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Professor Liu Shusen Attends Forum on Oceanian Studies
11/12/2018 - From 10 to 11 December Professor Liu Shusen, Director of the New Zealand Centre at Peking University, attended “The High-level Forum on Oceanian Studies” in Shanghai and presented a keynote paper entitled “China’s Early Modern Knowledge of Oceanian Island Countires:1868～1949”.
“The High-level Forum on Oceanian Studies” was co-hosted by The School of Advanced International and Area Studies, East China Normal University, and The Editorial Committee of World History of The Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, from 10 to 11 December. Professor Liu Shusen, Director of the New Zealand Centre at Peking University attended the conference and presented a keynote paper entitled “China’s Early Modern Knowledge of Oceanian Island Countires:1868～1949”. With more than sixty participants from thirty six universities and institutes in China, this forum is the biggest of its kind in China on Oceanian Studies, especially on island countries in the Oceanian area. The papers presented at the forum were varied in topics, discussing some of the island countries in Oceania in terms of their history, agriculture, trade, economy, education, foreign relations and natural resources.
Professor Liu Shusen’s presentation made a descriptive and interpretative analysis of his resent discovery of hundreds of English articles and news of Oceania published by The North China Herald and a few other English newspapers since 1868, including the first article “The Fiji Islands”, which was reprinted from The Japan Times in August 1868. The North China Herald was originally a weekly newspaper published by the British auctioneer Henry Shearman in Shanghai in 1850 and it was also the official gazette of the British Supreme Court for China and Japan and the British Consulate in Shanghai, which was the first and the most popular and influential English newspaper in the early modern China. His presentation also discussed the cultural and ideological orientation of these English articles and their unique value in understanding Oceanian island countries in the early modern times of China. |
