Events in February

 

Talks start at 6.30pm and usually last between 50 – 70 minutes. Our events are free and open to all.

Join us in person at 14 Stephenson Way NW1 2HD or watch online over zoom (contact Matty at mb@royalasiaticsociety.org for the video link).

 

Thursday 6th February

 

From September 2024 to February 2025, the Silk Roads get a spotlight in London, with two concurrent exhibitions on this topic at the British Museum and the British Library. The British Museum exhibition Silk Roads takes audiences on a journey across Asia, Africa and Europe, exploring the movement of people, objects and ideas in the period 500 to 1000 CE. The British Library exhibition A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang transports visitors to the vibrant town of Dunhuang—a hub of trade, culture, and religion in present-day Northwest China—highlighting the experiences of those who lived, passed through, or left their mark there. In this event, curators of the two exhibitions will introduce the thinking behind their respective shows, and share insights into a few of the highlight objects on display.

 

Images (clockwise from top left):

Octagonal cup with musicians and a dancer, c. 830s. Found in the Belitung shipwreck. Probably made in Yangzhou, China. Tang Shipwreck Collection, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.

String of cloves, c. 400–600. Originating from Maluku Islands, present-day Indonesia, found at Qaw el-Kebir, Egypt. British Museum.

Bilingual vertical scroll linked to the Khotanese envoy Ca Kima-Sana.

Gold and garnet sword-scabbard button, early 600s. Found in the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, Suffolk, UK. British Museum.

 

Thursday 13th February

 

This talk will introduce The Cambridge History of Confucianism, Volume I (pre-history-1400), the editing of which Prof Paramore is currently completing with publication expected in early 2026.

Confucianism has been a major force in the cultural history of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam for thousands of years, affecting the art, literature, science and politics of all these countries. Confucianism was not only a major ideological and cultural determiner in East Asian premodernity, but also played a crucial role in East Asia’s transition to modernity, mediating the importation of scientific and medical thought and the re-creation of major political ideologies of modernity like liberalism. Beyond Asia, Confucianism was also a major topic of intellectual discussion in early modern Europe – a foil for the political theories of thinkers from Voltaire to Montesquieu. This Cambridge History will introduce Confucianism through the entire long durée history of the tradition, beginning with its pre-historic Chinese roots, and extending through the entire history of imperial Chinese and broader Asian history into the contemporary period.

Kiri Paramore is Professor of Asian Studies in the National University of Ireland, University College Cork, where he directs the Irish Institute of Chinese Studies and the Irish Institute of Japanese Studies. He is the author of Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 2016), (a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award winner, 2016), Ideology and Christianity in Japan (Routledge, 2009), and Religion and Orientalism in Asian Studies (Bloomsbury, 2016). His articles have appeared in Modern Intellectual History, the Journal of Asian Studies, the Journal of Early Modern History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of Japanese Studies, and the Proceedings of the British Academy, etc. He currently serves as chief editor of the Cambridge History of Confucianism, and as one of the authors of the Cambridge History of Democracy, and the New Cambridge History of Japan.

 

Thursday 27th February

 

Andrew Laurie grew up in Shropshire, spent a lot of his childhood watching animals, and studied biology at the University of Cambridge, doing research on hippos in Tanzania, starfish in Sudan, and rhinos in Nepal, India and south-east Asia.   After a seven year research fellowship studying Marine Iguanas in the Galapagos Islands he worked on wildlife conservation projects, including government planning and policy development, mainly in China, Mongolia, Tanzania and Sri Lanka, with shorter assignments in Vietnam, the UK, India, Laos, Cape Verde, and the Cook Islands.   He is concerned about the rapid loss of wild species and their habitats around the world, and is keen to help in establishing better behaviour patterns in humans, through both governmental policy and implementation, and actions taken by the general public and non-governmental organizations to protect the natural environment on which we all depend.

Andrew once worked as an advisor to the Mongolian government on biodiversity conservation – and lived there on and off for several years.  In his spare time he followed up on a childhood fascination with Dippers after seeing  them gathering in winter on the outflow of a spring where the water flowed for up to a kilometre  before freezing.   On summer field trips he kept his eyes open for nests, because none of the local ornithologists actually knew where they bred, but he didn’t find any.

Several years later, in 2017, following up on a clue sent to him by Prof. Gombobaatar of the National University of Mongolia,  Andrew returned to Mongolia, and soon found Dippers nesting.  He has been back several times since then to observe and film at different stages of the breeding season.  Although his four films focus on Dippers, they also reflect in general on wildlife conservation in Mongolia, and they were shown on Mongolian television in a series called  “Anyone can be an ecologist” – a title that  he tried not to take personally.   The idea behind the series was to encourage “citizen science”, and the premise that you don’t have to have a huge research grant, a Toyota Land Cruiser and a satellite tracking device , or to concentrate on large charismatic endangered species, in order to make useful contributions to science, or conservation.

There are five species of Dippers in the world.   The White-throated Dipper ranges from Europe to Mongolia, India and China, but there are various subspecies that look quite different.    In the Altai there is further variation  within the local subspecies – some have lighter coloured heads and bellies than others.

Andrew  is biologist, cameraman, director and editor, and works with a small field crew in Mongolia –  non-specialists who are very enthusiastic, and full of ideas and possible explanations for their observations.   Interesting differences in behaviour between the European and Altai Dippers have emerged.   For example, in the Altai the males routinely feed the females on and off the nest during incubation whereas this has only very rarely been observed in Europe.  In 2022 Andrew and his team saw really extraordinary behaviour that has still not been explained: the parents stood on the backs of their chicks after they had left the nest, and pecked at them repeatedly.  And one female cleared out the nest lining immediately after the last chick had left.  Clearing the nest is common in Europe but not at the intensity and single-mindedness observed and within just minutes of the last chick leaving.

The team talked with local people, mainly livestock herders, learning from them on the one hand, and and showing  them things on the other.  Although familiar with seeing Dippers flying around none of the local people they talked with had seen a nest or sat and watched Dippers doing things like feeding their young or clearing out the lining from their nests.

The presence of a healthy population of Dippers is a good indicator that the water is unpolluted – or at least not badly polluted.  Threats to the Altai Dippers include overstocking of livestock, mining, and melting glaciers – a complex mix.  Eventually tourism might add to them.

Pride in local species could contribute to conservation action by residents – although the demands of everyday life in that difficult environment make it hard for many to find time to participate.  And climate change overshadows everything – many herders are already moving out of the Altai as they see no long term future there.

Andrew will introduce and show his most recent  film, and then give a short talk followed by a question and answer session.