Center for Research on East Asian Civilizations (CRCAO)

Supervising institutions

The CRCAO is placed under the supervision of the following four establishments:

• CNRS
• École pratique des hautes études (EPHE)
• Collège de France
• The University of Paris

The Centre is hosted by the Collège de France, which supports its research activities and hosts many of its events.

It is housed at theInstitut des civilisations du Collège de France, 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 75005 Paris.

The Centre's holdings are deposited in the collections of the Institut des civilisations du Collège de France.

Research programs

The CRCAO's research covers a wide range of disciplines, and all periods from the most ancient to the most contemporary. A major part of its programs concerns the study of religions, history, archaeology, the arts, architecture and urban planning, literature and thought in the classical, modern and contemporary periods. The Centre is also particularly interested in primary sources (manuscripts, inscriptions, editions, iconographic and archaeological documents).

The CRCAO's research programs are structured around five axes:

• Area I - People, objects, knowledge: local environments and global perspectives
• Area II - Writing history, representations and identities
• Axis III - Textual, linguistic and literary practices
• Axis IV - Dunhuang and Central Asia: religious milieus and institutions
• Area V - Lexicons, digital corpora, databases

Publications

The Revue d'études tibétaines is an annual journal published by the Center since 2002, which can be consulted online and downloaded free of charge.

The journal Études Mongoles & Sibériennes, Centrasiatiques & Tibétaines, EMSCAT, is produced in partnership with the CRCAO as part of the Centre d'études mongoles et sibériennes of the École pratique des hautes études.

The Center collaborates with the Publications de l'Institut des hautes études japonaises and the Institut des hautes études chinoises, the Bibliothèque chinoise des Belles Lettres and the Collection " Hautes études orientales, Extrême-Orient " of the École pratique des hautes études (Librairie Droz).

Databases

The CRCAO has developed or contributed to the development of several databases.

• DicAT (open access): Dictionary of traditional agriculture: French-English-Chinese-Japanese
• Ofuda (free access): Ofuda, the Bernard Frank collection
• EnamelFC (restricted access until the end of the project) : Global Enamels: A Symmetrical History of Material and Technological Exchanges Between France and China (^mid-17th to ^end-18th Century)
• Chinese stamp collections in Europe

Over the coming years, the Centre will be developing several new databases, in line with its various research programs.