Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c15.t1.17

v2.c15.t1.17

The South Asia Institute (referred as SA Institute) was established in 1978. It was jointly operated by Peking University and CASS with Ji Xianlin as the president, mainly engaging in the research work on religion, philosophy, politics, economy, history, culture, language and literature of South Asia, among which India was the focus of the study. In the year 1979, China South Asia Institute was established and three periodicals were created, "South Asia Studies", "South Asia collection of Translations" and "Information of South Asia and Southeast Asia". The Graduate School of CASS established the Department of South Asia in the year 1978, to recruit graduate students for SA Institute together with Department of Oriental Languages of Peking University. Meanwhile, the former India Teaching and Research Office of Sichuan University was extended to South Asia Institute, founding "Quarterly of South Asia Studies" later. Liaoning University and Central China Normal University successively established the laboratory of India history. Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences also set up a laboratory for South Asia and Southeast Asia. In 1982, South Asia Institute set up the Association of Indian literature and seminar was held every two years. In the Middle of 1980s, SA Institute was divided into two parts. CASS independently established the Institute of South Asia and Southeast Asia, while the original staff of SA Institute in Peking University was incorporated into the Afro-Asian Institute and Department of Oriental Languages. In the year 1991, the SA Institute of CASS was renamed as the Institute of Asia -Pacific with Huang Xinchuan as the president.