The Jesuits’ Encounter with Chinese Scholars: A Meeting of East and West

This year marks the fourth hundredth anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci (which occurred on May 11, 1610). To commemorate his contribution to East-West cultural exchange and reinforce its commitment to its public service ideals, the National Central Library of Taiwan along with the Taipei Ricci Institute organize events such as the conference of Professor Nicolas Standaert, S.J. (Leuven University): "Sino-European Displacements: The Circulation of Prints between Europe and China" which will be held on April 16th in Taipei, at the briefing room of the National Central Library. Professor Standaert is one of the world’s foremost expert on cultural exchanges between Europe and China during the Late Ming and Early Qing dynasties, and will give a richly illustrated conference – do not miss it!

Also, by attending this conference you will have the opportunity to be among the first to visit the exhibit around Matteo Ricci held at the aforesaid Library: The Jesuits’ Encounter with Chinese Scholars: A Meeting of East and West -- An Exhibition Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Matteo Ricci. The Institute has been associating with Taiwan National Central Library and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for organizing this exhibit which includes images of pieces held in the treasured collections of the Vatican Library, the headquarters of the Society of Jesus in Rome, the Archives of the Society of Jesus, and the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. The exhibit takes place in a new research room into which the library of the Institute has now been transferred. This research room is also dedicated to the new research focus of the Institute: the development of Pacific studies in Taiwan. (More information here).

Also, on April 20 at 2.30pm, Gjon Kolndrekaj, the director of the documentary film “Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit in the Realm of the Dragon,” and Prof. Antonella Tulli of the Department of Italian Language and Literature at Fu Jen Catholic University have been invited to hold a symposium on the film.

We hope that you will join us for one or all these events, register here or contact Meifang Tsai (mei _at_erenlai.com) !

Sino-European Displacements: The Circulation of Prints between Europe and China

by Nicolas Standaert (moderator: Pr. Ping-yi Chu, Academia Sinica)

Time: Friday, April 16, 2010, 16:00-17:30

Place: National Central Library, Taipei city, Zhongshan South Road, N.20 1F, Briefing Room

MRT: CKS Memorial Hall

The Jesuits’ Encounter with Chinese Scholars: A Meeting of East and West -- An Exhibition Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Matteo Ricci

The exhibit will be opened half an hour before the starting of the conference.

The exhibit formally starts on Saturday 17 and will run till May 16, 2010,

9:00 -17:00 (Closed on Mondays)

Place: NCL, 6th Floor, Matteo Ricci Pacific Studies Research Room

A Meeting with Gjon Kolndrekaj, Film Director: Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit in the Realm of the Dragon

Time: Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 14:30-16:30

Place: National Central Library, 1st Floor, Briefing Room

Asian religions in dialogue

eRenlai's March Focus explores the state of inter-religious dialogue within various countries, cultures and grassroots communities in Asia.

We commence our Focus interviewing the Jesuit Jerry Martinson who talks about meditating with Buddhist monks and the dynamics of interfaith dialogue in Asia through his experiences during and after filming the documentary Pilgrims in Dialogue in 1991. Benoit introduces the concept of 'dialogue' and the current discourse interpreting religions as languages, whilst Elise DeVido narrates religious dialogue in an East Asian context. eRenlai's specialist on new religions Paul Farrelly, writes on religious tensions within the family and how religious leaders can affect dialogue within the wider community. Sara Husseini introduces her thesis research, evoking examples of Christian and Muslim scholars sharing ideas in Basra and Baghdad eleven centuries ago.

This is also an opportunity to highlight the recent founding of the Xu-Ricci Dialogue Institute at Shanghai's Fudan University. The centre is named after the Shanghai-born scholar and statesman Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) and the Jesuit sinologist Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), whose friendship pioneered the dialogue pursued between China and the West in modern times.

