Macau Ricci Newsletter 3

No. 3 － August 2004

MRI Cultural Programs

2004 International Symposium

This year's keynote cultural event—our international symposium—will be held November 24 –26 and is offered jointly by the Macau Ricci Institute and the ‘Instituto Português do Oriente', Macau. The speaker roster has been full for months. The theme of “Culture, Law and Order: Chinese and Western Traditions” has turned out to be a topic of deep interest and relevance. The central question will focus on value systems, law and order in contemporary China, as well as on the relationship between culture and law and on the implementation of the Western concept of “rule of law” into Chinese society rules and traditions. For more information on the Symposium, please visit:

www.riccimac.org/eng/symposium/2004

MRI Forums

The Macau Ricci Institute's gatherings called the “MRI Forums” continue to attract about 15 to 30 participants each time. The forum is meant to be a monthly seminar focused on Greater China related topics. The inaugural forum held on 20 November 2003 at the Macau Ricci Institute Conference Room and devoted to the theme of “Reintegration with Mainland China: The Contrasting Experiences of Hong Kong and Macau” by Professor Ming K. Chan, Stanford University, was followed by the following additional forums: 20 January 2004, “Chinese Religious Traditions in Contemporary China” by Professor Michael Saso, California State University; 24 February 2004, “Local History in Hong Kong: An Attempt at some Global Understanding” by Dr. Gillian Bickley, Baptist University; 5 May 2004, “A Review of the History of Hong Kong Chinese Literature and an Overview of Post-97 Hong Kong Chinese Poetic Circles” by Dr. Peter Cheng Wai-ming, University of Hong Kong; 8 June 2004, “Continuity and Change in Intercultural Relations Among Chinese in the Americas: Understanding the Present through Selected Experiences of the 19th Century” by Professor Lucy Cohen, Catholic University of America.We are delighted that each forum attracts local Macau media with articles in Chinese, Portuguese and English. The more recent forum with Professor Cohen was very well publicized with articles and photo spreads in Hoje Macau (7 June 2004) and Ponto Final (9 June 2004). For more details on each of these forums presentations and their speakers, please visit:

www.riccimac.org/eng/forums

MRI Encounters

Early in the year the Macau Ricci Institute Beijing Office gathered a group of friends to introduce them to the Institute's newly launched quarterly journal, Chinese Cross Currents . About twenty-five guests attended, representing a half dozen foreign countries and China and from different walks in life, including embassies, companies, universities, media, and religious groups. We took the opportunity of our gathering to introduce the idea of a semi-monthly encounter which would be focused on Greater China related topics. There was a warm reception for the idea and the “MRI Encounter” will begin with the start of the academic year in the fall.

MRI Research

Conferences, Seminars, and Papers

In December 2003, Dr. Tereza Sena published an article entitled “Macao and its History—A Chapter that Closes” in the quarterly MACAU. The same article also appeared in the Portuguese version of the publication.

Dr. Tereza Sena published an article entitled “In Memoriam: Monsignor Manuel Teixeira (1912-2003) in Review of Culture , 2003.

Dr. César Guillén-Nuñez and Dr. Tereza Sena both attended the three-days conference “Macau- Philippines: Historical Relations” held at the University of Macau, 18-20 February 2004.Organized by Macau University's Department of Portuguese and the ‘Portuguese Centro de Estudos do Sudeste Asiático' (CEPESA), the conference will be reviewed by them in the upcoming issue of Chinese Cross Currents .

In May 2004, Dr. César Guillén-Nuñez and Dr. Tereza Sena both presented papers at the symposium entitled “The First Encounter Between China and the West: The Spanish Link”. Organized by the City University of Hong Kong with the support of the Consulate General of Spain and the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Dr. Guillén-Nuñez contributed with a paper entitled “Echoes of Spanish Realism in China's and Macao's Christian Art” and Dr. Sena with a paper entitled “Implications of the Portuguese-Spanish Relations on Macao's Historiography—Some Topics for Further Research”.

Dr. Tereza Sena participated in a large gathering held in Macau in June 2004 and having for topic the life of Wenceslaus de Moraes. A Portuguese naval officer, de Moraes began his odyssey in Asia stationed in Macau but would eventually end up living the life of a hermit in Japan. Along the way, he first married a Chinese wife and later a Japanese wife. The life, writings and works of this exceptional person are fascinating for their insights into some very early cultural exchange between East and West. In an interesting twist of fate, de Moraes's image ended up on a Pataca banknote in Macau, and it is on this topic that Dr. Tereza Sena made, on 1 June, her presentation under the title “Considerations on How the Picture of Wenceslaus de Moraes Ended up on the 500 Patacas Note.” Along with an article a very nice picture of Tereza Sena appeared in Ponto Final and another photograph of both Tereza and her husband in the Chinese language Macao Daily (1 June 2004).

Update on Research and Publication Projects

Work continues on all of MRI's large research projects: Macau Research Database Center (MRDC), Chinese Buddhist Communities guidebook, and Kilian Stumpf's Acta Pekinensia . Patiently, step by step, we are making progress towards completions dates in 2005 and 2006, operating with limited budgets and resources.

