Events

This event is jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and the “War Memoryscapes in Asia Partnership” (WARMAP) at the University of Essex, UK.

PARTICIPANTS

Chairpersons

Prof Ien Ang, University of Western Sydney, Australia
Prof Naoko Shimazu, Yale-NUS College, Singapore

Key Speakers

How China’s Wartime Past is Shaping its Future
Prof Rana Mitter, University of Oxford, UK

The Politics of War Commemoration in Peripheral ‘Greater China’
Prof Edward Vickers, Kyushu University, Japan

Recalling Regionalism in War and Postwar Recovery: Diplomatic Possibilities and Challenges in Three Cases
Prof David Lowe, Deakin University, Australia

War, Heritage and Diplomacy in Asia
Prof Tim Winter, Deakin University, Australia

ABSTRACT

Conflict heritage attracts considerable public interest and controversy in East and Southeast Asia today. Tensions related to the commemoration of past conflicts have become a significant element in inter-state diplomacy, with serious economic and political ramifications for societies across the region. Memories of past conflict inform (or are invoked to justify) bellicose posturing in the present, as well as efforts to promote peace and reconciliation. This roundtable brings together internationally renowned scholars from Europe, Asia and Australia to discuss the processes of conflict-related heritage-making and the many possibilities as well as risks that these imply for the pursuit of peace in Asia – and beyond.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

David Lowe is Chair in Contemporary History in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University and a co-founder of the Australian Policy and History network. His research centres on cultural aspects of the history of international relations, including Australia’s role in the world; and on remembering the legacies of modern wars and empires in comparative contexts. His recent books include, with Tony Joel, Remembering the Cold War (Routledge, 2013) and the forthcoming (edited with Cassandra Atherton and Alyson Miller) Shadows and Reflections: The Unfinished Atomic Bomb (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017) and, with Carola Lentz, Remembering Independence (Routledge, 2018). He is currently writing about the rise of the international student in modern diplomacy, and about politicians’ uses of history.

Edward Vickers taught in Hong Kong’s secondary school system when the territory was transitioning from British to Chinese rule and has since maintained a keen interest in the relationship between education and political socialisation. He spent over a decade working and studying in China (Hong Kong and Beijing) and completed his doctorate at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author and editor of many books on the history and politics of education in contemporary Asia – most recently (with Zeng Xiaodong) Education and Society in Post-Mao China (Routledge 2017). Much of his work has focused on the politics of identity in East Asian societies, and official programs of identity formation: as pursued through history education as well as museums, memorials and heritage policy. He co-edited (with Paul Morris and Naoko Shimazu) Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia: Identity Politics, Schooling and Popular Culture (Routledge 2013). Before joining Kyushu University, Edward Vickers taught at the Institute of Education, University of London (now UCL IOE). His current research interests the politics of representing and memorializing the Japanese military’s wartime ‘comfort women’ (sex slave) system across East Asia.

Rana Mitter is Director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is China’s War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival (Penguin, 2013: US title: Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II), which won several prizes and was named a 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title, as well as one of the 2014 “Most Valuable Western Books on China” in Oriental Outlook (东方了望周刊). It was published in Chinese under the title 被遗忘的盟友 (2014). He has led a major Leverhulme Research Leadership Project on the history of World War II in China and has published articles on the topic in many internationally-refereed academic journals. Rana Mitter was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2015 and comments regularly on China in media around the world.

Tim Winter is Research Professor at the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Melbourne. He is the former President of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies and holds an ARC Future Fellowship on the Silk Roads of the 21^st century. He has been a scholar at the University of Cambridge, The Getty and Asia Research Institute, Singapore and published widely on heritage, development, urban conservation, and the international politics of heritage. He is currently working on heritage diplomacy in relation to Belt and Road and 20^th century conflict in Asia.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you click on the “Register” button above to RSVP.