Expandi
ng(East)
Asia:
movement,
territory,
exclusion.
The Second Annual
McGill East Asian Studies Graduate Symposium
April 25th – 26th, 2014
①
W e l c o m e
We welcome you to the second edition of the McGill East Asian Studies Graduate Symposium, which is
being held from April 25th to 26th, 2014, at Thomson House, McGill University. This year we are very excited
to have expanded the event and have thirty one participants presenting from seventeen different
universities.
There are nine different panels that address the theme of this year’s symposium, Expanding (East) Asia:
Movement, Territory, Exclusion, from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives including history,
anthropology, political science, geography, sociology, ethnomusicology, and literary studies. We look
forward to the exchange of ideas and intellectual debates that will development over the weekend.
This year we are very pleased to have Prof. James Hevia as our keynote speaker. Prof. Hevia from the
University
of
Chicago
will
open
the
symposium
with
a
talk
entitled
“Border
Crossings
(Theories/Methods/Disciplines): New Work in Chinese History.” This talk will be held in the Ballroom of
Thomson House at 1:15pm on Friday April 25th, following the opening remarks at 1:00pm.
We look forward to meeting all of you in Montreal.
The McGill East Asian Studies Graduate Symposium 2014 Organizing Committee
O r g a n i z e r s
Fu Meng, [email protected]
Ina Lo, [email protected]
Daniel Murray, [email protected]
Ronald Chung-yam Po, [email protected]
Anne-Sophie Pratte, [email protected]
②
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s
We are extremely grateful for the financial support provided to this year’s symposium by:
McGill University Arts Development Fund
Post-Graduate Students’ Society McGill
McGill Centre for East Asian Research
McGill Institute for the Study of International Development
③
V e n u e
The symposium will be held at Thomson House, located on 3650 Rue McTavish in the McGill downtown
campus. The venue is also home to the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University.
Thomson House. 3650 Rue McTavish, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1Y2
Tel.: (514) 398-3756 - Web.: thomsonhouse.ca
④
E x p a n d i n g ( E a s t ) A s i a
The theme of this conference, Expanding (East) Asia: Movement, Territory, Exclusion, was conceived in relation
to the spatially fixed nature of the discipline of area studies in terms of geographic area, political borders, cultural
regions, and linguistic affiliation. Such concepts of East Asia are, of course, determined by various historical
processes and change over time and space. Most influential to this construction in the field of area studies and
East Asian Studies in particular are the ways in which this space has been defined by American military concerns
and, more recently, nationalist funding agencies. It is this second source that will likely be of increasing concern
of current graduate students due to the rise of numerous opportunities for research funding from various
institutes and foundations concerned with the study of a particular nation-state. These groups are of varying
levels of credibility and connectivity to the priorities of individual nation-states; therefore, it is important to
consider how such institutions construct boundaries around what is to be considered fit for study.
To think East Asia in terms of movement, territory, and exclusion, therefore, is to question how such a spatially
fixed conception of nation, region, or culture has been constructed. Such a focus is nothing new, it is to see
spaces in hierarchical interconnection; how place is made through the movement of bodies and objects or the
circulation of discourse through spaces. Yet, there is still much to be debated and rethought in how a place is
defined and researched, and in how to conduct area studies critically.
While this theme is vast, the aim of the conference is far more modest. Our hope is that by bringing together
various young scholars with diverse approaches to these issues of movement, territory, and exclusion, we can
draw on each other’s influences to the think differently about how and why these spaces as East Asia have been
and continue to be conceived and enacted, and to be self-reflexive of our own roles in these processes.
⑤
J a m e s
H e v i a
James Hevia
Professor, International History and the New Collegiate Division
Director, International Studies Program
Keynote address: Border Crossings (Theories/Methods/Disciplines):
New Work in Chinese History
Time: Friday, April 25, 2014, 1:15pm – 2:45-pm
Location: Ballroom, Thomson House, 3650 Rue McTavish.
James Hevia is a historian of empire and imperialism in east and central Asia, with particular emphasis on
the British and Qing empires. He is currently Professor of International History and Director of the
International Studies program at the University of Chicago, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1986. He
previously held positions as Professor of history at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and visiting
professor at Shandong University.
He is the author of The Imperial Security State: British Colonial Knowledge and Empire-building in Asia
(Cambridge University Press, 2012), English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century
China (Duke University Press, 2002), and Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney
Embassy of 1793 (Duke University Press, 1995), along with numerous articles and book chapters.
