The newly established Institute of East Asian Studies of National Chengchi University and the Institute of International Relations, Republic of China, have jointly entered into an agreement with the Center for Asian Studies of St. John's University, Jamaica, New York, for exchange of scholarship students. The accord marks a modest contribution to Sino-American academic cooperation.
Dr. Paul K.T. Sih, director of the Center of St. John's University, signed the agreement with Prof. Wu Chen-tsai, director of both IIR and the Institute of Chengchi University, in Taipei August 22. A scholar in Far Eastern history and political science, Dr. Sih was in Taipei attending the First International Conference of Sinologists.
The Chengchi Institute, supported by IIR, and the Center at St. John's will each provide a scholarship leading to a master's degree for a student of the other. The St. John's scholarship covers tuition plus US$2,400 for living expenses. The St. John's student studying at the Chengchi Institute will have tuition and fees waived and receive a monthly allowance of NT$4,000 (US$100).
This exchange program is designed to meet the study needs of Asia and of Asian studies. International attention has focused on Asia ever since the end of World War II. The need for better Asian scholarship has increased in direct ratio to the region's world importance as reflected in war, turmoil and ideological confrontations.
Teaching of the languages, histories and cultures of Asia is nothing new. Sinology emerged as a special branch of Western learning before the turn of the century. But the establishment of centers of area studies is largely a postwar phenomenon.
"Asian or Oriental Studies" may denote a huge region from Japan to the Islamic world. However, the area of emphasis has come to be the Far East and Southeast Asia with China at the core. Many students think China holds the key to both Asian and world peace.
In the aftermath of World War II, continental China fell prey to Mao's brand of Communism. This has turned out to be much more truculent than the Communist orthodoxy of the Soviet Union. Instead of turning out to be "agrarian reformers" as predicted by some "China experts" in America, the Chinese Communists have outdone "Soviet revisionists" in promoting violent revolution in the cause of world conquest. All the violence in Asia - from Korea to the Himalayas, Taiwan Straits and Vietnam - can be traced to a source in Peiping.
To a considerable extent, the chain of events in Asia has been a stimulus to the spectacular development of Asian studies in the United States. Concern and interest of the U.S. government and of private sources have produced financing for study and research projects. Support of the U.S. Department of Education and Social Welfare, the Defense Department, Ford Foundation and other sponsors have made it possible for some 40 American colleges and universities to establish centers for Asian studies.
Staff, facilities and curricula have been built up for teaching and research. Results of study are being integrated into the larger body of knowledge and making a considerable contribution to the social sciences.
St. John's University, a Catholic institution, established its Center for Asian Studies in 1959 on a modest scale. It has so far received 15 Chinese language fellowship awards under the National Defense Education Act. For the academic year 1962-63, the New York State Department of Education granted it 20 scholarships for the study of Indian history by in-service teachers. For the last seven years, the Center has awarded 8 to 10 tuition scholarships each summer through a grant from the Sino-American Cultural Society of Washington, D.C. Subsidies from NDEA funds have extended the teaching of the Chinese language to the high school level. Research on mainland China is currently difficult. The mainland is physically closed to scholars. Information is scanty and often colored. Peiping sources are notoriously unreliable but are often used for lack of any alternative.
Research into Chinese Communism requires a fresh and knowledgeable viewpoint that ideally should come from or be connected with free China. Scholars of Taiwan face neither language nor cultural barriers. They have access to the same mainland sources that are open to other students.
The desirability of Sino-American research cooperation is obvious. When the Council on Sino-American Cooperation in Humanities and Social Sciences held its inaugural conference in Taipei in June, 1966, Prof. Wu Chen-tsai, the IIR director, reported on research into Chinese Communist affairs as undertaken in free China. The conference communique pointed out the need for cooperation and the Executive Committee of the Council in China subsequently established a China Mainland Study Group.
Taiwan study of Chinese Communist affairs has been a specialization generally beyond the competency of universities. The island faces the imminent threat of Communist military attack and subversion. The government has had to classify Communist publications as classified materials not subject to public circulation. Consequently, the study of Chinese Communism has been largely the responsibility of government and government-contracted organizations. This situation has made it difficult for visiting foreign specialists on Chinese Communism to find Chinese researchers engaged in similar studies.
