The growth of a humanities journal only ever occurs in conjunction with the progress of related fields. From the publication of the first issue in 2017, the Journal of Chinese Writing Systems has been published six times in print and online. Among these, three issues have been published in the English language and three in Chinese. Furthermore, the September issue of 2018 is actually a special issue on Tongut script studies. The following events are worth mentioning as part of the annual ‘memorabilia’ of grammatology:
• The 6th Annual Conference of the World Association of Chinese Characters Studies was held in October 2018 at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany – the theme of this conference was ‘Chinese Character Cognition Tools and History of Ideographical Writings’.
• Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, is preparing for the 7th annual conference to be held in September 2019. The theme of the coming conference is ‘Global-oriented Major Fields and Projects in Chinese Character Research’. • The Center for the study of Chinese Characters in Korea established the Korean–Chinese–Vietnamese expert community ‘Hanja Civilization Research Center’, and commenced a 7-year project on ‘Chinese characters and East Asian civilization’, and offered MA and PhD programmes in ‘International Chinese Character Education’.
• Experts from China, Japan and Korea launched the Humanities Wisdom Project of ‘Script Heritage Library for Sinosphere’. The first report will be available in 2019.
• The Center for the Study and Application of Chinese Characters of East China Normal University, a key institute of China’s Ministry of Education, has developed ‘Network-Based Professional Big Data: Character Sea’, which is now in its second stage, testing the online version of the ‘Graphic Series of Qin and Han Dynasties’.
If you ask why is it crystal clear? ’Cause the water flows from the springhead. (verse of Zhu Xi) CWS has also made strides this year, thanks to the abundant and high-quality academic resources available to it. Through feedback from its readers, CWS granted the Article of the Year award to:
An introduction to database grammatology by Zhi-Ji Liu. CWS, June 2017, Volume 1 Issue 1, page(s) 11–18.
The author makes full use of the database technology in the field of grammatology which has a long history, innovates the research model, and establishes a new branch of database grammatology. We have learned that the author has been investigating this subject for 20 years. With the author’s diligence, ambition and ability, he may have earned various kinds of laurels over these past 20 years. However, creating a new branch of learning greatly overshadows any other kinds of laurels that may have been earned.
CWS grants the Reviewer of the Year award to: Edward Shaughnessy, University of Chicago, USA.
Professor Shaughnessy has immense talent and is the authoritative expert in the studies of ancient Chinese history and culture. His acute comments are always observant, timely and detailed.
CWS grants the Editor of the Year award to: Nie Hongyin, senior research fellow emeritus of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China. Prof. Nie Hongyin specializes in ethno-language philology and Tangut scripts. As a member of the editorial board, he organized and compiled a special issue on the theme of Tangut scripts, reflecting on the latest progress in this field. Humanities research is basically a creation of individual wisdom. There is no need to designate the so-called “leading talents”; however, the academic influence of a reputed scholar is especially admirable and should not be undervalued.
Best wishes for a brighter new year to the readers, editors and contributors!
Zang Kehe, Editor-in-chief