⑥
S c h e d u l e
O u t l i n e
Panel structure
Panels of 3 papers: 90 minutes (20 minutes per paper, 30 minutes discussion)
Panels of 4 papers: 105 minutes (20 minutes per paper, 25 minutes discussion)
Time
12:30pm – 1:00pm
1:00pm – 1:15pm
1:15pm – 2:45pm
2:45pm – 3:00pm
3:00pm – 4:45pm
4:45pm – 5:00pm
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Time
8:30am – 9:00am
9:00am – 10:45am
10:45am – 11:00am
11:00am – 12:30am
12:00am – 1:30pm
1:30pm – 3:15pm
3:15pm – 3:30pm
3:30pm – 5:00pm
5:00pm – 6:30pm
Friday, April 25, 2014
Ballroom
Registration
Opening Remarks
James Hevia
Keynote Address:
Border Crossings
(Theories/Methods/Disciplines):
New Work in Chinese History
Break
Ethnic Minorities and National
Cultures
Break
Qing Female Poets: Verse and
Awareness
Room 406
-----
---
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Ballroom
Room 406
Breakfast
Mediation/Socialization
Neither Cooked nor Raw
Break
Expansion of Ideas and
Boundaries of Consumption
Empires
Lunch
Nationalism, Colonialism,
National Identities and the
Violence
Circulation of Discourse
Break
Trade, Wealth, Diaspora
--Closing Remarks &
--Reception
⑦
Friday, April 25, 2014
Registration: 12:30pm – 1:00pm
Opening of Symposium: 1:00pm – 2:45pm
Ballroom
1:00pm – 1:15pm: Opening Remarks
1:15pm – 2:45pm: James Hevia - Keynote Address: Border Crossings (Theories/Methods/Disciplines): New
Work in Chinese History
Panel Sessions 1: 3:00pm – 4:45pm
Ballroom: Ethnic Minorities and National Cultures
Chair: Anne-Sophie PRATTE, McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
University of
Educating the Zhuang: Acculturation and National
Ryan ETZCORN
Michigan
Integration in PRC Language Policy
HU Xizi
McGill University
China's state-formation on the periphery
University of
China’s Triple-Korea Problem: Transborder People and
David LUNDQUIST
Michigan
Transborder Sentiments
Sarah LEBARON VON
Working-class jobs, middle-class desires: the social
Yale University
BAEYER
(im)mobility of Nikkei-Brazilian migrants in Japan
Panel Sessions 2: 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Ballroom: Qing Female Poets: Verse and Awareness
Chair: Song SHI, McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
Blue Lotus and Green Sleeves: Engendered Voices in Wu
CHEN Shuojun
McGill University
Zao’s Lyrics
Views from the other side: Yu Youlan 虞友蘭
Ina LO
McGill University
(ca.1740–1817) and Her Poems on Historical Subjects
Dantu County and Its Women in the Debate over Tang and
WANG Wanming
McGill University
Song Poetry
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Breakfast: 8:30am – 9:00am
Panel Sessions 3: 9:00am – 10:45am
Ballroom: Mediation/Socialization
Chair: FU Meng, McGill University
Name
Institution
Annetta
Cornell University
FOTOPOULOS
Moshe LAKSER
UCLA
HUANG Ping
Université du Québec
à Montréal
Title
Dis-placing the Mountain Resort at Chengde: The
Renovation of History through Media
Resistance and Education in Japanese Coal Mines: The
Creation of a Subclass
The new influence of social media in China: The challenge
and the need for citizen participation in the reform against
⑧
Robert Christopher
HAMILTON
Seoul National
University
corruption
Reflexive Cosmopolitanism and Sexual Identity: A Study of
Sexuality & Sex Along the Peripheries in South Korea via
Male Bisexuality
Room 406: Neither Raw, nor Cooked: Ethnic Minorities and State Projects in the Southeast Asian Massif
Chair: Jean-François ROUSSEAU, McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
Yielding to high yields: Hybrid maize realities in northern
Victoria KYEYUNE
McGill University
upland Vietnam
Jean-François
McGill University
The frontier revisited in Yunnan and Honghe Prefecture
ROUSSEAU
Mathieu
Université de
In search of lost culture: Chinese and American Hmong
POULIN-LAMARRE
Montréal
online dynamics in new transnational spaces
University of
Making sense of local change: livelihood strategies and
Candice CORNET
Washington/McGill
resistance in the Dong area of southeast Guizhou, China
University
Panel Sessions 4: 11:00am - 12:30am
Ballroom: Expansion of Ideas and Empires
Chair: HUANG Wenyi, McGill University
Name
Institution
CHEN Beichen
University of Oxford
Allen CHEN
McGill University
YANG Likun
Yale University
Room 406: Boundaries of Consumption
Chair: Daniel MURRAY, McGill University
Name
Institution
Christopher
Université de
LAURENT
Montréal
Faizah ZAKARIA
Yale University
Title
The Expansion of the Western Zhou (c.a. 1050-771 BC): a
study of bronze ritual vessels from the Suizao Corridor
Contesting State Jurisdictions and Navigating Social
Boundaries in Early China: A Legal Case Study from the
Zouyan shu 奏讞書
The Influence of Chinese Law in Turfan (640-755)
Title
Consuming the Region: Crafting Boundaries Through Food
and Nostalgia in Contemporary Japan
Food in High and Low Places: Consumption and Muslim
Boundaries in Republican China (1920-1949)
Panel Session 5: 1:30pm - 3:15pm
Ballroom: Nationalism, Colonialism, Violence
Chair: Toulouse-Antonin ROY, McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
The Tautology of Imperial Democracy: Forcing Freedom in
Amin GHADIMI
Harvard University
the 1885 Osaka Incident
⑨
Toulouse-Antonin
ROY
McGill University
Peter MOODY
University of Virginia
Austin ROYSE
Jackson School of
International Studies
“The Special Quality of this Island’s Police Force”: Social
Scientific Knowledge Production and Japanese Imperial
Sovereignty in Colonial Taiwan
The Security of “Cultural Rule” in Korea: How and Why
Japan said “Yes” to Korean Nationalism
A Proud Apprentice: Maintaining Japanese Identity
Throughout the Age
Room 406: National Identities and the Circulation of Discourse
Chair: Rebecca Robinson, McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
Université du Québec La perception de la menace chinoise à travers le discours
Emilie-Anne LEROUX
à Montréal
américain
Neither Here Nor There: The Musical Identity of Toru
Toru MOMII
McGill University
Takemitsu
McGill / Leiden /
Between Contestation and Expansion – Islamic Area Studies,
Sami AL DAGHISTANI
Münster
Toshihiko Izutsu, and Islamic Economics
Knowledge, Engineer, and Textile Industry in Early
YI Yuan
Columbia University
Twentieth-Century China
Panel Session 6: 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Ballroom: Trade, Wealth, Diaspora
Chair: Ronald Chung-yam PO McGill University
Name
Institution
Title
UCLA
In Violent Terms: The Coolie Trade as a Site of Meaning
Elizabeth WEBER
Creation in 19th-Century Southern China
Washington University The Diasporic Chinese in Quảng Nam and the Dutch East
CHEN Boyi
in St. Louis
Indies, 1600-1800
Johns Hopkins
Sovereign Wealth Funds and Political Survival: the case of
LIU Zhe
University
China and Abu Dhabi
5:00pm - 6:30pm: Closing Remarks and Reception (held in the Ballroom)
⑩
A b s t r a c t s
Friday, April 25, 2014
Panel Sessions 1: 2:30pm – 4:15pm
Ballroom: Ethnic Minorities and National Cultures
Chair: Anne-Sophie PRATTE, McGill University
Ryan ETZCORN, University of Michigan
Educating the Zhuang: Acculturation and National Integration in PRC Language Policy
The “nationality question” is a term often used by the People’s Republic of China to refer to what many
consider a critical political issue: the relationship of the state with its burgeoning ethnic minority population.