It was against this background that the Institute of Asian Studies was founded under the joint sponsorship of the National Chengchi University and the Institute of International Relations. It is a graduate school of Chengchi but draws support from IIR in faculty and research and library facilities. Offering a two-year program leading to a master's degree, the Institute is the first of its kind in free China. Emphasis will be placed on China mainland affairs. The first class has 14 students.
Prof. Wu Chen-tsai, director of IIR, is concurrently head of the new Institute at Chengchi University. An expert in Indian history and educated at Delhi University and London's School of Economics and Political Science, Prof. Wu has been teaching at National Taiwan University and Taiwan Normal University. Also on the Institute faculty for the first year are such prominent scholars as Chien Mu, Bcauson Tseng, Tao Hsi-sheng, Cheng Hsueh-chia, Tsui Chui-yen, Warren Kuo, Liu Yu-ching and Liu Shih-cheng.
The curriculum consists of the following courses: Studies of Chinese Culture, Chinese Political Thought, Marxism-Leninism and the Communist International, A Comparative Study of San Min Chu I and Communism, History of the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese Communist Politics and the Economy of Mainland China. Courses in East Asian area studies are expected to be given in the second year.
The IIR is itself an academic institution for established scholars in area and inter-area studies. Founded in 1961 under a charter from the Ministry of Education, it does not offer instruction or confer degrees. Its primary concern is research into Chinese Communist affairs and world problems.
The IIR research staff of 70 scholars specializes in four fields: International Relations, the Soviet Bloc, Chinese Communism and Chinese Communist Economic Affairs. There is a research group for each field. When interests overlap, groups join in cooperative studies. Seminars are held regularly to hear reports and discuss findings. These are published in periodicals and as monographs and books.
Five IIR journals are widely circulated at home and abroad. Chinese monthlies are Wen-Ti Yu Yen-Chiu (Issues & Studies) and Fei-Ching Yueh-Pao (Chinese Communist Affairs). The English publications are Issues & Studies (monthly), Facts & Features (biweekly), and Catalog of Current Research Publications on Modern China (bi-monthly). The IIR has published more than 30 books and monographs. Included are such reference books as Warren Kuo's Analytical History of the Chinese Communist Party (two volumes in English and more expected) and Chung-Kung Jen-Min Lu (Who's Who in Chinese Communism), which is being translated into English.
IIR library holdings include 12,000 books in Chinese, English, Japanese and Russian and periodicals and newspapers from all over the world. Its collection of reference materials, newspaper clippings and biographical cards for research is the most complete in free China. To meet growing requests for exchange and sales, it has recently installed a Rich electronic printer and offset machine, a 3M '200R' reader-printer and a 3M '2000' microfilm camera and uniprinter copier.
The IIR has cooperative agreements with the following foreign institutions: Hoover Institution of Stanford University, Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies of George Washington University, Institute of International Studies of the University of South Carolina and Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University in the United States; Ott-Suhr-Institut An Der Freien Universitat Berlin and the Erforschung Institute for the Study of the USSR, Munich in West Germany; and the Asiatic Research Center of Korea University. Research personnel have been exchanged with some of these institutions. Research materials are regularly exchanged with more than 60 foreign institutions.
Many foreign scholars visit IIR each year to attend seminars, give lectures or use the library for reference and research. In 1967 a total of 227 foreign scholars visited IIR, of whom 40 stayed briefly to examine reference or research materials.
The IIR is located in the Central Daily News building in downtown Taipei but next year will move into its own new building in suburban Mucha, the site of National Chengchi University. The Chengchi Institute of Asian Studies will have quarters in the same building.
By this time next year, the Chengchi Institute will have sent one of its graduate students to the St. John's Center and received a St. John's student. In addition, it will exchange students with the Free University of Berlin and the University of South Carolina.
The Center of Asian Studies of St. John's University has concerned itself primarily with graduate instruction in Chinese language and history and related East Asian subjects. There are two master's programs, one in Asian history and one in Chinese studies. The curriculum is planned to enable American students to combine study of research methods with language training. A PhD program is offered in East Asian history. Candidates must have an M.A. in Chinese studies.
Between 1962 and 1968, the Center graduated 28 students with the M.A. in Chinese studies and 3 with the PhD in East Asian history. Many students are on scholarships, have assistantships or receive aid in a work-study program. In addition to the Chengchi Institute, the Center has an exchange program with the College of Chinese Culture in Taipei, with which it has exchanged two graduate students.
