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The twenty‐fourth congress ofOrientalistsPublished online: 24 Aug 2007.

To cite this article: (1974) The twenty‐fourth congress of Orientalists, Asian Affairs,5:1, 71-71, DOI: 10.1080/03068377408729698

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THE TWENTY-FOURTH CONGRESS OFORIENTALISTS

THE FIRST Congress of Orientalists took place in Paris in 1873 and, to mark thecentenary year, the Twenty-fourth Congress also was held in Paris, mainly at theSorbonne, between 16 and 22 July 1973. As no list of participants was compiledfor circulation it was impossible to discover precisely how many participantsthere were but estimates varied between 3,000 and 4,000.

The opening ceremony was impressive and unspoiled by a very minor"Maoist" demonstration against the organizer of the Modern Chinese StudiesSection. The dignity of the closing session was marred, however, by a long tiradefrom the leader of the large Soviet delegation, B. Gafurov, against the decisionof the Committee (based on its members' votes) to accept the offer of Mexicoto host the next Congress (and house it in the Olympic Complex) in 1978, inpreference to that of the USSR to house it in Moscow's newest congress centre.Agreement was also reached that the Congress should take place in future atfive-, not three-yearly intervals, and that in these intervals specialized subjector regional congresses should be held.

A triple ceremony on Thursday, 19 July, commemorated the 150 years of theAsiatic Society, the 150th anniversary of Champollion's decyphering of theHieroglyphic system, and 100 years of the Orientalists' Congresses. It was threa-tened by a major demonstration but this was thwarted by the foresight of theorganizers in securing strict police surveillance as well as by the contempt forsuch "political activities" which emanated so strongly from the distinguishedscholars gathered in Paris.

As usual the Congress comprised 11 Sections (several with two or three sub-sections), two conferences (the "decyphering of writings and languages" and"contemporary literature in South-East Asia") and 13 additional seminars.The locations of the various session rooms added to the rigours of what is any-way a stamina-testing occasion. The distances between buildings meant thatattempts to hear selected papers in different sessions had to be made at as rapida pace as possible, dodging the traffic, negotiating pave, pounding down the longSorbonne corridors and clattering through the cavernous Centre Pantheon andup and down three or more flights of rickety wooden stairs in the farthest flungcorners of the Sorbonne.

The organization and proceedings of many of the sections left much to bedesired. Some were managed with exemplary skill and attention to detail andwent smoothly and efficiently. The majority were chaotic and bore no resem-blance to the pattern proclaimed in the programme. Despite the highest-everparticipants' fee, financial stringencies were blamed for the muddles. For ex-ample, postage had to be paid by section organizers from their own pockets andwhere this was done all went well; where it was not, communication with would-be presenters of papers collapsed and few were forthcoming on the day. Thesame lack of funds was also given as the reason for the elimination for the firsttime ever of two now traditional features of each Congress: there was no generalsocial event (not even for coffee and biscuits) at which all participants couldmeet (at Ann Arbor the local Golf Club made an excellent setting and provedmore than adequate for such a gathering; similarly at Canberra the GovernorGeneral received all participants in the grounds of Government House); andthere was no sight-seeing trip. Participants were therefore all the more gratefulto the two or three departments and organizations which took the trouble toarrange social gatherings for their specialists, and to the several Embassies whichextended their hospitality to delegates whose studies were of relevance.

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