An expert meeting on Society and Social Cohesion

Today was the day of the expert meeting on religion and social cohesion at Renmin University as I announced yesterday. We took a cab to the university campus and arrived a bit late because of all the traffic. The campus looks really nice, with a lot of green and space. If as a student you don’t want to leave the campus, you don’t have to. I was told they have approximately 20 restaurants, sporting facilities, a supermarket and much more.

The expert meeting was the continuation of a conference held last October in the Netherlands with SARA and a delegation from Renmin University, which elaborated on the same theme. This expert meeting was opened by René Smit, the president of VU University. In his opening speech he emphasized the importance of cooperation on this theme that is not only relevant from a theological and philosophical standpoint, but is also significant for society as a whole. Wei Dedong presided the meeting, he is the Deputy Dean of the hosting School of Philosophy and Religion. The director of research on religions of SARA was also present and talked about the previous conference and about his expectations of the collaboration.

For our delegation it was good to meet different faculty members of the department of Religious Studies, especially because one of the main goals was to further specify the themes on which to cooperate. The different faculty members all introduced themselves and presented their research. This helped to identify in which common themes researchers from both universities were already actively engaged.

We had lunch in one of the restaurants on campus and it was above all a very sizable meal. We had a lot of different dishes and it was fun to taste all the different types of Chinese food. After lunch we continued the meeting and discussed the concrete themes that both universities could cooperate on. The eventual goal is not to merely have an exchange of what researchers from both countries are discovering, but also a substantial collaboration in which two researchers from China and the Netherlands work on one research project together. Also it would be great to have these teams present their joint research to the other members of both faculties. The approach is to base this on already existing projects, and then implement the joint research.

The three common themes will be Multiple Religious Belonging, Religious Education and encounters of Chinese Buddhism with the West. Within these themes are multiple more specific projects that already have a base at either VU University or Renmin University. The next step is to bring together the researchers concerned and start a mutual exchange on their subjects, also with the involvement of PhD-students from both universities. The meeting ended with the signing of the new agreement between the School of Philosophy and Religion, and the Faculty of Theology.

There were also a few students present during the meeting and I had the chance to speak with one of them. I wanted to attend a class at Renmin University next Monday and he informed me that there is a class on selected readings on Buddhist sutra. It is taught by one of the professors I met today, prof. Weishan. The course will be in Chinese so I don’t think I’ll learn much on the subject, but it is a good chance to meet some Chinese students and get a picture of the education here. I also hope to get a tour of the campus, because from what I saw today it is absolutely beautiful.

After the meeting we went to a place on campus called Paradiso Coffeeshop to have some coffee. We returned to the hotel by subway. For dinner we just ate a simple pizza at a place near the hotel, because after the lunch we had, we weren’t really craving for another extensive meal.

I’m not an expert, but I think I can safely say that today’s meeting was a success!