The 11th Regional Conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas

The 11th Regional Conference of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas (ISSCO) will take place in Nagasaki, Japan, from November 17-19, 2017. Founded in 1992 by Professors Wang Gungwu, Wang Ling-Chi and a multidisciplinary group of scholars, ISSCO is a scholarly organization that seeks to promote research and understanding of the historical and contemporary experiences of Chinese migrants and their descendants living outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. While ISSCO holds a major international conference every three years, it organizes regional conference on the irregular basis. The previous ISSCO regional conferences have been held in cities such as Havana, Seoul, Berkeley of the U.S., Bendigo of Australia, Praetoria of South Africa, Auckland, Hong Kong, Pasig City of the Philippines and Panama.

Nagasaki 2017 will be the first ISSCO regional conference to be held in Japan. The city is located on the northwest coast of the Kyushu Island. Historically, Nagasaki was an important emporium for the junk trade of East and Southeast Asia. With the development of maritime trade between Tokugawa Japan and imperial China, a huge number of Chinese merchants, Buddhist monks, artisans and literati gradually congregated in this port city. As a result, it became the origin of Overseas Chinese community in Japan and the 1680s saw the birth of the first Chinatown of Japan in Nagasaki. The economic and cultural activities conducted by early Chinese migrants in Nagasaki contributed significantly towards the rapid growth of local economy and culture, and laid a solid foundation for the gradual assimilation of Chinese migrant into the host society. In other words, ISSCO Nagasaki 2017 will provide you with a rare opportunity to appreciate the unique history, culture and food of exotic Nagasaki.