International Workshop on Textual Stability and Variation in East Asian Manuscript Cultures

5 May 2026

In Paris, a workshop co-organised by EPHE, EFEO, CSMC, NTU and CRCAO explored textual stability and variation in East Asian manuscript cultures through 19 talks across six panels, marking the first event after a new CSMC–EPHE Memorandum of Understanding.

Between 9 and 10 April, the international workshop ‘Textual Stability and Patterns of Variation in East Asian Manuscript Cultures’ (東亞寫本文化的文本穩定性與變異模式) took place in Paris, France. The event was co-organised by the École Pratique des Hautes Études–PSL (EPHE), the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), the CSMC, National Taiwan University (NTU), and the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO). It was the first event to take place following the most recent signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding between the CSMC and EPHE–PSL.

Hosted by Olivier Venture (EPHE) and Costantino Moretti (EFEO), the workshop focused on the meanings and manifestations of ‘variation’ in written artefacts produced in East Asia, as well as on different forms of evidence for ‘textual stability’ across historical periods, material features, genres, scripts, and languages. Over two days and across six discussion panels, ranging from Ancient and Medieval China to broader and more contemporary topics, nineteen presentations were delivered by researchers from universities and research institutes in France, Taiwan, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Among the participants were CSMC members Nadine Bregler, Ruilong Gong, Nelson Landry, and Maristella Spur, as well as Ziwei Ye, who spent 2023 at the CSMC as a visiting research student and is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. The final discussion and closing remarks were moderated by Michael Friedrich (CSMC) and Fu-Chang Hsu (NTU).