Viewing page 137 of 474

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-129-

People's Republic in charge of cultural matters and President of the Academia Sinica.

It is expected that the Panda Project will be the focus for interdisciplinary studies which will be initiated in Szechwan and may spread later to other areas.  These studies will include research in entomology, crustacea, and botany, with particular reference to bamboo.

Conversations were held with high officials in the National Cultural Relics Administration, the Directorate of National Museums, and the Chinese Exhibitions Company.  It is hoped that a program may be developed to circulate some of the offerings of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and that the PRC may make exhibitions of exhibit materials available for circulation in the United States.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the trip was the opportunity to meet senior and younger museum professionals and researchers in a wide variety of disciplines.  The team was able to identify a number of promising scholars who could be invited for periods of study either at the Institution or in other U.S. organizations.  Several members of the Institution's delegation, and members of their respective departments, will engage in individual research projects in China in cooperation with their Chinese colleagues.

Prior to the initiation of research programs in the People's Republic and to receiving Chinese scholars on an exchange basis, the People's Republic will send a formal delegation to visit Washington and other U.S. cities in the middle of 1980.  This delegation, the guest of the Smithsonian while in the United States, will complete the formal or ceremonial aspects of the Institutions negotiations with the STAPRC.