China is to expand Sinology to cover the nation's multi-ethnic civilizations at the first ever international forum on "Chinology," or study on cultures of all Chinese nationalities besides that of the majority Han people.

The World Forum on Chinese Study will be held in August in Shanghai, according to Yang Xiaodu, vice mayor of Shanghai.

Chinology derives from Sinology but is based on Chinese studies in a broader sense, according to Hao Tiechuan, deputy director of the organizing committee.

Since 1840 the year the British troops invaded the imperial China amid what was called the Opium War and forced the country to open to the outside world, there emerged overseas quite a few scholars, or Sinologists, who began in-depth research on Chinese history and culture. There are now many Sinologists worldwide devoted to the study on Chinese language, literature and civilization.

The forum will set the theme as "a China under multi-angles of view", according to Yin Jizuo, secretary general of the organizing committee and director of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.     

The forum will held every two years and will invite internationally renowned scholars on Chinese study, both from home and abroad, to attend and exchanges views and updates, according to Yin.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2004)