It is a great pleasure to be able to address you at the beginning of a new year. As the
director of the IIAS I have been asked to give a short exposition of my thoughts about a
subject which is very close to my heart: how to encourage Asian Studies in the
Netherlands to achieve even greater heights and the sort of role the Work Community
Southeast Asia and Oceania, of which I have been a member for many years, will be able
to play in the process. Before plunging into this, I would like to begin by pausing for a
moment by both the IIAS and the role which the Work Community has played in the
past.
In contrast to CASA, CNWS, CERES, and the CPS, the IIAS is a post-doctoral institute.
In this it has more in common with NIAS (Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies).
This being so, it would indeed be a sign of great short-sightedness if it did not also pay
attention to the pre-doctoral phases: the students, the secondary schools; the material from
which the Asianists of the future are moulded.
The Work Community was created at a time when there was absolutely no question of
any growth in the field of study and its role was restricted to giving advice about
applications for research subsidies to WOTRO (the Dutch Institute for Research in the
Tropics). In these early years there was no pressing reason to lobby for a better position
for Asian Studies. Therefore, when the decline in Asian Studies began, the Work
Community was not equipped to formulate an answer. It had developed primarily into an
advisory organ for WOTRO, and one that had proved its unquestioned worth in this field.
Now that this advisory role has been withdrawn, it is time to set another course. The
perennial worry of bodies which are not professionally organized is that they are
constantly having to struggle with a problem of continuity. It is a threat which the Work
Community Southeast Asia and Oceania shares with the Work Community South Asia. I
shall restrict myself to these two work communities in the Asian area, while taking
immediate note of the fact that there have never been work communities for East or
Central Asia. Fortunately, I see in my audience colleagues who are specialized in these
regions, because I think, and here I am already borrowing from what I will argue shortly,
that only greater collaboration between all the regions in the field of Asian Studies in the
Netherlands is the only feasible option and there is an urgent need for this to eventuate.
Asian Studies in America
Before I venture to dilate upon my modest ideas about this, I want to give you an
impression of Asian Studies in America, Asia, and Europe and with you to take a look at
how they are organized. In 1994 I attended the annual meeting of the Association of
Asian Studies in Washington. The majority of American Asianists, some 8000, are
brought together in this body. It is a professional association which functions on income-
related contributions from the members and other financial sources. Besides organizing a
mega conference, the AAS has a databank containing information about current research
and publishes a Directory of Asianists. The organization recognizes
innumerable sub-organizations which arrange for their yearly gatherings to coincide with
the Annual Meeting.
The AAS is unequivocally a professional organization which nurtures the interests of
Asian Studies in America, where these have now become big business and have been able
to anchor themselves at all levels of society. It is unnecessary to say that the idea of the
Pacific Rim is very much alive in these circles. In this, of course, the position of America
is different to that of Europe. America itself borders the Pacific. Now, alongside the
economic side of things, to an increasing degree the social and political challenge posed
by the waxing self-awareness of the rapidly burgeoning Asian countries is impinging on
the Americans. By means of rich foundations, these Asian countries whole-heartedly
support the concept of the Pacific Rim because their largest market for products and ideas
is still America.
This was the sphere which was absolutely palpable in Washington where more than 3000
Asianists had gathered, nearly half of the total number of members! What other
organization can look forward to such a great future? In dozens of parallel sessions,
specialists spoke about the most diverse subjects. In the corridors colleagues seized the
opportunity to discuss cooperative strategies; in other places job interviews were taking
place; at the market more than a hundred publishers, institutes, and hard and software
businesses presented their latest products and handed out information about their busi-
nesses.
The keynote of the whole gathering was the internationalization of Asian Studies, by
which above all the AAS meant: more collaboration with Asianists in Asia itself.
Therefore nobody need feel surprised that this year's annual meeting has been held in
Hawai'i in April, precisely for the reason that this makes contact easier. When this trend
was spotted by the IIAS, it immediately set to work to find ways and means to profile
Dutch Asian Studies more sharply among our American colleagues. Dutch publishers and
institutes were invited to hold a joint promotion at the market in Hawai'i. This explains
why Dutch publishers on Asia was well and truly represented with no less than three
stands and fortunately a large number of Dutch Asianists also participated in the confe-
rence.
Asian Studies in Asia
The organization of Asian Studies in the region itself differs widely from country to
country. In countries such as Japan, China, India, Singapore, and Taiwan there are
already a good many research institutes which are devoting themselves to all the other
regions in every disciplinary field. There are also societies and associations of Asianists.
In countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Pakistan most of the
research on Asia is concentrated on that land itself and has an important part to play in
the forming of a national identity. The institutes which are concerned with research on
other Asian countries are still in their infancy and are sometimes somewhat lacking in
material and intellectual infrastructure. Given the present rate of development, within a
decade these institutes will have achieved the status of fully fledged research partners.
