Archived News
BFSU Visit to Trinity College, Monday 11 April 2016
A delegation from Beijing Foreign Studies University, led by Professor Yan Guohua, Vice President for International Cooperation, met with TCAS staff to discuss opportunities for research collaboration and student mobility. Along with Professor Yan Guohua, we welcomed
Professor Zhang Xiaohui, Confucius Institute Director,
Professor Ke Jing, Director of International Exchange and Cooperation, and
Professor Wang Zhanpeng, Vice Dean of School of English and International Studies and Director for the Irish Studies Centre. BFSU is a top ranked foreign language teaching university affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a long history of excellence in language training.
CAIFU and IIEA Visit to TCAS, Monday 21 March 2016
We were delighted to welcome the esteemed Mr Ai Ping to Trinity College. Ai Ping is Vice President of the Chinese Association for International Understanding (CAFIU). He was accompanied by a delegation from Ireland's Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), where he gave a keynote address the following day on the topic of China’s Economy and the 13th Five Year Plan at the IIEA.
During their visit to TCD, the CAIFU delegation met with Mr Ruairi Quinn (former Minister of Education and now Adjunct Professor in the Trinity Business School) and Mr Pat Cox (former President of the European Parliament and President of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe). The delegation also met with Professor Juliette Hussey, Trinity's Vice-President for Global Relations.
Ai Ping is the Vice President of CAFIU, a leading Chinese organisation for the promotion of mutual understanding between China and other countries. In 2013, he became a member of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In May 2010, he was appointed as Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, which he held until January 2014. Between 2001 and 2004, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the PRC to Ethiopia. He began his career in the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 1977, where he held positions such as Deputy Division Director, Division Director and Bureau Director General.
Public Lectures
Monday 18 April, TCAS Asian Studies Public Lecture on Learning from Talleyrand: Yoshida Shigeru and postwar Japanese foreign policy by Dr Declan Downey, University College Dublin. Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, 6.30pm - 8pm.
Tuesday 10 May, TCAS Asian Studies Public Lecture on "Extraordinary and Unaccountable Customs": British Observations on Population, Infanticide, and Footbinding in China by Professor John Carroll, Hong Kong University. Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, 6.30pm - 8pm.
Many of our public lectures are now available to download as podcasts. Please see our Events page for details.
New publications
Dr Isabella Jackson, Assistant Professor in Chinese History, has recently published a review of 'China’s Foreign Places: The Foreign Presence in China in the Treaty Port Era, 1840-1943' by Robert Nield. Read her review in China Quarterly 225 (2016), 279-81.
We are delighted to announce the publication of exciting new book entitled Thinking Through China (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). This volume, co-authored by TCAS Visiting Academics Professors Jerusha McCormack and John G. Blair, introduces China on its own terms by explaining ten key concepts that frame the way most Chinese people think about the world. Creating a cultural cartography through both text and image, the authors provide readers with a vivid sense of what is uniquely Chinese about China. Thinking Through China was formally launched in Trinity on Monday 29 February 2016 by His Excellency Declan Kelleher, Permanent Representative of Ireland to the European Union and former Ambassador of Ireland to the People’s Republic of China and to Mongolia.
Read a testimonial from TCD student Liam Roe, selected to participate in Japan's MIRAI programme in December 2015, a short-term exchange programme organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for university students.
M.Phil. in Chinese Studies
Our interdisciplinary two-year taught Master’s course offers a unique opportunity for students to gain expertise in key aspects of contemporary Chinese society, history, politics and governance, as well as a strong foundation in Mandarin. The course includes a Study Abroad term at one of Trinity’s partner universities. Click for further details.
Celebrating success
Our congratulations to Ross Holder, TCAS affiliated researcher, whose Ph.D. thesis entitled 'Human Rights & Islam in North-Western China: The Effects of Minority & Religious Policy in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region' was approved as it stands by his external and internal examiners following the viva voce examination at Trinity College Dublin.
Prof. Isabella Jackson was awarded a Charlemont Grant on 15 February 2016 by the Royal Irish Academy for a research project entitled "Debating Chinese Child Slavery: Child Protection in 1930s Shanghai". We congratulate her on this award, and look forward to the results of this important research project.
In December 2015, Liam Roe, a Trinity Senior Sophister student in Law, was selected by the Embassy of Japan to represent Ireland under the auspices of the MIRAI Program in Tokyo. MIRAI, an initiative of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, welcomed 150 students from European and Central Asian universities to spend a week in Japan, with the aim of promoting cultural awareness among university students and enhancing mutual understanding.
Congratulations to Heather Gray and Robert Byrne recipients of the 2015 Eoin & Cliona Murphy Scholarship in Chinese Studies (pictured above with Eoin and Cliona Murphy and the Provost at the launch of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies). Congratulations to Barbara Lecis, recipient of the 2015 Trinity Centre for Asian Studies M.Phil. in Chinese Studies Award.
Our congratulations to Shao Lijie, doctoral candidate at the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, who was awarded a full scholarship for her studies by the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. We also congratulate Renfeng Jiang, TCAS Mandarin Instructors, who has received a three-year scholarship from the China Scholarship Council for his doctoral studies in Applied Linguistics.