The Asian Studies Parade reflects a lifetime of commitment to the field by Paul van der Velde, a leading Asian studies innovator, scholar, and publisher. The first chapters examine aspects of the Dutch colonial presence in Asia and its intellectual support system in the Netherlands. The author’s engagement with historical biography emerges in studies of such contrasting figures as Japanese interpreter Imamura Gen’emon Eisei, pioneering anthropologist P.J. Veth, and anti-colonialist Jacob Haafner. Van der Velde then continues to describe the development of Asia-Europe links at the end of the 20th century and the emergence of the ‘New Asia Scholar’ in the 21st century. This unique work will interest anyone concerned with wider issues in Asian studies.

Paul van der Velde is a historian and served as Secretary of the International Convention of Asian Scholars and General Secretary of the region-transcending multilingual ICAS Book Prize for many years. His most recent publication is Life under the Palms: The Sublime World of Jacob Haafner, 1754-1809 (NUS Press, 2020).

Bob Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and Global Affairs, Boston University
A multi-national and delightfully collaborative field of scholarship today, Asian studies in the Western academy were originally implicated in the conquest and colonization of Asia. That story has long been told, and its complicities exposed. Paul van der Velde's The Asian Studies Parade does something more. Drawing on research and publications crafted over a forty-year career, van der Velde provides a far-ranging and at times breathtaking overview of the transformation of Asian studies from colonial instrumentality to cross-cultural celebration. The author roams widely but always insightfully, taking us from Japan and Taiwan to the Netherlands East Indies, as well as Asian studies in contemporary East Asia and Europe. Few books provide a better sense of where the field of Asian studies came from and, no less important, where it should go today.

Lisheng Dong, Professor of Comparative Politics, Tartu University, Estonia, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
To general readers, the book opens a window on the wide field of Asian Studies. To academics, it is a convenient handbook on Asian Studies. The book presents a panoramic view of Asian studies in terms of up-to-date review with historical roots as well as a combination of both theoretical and methodological approaches.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Abbreviations

Preface. The Asian Studies Parade


Chapter One: DESHIMA, MON AMOUR
1. The Deshima Diaries Source Publication Project
2. Dutch Class. The Dutch Language as Vehicle to Western Science
3. The Zealander Jan van der Cruijsse’s Japanese Diary (1736-37)
4. The Man Who Paved the Way: The Interpreter Imamura Gen’emon Eisei (1671- 1737) as the founder of Dutch Studies
5. Janis Reijnhout (1816-1870) laid to rest in the Dutch cemetery in Nagasaki with a Dutch-Japanese inscription

Chapter Two: THE COLONIAL CLASH
1. Colonial War and Emporial War on Taiwan in the Seventeenth Century
2. From Sabang to Merauke. Dutch Imperialism in the Light of a Blazing Discussion
3. From Colonial Lobby to Colonial Hobby. The Royal Dutch Geographical Society and
the Dutch East Indies, 1873-1914
4. Jacob Haafner's Treatise on the Disastrous Effects of Missionary Activities world- wide

Chapter Three: THE BIOGRAPHICAL EMBRACE
1. Who is afraid of the historical biography?
2. The Indonesia and Africa Specialist P.J. Veth (1814-1895): Founder of the First Chair
of Anthropology in the Netherlands (1877)
3. The world according to Jacob Haafner (1754-1809): Travel writer and anti-colonialist
4. The Painter Willem Imandt Revisited. An European Painter in Indonesia

Chapter Four: THE POST-COLONIAL MEETING OF ASIA AND EUROPE
1. Cultural Rapprochement between Asia and Europe
2. ASEM: A Window of Opportunity
3. Asian-European Perspectives
4. Building an ASEM Research Platform

Chapter Five: THE EURASIAN SPACE
1. The Eurasian Space: Far More Than Two Continents
2. Multiregionalism and Multilateralism: Asian-European Relations in a Global Context
3. The Asia-Europe meeting: Contributing to a New Global Governance. The Eight ASEM Heads of State Meeting in Brussels
4. The Europe-Asia Policy Forum (EUforAsia)




Chapter Six: ASIAN STUDIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
1. The Quest for a Global Perspective in Asian Studies
2. Guide to Asian studies in Europe
3. New Developments in Asian Studies: An Introduction
4. What about Asia? Revisiting Asian Studies
5. Re-orienting Asian Studies

Chapter Seven: THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION OF ASIA SCHOLARS (ICAS)
1. ICAS turns 21
2. The ICAS Book Prize. A multilingual window on the world of Asian studies
3. The New Asia Scholar
4. The Publishing History of the International Institute for Asian Studies


Index