And in January, the Taipei Ricci Institute signed an agreement with Taiwan National Library creating a "Matteo Ricci - Pacific Studies Reading Room" within the premises of the library. At the same time (with the support of the library, the Council for Aboriginal Affairs and individual scholars) the TRI is working towards the creation of a "Taiwan Society for Pacific Studies" that will become its main research outlet and focus.

Nous sommes tous des junkies

Ce mois-ci, la version en chinois de eRenlai/Renlai est consacrée à l'addiction et aux diverses formes qu'elle prend. En préparation de l'article que l'on m'avait commandé pour ce numéro sur la drogue et l'addiction dans la littérature, j'ai (re-)découvert les classiques: Les Paradis Artificiels de Baudelaire, et quelques ouvrages de la Beat Generation - difficiles, d'ailleurs, à trouver à Taipei -: Junky et The Naked Lunch de William Burroughs (de fait, je n'ai obtenu ces livres qu'après ma deadline et n'ai pu les citer lors de la rédaction de mon papier) et surtout Requiem for a Dream de Hubert Selby Jr. que j'ai relu avec beaucoup de curiosité sans toutefois revoir le film dont, malgré les ans, je garde un souvenir aigu (Qui n'a pas été traumatisé par ce film?!).

Cet article et ces diverses lectures ont été pour moi l'occasion de réfléchir sur le statut de la drogue dans nos sociétés et surtout sa signification politique (au sens des liens et des lois qui régissent la cité). Pourquoi criminalisent-on tellement le commerce de la drogue d'abord et ses usagers ensuite? Et, surtout, cette criminalisation à outrance est-elle la meilleure façon d'affonter et de combattre les crimes et les problèmes liés au trafic de drogue et à l'addiction? Sans toutefois céder à la facilité de la légalisation totale, il y a peut-être un juste milieu à trouver qui implique forcément la responsabilité et le devoir civique de chacun. Un gouvernement éclairé et, qui plus est, doté des moyens financiers de le faire, devrait avant tout instruire et éduquer, plutôt qu'interdire et punir aveuglement, voire écarter encore davantage des populations qui vivent déjà dans les marges de la société. Culturellement et médicalement, nous avons pléthore de raisons pour rejeter les drogues: certaines personalités peuvent être affectées de telle manière qu'elles deviennent dangereuses (bien que le danger soit souvent seulement envers soi-même), les drogues nuisent à la productivité (bien que certaines semblent l'accroître au contraire, tout du moins sur le court terme) et surtout ces substances semblent nous transformer d'une manière qui n'est jamais totalement élucidée, elles relèvent aussi en quelque sorte de notre part d'ombre enfouie dans les connexions chimiques de notre cerveau, mais pas seulement.

Je tiens ainsi à citer l'initiative du Département de la Santé de New York qui vient de faire publier un fascicule de 16 pages à l'intention des héroïnomanes. Intitulé "Take Charge, Take Care", c'est à la fois un guide de prévention et d'information qui donnent 10 conseils et mesures contre les risques d'overdose ou de contamination dues aux mauvaises manipulations des seringues, aiguilles, produits, etc... Ce livret fait l'objet de lourdes critiques car il est perçu par certains comme une incitation à prendre de l'héroïne. En effet, certaines pages ne sont surement pas à mettre entre les mains les plus jeunes, on sait combien les gosses sont aptes aux expérimentations les plus crétines et dangereuses mais il me semble tout de même que c'est mieux que de fermer les yeux sur des pratiques qui existent et qui sont nuisibles car clandestines. Je vous laisse alors exercer votre seul jugement car j'ai confiance en votre capacité à raisonner et à ne pas croire qu'une telle page vous donne envie de vous shooter. 12 pages de la brochure sont disponibles ici.
A lire également sur le site eRenlai: Les Hauts et bas de la cocaïne en français

Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010!

