The Microbiome of "The Newsletter"
In May last year I was archivist in residence at IIAS when it was still located at Rapenburg 59. My task was to reduce the considerable amount of archival (paper) material to manageable proportions. The outcome constitutes 75 IIAS boxes which will now forever rest in Leiden University’s archive.
When going through the boxes of The Newsletter, which started out as the IIAS Newsletter in 1993, I invited the present Chief Editor, Paramita Paul, to visit my ‘office’ in the attic of the Rapenburg building. She was pleasantly surprised to find a stock of old issues and did not hesitate to take it under her care. We only briefly broached the topic of this 100th edition, and she asked me to write a brief ‘felicitation’ and a forward-looking contribution.
In that context, it is impossible to ignore IT-related developments such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. These will certainly influence both the contents and contributors of future editions of The Newsletter. When writing this I received a WhatsApp message from the IIAS founding director, Wim Stokhof, containing a photo (Fig. 1) with a one-word reflection: “Intriguing.” He was the visionary who, when confronted by a conservative board, did not hesitate to defend a substantial budget increase for this publication. It enabled us to reach, in no time, a considerable part of the community of Asia scholars worldwide, not only in print but also online.
Thirty-two years ago online and e-mail were seen by many as a threat. We as an editorial team didn’t. On the contrary, it is part of the The Newsletter’s microbiome to come to grips not only with Asian Studies, but also to grasp the tantalising array of new modes of expression IT-developments have to offer. These should fascinate instead of scare us. The Newsletter should stay true to its courageous microbiome!
Paul van der Velde
Founding Editor, 1993 – 1998