ACC, an Asian forum for chromosome communities: Eighteen years on

When we look at Asian countries, with all their unique cultures and histories, we can be proud of our traditions, so different from country to a country. In contrast, science requires universality from us. However, until the end of 20th century, there was no such a common forum for chromosome science in Asia. In 1998, while the 18th International Congress of Genetics was being held in Beijing, China, chromosome researchers attending from Japan (Dr. Kiichi Fukui), China (Dr. Youzhi Ma), Korea (Prof. Jae-Wook Bang) and Th ailand (Dr. Somsac Apisitwanich) discussed the possibility of creating an Asian forum for chromosome researchers. An enthusiastic discussion followed and unanimously concluded with the decision to have the first Asian Chromosome Colloquium (ACC) at Beijing. One of the reasons why an ACC was agreed upon is that there was already a long tradition of bilateral conferences between China and Japan initiated in 1987 at Beijing (Hong 1989) and in 1992 at Tianjin (Tanaka 1992) by Profs. Hao Shui (Northeast Normal Univ.), Chen Ruiyang, (Tianjin Univ.), Hong Deyuan (Inst. Botany, Academia Sinica) Ryuso Tanaka, Kenji Taniguchi, and Masashi Nakata (Hiroshima Univ.). We always stand on the shoulders of the giants.