MRI Professional Programs

China Project Services (CPS)

For several years already, a team of social workers of Casa Ricci Social Services in Macau, under the dedicated leadership of Fr. Luis Ruiz, has been helping a good number of lepers scattered in various places in Mainland China. In different regions, this social effort has truly helped to stabilize life and stop the spread of the disease in the leper villages.The next phase in this work is to get the younger generation (children who are not infected with the disease) out of the leper villages and integrated into society. The doorway to this is education.

MRI China Project Services is helping Fr. Ruiz with his work of continuing to build primary schools and pay school tuitions for children in schools near the leper villages. An effort is also underway to fill in gaps in middle school job training and access to university for those students who are capable. Over the past years, CPS has been developing a plan for a vocational middle school in Lufeng, Yunnan province, and to establish a scholarship program at Yunnan University. Renovations on the building in the first phase of the vocational middle school project will begin in July 2004 and the first payments to students in the scholarship program at Yunnan University are being made for the fall semester 2004.

MRI China Project Services is also involved in a new effort with China Care Foundation ( chinacare.org ). Based in Greenwich, Connecticut, USA, China Care is raising and spending over half a million US Dollars every year on orphan work in Mainland China. Half of the funds go to supporting adoption of Chinese orphans into families and the other half to programs in Mainland China to save children and improve their lives. CPS was hired to plan and operate programs such as a medical surgeries program at Beijing Children's Hospital, a home for high-risk orphaned children in Taiyuan, a village orphanage also in rural Shanxi province, and a program that trains and sends support caregivers into state-run orphanages throughout Mainland China.

Macau Association of Business Ethics (Macasbe)

Macasbe, established at Macau Ricci Institute in 2001, continues to make efforts to improve the ethics of business in Mainland China. Brent Johnson and Yves Camus went to Wuhan, China to participate in the Second International Axiology Conference organized, on June 12-16, by the International Society for Value Inquiry and the Institute and Department of Philosophy, Hubei University. The general topic of the conference was “Value Choice and Human Existence.” Brent Johnson gave a paper and a very well received presentation on the topic of “Value Clarity for a New Commercial Environment.”

MRI Publications

神州交流 Chinese Cross Currents

The first issue of Chinese Cross Currents on the topic of “Religion and Culture” has run out and a re-print is being considered. It has been very well received by readers from many corners of the globe. The second issue of the quarterly with its special dossier on “Literature and Society” was equally well received. The third and forthcoming issue, with a special dossier on “Culture, Art and Society” is now going to press. For its contents, please visit: www.riccimac.org/eng/ccc. Subscriptions are welcome.

Macau Ricci Institute Studies

The second volume of MRI Studies series entitled Religion and Culture: Past Approaches, Present Globalization, Future Challenges is completed and the volume will be available for sale in September 2004.

MRI Resources

The physical premises of Macau Ricci Institute underwent this year a necessary renovation made under the responsibility of the Orient Foundation: the aging roof had to be entirely replaced, and some interior flooring and much exterior painting to be refreshed. The Institute improved also the small and humid basement: with new floor tiles and frequent ventilation, it is now a useable store-room.

The Tomás Pereira Library continues to grow with the addition of both books and periodical subscriptions. The number of Mainland China periodical subscriptions has grown extensively.

MRI Development

Efforts to form networks and friendships throughout the world and to raise the profile of the Macau Ricci Institute continue. On February 18-25, 2004, Luis Sequeira visited Beijing in relation to a gathering of educational leaders from Macau. On February 19-28, 2004 Yves Camus and Brent Johnson were in Shanghai and Beijing to promote Chinese Cross Currents to Mainland Chinese intellectuals.

From 16 May to 2 June 2004, Luís Sequeira, Yves Camus and Artur Wardega undertook a research and promotion tour of Eastern Europe. The goal was to promote the Macau Ricci Institute to many newly opened and developing Asian studies and Chinese studies departments at universities in Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The various stages of the journey were carefully prepared by Artur Wardega, the main interpreter and liaison man of the three travelers. While in Poland, the team was welcomed by Professor Alexander Wojciech Mikołajczak, head of the Collegium Europeanum Gnesnense, in Gnezno, where Monika Miazek and her colleague Ewa Jarmakowska, both teachers at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan, have been working for nearly two years on the transcription of the Kilian Stumpf Acta Pekinensia manuscript. For more information on this, please visit: www.ricccimac.org/eng/research.

All along the journey, the team was received in various Jesuit communities including in Budapest the community of the Jesuit Provincial Superior for Hungary, where an informative exchange of views on the present state of the Chinese apostolate arose much interest. At Eötvös Loránd University, the team visited the Chinese studies section of the Asian studies department; it was received by its director, Dr. Imre Hamar, a leading scholar in Buddhist studies, accompanied by his Assistant, Gergely Salát, who specializes in Chinese history, particularly legal history. Professor Salát has been invited to the Institute's 2004 Symposium on “Law and Order: Chinese and Western Traditions.”