(Photo by F. Kersante)

We have now entered 2010, the last of the "Lost Decade" as it has been termed by the German weekly Der Spiegel. At eRenlai, we also ponder over the failures and the successes of the last ten years, and - despite the disappointment caused by the Copenhagen Summit - we are not so pessimistic. What about you? How would you evaluate the decade? Do not hesitate to share with us your reflections and your stories.

In our editorials section, Chu-Joe Hsia, an architect, explains the contribution of city-dwelling Aborigines to urban development in Taiwan, and Pinti shares a documentary shot during her visit to the Rukai tribe in Southern Taiwan. Also, we welcome a new member in our team -Paul Farrelly from Australia. Paul offers us his interpretation of the movie Avatar by James Cameron. As for myself, I examine the relation between drugs, addiction and literature.

Whilst A/H1N1 flu is still rife in the world, we dedicate this month’s Focus to the colloquium jointly organised with the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) on the best practices for the management of global health outbreaks which was held on November 28 in Taipei. Watch video excerpts and read accounts of the debate led among academics, practitioners and civil servants:
- K.U. Menon exposes the Singapore experience in managing uncertainty in a pandemic.
Saifullah Khan shares his experience of health communication within a big pharmaceutical company.
- Steve Kuo, the Director of Centers for Disease Control in Taiwan, explains the strategies of communication with the Mass Media in order to strike the balance between alert and panic during a pandemic.
- Alain Vandersmissen, from the Directorate General of the External Relations for the European Commission, introduces the roles and limits of communication, in the context of global health crises in the European Union.

Beyond Copenhagen

Read Benoit Vermander's take on the Copenhagen Climate conference
http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?aid=2944&lan=3

Not too late to register!!!!

Last days to register to the international seminar jointly organised by the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri) and the Ricci Institute

Communication is key!
Best practises from the management of global health outbreaks

Provisional Program
09:00 – 09:45 Opening address
CHANG Shan-chwen, Deputy Minister, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (R.O.C)
Dominique DAVID, Executive Director, Ifri, France
Patrick BONNEVILLE, Director, French Institute in Taipei
KU Karl Min, General Director, National Central Library, Taiwan

09:45 – 11:15 FIRST SESSION
Highlighting the crucial importance of communication
Speakers: Alain VANDERSMISSEN, Avian Influenza External Response Coordinator, European Commission, DG RELEX, Belgium
From a global response to Avian Influenza, through Pandemic A/H1N!, to “One Health”. Roles and limits of communication
CHAN Chang-chuan, Director, International Health Center, National Taiwan University, Taiwan (R.O.C)
Risk communication in Taiwan’s public health policy
Discussant: Benoît VERMANDER, Director of the RICCI Institute, Professor at the Fu Dan University, Shanghai
Chair: CHEN Chien-jen, Distinguished Research Fellow, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (R.O.C)
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee break

1:30 – 13:00 SECOND SESSION
Horizontal communication: ensuring fluid information exchanges between decision-makers
Speakers: KU Menon, Director, National Resilience division, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, Singapore
Dealing with uncertainty in the management of a pandemic
SHANG Tung-fu, Acting Director, Bureau of International Cooperation, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (R.O.C)
Sharing information at the global level: the role and constraints of WHO
Discussant: Aline LEBOEUF, Head, Health and Environment programme, French Institute for International Relations, France
Chair: CHIU Jong-jen, Director General, Department of European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan (R.O.C)
13:15 – 14:15 Lunch

14:30 – 16:00 THIRD SESSION
The right message and the right vector for the right audience: vertical and transversal communication to the public
Speakers: Muhiuddin HAIDER, Associate professor, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington University, US
Public health communication in times of crisis – bottom- up and transversal dynamics.
KUO Hsu-sung, Director, Taiwan Centres for Disease Control, Department of Health, Taiwan (R.O.C)
Striking the balance between alert and panic. Cooperation with the mass media.
Discussant: Son Kim PHAN, Health Journalist, Saigon, Marketing Newspaper, Vietnam*
Chair: CHIANG Han-sun, Vice-president for Medical Affairs, President of the faculty of medicine, Fu jen university, Taiwan (R.O.C)

