It is with great pride and emotion that we announce the inauguration of the “Marilena Laskaridis” Center for Modern Greek Culture at the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), which took place on October 11, 2025.
The University, as early as May 2024, had been visited by the President of the Foundation, Mr. Panos Laskaridis. The inauguration was attended, among others, by the President of the University Council, Ms. Yin Dongmei, the Director of the Department of Modern Greek Studies, Ms. Hu Jingjing, and on behalf of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, Mr. Panos Laskaridis, President of the Foundation, and Mr. Konstantinos Mazarakis-Ainian, General Director.
The Foundation’s particular interest in the University of Shanghai was sparked by the fact that this great university excels in the fields of linguistics and literature, while it has developed an interdisciplinary educational system, bringing together literature, pedagogy, economics and intersectional fields. Among the 54 languages taught at SISU, the Department of Modern Greek Language, the first and oldest in China, has for five decades contributed significantly to commercial and cultural exchanges between China and Greece, educating over a generation of Chinese students in Modern Greek.
The University provided appropriate space within the Songjiang University Campus, and the Foundation has configured it into a multi-purpose cultural space, with a library, study and work area, suitable for meetings, seminars and other events. In order for students to gain direct access to Modern Greek studies, the Foundation endowed the Center’s library with the most important literary works of modern Hellenism. The agreement between the Foundation and the University is valid for 20 years, with the possibility of renewal indefinitely.
Through the newly established “Marilena Laskaridis” Center for Modern Greek Culture at the Shanghai University of International Studies, the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation furthers the promotion of Greek letters and culture in the East, just as it is doing in the West, with the Marilena Laskaridis Chair for Modern Greek Studies at the University of Amsterdam.
