The Diplomat
Since yesterday, Monday, June 24, and until tomorrow, Wednesday, June 26, the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid has hosted the XI Asian Congress of Hispanists, an event that brings together scholars of Hispanic culture from various countries on the Asian continent.
The conference is organized by the Korean Association of Hispanists and the HK+ Research Center of the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and is sponsored by the National Research Foundation of Korea.
The inauguration of the congress was carried out by Carmen Noguero, general secretary of the Instituto Cervantes; Min Yong-Tae, acting president of the Asian Association of Hispanists; Shin Jeong-Hwan, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies (HUFS), and Bahk Sahng-Hoon, ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Spain.
Among the conferences and round tables that the program included on its first day, the presentations ‘A literature on four continents’, given by Darío Villanueva, former director of the Royal Spanish Academy, stand out. Next, the Hispanist Park Chul, member of the RAE for South Korea, gave the presentation ‘Cervantes, a modern free thinker’.
The Asian Association of Hispanists (AAH), founded in 1985, has already held ten international conferences in various parts of the continent. Throughout its history, relations between the countries of Asia and the Hispanic world have increased considerably, with a great development of Hispanicism in the region. Through this new meeting, the AAH tries to offer teachers and researchers a platform to exchange academic achievements and professional experiences.