Suggestions For Asian Studies In N.Z.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 19

Suggestions For Asian Studies In N.Z.

“In my discussions with British Orientalists I invariably encountered an intense interest in the New Zealand developments in their field, an appreciation of the work being done in the Dominion in Pacific studies, and a clear realisation that this country’s increasing contacts with her Asian neighbours must lead to a rising demand for trained economists, diplomats, and public and government servants well-equipped with a knowledge of Asian affairs,” said Mr J. J. Saunders, senior lecturer in history, in a refresher leave report to the Canterbury University College Council yesterday. While he was overseas Mr Saunders completed the first volume of a history of the Arabs but also took the opportunity to seek expert advice on the suggested introduction of Asian studies in the University of New Zealand. Suggestions Tentative suggestions received were:— (1) As an initial step, the enlargement of the existing courses in, say, history, economics and philosophy, either at B.A. or honours level, to include some elementary instruction in the history, thought and social conditions of the leading Asian countries in modern times. (Asian studies offered as subsidiary subjects would not require a knowledge of languages, and texts could be read in translation.) (2) Ultimately, the creation of a separate department to provide full B.A. courses in Asian studies (history, languages, law, philosophy, and anthropology) and research facilities for higher degrees. (Something of this sort is already being planned at Victoria University College.) (3) Encouragement to the secondary schools to provide “background” courses in Asian history and culture in the sixth forms.

(4) The division of Asian studies into “regions,” each of the four university centres in New Zealand to be responsible for one of them: thus one college might specialise in Chinese and Japanese studies, another in Indian, and so on. “How far this proposal may commend itself I do not know given existing conditions in New Zealand, I should think concentration in one centre more desirable,” Mr Saunders said. Branch Of Theology

“In most British universities which offer instruction in Oriental subjects, they are still treated almost as a branch of theology, as indeed they long were everywhere; the courses, commonly confined to Semitics, are designed as adjuncts to Biblical studies and are taken mainly by missionaries and theological students. In Oxford and Cambridge the approach is more secular, the scope is wider, instruction is available in all the leading languages of Asia living and dead; but the emphasis is perhaps unduly philological,” Mr Saunders said. “Only in the School of Oriental and African Studies in London is a serious attempt made to study the cultures of Asia and Africa as integrated wholes, to provide the fullest training in linguistics, history, law and anthropology for public servants and colonial and commercial administrators, and to assist Asians and Africans to equip themselves for professional careers in their own countries. Since its foundation in 1916, the school has become the real focus of British Orientalism and the experience it has garnered over 40 years may be of some value to us in New Zealand.

“The- first poipt impressed upon me was the imperative necessity of providing a solid linguistic basis on which to build. Much of our information about the Asian lands and peoples is derived from persons ignorant of Oriental languages and is thus likely to be defective, distorted, and misleading. No worthwhile work in the field of Asian culture can be accomplished without a sound training in one or more of the major languages of the eastern world; no reputable historian would, for example, undertake to investigate the antiquities of Burma or Java without possessing the ability to read texts in the native sources. Of the nine departments of the School of Oriental Studies, six are devoted to instruction in linguistics. Yet it is clear that philology must be the servant and not the master of other disciplines,” said Mr Saunders. “Of these disciplines, history I found to be acquiring increasing weight and prominence. It was long a reproach that Orientalists knew no history and historians knew no eastern languages. This happily is the case no more, and Oriental history is emerging (perhaps has already emerged) as an independent subject in its own

right, to the accompaniment of a general recognition that no sharp line of demarcation can or should be drawn between the history of Europe and that of Asia. “A Seamless Robe” “That the past of humanity is a seamless robe is now a platitude, and that China, India, Islam, and others are not mere unimportant annexes to the story of the civilisation of Westren Europe has been forcibly impressed on us by the writings of Spengler, Toynbee, Sorokin and others, as well as by the collapse of the European colonial regimes in Asia and the rise to power and independence of the nations of the East. I found a common acceptance, even among non-historians, that history should form the nucleus of any course of Asian studies, the term “history” being, of course, interpreted, not in a narrow political sense, but as embracing all the signficant cultural achievements of a nation or race or community,” Mr Saunders said.

Premises Entered.— On Sunday, Oxford House, a two-storey building in Cambridge terrace, was broken into for the third time in two years. Nothing was stolen except a cheque book. The building is occupied by Gregory Kane, Ltd., importers, and Dorothy Penny, interior decorator. Entry was gained by breaking windows at the rear.