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HQU RIGCAS Unveiled

Release time:2022-06-11      Author:

On June 11th, Huaqiao University (HQU) held the Unveiling Ceremony for the Research Institute of Global Chinese and Area Studies (RIGCAS) and symposium on Global Chinese and Area Studies in the World of Profound Transformations on Xiamen campus.


In November 2021, HQU decided to establish the RIGCAS as a key research institute. It is an essential structural response for HQU to fulfill its mission of “serving overseas Chinese” and make its innovative effort to promote new liberal arts.


The institute will be organized into six research groups focused on different areas including China and Overseas Chinese Studies, Chinese Civilization and Overseas Chinese Studies, Asia-Pacific and Overseas Chinese Studies, Comparative Migration and Overseas Chinese Studies, Indian Ocean and Overseas Chinese Studies, Overseas Chinese Hometown Culture and Overseas Chinese Studies. With reputable scholars and young talents at home and abroad, the institute will conduct in-depth research on major theoretical and practical issues and strive to grow into a world-renowned and high-level research institute for Global Chinese Studies.


Xu Xipeng, HQU Party Committee Secretary, Presenting Prof. Wu Xiao’an an Appointment Letter for Dean of RIGCAS


Mr. Wang Gungwu, a 92-year-old internationally renowned scholar on East and Southeast Asian studies, pointed out in his speech, “It was a period of adjustment during which China concentrated on the country’s rejuvenation while other nations showed great concern about where China aimed for. He said that “this is the right time to intensify our efforts to study Global Chinese in the new era. I congratulate Wu Xiao’an and his colleagues for embarking boldly on this important task and wish them all the best.” Prof. Takeshi Hamashita, an eminent expert on area studies, views that research on overseas Chinese is of great significance and has shown prominent interdisciplinary characteristics. This has made the establishment of RIGCAS more relevant. RIGCAS will engage in challenging work and make pioneering contributions to the studies of overseas Chinese. “I sincerely hope that RIGCAS will become the global centre of this new Overseas Chinese research under the leadership of Professor Wu Xiao’an.” He said.


Scholars at Home and Abroad Delivering Online Speeches


Wu Jianping, HQU president, presided over the unveiling ceremony and read out the list of the RIGCAS International Advisory Committee members. The committee consists of a chairman, Wang Gungwu, and nine international scholars as committee members including Takeshi Hamashita and Caroline S. Hau from Japan, Madeline Y. Hsu , Eric Tagliacozzo and Wang Ling-Chi from the United States, Anthony Reid from Australia, Henk Schulte Nordholt from the Netherlands, Brenda Yeoh from Singapore and Wu Xiao’an from China.


After the ceremony, Prof. Ge Zhaoguang from Fudan University, Prof. Xiang Biao from Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and the University of Oxford, and Prof. Zhuang Guotu from HQU were invited to give fantastic keynote presentations with their keen perspectives and insights on Global Chinese and Area Studies.

Three Keynote Presentations


In the afternoon, two parallel workshops and one roundtable forum were held. Participants from national key universities and research institutes including Peking University, Tsinghua University, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing University, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang University, Xiamen University, Northeast Normal University, Yunnan University, Jinan University, Shanghai Normal University, and China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) and scholars from local universities and research institutes like Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, Fuzhou University, Fujian Normal University, and Jiaying University attended the seminar online or offline to offer their perspectives on the construction and trends of Area Studies.

Online and Offline Roundtable Forum


(Editor: Cai Juntao)

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