On 20 May, after a short flight to Praha in the Czech Republic, the team enjoyed the hospitality of Brother Vaclav Bracy, Guest Master and House Administrator. Brother Vaclav spent many hours during our stay leading us around the old and historical city. Many ancient religious and violent disputes and the recent struggle against the atheist state can still be felt living in the stones of many buildings and churches. Appointed just a week before our visit, the new Jesuit Provincial Superior, Fr Ján Ďačok, took aside some time for a conversation on China. At the Institute of East Asian Studies of the Charles University, we met with the director, Professor Olga Lomová, and shared a long and friendly interview, full of various perspectives about avenues for mutual research programs and future cooperation.

The next stop on 23 May was Poland where we landed in Krakow, Artur Wardega's home city. We stayed at the large Jesuit complex that includes the powerful publishing house WAM (Editions of the Apostolate of Prayer), a parish church, a faculty of philosophy, a graduate-school of education and a large library, already fully computerized—it was all really impressive! Luís Sequeira was happy to meet again with old friends and colleagues whom he had not seen since he finished his studies in Rome, many years ago. Among them is Krzysztof Dyrek, the current Jesuit Provincial for Southern Poland, who fit us into his busy schedule with much time in private. While in Krakow, led by Artur's cousin, Anna Stolzman-Michta, a museographer and art historian, we have been given a detailed visit of Wawel, the royal castel of the city which suffered so severely from the occupation by foreign powers during and after the Second World War. And on the eve of our departure we enjoyed to spend some evening time with a group of young Polish Jesuits, all curious to know what Jesuits are doing in Macau.

On May 26 by train we reached Poznan, where, at the Adam Mickiewicz University, after welcoming words by Sylwia Witkowska, a lecturer, and Professor Maciej Gaca, a sinologist and ethnolinguist, we presented our activities to the students in the Chinese Language Department. Later on, Professor Dr. Alfred F. Majevicz met with us and his staff.

In Poznan, we were hosted by the local Jesuit residence. The Superior drove us on May 28 to Gnezno, Poland's most ancient capital. We arrived in time to take part in the conference organized at the occasion of our visit by the ‘Collegium Europeanum.' Established in 2003 by the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan, this new college had organized a scholarly gathering, attended by about forty people, during which seven papers were presented under the general theme of “Jesuits in China – Religion and Culture.” We made a short presentation of the Macau Ricci Institute, done in Polish by Artur Wardega, which was followed by a lively and lengthy question-and-answer session focused mostly on the spiritual quest in present day China. After a friendly meal in one of the best restaurants of the city, we were led around on a tour by three young students. Before leaving Gniezno the following day, we had a working session with Monika Miazek and her friend Ewa Jarmakowska in which we clarified some technical questions on the transcription progress – already half done – of the Acta Pekinensia manuscript.

We reached Warsaw by train on 30 May. We were hosted by a Jesuit community in charge of a lively parish right in the middle of the old city, that has now been fully rebuilt after its complete destruction in World War II. We did some sightseeing, including a sort of musical pilgrimage to the former quarters of Frederic Chopin, and went to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Warsaw University to meet, as scheduled, with the professors of the Institute. An interesting conversation developed which lasted for two hours, with the Professors Zbigniew Slupski, Religa, Ewa Zajdler, Lidia Kasarello and others, all interested in Asia studies . Many questions were asked about the MRI, China, the Church in China, the encounter of China with the West, etc., all central MRI topics. On 2 June the team split with Yves Camus flying back to Macau and the others remaining in Europe for other purposes

Visitors to MRI

5 January 2004, Fr. Amadeu Pinto, SJ, Provincial of the Portuguese Province of the Society of Jesus.

8 January 2004, Dr Ruben de Freitas Cabral, Rector of ‘Instituto Inter-Universitário de Macau' (IIUM), accompanied by Dr. Richard Whitfield, Dean of Students and Organizational Development at IIUM, and Professor Keith Morrison, Dean of School of Education at IIUM.

17-23 February 2004, Fr Philippe Charru, SJ, professor at Centre Sèvres, Paris.

24 February 2004, Monica Liu Hebei, a Christian painter and teacher at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan.

19 May 2004. A group of 16 American students of architecture and political sciences from the University of Minnesota, visiting China, came to the Macau Ricci Institute for a small working session. Tereza Sena introduced the MRI aims, facilities, activities, editions and on going projects, using the Institute power point presentation. César Guillén-Nuñez, summarized the most relevant artistic aspects of Macau, emphasizing the richness of the city's architectural heritage.

4 June 2004. Painter Pedro Barreiros visited MRI. Doctor Barreiros is the General Commissar of the Commemorations of the 150th Anniversary Wenceslau de Moraes.

MRI Team

Everyone at MRI misses Artur Wardega who has departed the Institute (temporarily) for a home visit before he begins the last year of his Jesuit training, called “tertianship.” Two other Jesuits will be joining MRI in August 2004, they are: Dominic Tyl, former Director of the Socio-Cultural Research Center, Fujen University in Taiwan, where he was Director of the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, and Ignatius Futo Yoshio from Saint Louis University, USA, where he was Librarian.