Much study and media attention has been devoted to the historical and current tensions inherent in the
Chinese process of identity construction. Informed by Soviet-inspired origins, the early communist state
chose to “scientifically” categorize and administer static ethnic groups as minority “autonomous
nationalities” (shaoshu minzu). Following the disruption of the Cultural Revolution, state accommodation to
minority rights briefly held sway until the events of the late 1980s and early 1990s altered discourse in favor
of a “diversity in unity” integrationist push that emphasized marketization as a powerful assimilating force.
The political and social sphere of education may bear the most striking evidence of this new policy drive and
prove to be its most effective instrument for attaining these goals. Empirical evidence supporting such an
extremely complex and ambiguous process has been rare up to this point. However a useful descriptive
argument can still be pursued with the use of a finer focus. This paper will attempt to exhibit the
assimilative orientation of PRC policy in China in the last few decades through the specific experience of the
Zhuang ethnic nationality in Guangxi Province. Taking full advantage of a rhetoric that revolves around
educational equality in China, the state has efficiently utilized school curriculums and language policies that
strive to establish what Ma Rong has termed, an “interethnic common language of Chinese peoples.” State
efforts to wash away stubborn rural localism by promoting synthesized visions of a “Zhuang” minority have
only found success amidst a new wave of national integration: the rising economic power of Mandarin. Has
a “Zhuang” consciousness arrived too late?
HU Xizi, McGill University
China's state-formation on the periphery
This research centers on the question: why PRC has achieved relatively successful state penetration in Inner
Mongolia, but not in Xinjiang? It attempts to search for the answers from political geography and PRC’s
party-state formation history. Using geographic factors and war-time mobilization as independent variables,
this research aims to explain the different penetration results in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. The war
mobilization the different political geography and different social mobilization since war periods like
Anti-Japanese War (1931- 1945) that shape the distinctive penetration modes and following penetration
results into these two regions.
Different from cross-country comparative historical analyses (CHA), this research employs CHA to
account for regional variation within China and builds on “China’s frontier history” literatures which study
the origins, evolutions and transformations of societies in peripheral regions. Also, borrowing “state made
war and war made state”, this research takes a state-centered approach to address the institutional
foundation in peripheral areas: 1) how war engagement contributed to its modernization and 2) how it
shaped different state penetration patterns.
⑪
David LUNDQUIST, University of Michigan
China’s Triple-Korea Problem: Transborder People and Transborder Sentiments
Transborder peoples have only recently begun to receive systematic scholarly treatment. Drawing on a
comparative perspective in the study of PRC ethnic minorities, this paper problematizes the transborder
character of Korean ethnicity: North Koreans, South Koreans, and China’s Chaoxianzu (Choseonjok) minority.
The Chaoxianzu share with ethnic Mongolians, Kazaks, Uzbeks, among others, the property of having a
corresponding nation-state populated by co-ethnics. This article sketches the history of Koreans in China
and the institutionalization of ethnicity in the PRC. I argue that the shortcomings of PRC ethnic minority
policy increase the potential for minority separatism in China, even for a “model minority” like the
Chaoxianzu. I then make the case that Chaoxianzu are highly relevant to Korean reunification insofar as
rising pan-Korean political cooperation – even short of reunification – would undermine PRC stability and
border security by striking at the state-management of Korean ethnicity that has prevailed for more than a
century in Northeast Asia. Instability may arise in at least two ways, either (1) by overturning the
particular role that the PRC has established for Chaoxianzu in Chinese society, or (2) via a repair of frayed
cultural and social ties between the ‘three Koreas.’ I support this reasoning with a review of PRC economic
and border policy in Chaoxianzu counties along the DPRK border. Then I turn to Chinese and Korean
nationalistic discourse regarding the ancient state of Koguryo, suggesting that perceived common heritage is
but one tool of consciousness-building among ethnic Koreans. Chaoxianzu labor migration to South Korea,
assistance to DPRK refugees, and trade with the DPRK also demonstrate how ethnic cohesion and
separation in 20th century Northeast Asia has been mediated by state political institutions. Markets and
the renewed salience of ethnic affinity present a strong challenge to this.
