Professor Ezra F. Vogel is well-known in China. He is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard, the second Director of Harvard's East Asian Research Center (1972-1977), Chairman of the Council for East Asian Studies (1977-1980), Director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at the Center for International Affairs (1980-1987), Director of the Fairbank Center (1995-1999), the first Director of the Asia Center (1997-1999) and Co-Director of the Asia Foundation Task Force on East Asian Policy Recommendations for the New Administration (2001). In 2013, he was presented the Award for Outstanding Contribution to China Studies.

On 3 July 2016, Professor Vogel visited IEAS in the afternoon for academic discussion on ancient China-Japan relations with Professor WANG Yong. He was welcome by Chairwoman LI Wei of Chinese Association for Japanese Studies, all IEAS professors and students at the entrance. Two scholars first discussed the usage of Chinese characters (Japanese: kenji) in ancient Japanese history as complex signs representing morphemes and words. Notwithstanding Japanese textbooks mention that the start of kenji in Japan was in the fifth century, scholars’ common consensus is that the time should be earlier than Yayoi Period. Though writing in China was an evolvement from non-linguistic symbolic systems, the Chinese script was gradually absorbed by Japanese to represent Japanese words, complex grammar and syntax.While ancient Japanese culture began to form gradually by soaking up cultural elements of ethnic Han Chinese immigrants in the fifth century, they likely also taught Japanese techniques of silk weaving, oryza sativa and Chinese characters simultaneously.

The second topic of their academic exchange was the Buddhist influence on Japan. Professor Wang opined that the cultural influence of Confucianism in Japan is in contradistinction to that of Sinicized Buddhism. This contradistinction provides hints for us to analyze Japanese nationalism. The former is merely regarded by the Japanese as an instrument but the latter becomes values in Japanese mainstream culture. Chinese characters formed moist and fertile cultural plain for Japanese to absorb and “digest” the books taken back to Japan by the Japanese missions to Tang China. Professor Wang emphasized that cultural exchange always involves push-and-pull factors with which history is repeating itself and developing.

Professor Wang then asked Professor Vogel about the definition and conceptual framework of East Asian studies. Professor Vogel explained that East Asian studies in macro perspective refers to the usage of Chinese characters, cultural elements of Buddhism and Confucianism, and such geographical areas as  China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Professor Vogel also introduced the brief history of Fairbank Center at the Harvard University.

Last, but not the least, Professor Vogel kindly agreed to be the Honorary Dean of IEAS and the consultant for the upcoming series of books about history of cultural exchange between China and Japan. Professor Vogel’s acceptance to be the Honorary Dean is a great honor and milestone in the history of IEAS development.