Famous universities of the world

From 1988, the then Sinorama periodically sent reporters and photojournalists around the world to report on well-known universities, providing in-depth presentations of the histories of different schools as well as each one’s culture and unique characteristics. While at these universities, our journalists made it a point to talk with students from Taiwan and hear what they had to say about the schools.

Institutions visited included the University of Paris (among the oldest universities in Europe), the University of Cambridge (cradle of poets and scholars), Heidelberg University (where students, as elsewhere in Germany, typically spend more years than their counterparts in other countries), Harvard University (a gold-plated name that has become a synonym for success), the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand (known at the time as “Asia’s only international polytechnic university,” and dedicated to preparing engineering professionals for the Asian region), and “the big four” universities in Japan: the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, Kyoto University, and Keio University.

When West meets East

Sinorama launched the series “Sinologists Around the World” in March 1989, a year when Italian director Bernardo­ Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor won eight Oscars and sparked a wave of interest in all things Chinese. Here at the magazine, we couldn’t help feeling curious: When Westerners think of distant, mysterious China, what exactly do they picture in their minds?

According to Wang Jia-fong, who was a Sino­rama correspondent in Europe at the time: “For hundreds of years, sinology has always been regarded as something of an eccentricity. This was always the case when Western colonial officials and missionaries pursued such interests, and it remains true even now, although it is now a recognized academic discipline.”

Because sinology and sinologists constitute an excellent medium of communication between our nation and the rest of the international community, Sino­rama decided to start interviewing some of the world’s leading sinologists. We figured that we had much to learn from them, and at the same time conceived of the series as a way of saluting these learned friends toiling away abroad in an offbeat specialty.

Sinologist Glen Dudbridge is deeply versed in Ming-Dynasty literature, and is especially knowledgeable about Journey to the West and its simian protagonist. Piet van der Loon, a Dutchman who taught in the UK, was an expert in the folk beliefs and traditional performing arts of Taiwan, Fu­jian, and Guang­dong. Dutch sinologist Kristofer Schipper was a fluent speaker of both Mandarin and Taiwanese and a scholar of Daoism who spent eight years studying in Taiwan under a Daoist master. Donald Holzman started out planning to study the work of poet Tao Yuan­ming (365–427), but soon his interests veered off course and he spent 20 or 30 years delving into the lives and work of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, from the 3rd century CE. ­Göran Malm­qvist, a member of the Swedish Academy, began his career studying the Chinese language from pre-Qin times through the Eastern Han Dynasty, and went on to research modern and contemporary Chinese literature. British sinologist Hugh Baker was a vigorous proponent of the idea that “Chinese knowledge should be made accessible to the public” in order to improve mutual understanding between East and West.

When West meets East, interesting things happen, and each culture gains something through its contact with the other. For Taiwan Panorama, it is an honor to have played a role in witnessing this precious part of history.

Russian sinologist Lev N. Menshikov.

Dutch sinologist Piet van der Loon studied folk beliefs and traditional performing arts of Taiwan, Fujian, and Guangdong.