In the independent Czechoslovak Republic, President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk played a profound role in influencing Musil´s important decisions and subsequent actions, even though their political and social opinions differed. Musil, at that time a student of theology, met Masaryk in 1889 in Turčiansky Sväty Martin in Slovakia. He recalled Masaryk´s emphasis on the necessity of having strong personal convictions when studying. Musil gave an inaugural lecture, How did I get to know the Orient, on 11th February 1920.In the auditorium, journalists and politicians were present, headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edvard Beneš. Musil´s plans for Czech Oriental studies were not only scientific and cultural, but also political and economic. Musil believed that for the newborn Czechoslovakian state the Orient could act as a substitues for colonies, since it could supply the country with raw materials in exchange for various products, and it could also offer its countrymen profitable employment opportunities. According to him, the government needed to systematically arouse interest in the Orient in Czechoslovakia and vice-versa, and also to use cultural links as the starting point for the establishment of active economic relations. Therefore, he believed it should be a national aim to establish an Oriental library, a school of living languages and a large Oriental institute. In 1920, based on Masaryk´s wishes, Musil began preparations for a great journey leading from Northern Africa to Southwest Asia, where he hoped to promote the political and economic interests of Czechoslovakia. The journey was postponed on several occasions and, in the end, never took place., Pavel Žďárský., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
A Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) has been established in Prague in a cooperative memorandum signed at the Oriental Institute AS CR. The rich resources of Chinese Studies from Taiwan will promote the research resource at the Oriental Institute. The Academy of Sciences also signed an agreement with Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology to initiate a Project-based Personnel Exchange Program (PPP) to increase interaction and cooperation between the two countries. and Táňa Dluhošová, Ondřej Klimeš.
Orientální ústav AV ČR uspořádal od 30. března do 1. dubna 2016 již 13. výroční konferenci Evropské asociace taiwanských studií (European Association of Taiwan studies - EATS). Téma konference „Mocní a bezmocní“ koresponduje s výzkumným záměrem „Moc a strategie politického a společenského řádu“, který ústav řeší od začátku roku 2015. Úvodní přednášku „The Powerful and the Powerless: Re-Examining and Reframing Taiwan’s History“ přednesl prof. Bruce Jacobs z Monash University., The 13th Annual Conference of the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS) took place in Prague between March 30 and April 1, 2016. The main theme of the conference was Powerful and Powerless. The conference was a collaboration between the EATS Board and the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences., and Táňa Dluhošová.
We feature an article on the history and the present of the Oriental Institute’s library. With over 200,000 volumes (including periodicals andmanuscripts), it ranks among the largest libraries within theCzech Academy of Sciences. It is divided into the General Library, Chinese Lu Xun Library, Korean Library, Tibetan Library, and John King Fairbank Library. Its collections include mainly publications on the history, literatures, languages, religions, and cultures of the countries of Asia and Africa. The Chinese Lu Xun library holds a special collection of Chinese books (about 67,000 volumes). The Korean Library presently holds more than 3,500 volumes. Its older part is mostly of North Korean origin. Thanks to generous gifts from the Korea Foundation, its collections were considerably enriched with South Korean publications in 1996 and 1997. and Jan Luffer a Veronika Danešová.
Mezinárodní konferenci „The Protest Movements in the Contemporary Middle East“ (Protestní hnutí na současném Blízkém východě) hostila Akademie věd na Národní třídě v Praze. Uspořádal ji Orientální ústav AV ČR ve dnech 29.-30. května 2014 za spoluúčasti Francouzského ústavu pro výzkum ve společenských vědách v Praze (Centre français de recherche en sciences sociales - CEFRES) a za podpory Groupe de Recherches et d’Etudes sur la Méditerranée et le Moyen-Orient (GREMMO, Lyon) a Cercle des Chercheurs sur le Moyen-Orient (CCMO). Sympozium zahájil jako hlavní řečník prof. Henry Laurens z Collège de France v Paříži. and Ondřej Beránek, Jan Zouplna.
Poslední dramatické události na evropském kontinentu a na severu Afriky odsunuly do pozadí neméně významné změny na jihu černého světadílu. Sotva před rokem totiž svět uctil památku zesnulého Nelsona Mandely, který se stal symbolem celonárodního boje s apartheidem podobně jako Martin Luther King boje za rovnoprávnost lidí černé pleti. Letos Jihoafrická republika oslavila 20. výročí prvních svobodných demokratických voleb. and Andrzej Magala, Otakar Hulec.
The Research Centre of the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences at Academia Sinica in Taiwan (RCT) was established on December 3, 2015. It is designed to act as a branch office of the Oriental Institute of the CAS and is intended to serve as a platform facilitating and strengthening academic exchanges between Czech and Taiwanese scholars as well as institutions. The Centre is a part of a long-term interdisciplinary research project entitled Power and Strategies of Social and Political Order. Czech research fellows are expected to participate in conferences and hold colloqiums with their Taiwanese colleagues. In cooperation with the Academia Sinica, the Institute plans to organize annual joint workshops and publish their proceedings. It will concomitantly continue building the network of patner institutions and thus create a solid foundation for further scholarly exchanges. In cooperation with Charles University in Prague it will also support doctoral students wishing to conduct research at the Centre. and Táňa Dluhošová.