Sarah LEBARON VON BAEYER, Yale University
Working-class jobs, middle-class desires: the social (im)mobility of Nikkei-Brazilian migrants in Japan
In the early 1990s, Nikkei (people of Japanese descent) made international headlines as changes to
immigration policy and the opening up of factory jobs in Japan attracted thousands of migrant workers from
Brazil. Although the majority intended to work in Japan for only a few years, many of them settled
long-term, so that by 2008 an estimated one third of the Nikkei-Brazilian population had acquired
permanent residence there. Despite the global economic crisis of 2008, Brazilian nationals remain one of
the largest groups of registered foreigners in Japan and the country’s most important source of nonnative
labour. Today, as we continue into the third decade of migration between Japan and Brazil, the horizon of
possibilities for Nikkei workers and their children includes permanent settlement and naturalization in Japan,
repeat, circular migration, and temporary or final return to Brazil. In this paper I ask: now that over twenty
years have passed, how have Nikkei-Brazilian migrants carved out a space for themselves as a long-term and
legal, yet marginalized, minority in Japan?
To answer this question I draw on two years of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Japan and Brazil
between 2009-2013. During this time I traced families migrating transnationally between the two countries
in order to examine settlement, return, and circular migration as experienced by different generations of
Nikkei-Brazilians. Rather than a simple binary of destination settlement or temporary sojourn, transnational
migration between Japan and Brazil has become a framework for multiple life trajectories and variable ways
of expressing ethnic identity and national orientation. At the same time as Nikkei-Brazilian migrants
experience upwards mobility in Japan in terms of purchasing power, safety, and other symbols of middle
class status, still they remain a kind of social underclass due to the segmented labour system and linguistic,
educational, and professional barriers in Japan.
⑫
Ballroom: Qing Female Poets: Verse and Awareness
Chair: Song SHI, McGill University
CHEN Shuojun, McGill University
Blue Lotus and Green Sleeves: Engendered Voices in Wu Zao’s Lyrics
Since song lyric (ci 詞) was established as an independent genre of Chinese poetry in the tenth century, it
had been closely associated with the gendered poetics and aesthetics, in which the two styles of feminine
(wanyue 婉約) and masculine (haofang 豪放) lyric had been formed and developed. After song lyric had
been composed and practiced almost exclusively by male poets for centuries, female poets of imperial
China attempted to open a new landscape in the literary tradition that was full of male imagination and
values. This study examines how women poets imitated, negotiated, and re-created themselves in their
lyrics by analyzing Wu Zao’s 吳藻 (1799-1862), a female lyricist and playwright, quintessential works. Wu
Zao’s lyrics indicated not only her familiarity with the previous male literati tradition, seen from the
intertexuality and conversional language among her lyrics, but also her creativity stimulated by her female
identity, through injecting new meaning into the old imagery or speaking in her own voice. Like other
female lyricists, the majority of Wu Zao’s lyrics fit in the category of the feminine style, in which she
successfully created her female subject position. Another feature of Wu Zao’s lyrics, which was uncommon
in her peers’ works, is that Wu Zao was also able to master the masculine style and even showed her favor
of writing the masculine lyrics. The two styles will be discussed and illustrated in relation to gendered
issues.
Ina LO, McGill University
Views from the other side: Yu Youlan 虞友蘭 (ca.1740–1817) and Her Poems on Historical Subjects
Currently, there are very limited researches on women’s interest and their writings on historical subjects,
except those on the tradition of exemplar women or “hundred beauties.” However it is not true that
traditional women writers kept silent for the most traditional aspect of historiography -- the political history.
The objective of this paper is to analyze a female poet Yu Youlan (ca. 1740-1817) who possessed of special
interest in history, and her twenty-one poems concerning male historical figures or dynastic histories. In the
preface of Yu’s poetry collection, a prominent intellectual and poet Weng Fanggang (1733-1818) praised Yu
for her insightful understanding for crucial points of history. Apparently, Weng’s appreciation supports the
fact that Yu expresses her historical judgments in a meditative manner. In this paper, her hidden set of
values, especially her historical and moral judgments beneath the praise, disapproval, admiration or
sympathy of her writings will be studied through close-reading. It is hope that this study will be a building
tile towards alternating the male-monopolized landscape of historical writings in imperial China.
WANG Wanming, McGill University
Dantu County and Its Women in the Debate over Tang and Song Poetry
The debate over Tang and Song poetry dealt with the divergence of opinions regarding which dynasty’s
poetry should be adopted as an exemplar of poetic style and quality. This debate first emerged during the
Song dynasty and reached its peak during the Qing period. In the eighteenth century, advocacy of Tang
poetry prevailed over promotion of Song poetry, but a new movement appealing to learn from the poetry of
both dynasties also arose.
This paper explores women’s roles in this male-dominated debate in eighteenth-century Dantu, a
county in Jiangnan that produced many male literati and women poets. My study will focus on close reading
of two types of texts discussing Tang and Song poetry: male literati’s biographies in the Dantu gazetteer, and
⑬
the prefaces and postscripts in the poetry collection of the Dantu woman poet, Bao Zhihui (1757-1810).
