The Department of Cultural Studies and Ethnology and the Centre for Asian Studies invite to a lecture “Arranged marriages: whose choice and why? Reflections on the principles underlying spouse selection worldwide”, which will be hold by Prof. Robert Parkin from the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.

Lecture will start at 11:15, 18 September, at 521 auditorium, Donelaičio 52, Kaunas. The lecture will be given in English.

Short abstract of the lecture: The practice of forced or arranged marriages among certain immigrant communities has become a controversial subject in Britain and other Western countries because such marriages fail to observe the principle of freedom of choice adhered to by the majority populations in these countries. (more…)

The Centre for Asian studies together with the Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Catholic Theology organized the international interdisciplinary academic conference “Christian World and East Asian Traditions: Symbols, Concepts, Practices“, which took place in Vytautas Magnus University, Aula Magna (Gimnazijos str. 7, Kaunas), on September 18-20, 2014.

The aim of the conference was to bring together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, interested in the interrelationship between the Christian world and East Asia in various areas such as philosophy, religious studies, social and political sciences, literature and arts. Scientists from Taiwan, China, Japan, Italy, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania presented their research, shared their insights and undoubtedly provided new attitudes towards the relations between Eastern and Western worlds.

Conference supported by: Taipei Mission (Riga) and Lithuania Council of Sciences

Click here for photos from the conference.

On 2014 July 3 – 21 2nd and 3rd year students of RASK participated in VU Confucius Institute’s (partner of CAS) summer camp in China. The camp happened in Liaoning university. After it, students shared that those few weeks motivated them to study Chinese language even harder and look for more opportunities to visit the country again. Agnė Svorobovičiūtė, one of the camp participants, said that visiting the country was the best way to understand the culture and practice the language. (more…)

Chiune Sugihara’s reading room in the Centre for Asian Studies is being constantly expanded with the help of various projects financed by East Asia foundations. The most recent project was carried out with a contribution of Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation (Taiwan). During the 3 years a huge amount of books, worth approximately 7000 € were bought and added to Chiune Sugihara’s reading room’s collection. This addition greatly contributed to expansion of materials for Chinese and Taiwanese studies. The books from final stage of this project have recently arrived to Ch. Sugihara reading room. They will soon be catalogued and available to all the visitors. At the end of the Autumn the last batch of books should arrive to CAS library and with that the project will be considered completed.

During the summer CAS partners’ network expanded a bit more – the agreement was signed with another partner in Taiwan, I-Shou University (ISU). This adds up to a total of 3 partner universities in Taiwan that VMU has bilateral agreements with.

I-Shou which is in the 2nd biggest city in Taiwan – Kaosiung is a private university with 8 colleges and around 18 000 students. Student exchange between VMU and I-Shou is planned to begin next year. (more…)

On the summer of 2014 Aurelijus Zykas,researcher and the head of Centre for Asian Studies , went on an internship in Tokyo that was funded by Japan Foundation. During the internship Dr. Zykas collected newest material related to Japan’s public diplomacy and it’s changes during the last 5 years, analysed strategic documents, interviewed the officials from the Japan’s government.

Material that was gathered during the summer will be used in researcher’s new upcoming book about Japan’s public diplomacy of the 21st century. (more…)

VMU has started a new academic year on the 25th of August. On this occasion RASK program lecturers and coordinators met with a huge number(over 90 people) of first-year students. According to these statistics RASK program is the biggest in the faculty of Humanities and one of the most popular ones in the whole university.

During the meeting with new students coordinators presented the opportunities that rise in the RASK program and also encouraged pupils to engage in many activities that are offered together with the study program – join the culture clubs, visit the fast-growing library, participate in exchange progams and so on. Andrius Vilkas, 3rd year student who just came back form his exchange experience in China, urged everyone to study not only in the classrooms, but on their own as well.

RASK students can always stay connected with the latest news about their program and CAS events while “liking” our CAS facebook page Azijos studijų centras.

On June 27th the summer vacation has started to the academic staff of the Centre for Asian Studies. From that day until July 25th CAS will be open 9:00-16:00. During that time, the library will be available to everyone. From July 25th to August 25th our centre will be completely closed. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

The staff of Centre for Asian Studies sends the biggest gratitude to the students, clubs and partners for another well-spent year and wishes for You all to recharge Your energy during summer for the upcoming school year!

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We would like to invite proposals for the upcoming issue of a semi-annual open access blind peer review journal ‘International Journal of Area Studies‘ (IJAS) to be published in March, 2015. This issue will concentrate on East Asia region.

Application Deadline (prolonged): October 21, 2014

The Journal, published semiannually in March and October, is devoted to area studies from the humanities and social sciences perspectives (including but not limited to research on history, religion, philosophy, politics, and social processes in the regions of the world). We are interested in receiving article proposals related to different facets of the aforementioned scientific fields. (more…)

We are happy to announce a call for papers for the 5th annual international students’ conference on Asia. The conference will take place on April 9 at Vytautas Magnus University (V. Putvinskio 23, Kaunas).

If you are interested in East Asian cultures, languages, arts, economics or other areas, this event is just for you. The conference, organized by VMU East Asian Languages ​​and Cultures students, together with the Centre for Asian Studies and the Department of Cultural Studies, is a great opportunity to share your accumulated knowledge, work or research with colleagues in this field and not only, to gain experience and improve your public speaking skills, or even get some inspirations. (more…)

We are sharing the invitation to submit abstracts for the 4th annual Student academic Conference, focusing on Asia. The conference will be held on April 24, 11:00-14:00, V. Putvinskio 23-310 in Kaunas, Lithuania.

This event, which has become an integral part of VMU Asian Week, is organized by VMU Regional Studies Asian specialization students and VMU Center for Asian Studies together with the Department of Cultural Studies. As every year, students from various fields whose work and research touch on the topic of Asia are welcome, both from the humanities, social sciences, arts and other disciplines. (more…)

The National Taiwan Library announced “Guidelines to the National Taiwan Library Fellowship for International Visiting Scholars and Students”.
The library provides Fellowship for experts and scholars to pursue their academic goals in Taiwan studies or Southeast Asia studies. Please click here to read more.

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It is time for all who are interested in East Asian cultures, languages, economics, politics and more to come together for what has become an annual student research conference, organised by the VMU East Asia Cultures and Languages students.
This conference is a great opportunity to share your knowledge, work and research with colleagues in the field, to try and improve your public speaking skills, to gain experience and to listen to presentations by like-minded people. (more…)

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Are you interested in politics of Japan? Maybe you are interested in economy of China? Maybe you are fascinated in Korean art and traditions? It does not matter in which field you are interested in, as long as it is related to East Asia we have a very interesting proposition to you. (more…)

VMU Department of International Relations informs about ongoing studies exchange and internship contests as well as “Erasmus Days’21” which are going to take place on February 17th, 18th, and 19th, during which students will be able to learn more about exchange opportunities. (more…)

Beijing Normal University entrusts the European Federation of Overseas Chinese and Chinese Associations to recruit 100 candidates for MBA and MPA studies (conducted fully in English) from all over the world. Appropriate students are welcome to sign up. (more…)

Applications for scholarships for studies in China in 2021-2022 are open. Persons who are nationals of Lithuania, EU or persons from the third countries having the right to live in Lithuania are welcome to apply.

Applications may be submitted by representatives of various fields of Lithuanian science and studies institutions/ representatives of science fields – Bachelor, Masters and PhD students. (more…)