Besides Dr. Sih, the director, the Center has several ranking scholars on its faculty. Prof. Rita Johnson specializes in Southeast Asian studies and has published books on Buddhism and Christianity in Asia. Prof. Chin-chao Liang specializes in Chinese literature and Prof. Shin-shun Liu is a prolific translator of Chinese poetry.
Since its inception in 1959, the Center has acquired 25,000 Chinese-language volumes on the history, philosophy, literature and art of China. An appropriation of $10,000 is available for further acquisitions during the current academic year. The university library has a collection of 15,000 books on East Asia in Western languages. The library has established exchange programs for publications and research works with more than 20 leading institutions and universities in Taipei, Hongkong, Tokyo, Seoul, Saigon, Singapore, Manila and New Delhi.
Ambassador Chou Shu-kai, left, accompanied by Dr. Sih visits St. John's exhibitions of Tun Huang murals (File photo)
Also among library holdings are rare Chinese art collections. These include original calligraphy and paintings, reproduction of Tun Huang murals, Han dynasty bamboo writing slips, Chou-T'ang bronzes and porcelains, a panel of woodcarvings of China's "Four Great Inventions" and a wood mural entitled "One Hundred Birds and the Phoenix". These were exhibited at the Chinese Pavilion at the New York World Fair in 1964.
Such art works together with movies, filmstrips and color slides are used to familiarize the students with the social and cultural life of the peoples of East Asia. Audio-visual aids are available for language teaching. The Center has a language laboratory with 50 booths equipped with electronic devices.
The Center has developed a research and publication program. With the help of the university press, it is publishing three series: (1) translations of Chinese classics, (2) monographs on "Asia in the Modern World" and (3) books on "Asian Philosophical Studies". Specific works include Lao Tzu's Tao Teh Ching, the Confucianist Hsiao Ching and the Platform Scripture of Zen Buddhism in the first series; The Chinese Revolution of 1911 by C.T. Liang, China and the Washington Conference in 1921-1922 by Wunsz King and China and the Brussels Conference by Tsien Tai in the second series; and A Study of Wang Yang-ming by Carsun Chang, Chinese Humanism and Christian Spirituality edited by Paul K.T. Sih and Mencius: The Man and His Ideas by Albert F. Verilghen in the third series.
The Center has played an active role in fostering American public interest in Chinese culture through art exhibits, special lectures and symposiums. It held a Chinese Cultural Festival in 1962 and an exhibit of Tung Huang murals in 1964. In cooperation with the Fine Arts Department of St. John's, it exhibited art works by such contemporary Chinese painters as Professors C.P. Huang, I.H. Kao, Sun To-ze Hsu, Wu Yung-hsiang and Chen Chun-fun from 1966 through 1968 in commemoration of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's centenary and in response to the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement.
In the 1967-68 academic year, the Center sponsored seven special lectures on economic, social and political conditions in mainland China and invited Chinese scholars to lecture on art and calligraphy. These extra-curricular activities have helped broaden students' intellectual horizons and have promoted general understanding of contemporary China.
Chinese Education Minister Yen Chen-hsing decorated Dr. Sih with a gold medal on September 1 for his role in making Chinese culture better known in the United States. In the course of his three-week visit to Taiwan accompanied by his wife and daughter, Dr. Sih had meetings with President Chiang Kai-shek and Vice President-Prime Minister C.K. Yen. Dr. Sih announced that the Center will sponsor a series of Chinese cultural activities in celebration of the St. John's University centennial in July, 1969.
There will be a Symposium on Modern China. To finance this the Center has secured a grant of $15,000 to be matched by another $15,000 from the University. Some 20 Chinese and American scholars will participate and proceedings will be published. Other publications will include The Sinister Face of the Mukden Incident by Prof. Liang Chin-tung, a faculty member, and Selected Documents of the Kuomintang by Milton T.Z. Shieh, deputy secretary-general of the Kuomintang Central Committee and head of the Journalism Department of the College of Chinese Culture.
The Center of St. John's University under Dr. Sih has done yeoman's service in helping Westerners understand contemporary China. The Center's agreements with the Chengchi Institute-IIR are sure to benefit Occident and Orient.