Through this approach, I aim to uncover women’s contribution to a mainstream poetic trend of the
Qing dynasty. I argue that Dantu regional poetic interest, reflected in the gazetteer, echoed both the
prevailing advocacy of Tang poetry and the newly arisen promotion of learning from both dynasties. In Bao
Zhihui’s collection, some Dantu male literati and women poets expressed their views in their prefaces and
postscripts by praising her as both an exemplary Tang admirer and a model harmonizer of Tang and Song
poetic virtues. This collection provided a venue for the debate over Tang and Song poetry, and its
publication made women’s practices and voices relevant in the debate.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Panel Sessions 3: 9:00am – 10:45am
Ballroom: Mediation/Socialization
Chair: Fu Meng, McGill University
Annetta FOTOPOULOS, Cornell University
Dis-placing the Mountain Resort at Chengde: The Renovation of History through Media
The Mountain Resort at Chengde or the “Mountain Villa to Escape the Heat” (避暑山庄) has been the
subject of many scholarly studies both in and outside of China, primarily focusing on its historical
significance as a Qing imperial palace and diplomatic center, but also addressing its renovation (both
physically and ideologically) in late 20th century China. In this paper I build upon previous scholarship by
shifting away from a history of the site itself and instead focusing on how the place has been represented
via a discursive network of media, including the renovated tourist site, but also history books, national and
local news, documentaries, TV programs, imperial dramas and commodified objects. Utilizing collective
memory theory, I propose that through exposure to these various mediums, a large collective of primarily
Chinese people have developed a similar conception of the Summer Palace Resort and its significance. I
explore how that notion has been shaped, redefined and contested through media beginning in the 20th
century, and situate it within a national phenomenon whereby many historical sites have been
(re)constituted and re-presented via renovation or reconstruction and in the corresponding web of
wide-ranging media that convey a variety of ideological, political and historical meanings. Finally, utilizing
interviews and fieldwork conducted in the past three years, I address the issue of popular acceptance (or
rejection) of dominant narratives and the existence of alternative narratives.
Moshe LAKSER, UCLA
Resistance and Education in Japanese Coal Mines: The Creation of a Subclass
Japanese historiography has long since emphasized the Meiji period (1868-1912) as one not only of rapid
modernization and industrialization, but as a period of increasing expansion and colonization. In my
dissertation, I explore what can be described as a case of internal colonization by analyzing Japanese coal
mining communities in the Chikuho region of northern Kyushu, focusing on the late Meiji period.
While coal mining has been discussed as a key industry behind Japanese industrialization, accounts of
life in mining communities – in particular, miner “barracks” – are less common. My work utilizes official
company documents and a series of personal accounts and paintings by former coal miners to explore the
creation of these communities and their perpetuation at the intersection of education and everyday life.
Beginning in the 1890s, Japanese mines in Kyushu were rapidly conglomerated by large regional and
national coal mining companies. At the same time, these companies began the process of establishing
elementary schools for mining children, who were often ignored in official campaigns to promote
compulsory education or chose not to attend due to an emerging occupational stigma.
⑭
The creation of these schools was grounded in a discourse that assumed miners to be base and
unsophisticated. By integrating the schools into their corporate structures, mining companies positioned
themselves as enlightened teachers while fostering company loyalty amongst a highly mobile work force.
This imposition, however, met significant resistance from the vibrant miner subculture that developed
during the same period. Miners embraced a complex social and religious religious culture that was fostered
through a process of socialization far removed from schools – taking place within the community and the
mines themselves. Ironically, the result of this conflict was the mutually enforced construction of a new,
stigmatized subclass within Japanese society – one which persists to this day, long after the mining
companies have closed their doors.
HUANG Ping, Université du Québec à Montréal
The new influence of social media in China: The challenge and the need for citizen participation in the
reform against corruption
The idea of this research is based on two indications that China provides since the installation of the new
government in November 2012. The first is the wave of cybermobilisation launched on social media in
which Chinese netizens have taken blogs and discussion forums to denounce the abuses of government
officials and urge the authorities to act against corruption. The second shows the government has instituted
alerts for the crises and challenges caused by widespread corruption within the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP), and has made a commitment to carry out reforms to correct them. The sequence of these two events
suggests a model of successful Chinese social movements that have decisive influence on the central
authorities’ decisions, while the Chinese government has shown, on the other hand, a gesture of openness
to the demands of citizens and the control over the Internet environment. These phenomena are relatively
uncommon in a country like China, which has long been criticized for its political system qualified as
authoritarianism and elitist and for its strict control on the Web. The question is whether this emerging
change is the signal for a new start for relations governing/governed in China, or if the progress of the
citizen participation is the result of a subtle manipulation by authorities.
To develop our reflections, we chose to examine two aspects: on the one hand, the dynamics and
evolution of collective action models of citizens' movements, with digital social media as a means to fight
against corruption and, on the other hand, the specific institutional arrangements surrounding the
development of these movements. The persistence of civic protests led authorities to adopt policy reforms
that could, in turn, significantly change the social movements’ patterns. This research will attempt to
identify the key concerns related to this situation, and specifically, the linkages between institutional
arrangements, policy reforms and citizen mobilization to fight against corruption.
Robert Christopher HAMILTON，Seoul National University
Reflexive Cosmopolitanism and Sexual Identity: A Study of Sexuality & Sex Along the Peripheries in South
Korea via Bisexuality
The assertion that sexual minorities should fall within the precepts of Western notions of sexual orientation
has caused a neglect of anthropological, psychological, and sociological studies in the development of
alternative (both non-heterosexual and non-homosexual) sexual identities and lifestyles. Sexualities along
the periphery, such as bisexuals, transsexuals, intersex, hijras, and the myriad of other not-so-global
sexualities that exist or those that may be lying dormant, have been further marginalized within a capitalist,
media-driven world—one that has created a genuine need to dichotomize sexualities along gender lines
when conducting research. The resources and outlets available for those who happen to have a penis or
don bulbous breasts, for example, change even the dynamics by which we study the nature and meaning of
queer sexual identities. This bifurcation of the sexes, added with the need to understand the cultural forces
⑮
that empower or disempower sexual agency, brings to light several important questions when attempting to
understand Asian values and how they overlap, diverge, or conflict with more globalized sexual identities.