The presence of already completely equipped institutes in the first group of countries I
mentioned signals the unequivocal message that in the future most of the research about
Asia will be carried out in Asia. It is therefore impossible to underscore the importance
of the fact that, far more than ever before, European Asianists should seek contacts with
their colleagues in the region itself and that through Memoranda of Understanding
European institutes should expand their relations with their sister institutions in
Asia.
I am absolutely convinced that only through such mutual, i.e. European-Asian, long-term
research will a network of researchers who have confidence each other be built up: the
individual basis is and will remain a crucial aspect of research in Asia. Those national
(European) institutes which maintain a representation in Asia will have key role to per-
form in this. I am thinking of the Netherlands-Japan Institute in Japan and the new
representation in Beijing, as well as the planned representation in Jakarta. While on this
topic, these institutes should have a European range it is nonsense for each European
country to have a representation in each Asian country. This is an obvious task for the
Asia Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF).
Asian Studies in Europe
Turning our attention to Europe, there is absolutely no question that the importance of
modern Asia has only very recently dawned. A case in point is the Netherlands, where
knowledge of contemporary Asia is extremely limited. The former colonial ties cast
something of a shadow over the relationship. I need do no more than mention the fragility
of the tie between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Even if these former colonial ties are an
Achilles' heel, they also provide a wonderful advantage which gives Europe a headstart
over America. Europe abounds in rich archives and collections containing an impressive
quantity of Asian material which is attracting ever-growing interest from researchers in
Asia. Europe also has a long and distinguished tradition in Asian Studies, which
developed along national lines. While contacts between researchers in the various
countries have intensified over the past few decades, communication still leaves a lot to
be desired.
This shortcoming has been somewhat compensated by the regional European associations
which have been the more formal fruit of more informal collaborative links. Some of
these associations are twenty years old, for instance the EAJS (European Association for
Japanese Studies), the AKSE (Association for Korean Studies in Europe), and the EACS
(European Association for Chinese Studies), whereas others like EUROSEAS (the
Association of European Southeast Asianists), the EAASA (European Association of
Archaeologists of Southeast Asia), and the organizations for Central and South Asia are
more recent additions. The older organizations have some 500 members, publish a
newsletter, organize a conference once every two or three years, and maintain a rotating
secretariat. Unfortunately they suffer from a number of fundamental shortcomings. They
are too inward-looking, receive too little support from their members, and have a weak
financial footing. They are also too small to be a power to be reckoned with at the Euro-
pean level. This is exacerbated by the fact that they suffer from a lack of continuity. The
experiment with the permanent secretariat of the EAJS in Leiden had to be abandoned
after only one year.
All the above-mentioned organizations, reinforced by potential national associations of
Asian Studies, could be part of a larger European Association for Asian Studies which
would be much better equipped to enter the fray. A precursor of this is the European
Science Foundation Asia Committee on Advanced Asian Studies, Asia Committee for
short, which was established in 1994. This committee is comprised of representatives of
the most prominent institutes in the field of Asian Studies in Europe. Since its foundation
in 1994, it has played a significant part in a burgeoning European collaboration which is
given concrete form in the organization of seminars, a fellowship programme, and
support for regional organizations. For a period of four years, the secretariat of the Asia
Committee has been entrusted to the IIAS which has taken upon itself the task of
managing publicity and publications, as well as building up a European Database for
Asian Studies for the Asia Committee. A definitive directory of European Asianists will
be published at the end of 1996, superseding the provisional version published in
1995.
In conclusion it cannot be denied that Europeans still have a lot to learn from the
Americans when it comes to organization and that contacts with Asia itself must be
intensified. The Netherlands should take a leading role in stimulating collaboration
between European countries. It is in an admirable position to be able to do so because it
has been given the opportunity to function as a meetingpoint, or more appropriately as the
main port for European Asian Studies.
