3/5/97

ATHENS, Ohio-- The Dr. You-Bao Shao Overseas Chinese Documentation and Research Center of the Ohio University Libraries is co-sponsoring an international conference /seminar on the contributions of persons of Chinese ancestry to the development of Southeast Asia. The conference/seminar," Chinese Populations in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Regional Interdependence and International Influence," will be held at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and is co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies of the University of Illinois. The conference will be March 10 through 12.

Conference participants have been invited from major universities and research institutes in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. The conference will focus on the role of businesses and populations of Chinese decent plays in linking the disparate countries of Southeast Asia, especially the members nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Nearly two-thirds of the population of Chinese ancestry outside of China live in this region and control economic wealth one-third greater than that of the People's Republic of China.

Participants from Ohio University will include Felix Gagliano, vice provos of International Programs; Lain The-Mulliner, curator of the Dr. You-Bao Shao Overseas Chinese Center; and Kent Mulliner, collection development coordinator and assistant to the dean of University Libraries.

Two Ohio University alumni, Leo Suryandinata and Liu Hong, who are currently scholars at the National University of Singapore, will present papers at the conference. Also at the conference will be J. Norman Parmer, Ohio University's first director of the Center for International Studies. Parmer is currently professor emeritus of history at Trinity University and a scholar-in-residence with the Center for International Studies.