This research is the culmination of a 6-month study using multiple semi-controlled one-on-one
interviews with 20 self-identified homosexuals, heterosexuals, and bisexuals. It explored the connection
between sexual behavior and sexual identity in South Korea via an analysis of bisexuality—arguably a
nascent identity in South Korea. By doing so, it momentarily took a step away from sexual identity politics to
better understand the social processes that intertwine sexual behaviors and sexual identity. It not only
found that the absence of the institutionalization of sexuality can lead to vast social disparities in defining
sex and sexual behaviors, but also unveiled private/ public and masculinity/ femininity differences that
make haphazardly applying the Western rubric of sexual identities to countries like South Korea dangerous.
Room 406: Neither Raw, nor Cooked: Ethnic Minorities and State Projects in the Southeast Asian Massif
Chair: Jean-François ROUSSEAU, McGill University
Victoria KYEYUNE, McGill University
Yielding to high yields: Hybrid maize realities in northern upland Vietnam
Maize production in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam increased rapidly from the 1960s to 1980s, mainly to
supply feedstuff to the growing livestock industry (Gerpacio 2003, Gerpacio and Pingali 2007, Erenstein
2010). Maize also represents the preferred substitute for rice among people in rural upland regions (Dang
Thanh Ha et al. 2004). Since the 1990s, the Vietnamese government has supported the introduction and
subsidization of hybrid rice and hybrid maize seeds for domestic production, particularly as a component of
agricultural development policies to improve food security of upland ethnic minority populations (Bonnin
and Turner 2012, Turner 2011). These high-yielding hybrid maize seeds must be purchased every planting
season along with chemical fertilizer inputs, in contrast to traditional practices of seed-saving and low cost
natural fertilizers. As the agrarian transition plays out in the northern uplands of Vietnam through such
agricultural modernization, ethnic minorities are resisting these changes and readjusting their agricultural
options.
In this paper, I examine the realities of hybrid maize adoption for ethnic minority Hmong in the remote
highlands of Ha Giang, the northern-most province of Vietnam. I start by introducing the central dilemma of
hybrid seed technology within the paradigm of subsistence agriculture and food security. Then I focus on
the findings of my field research, examining the varying degrees to which Hmong households incorporate
hybrid maize into their fragile food systems, and the livelihood strategies they pursue to ‘resist’ being
completely reliant on modern agricultural technology. Yielding to high-yielding hybrid maize, I conclude,
reflects the ability of Hmong subsistence farmers to use their agency to improve household food security in
ways unanticipated by the state.
Jean-François ROUSSEAU, McGill University
The frontier revisited in Yunnan and Honghe Prefecture
In 1940, Owen Lattimore (1940) applied the notion of the frontier to China and concluded that civilization
had achieved different levels within and beyond the Great Wall. Nowadays, scholars utilize the same notion
to explain socio-political features that distinguish areas and people – most often ethnic minorities – located
in the margins of state power, and how state regimes aim to level such difference (De Koninck 2000; Duncan
2004; Gainsborough 2009; Hirsch 2009).
In this paper, I first explore the notion of the frontier and how it evolved over the last century. Secondly,
I question the contribution of this concept to our understanding of Yunnan province. Thirdly, I narrow my
focus to my doctoral research sites in Honghe Prefecture, located in the China-Vietnam borderlands. Based
⑯
on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork within villages which population belong to a small Dai subgroup, I
document how various state-led modernizations projects failed to account for the socio-cultural
characteristics of this setting. I conclude that renewable energy schemes recently developed in the same
area replicate similar shortcomings.
Mathieu POULIN-LAMARRE, Université de Montréal
In search of lost culture: Chinese and American Hmong online dynamics in new transnational spaces
At the end of the Second Indochina War, several thousand Hmong from Laos found refuge in the West, most
of them in the USA. With the second and the third generation of American Hmong born abroad, modern
conceptions of ethnic identity shape a burning desire to retrieve the missing link to the authentic Hmong
culture, to be supposedly found in China. At the same time, Internet brings in China the romantic American
Hmong imaginaries which fascinate the Chinese Hmong, who suffer from their sinisation and the impossible
ethnic ideal promoted by the State.
With the massive and fast implantation of Internet in China, new transnational spaces of identity
negotiation are now open where Chinese and American Hmong mutually try to find their lost authenticity in
one another. These dynamics are shaping a totally new kind of critique addressed to the Chinese
multinational model. Based on an ongoing ethnography combining online and offline researches and which
leads to the M.A. thesis “Hmong 2.0 : négociation identitaire en ligne dans les marges chinoises”, my
present paper is enriched by new questions and data from my actual doctoral researches.
Candice CORNET, University of Washington/McGill University
Making sense of local change: livelihood strategies and resistance in the Dong area of southeast Guizhou,
China
In the mid-1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced the campaign to “Open Up the West” (xibu
da kaifa) with the goals of reducing socio-economic disparities, encouraging economic growth, and ensuring
social and political stability in the non-Han areas. For the Dong village of Zhaoxing, located in the
Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Region, southeast of Guizhou province in China, the Chinese
state ideal of modernization has since been channelled in large part through the development of ethnic
tourism. As a result, the village now lies at the crossroad of competing political, social and economic forces
of which villagers are part (Low & Lawrence 2001: 23). Far from being passive, villagers of Zhaoxing resist to
or actively adopt and readjust this form of economic development according to their different livelihood
strategies.
