From 7-9 August this year a symposium on “India-China Cultural Dialogue”, jointly organized by the University of Madras and the Fudan University of Shangai, was held in Chennai, still better known by its former name as Madras, in India. Considering that both Asian countries are entering a phase of closer cooperation in the political and economic spheres, it was considered timely to intensify also academic exchanges between India and China in the field of cultural and religious studies. The conference was attended by eleven scholars from various academic institutions from mainland China and Hong Kong, and 15 Indian scholars from the University of Madras and from other Indian universities, as well as three scholars from Germany and two from the USA. Professor Felix Wilfred, head of the Department of Christian Studies in the University of Madras and main coordinator for the conference from the Indian side, invited the Institute of Missiology, Aachen, to send Georg Evers, formerly in charge of the Asian section in the MWI, as representative in view of the significant contribution the MWI had made in the past to the promotion of intercultural understanding and inter-religious dialogue. 

The conference started with an overview on the past and present relations between India and China, presented by C.V. Ranganathn, former Indian ambassador to China, who stressed the new opportunities of improving the relationship between the two Asian countries due to the present favourable developments in the political and economic fields. Concentrating on the cultural exchange between India and China in history P.N. Subramanian, former Indian Consul General in Shanghai, showed how in the course of time there had been close ties between the two countries in the fields of religion, culture and commerce. A more specific field of Indian-Chinese cooperation was addressed by Thiru D.S. Rajan, director of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, who described the various forms of cooperation in the field of science and technology. Professor Edward Xu, director of the Centre for the Study of Religions and International Relations at the Fudan University in Shanghai outlined the role which India had played in Chinese international relations in the past and then speculated on possible developments in the future.   

The fact that the political relationship between China and India had been strained in the past decades, has had  negative repercussions in the field of continuous academic studies in India on Chinese questions and respectively in China on developments in India. G.P. Despande, from the Centre for East Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, described the past and present status of Chinese studies in India which ought to be expanded considerably in order to meet the demands resulting from the present positive political climate. Standing in for a Chinese colleague who could not attend, Birgit Linder, China Programme Director from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia in Hong Kong, spoke on the status of Indian studies in China which, similarly to the situation in India, need to be developed. 

A series of lectures dealt with specific  topics and problems in India respectively in China. M. Anandakrishna, chairman of Madras Institute of Development Studies in Chennai, spoke about the status of higher education in India. Ma Min, president of the Central China Normal University in Wuhan, dealt with the same topic from the Chinese perspective. The problem of demographic studies and population policy in China was presented by Thomas Scharping, professor of population studies at Cologne University. A critical evaluation of the development in the field of architecture and urban planning in China was given by Kongjian Yu, professor at the Graduate School of Landscape Architecture at Peking University. The role of cinema and films in China in the field of Chinese studies was highlighted by Nimyan Wong from the Chinese University in Hong Kong. Gowri Ramnaraya, herself a theatre artist and musician, gave an introduction into Indian art focussing on Indian music and theatre. As an example of Indian cultural influence in China Wolfgang Kubin, Institute of Oriental and Asian studies at the university of Bonn, described the influence the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore has exercised on the formation of modern Chinese poetry. 

The situation of women in India, a rather controversial topic in present-day India, was presented by Priya Suresh, head of the Department of International Studies at Stella Maris College in Chennai. A case study on Chinese women and social work was contributed by Xiang Rong, Director of the Social Research Institute at Yunnan University. 

Diane Obenchain, professor for Peace Studies in Grand Rapids, presented a comparative study on Religious Perspectives on Restaurative Justice and its Academic Reception in China and India. In a historical review and with a look at potential future developments Georg Evers, former head of the Asian section at the Institute of Missiology in Aachen, spoke on the “Encounter of Christianity with Chinese Religions – a History of Misunderstandings and Missed Opportunities?”. A very comprehensive overview on “Studies of Indian Philosophy and Religions in Contemporary China” was given by Xinping Zhuo, Director of the Institute of World Religions at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. 

The symposium presented a rich panorama and insight into the many issues which are of interest for an intensified encounter between China and India in the cultural, sociological and religious encounter between the two nations which are playing a steadily growing role in Asia and in the world. 

(Georg Evers)

Contribution by Dr. Georg Evers at the Symposium:

Christianity in China - A Case of Missed Opportunities?

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