Journal of East Asian Cultures
Távol-keleti Tanulmányok
The Journal of East Asian Cultures (in Hungarian: Távol-keleti Tanulmányok) is the official journal of the Institute of East Asian Studies, Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), acknowledged by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The journal publishes scholarly articles from the fields of Chinese Studies, Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, and other topics related to researches conducted on East Asian culture. The journal was founded in 2009, and it is the only Hungarian periodical focusing on this particular region.
The spirit of the journal is determined by the century-old tradition of Asian Studies in Hungary. This tradition was founded on first-class philological knowledge, which provides access to cultures of the region through comprehensive knowledge of its languages. This tradition has made Hungarian Asian Studies renowned throughout the world through Hungary’s scholars, including Sándor Kőrösi-Csoma, Lajos Ligeti, Étienne Balázs, Ferenc Tőkei, and many others. At the same time, the journal also relies strongly on methodological (e.g., geopolitical, socio-linguistical, and archaeological) innovations that have given a new vigour to Asian Studies in the past decades.
Mission and significance of the journal
Following the traditions of the 100-years-old Institute of East Asian Studies of ELTE, it is the mission of the journal to provide space for the most diverse scholarly approaches and, combining these in an inter- and multidisciplinary framework, to examine the cultures of East Asia in their complexity. Accordingly, the journal is open to all papers that analyse the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian and Inner Asian, and other related cultures using an explanatory framework of philosophy, history, linguistics, arts, folklore or religious studies. The Journal of East Asian Cultures welcomes papers applying a historic approach as well as studies that examine contemporary East Asian societies.
The Journal also publishes book reviews on works related to the above fields. The journal welcomes brief reviews on newly published monographs, proceedings and translations as well.
Originally all issues were in Hungarian, but since 2021 the journal’s policy has been to publish one issue in Hungarian and one in English. English issues contribute in three senses to the widening of scholarly exchange.
They make it possible for the results of research projects carried out in the framework of the broad international network of the publisher, the Institute of East Asian Studies, to become accessible also in English to a wide audience.
They enable Hungarian and international doctoral students as well as Hungarian and guest lecturers and scholars to publish their findings in English.
Strengthening the international ties of Asian Studies in Hungary, they enable the journal to accept manuscripts matching its profile by scholars from abroad.
Through these aims the journal plays the role of a bridge between Hungarian and international East Asian Studies.
Following its foundation in 2009, the journal swiftly became a periodical of central importance in Asian Studies within Hungary as well as for Hungarian-speaking scholars in the neighbouring countries and around the world. Due to the English issues, the world-class results of Asian Studies in Hungary have become part of the international discourse.
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