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee break

16:15 – 17:45 FOURTH SESSION
Looking for innovative ways to communicate
Speaker: Deborah EDELMAN, Founder & Director Public Health Media, Inc., US
Channelling the buzz or going for viral communication?
WU Yi-chen, Professor, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taiwan (R.O.C)*
Innovative risk communication. Lessons from the SARS and other public health crisis
Discussant: Saifullah KHAN, Development Manager, Glaxo Smith Kline, Pakistan
Chair: CHEN Tzay-Jinn, Deputy Minister, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (R.O.C)

7:45 Concluding address
Best practises for public health crisis communication:
lessons after the 2009 A/H1N1 outbreak.
CHIU Wen-hsiang, Head, Department of Health, Taipei City Government, Taiwan (R.O.C)
Amin SOEBANDRIO, Senior Advisor for Food and Health, Ministry for Research and Technology; Chairman, Expert Panel of the National Committee for Bird Flu and Pandemic Preparedness, Republic of Indonesia

* To be confirmed

Place: National Central Library, 3F, Conference Hall, Educational Area
MRT: CKS Memorial Hall
Time: Saturday November 28th

Contact and registration:
Meifang Tsai mei@erenlai.com
Gloria Liu gloria@come2meet.com
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請回傳至大會秘書處Please return this form to the Conference Secretariat 劉玨岑小姐 (Gloria Liu)

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Taiwan Colour Code

As we enter the winter season in the Northern hemisphere and we've all come down with viruses, flues and other boo-hoo's, eRenlai is still on full speed and we have our very own cocktail of vitamins to ease you through the freeze. This month's edition has an artistic and contemplative flavour as we introduce you three talented and original musicians. Yaping Wang is a young Taiwanese female composer who tells us how she discovered her vocation, Luo Chao-yun (AKA Pipawoman) likes to merge her experimental music with musicians from all over the world, including Erdem Helvacioglu, a Turkish guitarist and musical engineer with whom she has recently recorded an album in Istanbul. This music, together with Yaping's is provided in the printed edition of Renlai Magazine in Taiwan (email me for more info or to get the CD).

In the editorial section, Benoit Vermander comforts us with his own interpretation of Bodily Pains, before taking on the challenges of the Catholic Church in Taiwan. From Nick's travels in Java he brings you back sun and poetry in a video of Yoyo Jewe on the Progo River. Furthermore, Marcos Gava depicts the murky world of Buenos Aires in the surroundings of the Recoleta cemetery and Adam Materna rants against the absurdities of the world.

Our Focus invites you to a poetic and pictorial exploration of Taiwan through its 'colour code': if you had to express one feeling or one recollection with a colour, which tint would it be? You could stop one moment, close your eyes and think of a landscape or the immediate environment you’re in, what is the first image to appear in your mind? Is it only a picture? Could it be a sound, a smell, a feeling? Here, we would like to offer you a synesthetic experience through associations of colours, sensations and memories, starting for example with Grey and Pink.

We hope that you will enjoy this issue as much as we did preparing it and we wish you an excellent month of November.

A Land of Steel and Iron

Amazing pictures of China: 'Showcase: Infernal Landscapes' by Lu Guang on the impacts of industrialization.

Also watch the flash animation introducing the city of Panzhihua (Sichuan) on eRenlai.com

Publication des Ecrits chrétiens chinois conservés à la BNF

Au début octobre, l’Institut Ricci de Taipei a publié une collection de 26 volumes d’écrits chrétiens chinois conservés à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Les éditeurs de la collection sont Nicoals Standaert et Ad Dudink (Université de Louvain) et Nathalie Monnet (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Tous les textes reproduits ici ont été publiés ou écrits avant 1820, et sont uniques ou très rares. La présente publication reproduit quelque 190 textes, qui ont été classés par sujet. Ils reflètent les préoccupations des publications chinoises sur la science occidentale et la religion aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Ces écrits couvrent un large éventail de sujets tels que l'anatomie, la philosophie aristotélicienne, la géographie et l'astronomie, ou encore un traité sur les tremblements de terre, des biographies des missionnaires et les convertis, des mémoriaux et des édits.