Panel Sessions 4: 11:00am - 12:30am
Ballroom: Expansion of Ideas and Empires
Chair: HUANG Wenyi, McGill University
CHEN Beichen, University of Oxford
The Expansion of the Western Zhou (c.a. 1050-771 BC): a study of bronze ritual vessels from the Suizao
Corridor
After conquest of the previous Shang polity (c.a. 1250-1050 BC), the Zhou court expanded its control from
where it originated in the present-day Shaanxi province, to what is called the Central Plains of China, ruling
from the Wei River valley to the middle Yellow River basin, and then to its east territory - the vast lands of
the north China plains as well as its peripheries. Focusing on the contemporary burial objects (especially the
bronzes for ritual purpose) found near the south boundary of Zhou east territory, this paper compares the
local burial and ritual tradition in the Suizao corridor, north Hubei province with the typical Zhou practice in
⑰
the north Wei River region, to see to what degree did the local people follow the central power in the
Western Zhou period (c.a. 1050-771 BC). On that basis, two time-points in early and late Western Zhou
periods are emphatically discussed, to indicate that the southward expansion of the Zhou power in the
Hubei province might have experienced at least two stages: 1) the Zhou people’s cultural/military expansion
in the early Western Zhou period; and 2) the local people’s imitation of the Zhou practice in the late
Western Zhou period. Therefore, this paper argues that the decisions of the expansion in the south
boundary of Zhou east territory seems not to be always in the hands of the Zhou court.
Allen CHEN, McGill University
Contesting State Jurisdictions and Navigating Social Boundaries in Early China: A Legal Case Study from
the Zouyan shu 奏讞書
The recent discovery of many archaeological manuscripts in China, many of which can be dated to the Qin
and early Han periods, has dramatically expanded our understanding social realities of the time, especially
with respect to the people’s interactions with the developing imperial state apparatus. One of these finds,
the so-called Zhangjiashan 張家山 manuscripts, was discovered in a tomb in Hubei province in 1983, and
contained some twenty-two records of legal cases which illustrate Qin and Han legal theories and practices.
One particular case of interest to my current research appears in the “Zouyan shu” 奏讞書 (Cases
Memorialized for Adjudication), and has given great insights into how the incipient imperial state
demarcated the boundaries between its own legal jurisdiction and that of the family household’s. In this
case a mother-in-law accuses her newly widowed daughter-in-law of engaging in “illicit sex”, a crime that
carries severe punishments from the state. It is the goal of my paper to engage in the discussion of legal
boundaries between the right of the state to intervene in household affairs, and the household’s ability to
make autonomous decisions; the creation and demarcation of overlapping concepts of space and place of
one’s public responsibilities to the state, and complex familial obligations within households; and finally,
how the coercive use of the law by the nascent imperial state created sites of resistance or cooperation. It is
difficult to fully reconstruct the historical context of this particular legal case, nevertheless, it gives a glimpse
into the world of a long gone past and expands our understanding of the legal controversies, political
debates, and social mores in early imperial China regarding the transgressing of boundaries between the
state and the traditional privileges of the household.
YANG Likun, Yale University
The Influence of Chinese Law in Turfan (640-755)
The history of East Eurasia has long been skewed towards China. In this narrative, China is treated as a polity
of its own internal, evolutionary development and, on top of that, a cultural highland that draws in and
assimilates other polities around it. Relying on Chinese dynastic histories which were composed by
Confucian elites, historians write stories of the exchanges, tensions and conflicts between China and other
polities and offer explanations by reference to a bipolar framework in which either China as a dominant
player exerts its influence and therefore Sinicizes its neighbors or the polities around China resist or rise up
against China and assert their independence and uniqueness. This paper, however, studies the influence of
Chinese law in Turfan -- one of the most important and cosmopolitan cities on the Northern route of the Silk
Road -- through an examination of some randomly discovered and recovered affidavits issued under the
Chinese rule (640-755). It discusses the legal mechanism in Turfan and, by extension, the reception and
adaption of the Chinese law therein. Ultimately, this paper provides an opportunity to reflect on the nature
of sources and how sources shape historiography.
⑱
Room 406: Boundaries of Consumption
Chair: Daniel MURRAY, McGill University
Christopher LAURENT, Université de Montréal
Consuming the Region: Crafting Boundaries Through Food and Nostalgia in Contemporary Japan
Regional food is representative of a larger symbolic economy of traditions that pervades contemporary
Japan where the definition of nation lives in its nostalgia for its rural region. The country’s low food
self-sufficiency, yet reluctance to abandon agriculture by liberalizing trade reveals its vested interest in its
rural communities. These communities have experienced economic stagnation along with massive urban
migration forcing them to draw upon their distinctive cultural resources, chief among them regional food, in
an attempt to revitalize. The Fukushima disaster and Chinese tainted food scandals have made
preoccupation for food provenance paramount in Japan establishing distinctive borders between the
regional, the nation and the international. In this manner, regional products are used to connect the urban
and the rural through the circulation of food commodities in a network of exchange symptomatic of a larger
Japanese cultural logic of embodied regional essences and unworkable nostalgias. The consumption of the
rural by the urban as the incarnation of a sentiment of loss towards an unattainable past unencumbered by
the perceived failures of modern Japanese society speaks directly to the present cultural moment, of urban
malaise, on the one hand, and of declining rural communities.
