Beijing 2007

HPAIR Academic Conference Beijing

August 17th – 20th

Located at the glamorous Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart of Beijing, HPAIR’s 2007 Academic Conference welcomed its participants, speakers, guests and delegates again within a beautiful environment. By discussing key areas of change in Asia today, the aim of one of the biggest events in international academic world focused on the breakdown of those key areas and their implications for the future.

Engaging Asia: Discourse and Dialogue

This year’s topic “Engaging Asia: Discourse and Dialogue” invited us to discuss current developments within the international economic, political and cultural world affecting the Asia-Pacific Region and their impact on the world. The two plenary sessions “Energy: Powering the Present, Shaping the Future” and “Beijing 2008: The Games’ Olympic Impact” allowed us to have a precise look at current situations having China’s enormous potential impact on the horizon. The speakers:

Plenary Session on Energy:

Mr. Fuqiang Yang
Vice president of Energy Foundation and Chief Representative at the Beijing Office

Mr. Philip Andrews-Speed
Professor of Energy Policy and Director of the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee

Dr. Kang Wu
Senior Fellow at the East-West Centre, energy expert on China, supervisor to China Energy Project

Mr. Balo Balagopal
Energy expert working primarily with major energy companies, former member of Union Carbide, Alcan (Brazil) and El Paso Corporation, senior Partner, currently again Boston Consulting Group

Mr. Minquan Liu
Professor of Economics, Chair of Peking University’s Department of Environmental, Resources and Development Economics, former professor at John-Hopkins University

Plenary Session on the Olympics:

Dr. F. Alex Carre
Over thirty years of experience as educator, sport administrator and Olympic Committee Member

Prof. Holger Preuss
Institute of Sports Science Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany, currently School of Management at Beijing Sport University, China and adjunct professor at State University of New York, USA

Mr. John E. Findling
Former professor Indiana University (1971-2001), co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement (2004), publisher of several books and articles on world’s fairs, focused research on the Modern Olympic Movement

Having such an exclusive roundtable, the discussions enabled us to get an insight into current developments but also allowed us to scrutinize the scene by asking critical questions. Beijing’s role as the host of the upcoming Olympics has an enormous impact on world-wide economy as well as on the relations between all states.

The workshops

The four-days conference searched for the challenge to focus on several very specific aspects of key areas. By joining the plenary sesssions, HPAIR offered all delegates, speakers, guests and staff the opportunity to gather information about ideas, theories, premises and conclusions on very specific topics. Having accumulated that knowledge, we were welcome to contribute within the workshop frame and take the whole aspect one step forward. The following topics were discussed and reflected:

• Economic Growth in Asia and its Effects on Society
• Comparative Notions of Leadership
• Interests, Institutions, and Identities: Understanding Security Issues in East Asia
• Social Policy in Asia
• Asia’s Information Society
• Popular Culture in Asia

The schedule of every workshop kept us pretty busy. Thereby, it gave us the chance to participate into the exchange of very different opinions and to gain new perspectives how to understand the coherence of various aspects of new developments within key areas. Especially as a member of the German Delegation, it was a great challenge to experience for example a discussion about national identification concerning the China-Tibet conflict as well as the unification of North and South Korea.

The workshop on “Asia’s Information Society” focused within a session on the link between the internet and global youth culture in Asia and the potential of it for social change.

The group discussing “Comparative Notions of Leadership” considered Pan-Asian leadership ideals, defined conflicts within communication and interaction and investigated Confucian leadership philosophies, their impact on leadership thinking in Asia and the need of common experience learning from each other.

Under many distinguished speakers, we enjoyed sessions with:

His Excellency Mr. Ong Keng Yong
Secretary General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Zhang Xinsheng
Vice Minister, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China

David Dollar
Country Director for China, World Bank

Nicholas Christakis
Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Professor of Medical Sociology, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University

Robert Barnett
Adjunct Professor and Associate Research Scholar in Contemporary Tibetan Studies at Columbia University

On the last conference day, every workshop offered a field-trip in order to visit some very interesting spots bound to its topic. The Anti-Japanese Memorial Hall, the visit of Song Guang Tang Hospital, Sohu Headquarters, Lenovo Group Corporate Headquarters or Chinas biggest private milkproducer gave us some unique insights and demonstrated to the delegates how theory is put into action in outstanding enterprises within the Beijing area.

Cultural experience

Preconference field-trip

As yearly organized, HPAIR invited its delegates to get to see some cultural spots of the host city. One day before the conference, a group of 45 delegates went to see a part of the Great Wall and visited the Forbidden City. Having seen those impressive places, we felt motivated and prepared to let the conference begin.

International Night

What would an international conference be without feeling some of the international exchange and atmosphere? Time for the International Night!
As a great HPAIR tradition, most of the participating delegations take that event as an opportunity to introduce themselves, their origins, their tradition, culture and language within a specially prepared performance. In consequence, the International Night brings people together and creates an atmosphere of exchange about foreign cultures. To some it up, this evening combines any aspect of international understanding and cooporation.

Resumé
Having hosted distinguished speakers as well as dedicated students from all around the globe, the HPAIR’s 2007 Academic Conference served –once more- as inspiring exchange of ideas, knowledge and experiences facing the challenge of managing global issues. Beijing as a rapidly evolving city in a world-wide context and China as a major power on a global stage offered the perfect frame for an intercultural dialogue on key areas within the international academic world. The Asian economic growth on its own and in relation to other societies offers various chances for development and challenges on a global level. Being affected by those new dimensions and willing to look in to that subject, our German delegation highly appreciated the stay in Beijing. As a worldwide established and accepted network of like-minded people with academic background, HPAIR constitues the platform needed for facing these global issues.

Therefore, SPAIR Germany is grateful for another great Academic Conference 2007. Bearing the experience from Beijing in mind, SPAIR Germany moves on in its contribution to HPAIR by bringing creative minds in Germany together to work on common goals and interests.

For more detailed information, please have a glance at the following report:
Review of the HPAIR Conferences 2007 in Beijing and Hong Kong (PDF)