Leiden University launches annual series of lectures on Asia
10 years of Leiden Asia Centre
Asia was for a long time regarded as a source of cheap labour and materials, and as an important target market. Today the continent is a source of innovative ideas and technology. The Leiden Asia Centre’s new series of lectures contextualises these developments and what they mean for Europe.
For centuries, what people in Asia thought about the world was considered irrelevant. The rules were not written there, was what Europe thought. The image is changing rapidly according to Floris Harm, director of the Leiden Asia Centre, an independent centre of expertise at Leiden University.
‘Asia is increasing regarded as a source of new ideas and new technology,’ Harm comments. ‘That last is abundantly clear in the case of China. There are also new approaches in the area of climate change, and urban development. It isn’t feasible to adopt all these individual ideas, but Europe can certainly learn from them.’
Leading knowledge centre
The Leiden Asia Centre is an independent research and knowledge centre of Leiden University. The aim with this series of lectures is to further strengthen the university’s position as a leading centre of knowledge for Asia and to connect academic knowledge about Asia more expressly with societal developments and the public debate.
More flexible partnerships
Europe can also learn from Asia at the level of government. One noticeable difference is that Asiatic countries treat partnerships more flexibly. ‘European countries want to be 100% aligned. You might be able to work together in the area of climate change, but if you can’t agree on press freedom, there’s no point in starting a partnership. It’s also more pragmatic to be open to compromise. That can have its difficuties, but Europe can learn from how this is handled in Asia.’
Vaes-Elias Asia lecture
This year the Leiden Asia Centre is launching an annual series of lectures on developments in Asia and what they mean for Europe. The series is named after Wilhelmina Vaes-Elias (1908-2002), who helped establish the knowledge centre by leaving part of her estate to it.
The first Vaes-Elias Asia lecture is on 1 October and will be given by Vinod Subramaniam, chair of the board of the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Molecular Biophysics. He will address the question of how Europe and Asia can learn from one another in a period of technological transformation and why international knowledge exchange is more important than ever.
Ten years of the Leiden Asia Centre
The first Vaes-Elias Asia lecture is also the start of the celebration of the ten-year existence of the Leiden Asia Centre. In these ten years it has developed into an expertise centre that brings together scientific knowledge about East, South, and Southeast Asia and makes it accessible for government, the business sector and the general public.
Registration Vaes-Elias Asia lecture
The Vaes-Elias Asia lecture will be held on 1 October from 17.30 to19.00 hrs in the Great Auditorium of the Academy Building in Leiden. You can register for the lecture on the website of the Leiden Asia Centre.