Association for Asian Studies

The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. With approximately 8,000 members worldwide, from all the regions and countries of Asia and across academic disciplines, the AAS is the largest organization focussing on Asian studies.

The Association provides members with an Annual Conference (a large conference of 3,000+ normally based in North America each spring), publications, regional conferences, and other activities. The AAS is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies and participates with its sister societies in a wide range of activities, including joint participation in research and informational exchanges.

Shortly after World War One the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, had given Mortimer Graves a mandate to develop Chinese studies. Kenneth Scott Latourette recalled in 1955 that at that earlier time the "people of the United States and those who led them knew little of the peoples and cultures of the Far East," and that this was true "in spite of political, commercial and cultural commitments in the region and of events which already were hurrying them on into ever more intimate relations." Graves worked with Arthur W. Hummel, Sr. of the Oriental Division of the Library of Congress, the Institute of Pacific Relations, the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the American Oriental Society, as well as with colleges, universities, and museums. Twenty-eight people attended the first meeting of this planning group, which was held at the Harvard Club in New York in 1928, and further meetings were held over the next decade. In 1936, the Far Eastern Bibliography appeared and in June 1941 The Far Eastern Quarterly issued its first number as an organ of the Far Eastern Association.

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