To reinforce its commitment to cultural exchange and research, CityU launched the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies (CCS) (see related story) on 12 October 2001, following the establishment of the Chinese Civilisation Centre in 1998. "Due to unique historical and geographical reasons," said Professor Zhang Longxi, Director of the CCS and Chair Professor in the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics, "Hong Kong has become a meeting point of East and West. It is thus an ideal place to conduct research in cross-cultural interaction."
To reinforce its commitment to cultural exchange and research, CityU launched the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies (CCS) (see related story) on
12 October 2001, following the establishment of the Chinese Civilisation Centre in 1998. "Due to unique historical and geographical reasons," said
Professor Zhang Longxi, Director of the CCS and Chair Professor in the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics, "
Hong Kong has become a meeting point of East and West. It is thus an ideal place to conduct research in cross-cultural interaction."
To celebrate its official launch, the CCS held an international conference on "Matteo Ricci and After: Four Centuries of Cultural Interactions between China and the West" from 13 to 15 October 2001. Around 40 eminent scholars met to discuss in depth the cultural interactions between East and West, following the arrival of Ricci and other Jesuit missionaries in China four hundred years ago.
At the official opening of the CCS, Professor Jonathan Spence, Sterling Professor of History at Yale University, one of the foremost scholars of Chinese history from the 16th century to the present, delivered a public lecture on "The Image of China in the West: Accident or Design?" (see page 16), which attracted an audience of over 300 scholars and persons interested in cross-cultural studies. It was also widely covered by local and international media.
At the opening of the conference, Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science and Chair of the East Asian History of Science Trust at the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, gave a keynote speech titled "Was misunderstanding inevitable? Ricci and the problem of cross-cultural interpretation", which received a warm response from the audience.
As 2001 was the 400th anniversary of Matteo Ricci's arrival in
Beijing, Professor Zhang took the opportunity to organize the international conference and launch the CCS. "Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty," he said, "Jesuit missionaries came to
China to preach Christianity. They learned the Chinese language and made friends with local Chinese scholars, and successfully converted some members of the royal Ming family. Aside from preaching, they also translated Chinese classics like Confucius: The Analects and The Great Learning into Latin and had them published in
Europe, which significantly promoted cultural exchanges between
China and the West."
Although the Italian traveler Marco Polo came earlier to China during the Yuan Dynasty and the Silk Road had long been an international trading gateway for China, Professor Zhang pointed out that contact between China and the West at the intellectual level did not really begin until Ricci's arrival in China. For this reason, Ricci's legacy was chosen as the theme of the conference for discussion on interactions between China and the West in such areas as philosophy, culture, arts and science.
