A new profile of Sinology was thrashed out in a conference held in Prague, Czechoslovakia on April 22.

The conference entitled “The 3rd Sino-European International Symposium on Chinese Studies” was sponsored by three universities: Charles University, Prague, Stockholm University, Sweden and Tamkang University, Taiwan.

According to Dr. Kao Po-yuan, Chair, Department of Chinese, TKU, “The conference has 2 major themes: 1) This is a cultural dialogue between China and Europe and 2) This is a discussion of the global conflict thru the medium of Chinese Studies. Because from Europe we have professors from Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Russia whose Chinese is incredibly good, we have achieved a sense of equilibrium between scholars. For instance, Prof. Nikolai A. Speshnev from Russia attempted to define humor in both Chinese and European cultures. So, with this incidence, we detect that in a sense, this is also a conference on the topic of cross-cultural ethics among people, wherever they live and whatever their nationalities. We are trying to probe into the common foothold of ethics among people and this equidistant point is something we are striving for in the symposium.”

“The faculty members of the Chinese Department have traveled across the continents to sit together with their compeers, but they felt a sense of rapport and there was no gap between them. In other words, these lovely scholars are no lao wai (foreigners) in their grasp of the quintessence of Chinese culture.”

Prof. Kao then cited two European scholars, Drs. Olga Lomova and Torbjorn Loden, par excellence. Because their knowledge of Chinese literature is no inferior to their colleagues whose mother tongue is Chinese, their contribution to the studies of Chinese culture is no less great than their compeers.

Dr. Kao hoped that conferences of similar nature can be held many times in the foreseeable future. How can we achieve this end? Probably thru tying more friendly knots and seeking more sister schools.

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