On December 5, 2017, the International Academic Conference “Overseas Chinese and the Creation of Modern Southeast Asia” was held jointly by School of International Relations/Research School for Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University and Center for Malaysian Chinese Studies in the Nan’an Building of Xiamen University. The theme of this conference was the political, economic, social and cultural vicissitude in Malaysia in the past sixty years since its independence. The conference was attended by more than 20 scholars from Peking University, Zhongshan University, Xiamen University, Center for Malaysian Chinese Studies, Tawid Heritage Center, Philippines, University of Malaya and Xiamen Association of Taiwan Studies.

In the opening ceremony, the Consul General of Philippines in Xiamen, Mr. Julius Caesar A. Flores, made a keynote speech on “the influence of Philippine Chinese on the development of Philippines". He expounded the historical cultural and social relations between Philippines and Fujian, especially Chinese immigrants’ contribution to the nation building, the social and economic development of Philippines.

  The conference mainly revolved around ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia, especially the Malaysian Chinese, the national building of Southeast Asian countries, the evolution of the political development in Malaysia, the process of nation building in Southeast Asia and the historical change of ethnic relations in Southeast Asia countries.