L'histoire de la collection chinoise conservée à la Bibliothèque nationale de France s'étend sur trois siècles. Les quatre premiers imprimés chinois entrés dans la Bibliothèque Royale en 1668, grâce à l’achat de la collection de Mazarin (1602-1661). Plus tard, en 1684, Philippe Couplet S.J. (1624-1692), accompagné par un converti chinois, Michael Shen Fuzong, offre plusieurs volumes à Louis XIV lors de leur audience avec lui à Versailles.

En 1697, la Bibliothèque royale ajoute une importante collection de livres chinois: 312 fascicules cousus, portant sur 22 titres, que Joachim Bouvet S.J. (1656-1730) rapporte de Chine. En 1700, à son retour de Chine, Jean de Fontaney S.J. (1643-171) ramène d’authentiques écrits de cour publiés par l’Imprimerie impériale située dans la Cité Interdite. En 1708, 113 nouveaux volumes, de très belles éditions en mandchou, sont incorporés à la Bibliothèque. Rédigé en français, le premier catalogue de ces écrits a été établie par Huang Jialüe (Arcade Hoamge ou Hoang), quelques mois avant sa mort en1716. Huang est né en Xinghua (Putian) dans la province de Fujian en 1679 et élevé par des missionnaires pour devenir prêtre. Il vient en France en compagnie de Mgr Artus de Lionne, MdPE (1655-1713), et vit à Paris de 1711 à 1716.

Cette publication est donc un témoignage fascinant sur l'histoire du christianisme chinois ainsi que sur une collection unique conservé dans l'une des plus grandes bibliothèques du monde.

Renseignements : riccitpe@seed.net.tw
Achat online: 'Chinese Christian Texts from the National Library of France'

eRenlai celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival

Forget moon cakes this Mid-Autumn festival, for surprises that won't disappoint you take a bite into eRenlai and the latest fruits of the Taipei Ricci Institute.

Start with our new resource website Tale Image (http://www.tale-image.com/). Tale Image gathers tales and collections of pictures on people and places in the Chinese world, and offers you unique, ready to publish material on community leaders, spiritual experiences and creative social experiments in China, Taiwan and other parts of Asia. The website will be progressively enriched (with your contributions also, we hope) and aims at becoming a world-wide resource centre for a more narrative approach to developmental, cultural and spiritual issues. (For more information contact Cerise at cerise@erenlai.com).

For those of you with empty book shelves: the Taipei Ricci Institute is publishing 26volumes of primary Chinese sources (pre-1820's) from the National Library of France. They cover a wide range of subjects from history to edicts and memorials, from anatomy to biographies of the first missionaries and the first converts to Christianity in China. This publication is a unique collection and a testimony to the history of Chinese Christianity. The collection is now available at the eRenlai online store here, or you can contact riccitpe@seed.net.tw.

For this month’s Focus, an array of videos and articles provide you with a look into the fascinating culture of the little known Qiang minority group, deep in the mountains of Northwestern Sichuan. Spend a moment with the Wang family and learn how they are undertaking the reconstruction of their house following the 2008 earthquake. And witness the cultural revival that is accompanying such reconstruction work, through rituals, crafts and weaving.

In our editorial section, read about the history of Tushanwan Training Studio and Orphanage established in 1852 by Jesuit missionaries in Shanghai, be led on a stroll through Suzhou's sublime gardens by Benoit Vermander or wake yourself up with some Ersu chants filmed by Liang Zhun.