On the afternoon of April 2, 2025, the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University invited Professor Philip Taylor, a member of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology of the Asia-Pacific Institute, to give the third talk on “Diffusionism” of the lecture series on “Southeast Asian Studies: The Intellectual Foundations of an Area Studies Discipline”. The lecture was hosted by Guan Hao, a post-doctoral researcher in IIAS. Dozens of students and faculty members from domestic and foreign universities as well as professionals who are interested in the topic attended, both offline and online.

Prof. Taylor opened by showing three temples from Bagan, Myanmar; East Java, Indonesia; and Angkor, Cambodia, pointing out that although they are located in very different climatic and geographic regions, they show a high degree of similarity in architectural layout and religious symbolism. He then introduced the theory of Diffusionism and cited several examples for in-depth analysis. The Diffusionism approach suggests that the cultural traits and institutions of Southeast Asian countries often originated in a few external “centres of civilisation”, such as India and China, and then spread throughout Southeast Asia through trade, religion and elite exchanges. Prof. Taylor traced the historical evolution of Diffusionism and also pointed out the dual aspect of Diffusionism in the colonial context. On the one side, the theory has broken the image of Southeast Asia as a “periphery” in the global network of civilisations; on the other, it has also been used to rationalise colonial governance.

Finally, in the interactive discussion session, Prof. Taylor and the students had a lively discussion on whether cultural diffusion is necessarily oppressive, and whether local cultures are only passive receivers of foreign civilisations.

Philip Taylor, PhD in Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology at the Asia Pacific Institute. He has lived and worked in Vietnam and Cambodia for over a decade, and has a command of Vietnamese, Cambodian and French. His research interests include contemporary anthropology of Vietnam, Mekong sub-regional studies, Southeast and East Asian studies, development and urbanization, and modernity. Representative works include monographs The Khmer Lands of Vietnam: Environment, Cosmology and Sovereignty (2014, Winner of the EuroSEAS-Nikkei Asian Review Social Science Book Award), Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam（2004）, Fragments of the Present: Searching for Modernity in Vietnam's South（2001）et al. Professor Taylor has supervised more than 30 PhD theses during his tenure at the Australian National University and has been awarded the ANU ‘top supervisor’ award. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Series of the Australian National University Press, and as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, the Review of Asian Studies, and the Cambridge History of the Vietnam War (Volume 3).