Bulletin Number One 1984

IASP tru ly modern university of international outlook and standing; and it is to be an institution o f learning worthy o f the grand tradition o f Chinese scholarship and culture.' The lASP supports and enhances both o f the goals by encouraging a variety o f international exchanges and by fostering the study o f Chinese language and culture. Cultural exchange is a challenging job, fraught w ith problems. But as a Chinese proverb puts it, ‘The journey o f ten thousand li begins w ith one step'. The lASP, now in its seventh year o f operation, has taken a number o f steps in the direction o f increasedmutual understanding, building bridges between Chinese and other cultures around the world. Name o f University Country Number o f Students in IA SP University o f California Soka University Harvard University Grinnell College University o f Texas Yale University Osaka University o f Foreign Studies Macalester College U.S.A. Japan U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A, Japan U.S.A. 17 15 14 12 10 10 8 8 Universities w ith most I ASP Participants A total o f 404 students from 171 universities (21 countries) took part in the IASP up till Spring term, 1984. A n In te rv iew w ith D r . Thomas H .C . Lee — D i r ec t o r of I A S P Q. You have recently become the Director o f the IASP’ what are your reasons fo r taking up this post? A. First, I believe in the value o f international education and exchange o f ideas among different peoples. Secondly, it is my feeling that 'Asian Studies' as a discipline is important in the under graduate curriculum and that the lASP could be a place for trying it out. Q. Does working fo r the IASP help to realize both o f your convictions? A. For the provision o f international education, we have been rather successful and the lASP is gradually establishing itself on the international scene. Although our curriculum, which empha sizes the uniqueness o f Chinese/Asian civilizations and the holistic approach to the understanding o f them, is not too complete, the courses have proved to be useful to the participants. Q. Going through the list o f participants, we have found that only a few o f them come from places outside U.S.A. and Japan. I t seems to us that the Programme is not truly international A. Yes, I regret that because o f the lack o f scholar ship we have not been able to draw many students from areas outside North America. We are now making efforts to improve the situation. Never theless, I am glad to say that among the handful o f non-American participants are some very serious scholars. For example, Hans Siebenhadl, one o f our former students from Austria, obtained his PhD at the University o f Vienna, and is now teaching in Taiwan. Q. How do you recruit students? A. Yale-China Association does the selection in North America for us. The competition for admission is fairly keen and we impose aminimum 3.0 grade- point-average on students. For applicants from RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 5