Vol. 14 N.º 2, TD1 (2024): Thematic dossier - Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on East

This JANUS special issue, made up of seven articles, is entitled “Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on East Asia”. All the authors were participants in the Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (CCCM) Annual Conferences, which are held in Lisbon in the spring every year. The first two articles provide new and important insights on the pre-modern development of the Melaka-Singapore region, and on the history of Christianity in Korea. The third article specifically examines developments in contemporary Chinese political governance, and is followed by two articles that focus on different aspects of Chinese international diplomacy. One article examines China’s strategic utilization of its burgeoning sports industry, while the other deals with the role of Chinese gastronomy as an effective means to promote China on the international stage. The concluding two articles focus, respectively, on the contemporary education system in China, viewed from the perspective of sociology of education, and the development of two major banks, namely the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, that are playing increasingly important roles in investment in Asia.