Florentino Rodao (Madrid, 1960) is Doctor in History at the Complutense University and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tokyo. He has taught at the Universities of Keio, Complutense, Ateneo de Manila and Wisconsin-Madison and presently he is Visiting Fellow at the Department of Area Studies, The University of Tokyo
.
His main publications are Franco and the Japanese Empire. Images and Propaganda a Time of a War (Barcelona, 2002; to be published in Japanese) and Spaniards in Siam. A Contribution to the Study of Spanish Presence in East Asia (Madrid, 1997).

Studies in Asia in Spain: An Assessment

Now that Asian Studies are to start in Spain for the first time, after the teaching on languages at Universities started merely a decade ago, it is time to consider the state-of-the-art of the Spanish scholars specialized on Asia. Spain can contribute much more to the knowledge of Asia, specially once it is taught at the Universities.

The historical background is specially influential in the present status. Spain was the second European country to reach Asian shores and occupied the Philippines for more than three hundred years, but it was the first also to be expelled from the region. Furthermore, among Spaniards, the Philippine Experience was not specially cherished since the Asian Archipelago was perceived mostly as a place dominated by the religious orders, where lay Spaniards could do little to diminish this control, even the government-appointed governors. As a consequence, contrary to Cuba, the defeat at 1898 was a kind of liberation and there has been in the peninsula a clear or subtle desire not to mingle in Asian affairs along the 20th century. The consequence of it, that Spain can offer to research of Asia some of the best Archives, but does not have a single library where to find a good number of journals and reviews specialized on Asia.

Spanish Researchers on Asia

A main consequence of that historical background is that, presently, only research on the Philippines in internationally recognized among scholars, due to the contributions Spanish scholars can make thanks to the Archives. There can be pinpointed three main schools on it; Andalusia, Madrid and Barcelona, all of them influenced by the archives the researchers have been able to handle. There can be also pinpointed two generations, the professors that have been teaching at the University since the postwar years, like Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo in the University of Cordoba. A second one that has been termed as the generation of the 乬Extremo Oriente Ibérico乭 for the conference held in 1988, mostly historians with a better knowledge of English and more resources for research. The number of articles on Asia published after this conference shows clearly its influence on promoting research on this topic. A third generation is now in its budding phase, able to speak and read Asian languages and from a wide number of disciplines.

Expectations for Asian Studies in Spain are high, but it depends on how they develop.

Florentino Rodao