The Third Youth Forum of IWH Held

　　On November the 27th, 2019, the third youth forum, IWH was held in the lecture hall of the eighth floor, Dongchanghutong 1. As a conference for youth scholars (not above 45 years old), the youth forum of IWH has been held 3 years in succession. It has received great support from president, secretary and vice president of IWH, and positive feedback from youth scholars. This youth forum has become an important platform for youth scholars of IWH to improve their academic research, communicate with their colleagues, and learn about each other’s current work. 

　　In his speech at the opening ceremony, Researcher Chaoguang Wang (president of IWH) expressed his keen expectation to the career of youth scholars at IWH. He recalled his interview and graduate studies at Institute of Modern History more than 30 years ago, and encouraged youth scholars to take an active part in academic conferences and youth forums, so as to grasp opportunities to make academic progress by lessons of his own academic career. Researcher Chaoguang Wang attended the forum from the beginning to the end, commented all papers and offered suggestions for their further revision. Quite a few members of the academic council and elderly scholars also took part in the forum and provided advice for the papers of youth scholars. 

　　The subject of the youth forum is “World History Studies in the Perspective of Human Destiny Community”. Youth scholars at IWH submitted 14 papers in discussion of the subject in total, which are further divided into 4 sub-groups such as “Party Politics and Government”, “Social Construction and Historical Narrative”, “Foreign Policies and International Communications” and “Border issues and Relations of Great Powers”. 

　　The first group discussed 4 papers, namely “International Elements in the Foundation of American Communist Party and Their Impacts” by Chao Deng, “An Analysis of the Transformation of the Housing System in Russia” by Dan Zhang, “Economic Policies of the Government of Konrad Adenauer towards DDR (1949-1963)” by Chao Wang, and “Policies for Labours from the Countryside of South Africa (1910-1986)”. Liang Xu and Hongzheng Bao commented the four papers above. The four lectures received heated discussion, so that the schedule of the forum has to be postponed a little bit. 

　　The second group, namely “Social Construction and Historical Narrative”, included “Festivals in the Countryside of Medieval England” by Chaohua Wang, “Disputation of the Ainu People in Japanese Academia” by Wenming Li, “Sicily as the Frontier of Ancient Greek Civilization in the Classical Age: Its Duality and Historical Development” by Houliang Lyu, and “How to Write the History of Central Asia?” by Hongzheng Bao. After the comments of Dan Zhang and Chao Deng, the participants discussed the issue of historical narrative and expressed their opinions. 

　　Lectures delivered in the afternoon focused on international relations, including “Immigrants and Relationship among Brazil, China and Japan in the Modern Period” by Juan Du, “Drifting Japanese and the Russian ‘Discovery’ of Japan (1702-1739)” by Yuanyuan Xing, “Justice v.s. Holiness: the Byzantine View of Foreign Warfare” by Simeng Sun, “Sino-Italian Relationship in the 1930s” by Meili Xin, “American Information Analysis of China and India on the Eve of the Sino-Indian War in 1962”  by Jin Zhang, “Sino-Soviet-Korean Relationship after the Conflict between China and USSR” by Liang Xu. 

　　Researcher Wendong Luo (secretary of IWH) concluded the forum. He confirmed the positive role of youth forum in the progress of academic research and the development of youth scholars of IWH, and highly praised the quality of papers submitted to the forum. He emphasized that IWH will keep supporting the youth forum and create opportunities for the development of youth scholars. He finally wished a brilliant future for the youth forums of IWH. 

　　The participant youth scholars voted for the best papers of the forum and submitted the vote to the academic council of IWH.