The V Scientific and Practical Conference “East-Focus” was held at Novosibirsk State University

The IX Scientific and Practical Conference “East-Focus: Current Issues in the Study of the History, International Relations, and Cultures of Eastern Countries” took place within the framework of the V International Scientific Forum “Heritage” on October 2-3. This forum has been organized by the Humanitarian Institute of Novosibirsk State University (HI NSU) since 2018. This year, the event is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. HI NSU implements this large-scale forum jointly with leading scientific centers of the country — the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University, the Institute of Mongol Studies, Buddhology and Tibetology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The forum’s partners include the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the National University of Uzbekistan, and Tajik National University.

This year’s conference is dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of the prominent scientist and organizer of science Mikhail Serafimovich Meyer (1936-2022), who led the Institute of Asian and African Countries of Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov (ISAA) for almost 20 years. This institute is the head institution of the scientific, educational, and cultural center of the Humanitarian Institute of NSU “Confucius Institute,” which its staff refer to when developing curricula, programs, and communication formats, maintaining constant contact with the current director of ISAA. by Aleksey Maslov. At the same time, the event became a tribute to the outstanding Orientalist, founder of the Confucius Institute of the Humanities Institute of NSU, Professor Sergey Komissarov, who passed away on September 29, 2026.

The conference organizers noted that the geography of its participants is steadily expanding, and this trend continued this year. This year, the event demonstrated an impressive scale — 130 scientists from 13 Russian cities spoke at it: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Barnaul, Vladivostok, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Tambov, Tver, Ulan-Ude, Ufa, and Elista. The international status of the conference was confirmed by the participation of orientalists from China, Japan, Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, Israel, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

This year, the conference was conducted across 7 specialized sections, covering almost all key areas of modern Oriental studies, such as: archaeology and ancient history of Eastern countries; culture of Eastern countries; languages of Eastern countries; modern and contemporary history of the Near and Far East countries; politics, economy, and international relations of Eastern countries. A separate section was dedicated to Buddhism in contemporary history, its philosophy and culture.

The director of the Humanities Institute of NSU, professor, addressed the participants with welcoming words AndreyZuev, rector of NSU Dmitry Pyshny and head of the education export department at NSU Evgeny Sagaidak.

— An important innovation of the conference is the section “School of the Young Orientalist,” where novice scientists from NSU and other universities of Novosibirsk and the country presented their reports. It is fundamentally important for us that emerging researchers, bachelor’s and master’s students, will participate in it, — emphasized Andrey Zuev.

Dmitry Pyshny noted the importance of the event in contemporary history, based on the fact that the geopolitical focus of our country has traditionally been directed, among other things, to the East, and currently this trend is deepening more and more. The rector of NSU said that a few days before the conference, an agreement was signed between NSU and Kim Il-sung University (DPRK) on the opening of a representative office of this university at NSU.

— This is an unprecedented step that will truly strengthen our cooperation and accelerate the implementation of joint scientific and educational programs. I hope that at this conference a large number of new interesting ideas will be expressed and thoughtfully considered, new directions for scientific work and communications with our friends from the Far East and Central Asia will be outlined. — said Dmitry Pyshny.

Last year’s “Vostok-Focus” conference was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Sergey Komissarov, who was not only the founder of the Department of Oriental Studies but also one of the ideological inspirers of the establishment of the Confucius Institute at GI NSU. Colleagues spoke of him as a person with whom one could not only discuss current issues but also build constructive plans for the future. Evgeny Sagaydak proposed associating future “Vostok-Focus” conferences with the name and scientific legacy of Sergey Komissarov.

— In the field of cooperation with China in education, NSU is one of the leading Russian universities. To date, we have 20 joint programs approved by the relevant ministries of both countries — Russia and China. Our university is undoubtedly the leader in the number of such joint programs. In the near future, we plan to increase this number by at least 5-6 programs. Currently, our university has set a new ambitious goal — to move from educational projects to scientific cooperation. We have established a joint center for fundamental research with Chongqing University, and we are already discussing the creation of similar joint scientific centers with other partners in China. — said Evgeny Sagaydak.

Expanding the educational and scientific cooperation of NSU with universities in China requires knowledge of the language, culture, traditions, and history of this country.

— This circumstance should inspire us to seek a new methodology in Oriental studies, because it still develops within the old paradigm, which is a remnant of a Eurocentric approach. It is the European view of the East. But now Asia is completely different, and in this sense our Russian Orientalists are in a privileged position, because Russia is half Asia, and a vast territory of our country shares extensive common borders with Eastern countries. Therefore, it is necessary to study the history of our country’s relations with these states. And we very often use approaches for this that differ significantly from those employed by European and American Orientalists., — noted the chief researcher of the Laboratory of Oriental Studies “Orientir” at the State Institute of Novosibirsk State University, head of the Department of Oriental Studies at NSU, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Elena Voityshek.

At the “Vostok-Focus” conference, Elena Voityshek gave a presentation of the new symbol of the Department of Oriental Studies at HSE NSU — the snail Mia, specifying that it is necessary to breathe life into this image and enrich it with events: to place the oriental-studying snail in the library, during field research, in the reading room, at a conference, so that it slowly but steadily advances toward new horizons.

As part of the conference, a presentation was held for the new textbook “Health Aspects of Traditional Chinese Culture,” published by the Department of Oriental Studies at GI NSU. Elena Voityshek clarified that the ideological inspirer of the authoring team was Sergey Komissarov. Previously, he seriously engaged in the history and theory of Chinese medicine, publishing two textbooks and brochures. He gladly welcomed the creation of a new course on the history of Eastern medicine at the Department of Oriental Studies at GI NSU.

The interactive presentations of its participants became the highlights of the conferences. Elena Voityshek and a reflexotherapist doctor, a specialist in Eastern medicine Alexander Tverdokhlebov They demonstrated elements of traditional Chinese gymnastics and medical qigong. Junior researcher of the Oriental Studies Laboratory “Orientir” of GI NSU, Candidate of Philological Sciences Yao Song and graduate student at NSU, assistant of the Department of Oriental Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, NSU Van Thin showed the rituals of traditional tea brewing. Conference participants got acquainted with the art of carving on fruit pits, learned how to produce sounds from Tibetan singing bowls, and had the opportunity to practice key calligraphy techniques.