Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. "The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver
Southeast Asia’s proximity to China presents both economic opportunities and security challenges. While China’s economic rise in the past decades has benefitted the region’s economies, China’s claims over the South China Sea have created security anxieties among its neighbors. How do different Southeast Asian states balance economic and geopolitical interests? To what extent has China’s relations with and views on Southeast Asia evolved in recent decades? What pathways could be explored to mitigate political conflict while continuing—even intensifying—economic relations? This forum has been billed as the Aileen Baviera-Mario Miclat Memorial Lectures. Professors Baviera and Miclat were former deans of the UP Asian Center.
The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. The Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website. For other news and upcoming events at the Asian Center, click here.
