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of the Histories of Anthropology

T’oung Pao (“Messages” in Chinese), subtitled Archives pour servir à l’étude de l’histoire, des langues, la géographie et l’ethnographie de l’Asie Orientale (Chine, Japon, Corée, IndoChine, Asie Centrale et Malaisie) (Archives for the study of the history, languages, geography and ethnography of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Indo-China, Central Asia and Malaysia)), was founded in 1890 in Leiden (Netherlands) by the French sinologist Henri Cordier (1849-1925) and the Dutch sinologist Gustaaf Schlegel (1840-1903). Despite the length of its subtitle, this review of Asian studies became above all a privileged, international locus of sinology as a discipline essentially oriented towards the so-called traditional past of Chinese civilization. As early as issue 1, in a “Directors’ Warning”, reference is made to Chinese texts on neighbouring peoples, the object of military and other expeditions, who were still waiting “for European Sinologists to read them back, study and interpret them”.

Keywords: 20th century | 1890s | The Netherlands | Sinology | Asian studies | Journals and periodicals

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