Why Asian community today? Under accelerating process of globalization, we should have a better understanding of ourselves and the world, working hard together for a better life.
Last Thursday, a lecture on “Why Asian Community today” was given by Dr. Joon-Kon Chung in Bo Xue Building. More than 100 CUC students attended the sharing session.
Working for One Asia Foundation as the senior researcher, Dr. Joon-Kon Chung said that the Asian Community course in the universities have given many lectures and forums about the Asian issues in many countries. This time, invited by Professor Wang Jingzhi, Dr. Chung came to CUC.
At the beginning of the lecture, Dr Joon-Kon Chung shared his teaching and travelling experience in Kazakhstan, India, Vietnam and some other countries. By mentioning the temperature comparison between cold Kyrgyzstan and warm Vietnam, he emphasized the diversity of Asia, which means knowing other countries well and being tolerant of differences are quite important.
Dr. Joon-Kon Chung is sharing his own experience teaching around Asia(photo by Tang Yi)
In terms of knowing other countries, Dr. Joon-Kon Chung used his own experience in Mongolia suggesting that it’s not proper to judge a country just by its history. What decides the future of a country is whether those young people of this nation have a strong sense of responsibility. He added that what the youth is caring about determines the country’s influence on the whole world in the coming 100 years.
Dr. Chung emphasized the role of young people in building Asian Community. He encouraged students to have a broad horizon and take action to have first-hand understanding of Asia. And only in this way, can young people observe this world well, get unique knowledge and experience.
“Science is a field for multicultural communication." (Photo by Wang Huiyi)
Dr. Chung put forward an interesting way of understanding the Asia Community. "Everyone has an experience of being graduated, right? The aim of the community has a lot to do with graduation." Graduation ensures freedom, happiness and safeness. And that is also the core reason of building Asian Community, which urges the whole world to unify with open mind. In general, the aim of the Community is to encourage governments to play a better role and help every citizen gain a more satisfying life, no matter how different their nation's political institutions and physical environment are. With the accelerating process of globalization, it's really essential for young people to take action to know more about their countries and the world.
Believing that spreading the idea of "One Asia" may contribute to the construction of the Asian Community, Dr. Chung took a trip here in China. "Many Chinese students pay close attention to the circumstance in Asia and Asia put great emphasis on those energetic young people in China."
Dr. Chung is sharing his idea about the student's puzzlement (Photo by Zhu Ningjie)
"After communicating with teachers and students here in China, I think Chinese people have a comprehensive character." Dr. Chung said, "I was surprised to see nearly twenty students raising their hands to ask questions at the end of my sharing. This means that you are interested in the topic of Asia and as long as you have the passion to know about it, then you may have great influence on it."
One Asia Foundation also grant a scholarship to those students who attend this course and achieve breakthroughs on Asian issues. "I hope this course will help all of you have a better understanding of the Asia and the world, knocking down the cultural walls in your minds and letting a spark jump across the gap between people's hearts and souls." Dr. Chung concluded.
Tips: Dr.Chung's sharing session is part of the public elective in CUC named Media Art Education and Asian Community Construction, which is supported by One Asia Foundation. Since 2009, One Asia Foundation have subsidized similar courses in about 600 universities in the world, e.g. Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and so on.
Professor Wang Jingzhi, research supervisor and the leader of this subsidized Asian Community course in CUC, welcome all CUCers to the class.
You can know more about the up-coming sharing sessions of Asian Community by scanning the QR-Code. Enjoy the serial international lectures and be an all-rounder of Asian issues.
Editor: Cao Wanchen
