Charting Asian Studies in Europe I PRELIMINARY GUIDE TO ASIAN STUDIES IN EUROPE (GASE) In the previous issue of IIASN we announced the creation of a European Database for Asian Studies (EDAS), our objective being to gain an insight into the breadth of Asian Studies from a regional and disciplinary perspective in Europe. EDAS is an initiative undertaken by the ESF Asia Committee, which stated in its terms of reference that: "The directory (guide/database) will have to be made at a place with sufficient infrastructural facilities to cover the entire field and with substantial secretarial input that can assure a regular flow of information. The IIAS which answers this description took on the task, building on the constructive experience it had accumulated when establishing a database on Asian Studies in the Netherlands. By Sandra Evers and Paul van der Velde The data for this latter base were collected by sending questionnaires to Asianists in the Netherlands already in our address-file and a follow-up by telephone. In short, it can be said that the mailings, the follow-up by telephone, and finally the publication of Guide to Asian Studies in the Netherlands '94 provoked an enormous response. New address-files were sent to us which we compared with the addresses in our database and many addresses were corrected. Those not on our original mailing list were approached in the same manner as those on the original mailing of 650 questionnaires. The result was that the number of Asianists included in our first guide (522) has tripled to 1500 in the Guide to Asian Studies in the Netherlands '95 which will be published in May of this year. In the present preliminary Guide to Asian Studies in Europe (GASE), the Netherlands have not been included because this would have given a completely distorted picture of Asian Studies in Europe. However, in the next edition of GASE, which will be a supplement of IIASN either 5 or 6, the Netherlands will be included. RESPONSE In October 1994 we mailed 8000 Newsletters plus questionnaires to addresses then on our mailing list which includes mailing lists of regional Asian organizations in Europe and other national mailing lists. We are aware of the fact that our mailing list is still far from complete and does not yet contain all the addresses of Asianists in Europe. This mailing includes 3000 addresses of institutes, organizations, universities, musea, specialists outside Europe, and other interested persons. Furthermore there are the 1500 Dutch Asianists (not as yet included in GASE), as well as 3500 personal addresses which taken together form the base of this preliminary search. Of these 3500 European Asianists, 579 had replied by February 1, 1995, which is a return of 15%. Although we are not dissatisfied with this return on the basis of the final return in the Netherlands, which stands at 1500, we think that the total number of Asianists in Europe should be around 12,000. In an article on Asian Studies in Europe (NIAS NYTT, 1994(3) the President of the ESF Asia Committee, Professor T. Svenson, even estimated the total number of Asianists in Europe at 15,000. From this first return of 579 questionnaires, we saw that we had received many responses to the questionnaires from France, Germany, Sweden, and Great Britain whereas responses from Austria, Portugal and Spain were very thin on the ground. The response from Russia was also low since we were only recently able to send 500 questionnaires to Russia because of postal problems. REGIONAL SPECIALIZATION To begin with it came as no surprise that many respondents indicated more than one regional specialization. Out of 579 questionnaires, we totalled 776 specializations. This admittedly is due to the fact that quite a number of scholars are working in more than one area, but the fact that there is so much overlapping in the definition of areas also cannot be overlooked. In our Guide to Asian Studies in Europe (GASE) we plan to use the following definitions of the regions: East Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macao, Taiwan Southeast Asia: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, Sri Lanka Central Asia: Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang-Uighur, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the southern part of Siberia in the north and the northern regions of Afghanistan and Iran in the south Insular Southwest Asia: Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles It has been our experience during our data collection on Asian Studies in the Netherlands that percentages do not tend to change much once a representive number has been reached: there were only marginal changes in the percentages of area of expertise and regional scope from an initial number of respondents of 400 when this rose to 1500. From this first sample of Asian Studies in Europe it is clear that Central Asia and Insular Southwest Asia are the least studied regions of Asia. Southeast Asia seems to be the region most studied, closely followed by East Asia. In the following Newsletter we hope to be able to give you more elaborate graphic material and an updated version of GASE. But if we are to accomplish this we need your cooperation. Since we are establishing a Europe-wide database for the first time, please remember that it will be a most important working tool for everybody studying in Asian studies. With this in mind, we earnestly request you to join our group of Asianists by returning your questionnaire. You can send it to the IIAS headquarters, Antwoordnummer 10368, 2300 WB Leiden.