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More than 40 prominent humanities scholars of top universities from around the globe assembled on the campus of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) yesterday and today (16 October) for the 8th Annual Meeting of the Asian New Humanities Net (ANHN). Themed ‘Asian Humanities and/or Humanities in Asia’, this year’s meeting showcased the latest achievements in Asian humanities against the backdrop of academic globalization.

At an opening ceremony yesterday, CUHK Vice-Chancellor Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung congratulated the Faculty of Arts and its Research Institute for the Humanities (RIH) and the Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) on jointly hosting the event as an ‘Asian stronghold of humanities’. He said, ‘The theme of this year’s ANHN meeting, “Asian Humanities and/or Humanities in Asia”, is a tribute to the University’s dedication to the new humanities spirit, which emphasizes inter-disciplinary and cross-institutional research.’

Prof. Hsiung Ping-chen, CUHK Dean of Arts and one of the founders of ANHN, reiterated the mission of the meeting at the ceremony, ‘More than one hundred years after the early transformation of Asian humanities, it is our mission today to re-visit and re-consider the regional character of Asian humanities and humanities in Asia as an entity against the context of increasingly globalizing academia and academic study, as well as of the shifting political, economic, and cultural power and structure in the contemporary world.’ With prominent scholars representing mainland China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Professor Hsiung founded ANHN in 2004 as a regional network for the exchange and sharing of humanities resources in Asia.

Prof. Leo Lee Ou-fan, CUHK Wei Lun Professor of Humanities, gave a keynote address at the meeting on ‘Is There an Asian Way of Doing Humanities?’.

Apart from drawing from the region a team of leading scholars, including Prof. Yuezhi Xiong (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences), Prof. Yifeng Dai (Xiamen University), Prof. Joseph S. Lee (Taiwan Central University), Prof. Hsien-hao Liao (Taiwan University) and Prof. Cheuk Yin Lee (National University of Singapore), the event has also attracted a slew of scholars from top universities in North America and Europe, such as Harvard University in the US, Freie Universitat Berlin in Germany and University of Toronto in Canada.

The meeting involved two roundtable discussions and six panel discussions, where humanities scholars presented on a variety of topics, including Asian humanities, Asian philosophy and globalization. They also reflected on the past, present and future of humanities in Asia in the context of academic research and institution-building. To facilitate academic exchange, all presenters’ synopses are available at the following website: http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~anhn2010/program.pdf.