Richard C. Levin
November 14, 2006

Good afternoon. It is a great honor to be here with you today. I am grateful for the invitation from, and hospitality of, the China International Publishing Group and I want to extend, on behalf of Yale University, special thanks to Vice Minister Cai for organizing this event, and to Vice Chairman Jiang,  Minister Cai,  and Vice Minister Wu for joining us to celebrate the publication of two books of the Culture and Civilization of China publication series -- The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective and Chinese Sculpture.

The "Culture and Civilization of China" project is a true partnership of CIPG and Yale.  It was initiated in 1990 to bring together Chinese and U.S. scholars, editors, and translators to publish the cultural riches of China and to present the best recent scholarship in volumes published both in English by Yale University Press and Chinese by the China International Publishing Group.

President Jiang Zemin presented the inaugural volume, Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting, published in 1997, to President Clinton as his State Gift during his official visit to Washington in 1997.  This volume also received the Hawkins Award, the highest award given by the Association of American Publishers for books of particular distinction. 

In 2002, President Jiang presented the next book in the series, Chinese Architecture, to former President Bush as a special gift during his visit to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library.  Three year later, in 2005, Chinese Architecture received the National Book Award, one of the most prestigious book awards in China.

Through the collaborative efforts of the team of talented and dedicated professionals, a total of six volumes have now been published.  The others examine philosophy (2002) and society and politics (2003).  Upcoming volumes will focus on calligraphy, textiles, and ceramics. 

Yale's partnership with CIPG is an important addition to our long-standing relationship with China.  Yale is proud to have the longest association with China of any university in the United States. As many of you know, the first Chinese student, Yung Wing, graduated from Yale in 1854, becoming the first person from China to earn a degree from an American college or university. Today, over 600 Chinese students and scholars are in residence at Yale, representing, by far, our largest complement of students and scholars from any foreign country.  We have more than eighty collaborations with forty-five universities, government agencies, or non-government organizations and there are twenty-eight study sites across China, from Liaoning Province in the east to Xinjiang in the far west, from Beijing in the north to Hong Kong in the south.

Last April, we were honored by President Hu Jintao's visit to Yale which affirmed the long-standing ties between Yale and China.  President Hu's gift of 1,346 books symbolizes both the 156-year old tradition of academic exchange between China and Yale and also the launch of a new era of library and scholarly collaboration between China and Yale.  I was delighted to learn that many of those books were published by CIPG and that CIPG was instrumental in the selection of all of the books for this historic gift.

Today, we are celebrating the fruitful collaboration Yale has enjoyed with the China International Publishing Group. The "Culture and Civilization of China" series has created an international community of scholars working both in China and abroad. On a personal level, I am deeply honored that CIPG published my book two years ago, and I am grateful for and impressed by the commitment of CIPG to work in partnership with foreign scholars and publishers to advance the dissemination of scholarship both in China and around the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are living today in a world of rapid communication and convenient travel. Despite the fact that the United States and China are on two sides of the Pacific, we have never been as close to each other as we are today. Yale is proud of her long friendship with the Chinese people.  We are particularly grateful for our friendship and partnership with CIPG.  Let these recent publications lead to many more collaborations in the future.

(China.org.cn November 14. 2006)