Asia’s emergence in the new world order is fueling intense
debate about the role of Asian values and the need to build
cultural understanding and respect between Western countries
and Asia, says the organizer of a conference at the University
of British Columbia.
By the year 2000, Asia will be home to almost three billion
people and will generate about a third of the globe’s gross
national product, says Terence McGee, director of UBC’s Institute
of Asian Research.
The consequences of this mounting political and economic
might will be addressed by prominent scholars from Asia and
North America at the inaugural conference of the C.K. Choi
Building for the Institute of Asian Research, Oct. 8-9.
“This gathering promises to be a milestone in the reassessment
of Asia’s role in the emerging global system,” McGee says.
Harvard University Prof. Tu Weiming, a renowned international
scholar on Confucian thought, will deliver the keynote address.
Weiming, director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, will
speak on Confucian ethics as a spiritual resource for the
emerging global community.
Other speakers and topics appearing under the conference
banner, The Empowerment of Asia: Research and Policy Priorities
for the 21st Century, include: Economics Prof. Kwame Jomo,
University of Malaya, “The Southeast Asian Economic Miracle”;
Prof. Edward Seidensticker, Columbia University, “Is Japan
Becoming a Normal Country?”; UBC Prof. Alexander Woodside,
“The Empowerment of Asia and the Weakness of Global Theory”;
Paul Evans, director at the University of Toronto-York University
Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, “The Age of the Pacific:
Why Growth and Democratization are Not Enough.”
The conference is preceded on Monday, Oct. 7 by the official
opening of the Institute of Asian Research’s new home in the
C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall. An opening ceremony beginning
at 2:30 p.m. kicks off a weeklong Open House featuring cultural,
academic and technological presentations. Parking is available
in the Fraser Parkade off Northwest Marine Drive on West Mall
(Gate 4).
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