Asian Studies in the Netherlands
The beginning of the 1990s saw the publication of two reports Baby Krishna
and Krishna in the Delta, which were the instruments which changed the
course of the downward slide of Asian Studies in the Netherlands. The cores of their
argument were streamlining and the combining of forces. These reports convinced the
Ministry of Educations, the Arts, and Sciences that Asian Studies needed protection. This
has exempted Asian Studies from any budget cuts for a period of five years and led to a
reinforcement of their position. The foundation of the IIAS was also the fruit of this
change in direction. The IIAS is primarily thought of as a national institute in which all
institutions and universities dealing with the field of Asian Studies, whether on the Board,
the Academic Committee, or in some other way, are implicated. Old antagonisms
between various groups, universities, and individuals have been consigned to the past, and
a new spirit of cooperation rules the roost which brings in its wake fresh impulses and
really makes it its business to stimulate Asian Studies in the Netherlands and further
afield. In its capacity as a post-doctoral institute the IIAS offers young scholars the
chance to win themselves an international reputation, a move which , if we cast a glance
at its alumni, has led to some interesting jobs. Another important task assigned to the
IIAS is the providing of facilities for and information about Asian Studies. In this context
the Guide to Asian Studies in the Netherlands provides a clear impression of the nature
and extent of Asian Studies there, and not only within the Netherlands but in the wider
European context the IIAS Newsletter has given the idea of a community of Asianists
some concrete contours. Within a very short space of time, the quarterly Newsletter with
a circulation of 15,000 copies has expanded into a European Newsletter for Asian Studies
which has given a huge fillip to promoting communication between Asianists individually
and institutions involved in the field of Asian Studies.
This sound national basis has allowed the IIAS to play an instigative role in the
foundation of the ESF Asia Committee. Through its involvement at the European level
the IIAS is one of the co-organizers of the EU-Asia Cultural Forum which was held in
Venice on 18 and 10 January 1996. This forum was attended by 150 academics,
politicians, and business people from Europe and Asia who were divided up into five
groups to discuss themes crucial to the Euro-Asian relationship, a topic which provided
the theme for the Dutch minister for Foreign Affairs, Hans van Mierlo, to speak about at
the lunch for Asian ambassadors accredited to the Netherlands in December 1995. His
speech is published as volume 5 of the IIAS Lecture Series. Due in part to this profiling
of itself at a European level, the IIAS has recently acquired the sum of 6.5 million
guilders for a period of five years from what is known as the Budget for International
Facilities of the Ministry of Education, the Arts, and Sciences to expand this international
aspect of the institute. This was the very first time that an institute in the field of the Arts
and Social Sciences has ever been successful in an application for this budget, which so
far has been the sole preserve of the Natural Sciences. What would an international
institute be without a national sounding board?
One half of this national basis is founded on sound cooperation between universities and
institutes, but the other, equally important half should be based on an authoritative associ-
ation of Asianists. Looking for the organization of Asian Studies outside the universities
(but still within the purlieus of academia), leaving aside Friendship Associations and the
like, beyond the work communities of Southeast Asia and South Asia the prospect looks
pretty bleak. The question is should new life be pumped into the work communities or
should the option be for an authoritative organization of Asian Studies which would
embrace all regions? The choice of the IIAS is for a Dutch Association for Asian Studies
which borne on the wider support of Asianists (bottom-up), will have the chance to grow
into a powerful pressure group for Asian Studies in the Netherlands, one of its principal
tasks being to augment the visibility of Asians Studies. Greater visibility leads to more
recognition, not least among the students of Asian Studies, a large group which can make
a genuine contribution to stepping up the dynamism of Asian Studies in the Netherlands.
At a more general level, the association could lend its expertise in an advisory capacity to
research schools in the working out of research plans and internationalization. I believe
that the CNWS, the CASA, and the CERES should fuse into one Dutch research
school.
The IIAS would be very happy to take an initiative in the formation of a Dutch
Association for Asian Studies, indeed this is exactly what it should do in the light of its
principal statement of policy: the facilitation and stimulation of Asian Studies in the
Netherlands. This support would take concrete form in the provision of office facilities,
the management of the membership administration, financial and organizational assistance
for an annual conference, providing space on the Internet and pages in the IIAS
Newsletter, and contributing IIAS publications free of charge. Of course, the foundation
of the organization, the determination of its aims, policy, and tasks, lie in the hands of
the future members of organization. With this in mind, it would seem advisable to form a
small taskforce comprising representatives of all the areas covered by Asian Studies. They
could investigate whether the idea of a Dutch Association for Asian Studies would be
welcome. Not a lot of time would have to be lost searching for the telephone numbers
and addresses of potential members, they are already encapsulated in the Guide to
Asian Studies in the Netherlands. Should the idea catch on, and I am convinced it
will, the association can set an example to other countries in Europe. The resultant
national organizations in their turn can become the pillars of a broadly based European
Association for Asian Studies (EAAS), of which the regional organizations could be
sections. But I must not run too far ahead of myself. It would be wonderful if the
association could be constituted this year.
I hope that my brief address has been able to contribute to the interesting initiative taken by the Work Community Southeast Asia and Oceania, which I am convinced is a step on the way to the future burgeoning of Asian Studies in the Netherlands and Europe.
Editorial note: In the meantime three meetings of the steering group have taken place.
This speech was delivered at the study day held by the Work Community Southeast Asia and Oceania on 12 January 1996 in The Hague, the Netherlands.