Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Yang Yang, Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This event is the first of a series of seminars on the theme Heritage Futures: Asia, organized by the Asia Research Institute. The series explores themes and questions pivotal to the future of heritage scholarship. Presentations and discussions will emphasize how heritage is changing in Asia, and some of the ways in which Asia is now reshaping global debates about heritage.  

Cultural heritage has entered the center stage of diplomacy in East Asia. How to interpret World War II and the era before this can be a contentious topic in the region. Without much consensus over the memories of the modern era, state and nonstate actors in East Asia use UNESCO’s heritage lists/registers to promote a particular view of the war and related history internationally. In this seminar, Dr. Nakano introduces cultural heritage as an important asset of soft power for (re-)emerging states that seek national prestige and recognition on a world stage. She argues that heritage conflicts are not just about heritage, but they are part and parcel of power-political conflicts and competitions (some of them can be described as a geocultural power competition). The elements of this process are illustrated through the study of four cases: Japan’s “Sites of the Meiji Industrial Revolution,” China’s “Document of Nanjing Massacre”, the “Voices of ‘Comfort Women’” promoted by the Korean civil society network, and the transregional Silk Roads heritage. Those cases illustrate that both state and nonstate actors are involved in heritage conflicts because heritage is grounded in the set of cultural practices, knowledge, and history in a community of the people.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER & DISCUSSANT

Ryoko Nakano is Chair and Professor of International Relations in the Faculty of International Studies at Kanazawa University, Japan. Her areas of interest comprise security and foreign policy, identity and memory politics, and global governance. She is the editor of a special issue entitled ‘Mobilizing Nostalgia in Asia’ (International Journal of Asian Studies 18: 1, 2021) and the author of the book Beyond the Western Liberal Order: Yanaihara Tadao and Empire as Society (2013). Her scholarly articles have been published in journals such as International Affairs, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Contemporary Politics, The Pacific Review, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, Global Responsibility to Protect (GR2P) and International Relations. From 2008 to 2016, she served as Assistant Professor at the Department of Japanese Studies in National University of Singapore.

Tim Winter is Senior Research Fellow and Cluster Leader for Inter-Asian Engagements in the Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore. He was previously Professorial Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council and is Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Tim has led the development of heritage diplomacy as a cross-disciplinary concept and introduced geocultural power to the analysis of international affairs. His recent articles on these topics have appeared in Geopolitics, International Affairs, International Journal of Cultural Policy, and Environment and Planning D. His latest books are Geocultural Power: China’s Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (University of Chicago Press 2019) and The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures (Oxford University Press, 2022).

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid talk has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.