On April 5, the representatives of five institutions in the Baltic region dealing with Asian studies, signed the Baltic Alliance for Asian Studies Charter in Vilnius, at the Vilnius University. VMU Centre for Asian Studies became one of five founding institutions to establish the Baltic Alliance for Asian Studies (BAAS). At the meeting the future agenda of the Alliance was discussed. There was a mutual agreement that one of the most important aims of the Alliance is to build up a regional competitive research infrastructure in Asian studies in the Baltics. Achievement of this aim obviously requires enhacement of closer cooperation between its stakeholders, including the Universities, policy makers and professional community. The Board also agreed upon having student research section as a part of the Alliance conferences in future. During the meeting, the Centre for Oriental Studies at the Univerity of Tartu was appointed as the chairing institution of the Alliance for the next two years period. (more…)

Recently, Center for Asian studies successfully completed second stage of Ch. Sugihara‘s reading room  expansion program, funded by Chiang-Ching Kuo Foundation (CCKF). During second year, various books on China‘s and Taiwan‘s history, philosophy, social sciences and comparative research were bought, with total sum exceeding 2500 €.

CCKF for International Scholarly Exchange is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. The Foundation’s goals are strictly limited to the academic sphere, in which it aims to support scholars and institutions worldwide in their pursuit of research on Chinese civilization, and to promote cooperation and exchange between domestic and foreign academic organizations.

On March 7, 2014, VMU signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bunkyo Gakuin university in Tokyo, Japan. On this occassion the honorable guests from the mentioned university visited our university. Delegation, led by rector prof. Nobuo Kawabe, met with VMU rector prof. Zigmas Lydeka, prorector prof. Auksė Balčytienė, International Relations director Zina Baltrenienė and the head of the Centre for Asian Studies dr. Aurelijus Zykas. Also, the representative from Japanese Embassy in Lithuania, advisor Shinichi Yamanaka, attended the official signing event as well.

During the meeting, the possibilities of students and teachers exchange between two universities were discussed. Next year Bunkyo Gakuin University’s lecturers are planing to visit Kaunas with their students, where they are planning to spend one week creating, discussing and writing joint projects. VMU japanese club ‘Hashi’ will also be joining the delegation during that week. (more…)

VMU Faculty’s of Political Science and Diplomacy Department of Regional Studies informs the students that this year the admissions to EARS masters program are temporary suspended.

We hope to open the renewed EARS program again in 2015 Spring.
Admissions to RASK program this year will be held as usual.

This February our Centre for Asian Studies welcomed another addition to our staff – Daiva Repečkaitė. Our new coleague will work as a junior researcher and will be responsible for Korean and Indonesian projects. Daiva Repečkaitė’s research interests are international migrations and EU-China relationships.

In 2007 Daiva Repečkaitė graduated from Vilnius University with Political Science bachelor degree, in 2008 graduated from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary with masters degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology. 2009 was the year when Daiva won Japan foundation scholarship for the research practice in Japan. In 2011 Repečkaitė participated in a summer school at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. Right now Daiva Repečkaitė is studying at VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands) for her PhD.

Daiva Repečkaitė CV (English)

On January 31st daily newspaper “Lietuvos Rytas” published an article by Iveta Skliutaitė which covered the Asian New Year’s celebration at VMU. The highly anticipated event was organised by VMU Centre for Asian Studies and East Asian culture club “Wudang Tao”.

The celebration began with a public lecture about the New Year’s traditions in East Asia (lecture was conducted by the staff of the Centre for Asian Studies – Agnė Budriūnaitė, Kristina Barancovaitė-Skindaravičienė, Eglė Petrauskaitė and Aurelijus Zykas). Afterwards, the visitors were invited to look around the fair, where partners of CAS presented cultural aspects of China, Korea and Japan. In the evening, for the final part of the event everyone moved to East Asian culture studio “Wudang Tao”.

Article also presents colourful galery of the photos taken in the fair by photographer P. Mantautas.

Full article can be found here: lrytas.lt

On 30th of January, Ambassador of Japan in Lithuania H.E. Kazuko Shiraishi paid a visit to the Center for Asian Studies where she met a director of VMU Library Ms. Lina Bloveščiūnienė. During the visit, Her Excellency officially presented 200 books for Chiune Sugihara Reading Room, donated by Mr. Yasutoshi Nishimura, Vice-Minister of the Minister Cabinet of Japan. All books had been personally signed by the donator.

The donated books greatly contribute to the expansion of Chiune Sugihara Reading Room, concerning Japanese studies. At the moment, the literature in the field of Japanese studies constitutes the greatest part of library funds at Sugihara Reading Room.

On January 31st  the opening of a new art exhibition organized together with a japanese culture club “Hashi” will take place in the Centre for Asian Studies. Vilnius Art Academy student Kotryna Šešelgytė’s watercolour paintings about Japan will be available for eveyone to see the whole Spring semester.

“Hashi” club invites everyone to the official opening of the exhibition this Friday, February 7, 18.00 at Sugihara house ( Vaižganto st. 30, Kaunas).

Kotryna Šešelgyje is a young Lithuanian artist, who traveled to Japan and experienced it‘s calmness and beauty, after graduating fromVilniaus Art Academy where she was studying stained glass. It was after all disasters have happened – earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima tragedy. Kotryna joined the volunteers to help people after the catastrophes. She was stunned by the Japanese people’s tranquility so Kotryna put her feeling of the moment in to the canvas. Watercolors and ink techniques reveals Japan which young artist has seen. Looking at the landscape you can look into reality between dreams. Experience Kotryna’s trip between consciousness and subconsciousness.
More Kotryna works http://kotrynaseselgyte.weebly.com/
(more…)

Sorry, this entry is only available in Lithuanian.

Center for Asian studies together with Studio of Eastern Culture Wudang Tao invite everyone to New Lunar Year celebration. The final events will take place on the 31^st of January. Guests are welcome to participate in:

• Open lecture  (16:00-17:15, Gediminas str. 44-203) about New Year celebration in different East Asia countries. The lecture will be delivered by the scholars of Center for Asian studies; (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.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Lithuanian.

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…)

Sorry, this entry is only available in Lithuanian.

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…)