(Yicai) Nov. 24 -- Canadian historian Timothy Brook from the University of British Columbia, and two other foreign scholars from Asian universities have won the 2023 Award for Distinguished Contributions to China Studies.

Brook, professor emeritus at the UBC, Baik Young-Seo, professor emeritus of history at Yonsei University in South Korea, and Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, were given the awards today during the World Conference on China Studies, held in tandem with the Shanghai Forum.

Brook said in his speech that he did not expect such an acknowledgment when he started studying China as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto 50 years ago. Studying under American historian Philip Alden Kuhn, Brook is one of the leading figures in China studies in the Western world. In 1975, he went to Shanghai's Fudan University as an exchange student, focusing on the late Ming Dynasty.

"The award made me feel deeply touched," Baik said, adding that when he was in college in the 1970s, he became interested in the Chinese revolution, hoping to learn about it to enrich his understanding of the Korean context. After China and South Korea established diplomatic relations in 1992, he studied China’s past and present from the perspective of East Asia.

"It is truly a great honor to be recognized for my efforts to promote a greater understanding of China in the global community," Mahbubani said, adding that "the need to develop a better understanding of China in our global community, especially in the West, has never been greater." Mahbubani is one of the most active experts on Asian issues in the world today.

"Even a brief study of the history of China, with its record of zero overseas colonial expansion, could help American policymakers lay their deep fear that China is threatening America to rest. It isn’t. Instead, China’s willingness to work with America and other global powers to address pressing global challenges should be seen as a massive opportunity to create a better world for humanity," Mahbubani noted.

The World Forum on China Studies, the predecessor of the World Conference on China Studies, was founded in 2004. It is held every two years. The Award for Distinguished Contributions to China Studies, set up in 2010, is a high-ranking award for international scholars in China studies. About 200 foreign guests attended this year’s event.

Editor: Emmi Laine