communication between its members. He wished that the membership universities could work together to advance research on national and regional issues and topics of global significance.

Koji Miyazakii, founder of the CAAS and former coordinator of the TUFS, reflected on the development and achievements of the consortium since its founding 12 years ago and of the annual symposium since 10 years ago. In addition, he introduced the CAAS’s progress with the development of internal platforms for a wide range of purposes, including academic exchanges, talent cultivation and research collaboration.

After the opening ceremony, Jiang Feng met with Matsukuma and Forlot and conducted in-depth discussions on the aforementioned issues. Zhang Hongling, director of the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange (OICE) of SISU, Wang Zheng, deputy director of OICE, Chen Xiaoli, council chair of the School of Asian and African Studies, also attended the meetings.

On October 18^th, coordinators from membership universities discussed the status of the CAAS, the plans for next year’s annual symposium and the hosting of summer schools. Next year’s annual symposium will be hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (UoL).

The CAAS was founded in March 2007. It is committed to the strengthening of the collaboration in training and promoting professionals and researchers in Asian and African Studies by playing to the advantage of its membership universities, to ultimately promote the development of Asian and African Studies. The CAAS currently has seven member universities: SISU, TUFS, INALCO, SOAS, Leiden University, Columbia University and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, all of which are of great influence in Asian and African Studies. SISU is the only Chinese membership university of the CAAS.  

The article is translated by Xu Mingchun and Bai Yang and proofread by Chen Qinyu, members of the Translation Association of the School of English Studies (SESTA) at Shanghai International Studies University. For use of the content, please contact: ses_translators@163.com.