This year East Asian Regional Studies program was self-evaluated, meaning that self-evaluation committee analyzed program’s development since 2007, emphasized its strong points, weaknesses and new challenges. Self-evaluation process ended on November 12, when international experts team came to VMU and met with program’s administration staff, professors, students, graduate students and social partners.
Experts were impressed with the coordination of the study program as well as its well-developed social partners network. They praised the study environment, the still-growing library, the opportunities given to the students to study abroad in the East Asia countries.
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On 13th of November, prof. dr. Zhang Donghui, the new director of Vilnius University Confucius institute (VU CI) paid a visit to the Center for Asian Studies (CAS). She met VMU Rector Prof. Zigmas Lydeka, director of International Office, Ms. Zinaida Baltrėnienė, deputy director of the Foreign Languages Institute Dr. Vilma Bijeikienė, Vice-dean of the Faculty of Humanities Dr. Aurelija Tamošiūnaitė and the head of the Centre for Asian Studies Dr. Aurelijus Zykas.

During the meeting various questions of future coopertion were discussed. Most important among them – the establishment of separate Confucius Institute Teaching point at Vytautas Magnus University. (more…)

On November the 5th Vytautas Magnus University welcomed the ambassador of Indonesia (from his residence in Copenhagen) Bomer Pasaribu. Guest met with VMU vice-rector prof. Juozas Augutis, International Affairs head Zita Baltrėnienė, Centre for Asian Studies head Dr. Aurelijus Zykas and Foreign Languages Institute representative Dr. Vilma Bijeikienė.

During the visit the expansion of Indonesian and Southeast Asian studies at VMU were discussed. Ambassador was glad that our university is very active in trying to collaborate with Indonesian universities and that there are VMU graduates who already have studied in Indonesia. Guest noted that it would be useful for both sides to begin the international exchange between the countries as well as to collaborate in joint research and scientific exchange. (more…)

Center for Asian studies and Confucius Institute invite everyone to enjoy Chinese traditional music. By the invitation of Confucius Institute, five Chinese musicians are coming to Lithuania on 20th of November, Wednesday, to chase away the autumnal melancholy. The concert will take place at VMU Great Hall, S. Daukanto 28. 

The skilled playing with traditional musical instruments – pipa, guqin, dulcimer and Chinese violin erhu – will not leave any dissappointment. Liu Xiaojing, Zhao Xiaoxia, Song Bing, Zhang Guoliang, Liu Ziqi and pianist Liu Chang  are not only virtuosoes of their instruments, but also teach at music academies or universities. In addition, they all have won various prizes and nominations, therefore the professional show is guaranteed. (more…)

Spalio 18 d. VMU japanese culture club ‘Hashi’ invites you all to Japanese language reading contest „Fairytales from Japan and Lithuania in Japanese“. The best contestants will be rewarded with presents from Japan!

Participants will be divided into 3 levels according to their Japanese language skills and will face different tasks. Beginers will have to fluently read the given Japanese fairytale. Intermediate students will be reading a longer japanese fairytale and will have to come up with a short summary of the text in Lithuanian. Advanced students will be given a special task – to translate a short Lithuanian fairytale to Japanese language and read the translation at the event. (more…)

This October the Centre for Asian Studies began creating their own social partners’ network (SoPaNet) and is inviting all the organisations from Lithuania as well as worldwide who are interested in raising the popularity of Asian countries, expanding the Asian studies and creating qualified specialists in this field.

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Kristina Barancovaite-Skindaraviciene, researcher of the Centre for Asian Studies, has been accepted for the four months lenght fellowship at Waseda University, Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, which is sponsored by Japan Foundation. During her fellowship, she will conduct the interviews with Japanese men who are recently married. The data, collected during the fellowship will be used for her future dissertation “Construction of Masculine Identity in Japanese and Lithuanian Societies”.

Japan Foundation, established in 1972, is one of the institutions of Japan, promoting international cultural exchange through the implementation of comprehensive programs. Its main activities are: Arts and Cultural Exchange, Japanese language education overseas, Japanese studies and intellectual exchange. The JF contributes to developing Japanese studies around the world by supporting outstanding research topics both in the humanities and social sciences.

Japanese youth Goodwill mission is visiting Vytautas Magnus University on 12th of September. That day, from 9.30 A.M. till 12.00, students and Academic staff are invited to participate in the event during which presentations about University and its internationality as well as the history and activity of center for Asian studies will be presented. Later, a discussion about “Being student in Lithuania and Japan” will be held.

The event is for free, but the registration is necessary. If You are willing to participate, please send an e-mail to A.Kumpis@gmail.com with Your name, surname and e-mail address.

The place of the event – Rector’s Meeting hall. (more…)

On September 15th, Sunday, 4 pm we would like to invite you to a lecture of Japanese animator Naoya Kurisu “Reflections of traditional Japanese culture in modern animation” which will take place in the VMU Small Hall (Daukanto g. 28, Kaunas).

Naoya Kurisu is a Nara prefecture based Japanese animator. He creates stunning visual illustrations and 3D animation. Now he is working on his first full-length anime film and in the presentatiom we will have a chance to see his latest animated short film „Fumidukai“ which tells a mystical love story of the Heian era. During his presentation Mr. Kurisu will unveil important facts to the audience about their favorite historical anime characters which they may have been missing without certain knowledge about the clothing and other details in their appearance.

Naoya Kurisu will show his presentation in nowJapan festival in Vilnius on Saturday and this will be his special lecture in Kaunas so before Hide Hide-concert let‘s meet at the Small Hall of VMU.

Entrance to the presentation is free.

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…)