Successfully conducted academic seminar “​​Slovenia and China: reflecting back and beyond 30 years of cooperation”

On Wednesday, 8 December 2021, between 9.00 and 15.30, East Asia Resource Library (EARL) held an academic seminar “Slovenia and China: reflecting back and beyond 30 years of cooperation”. The seminar was conducted in cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Beijing.

The aim of the seminar was to serve as a platform for exchange of viewpoints between the Slovenian and Chinese researchers, as well as to mark previous research cooperation. Moreover, in only one year, in 2022, Slovenian-Chinese bilateral cooperation is celebrating its 30th anniversary. For the purpose of the seminar, EARL designed a wide cross-section of thematic conversations from political to economic cooperation, as well as art and technology.

The program took place online. 

9:00 Opening of the seminar 

Keynote speakers addressed the participants:

 

 

●  Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Dr Mojca Schlamberger Brezar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

●  Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Iztok Prezelj

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

●  Head of the EARL, Professor Zlatko Šabič

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

●  Director General, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Feng Zhongping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

●  Deputy- Director General, Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Chen Xin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between 9.30 am and 10.15, a conversation between three scientists on the topic of "30 years of cooperation: opportunities used and lost" took place. 

9:30 – 10:15 Conversation A

 

Through the conversation, the academics addressed the 30th anniversary of the "big rooster and a small chicken", how they see the challenges and advantages of a small country compared to a political and economic superpower, and how such a discrepancy affects their relationship. They also addressed the most important areas that both countries must face in order to expand their cooperation in the future. Lead of the conversation prof. dr. Jana Rošker with prof. dr. Feng also touched upon on the role of the Confucian revival in China and the possible impact of modernization with Chinese characteristics on international relations. With prof. dr. Svetličič, on the other hand, she focused on how to overcome intercultural differences and the general lack of knowledge about China in Europe, as well as the importance of studying both the humanities and international relations in addressing this problem.

 

The seminar continued with a panel marking the semester of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

 

10:15 – 11:15 Roundtable A

 

The moderator prof. dr. Burger, together with the panelists, touched upon the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU, with special attention given to the EU accession process of the Western Balkans region. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences emphasized that the accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union is also one of the priorities of China, which expects greater economic prosperity in this geographical area. The panellists also engaged in a lively discussion on the adoption of the EU-China Investment Agreement (CAI) and the strategic role of China and the EU in the coming years.

 

A short break was followed by a thematic discussion on the impact of Covida-19 on society, countries and organizations.

 

12:15 – 13:15 Roundtable B

 

A Junior Researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tea Teodora Ristevska led a discussion among four panelists who agreed that managing the Covid-19 pandemic requires a global strategy that goes beyond China's strategy (threats need to be eliminated or zero tolerance strategy) or European strategy (reshaping the concept of threat). However, they emphasized that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to crisis management, especially given the differences in cultures existing worldwide. Nevertheless, each country should learn from others: both for the effective use of hitherto successful crisis management tools and from countrys' mistakes.

 

This was followed by two conversations that took place in parallel, on the topic of art and urbanism:

 

Travelling beyond: crossing mental and physical distances through art

Travelling beyond: reconstructing the communal space

 Both discussion were designed as an informal, intimate discussion of two scientists, great minds, over one issue.

 

13:15 – 14:00 Conversation B and C

 

 

The art talk addressed bridging distances through the arts, both physical and mental, which is especially important during the Covid-19 pandemic. The discussion covered the work of the artist Huiqin Wang, her collaboration with Chinese and European artists and the difference between the Slovenian and Chinese art space. On the one hand, the artist lives in Slovenia and uses Slovenian characters, with China being her source of inspiration. She presented her book on the traveler Alma Karlin and astronomer and scientist Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein, where she used Chinese techniques to illustrate the world journeys of important Slovenian personalities. According to artist Wang and mag. Danijela Voljč, art has its own space and its unique language, independent of state borders.

 

A conversation in the field of urbanism took place between the architects prof. dr. Wang Hui and prof. dr. Jurij Sadar. Prof. dr. Wang introduced the project of a reading pavilion in Yinghong Village, Yunnan, where architects in a long process of negotiating with the local population came up with a pavilion design that is in line with traditional architecture and landscape. The Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Beijing is also participating in the project of setting up a reading installation in a rural environment, within the umbrella project Europe Readr. Prof. dr. Jurij Sadar presented the Lake House project, which he and his team created in Jiangxi Province and addresses the creation of the artist's house in the art community, with the custumer being an artist who runs an art academy. This project also talks about combining tradition and modernity, which is reflected in the materials, furniture and design of the house - the house combines Slovenian and Chinese atmosphere. Lake House unites the rural (village) environment and the cosmopolitan, metropolitan community that inhabits the house.

 

In the last panel, the panelists wondered how to achieve the goals of digitization through collaboration in science.

 

14:15 – 15:15 Roundtable C

 

The lead of the conversation, doctoral candidate Tilen Gorenšek, opened the conversation with a question about the successful scientific collaboration examples so far and the most visible achievements of Slovenian-Chinese cooperation in the field of science in the last thirty years. Through his participation in the OECD research group, dr. Košmerlj and his team have developed a measurable graph of scientific cooperation between countries, which shows that cooperation with China is much more extensive than just individual successful cases, while dr. Aristovnik pointed out the successful practice of the Slovenian Research Agency, which enables scientific cooperation between Slovenian and Chinese universities through their grant awards. He also pointed out that geostrategic tensions between the EU, the US and China also affect and inhibit scientific cooperation. Dr. Sun emphasized that competition between the EU and China in the digital economy was inevitable, but should not replace or hinder cooperation in science in the field of digitalisation. However, when it comes to factors that hinder participation in science, scientists have pointed out the lack of resources (funding) for science and development, where both Slovenia and China lag behind. The lack of human resources in science (due to lack of funds) was also pointed out as one of the main factors in Slovenia, which contributes to an unequal situation between Slovenia and other countries. Of course, currently the most important factor is the Covid-19 pandemic, which stopped all live collaboration, while the current existing virtual collaboration is burdened with mistrust, intercultural differences, and, after all, radically different time zones. Dr. Aristovnik found that the current virtual collaboration is less intensive than expected and as planned compared to previous scientific projects that took place in Ljubljana and Beijing in person.

 

Find attached the photos of the seminar and the program of the conference.