Reviving a Republic of Letters Among Sinologists in Europe

Kristopher Schipper and Yves Hervouet at Work with Friends and Colleagues to Establish the EACS in the 1970s

Abstract

The EACS, heir to the International Conferences of Junior Sinologues active from 1948 to 1971, was founded by a group of European sinologists from twelve countries at a meeting in Paris in February 1975, in the spirit of the quest for rational and truthful science, for peaceful and equal human relations, inherited from the Enlightenment. The founders voted in a provisional Board of twenty members, drafted detailed statutes, and agreed to hold a congress of the Association the following year in Paris. The original English name of the EACS was European Association of Chinese Studies, and was unofficially changed in 1996 to European Association for Chinese Studies, probably in imitation of the American Association for Asian Studies, which could be seen as a model for action in the European Union’s diverse academic setting. The new name appeared on communications and the new website, but was only gradually adopted by early members, even British ones. The EACS received the status of foreign association under French law, using its French name only, on 3 December 1975. Its first congress, prepared by a local committee of twelve, was attended by over 200 participants in Paris on 6–11 September 1976. It launched three collective research projects, later supported by the European Science Foundation, on modern Chinese literature, the State in China, and the Taoist Canon, which resulted in a number of important publications from the 1980s to the early 2000s. 

歐洲漢學學會（EACS）承繼1948至1971年青年漢學家國際會議之傳統，於1975年2月在巴黎由十二國學者創立，秉承啟蒙運動追求理性與平等的精神。學會于同年12月獲法國法律認可，並於次年9月在巴黎舉辦首屆大會，吸引逾200名學者參與。1996年，其英文名非正式更為“European Association for Chinese Studies”，以順應歐盟多元學術環境。此外，學會早期發起的現代中國文學、中國國家體制及《道藏》等三大集體研究專案，在20世紀80年代至21世紀初產出了諸多重要學術成果。