Faizah ZAKARIA, Yale University
Food in High and Low Places: Consumption and Muslim Boundaries in Republican China (1920-1949)
The practice of eating and drinking can break down as well as erect boundaries between a community and
people perceived to be alien to them. This dual function indicates that consuming food is both an
introspective and relational experience. Separate ethnographic studies by Gillette (2000) and Cesaro (2000)
about consumption habits of the Hui and the Uyghurs respectively argue that food choice is a means for
these Muslims to assert their distinctiveness and resist assimilation into the Han majority, thus emphasizing
its role in creating a divide between Muslims and non-Muslims. Since these studies were rooted in the
present, they beg the historical question of how these dynamics came to be created: how constant are the
boundaries created between Muslims and non-Muslims in China in their daily life? What were the factors
that guide how an individual navigates the inter-community tension in his everyday life? In dealing with
such questions, China’s Republican era provides an interesting window into how the dynamics of Muslim
and non-Muslim interaction through food since it was a period where the varied ethnic and religious groups
in China were seeking for a new place is a transitioning society. My paper utilizes accounts from three
disparate sources that explore this interaction from multiple angles: British missionaries spreading the
gospel to ordinary Muslims, a nationalist Hui general reaching out for aid from the Muslim community, and
an American diplomat navigating the high-level politics of Xinjiang. It contributes to the dialogue by
showing that for Muslims in China, choices about what, how and with whom to consume their meals gives
them was less a religious decision than a reflection whom each individual was socialized to trust, eschewing
a politicized and polarized view for a complicated social perspective.
⑲
Panel Session 5: 1:30pm - 3:15pm
Ballroom: Nationalism, Colonialism, Violence
Chair: Toulouse-Antonin ROY, McGill University
Amin GHADIMI, Harvard University
The Tautology of Imperial Democracy: Forcing Freedom in the 1885 Osaka Incident
In 1885, a band of men and women associated with Japan’s nascent Liberal Party [Jiyūtō] gathered funds
and secured explosives to set out on an expedition to Korea. They hoped to instigate there a coup and
install a reformist pro-Japanese government as a means of rebuffing Qing Chinese imperial influence and of
reinvigorating the floundering Movement for Freedom and Popular Rights back home. They failed. Japanese
police discovered their activities and arrested over 130 activists, including Ōi Kentarō, a leader of the radical
wing of the Liberal Party, and Kageyama Hideko, later known as Fukuda Hideko, who is widely celebrated as
one of Japan’s earliest feminists. This paper explores this dramatic moment in Meiji history, known as the
Osaka Incident, to reflect on imperial democracy. Historian Andrew Gordon influentially deployed the term
“imperial democracy” to describe what he called the contradictory but simultaneous trends toward
expansion and popular rights in early twentieth-century Japan. This paper turns the clock back to 1885 to
argue that “imperial democracy,” hardly an oxymoron, would have been a tautology to the participants in
the Osaka Incident. Operating in a global environment where every other major democracy was an imperial
power, these Meiji activists saw democratization and imperialism as one and the same project.
Toulouse-Antonin ROY, McGill University
“The Special Quality of this Island’s Police Force”: Social Scientific Knowledge Production and Japanese
Imperial Sovereignty in Colonial Taiwan
Based on my on-going dissertation research on anthropology in the Japanese empire, this paper examines
the relationship between social scientific knowledge production and imperial policing in
colonial Taiwan. After Japan’s acquisition of Taiwan, the new colonial administration (or “GovernmentGeneral” as it was known) faced a whole series of anti-Japanese insurgencies in both Han Chinese
and Aborigines areas of the island. In order to secure the new regime and help prevent further anticolonial resistance, the Government-General set up a vast bureaucratic apparatus of police agencies
and police-run social scientific research bureaucracies. From land surveys and censuses, to studies
of Qing legal codes and anthropological fieldwork in the aborigines highlands, police agencies were
a central part of the government-general’s strategy of using knowledge production to render visible
(and therefore governable) colonized populations. So much so that Washinosu Atsuya, one of the
leading commentators on police issues in colonial Taiwan at the time, once called the “study of people’s
customs” one of the “special qualities” of the island’s police force. This paper investigates the formation
of the Japanese police force in Taiwan, with a focus on the regulative and research activities of police
officers across aboriginal lands.
Peter MOODY, University of Virginia
The Security of “Cultural Rule” in Korea: How and Why Japan said “Yes” to Korean Nationalism
This article presents the 1920s Japanese Cultural Rule policy in Korea as an example of the Security mode of
power that social philosopher Michel Foucault outlined in a series of lectures from 1977-1978 called
Security, Territory, Population. Tracing the apparatus of Foucault’s notion of Security throughout the
various periods of Japanese Colonial period, it sheds light on the various ways the Japanese empire
tolerated and at certain times even encouraged a certain degree of Korean culture and nationalism in order
to conscript a sizable number of Koreans to participate in the colonization of their own country. While the
⑳
origin of the Cultural Rule policy was biological in that the colonial administrators engaged in scientific
inquiry of cultures and traditions of the Korean population as if it were a distinct species, its implementation
was largely economic in that it involved separating that population along class and ideological lines. This
practice, which involved “improving some lives while laissez faire-ing others,” led to internal disputes
among Koreans and complicated the prospects of unified resistance against the Japanese in the decades to
come.
Austin ROYSE, Jackson School of International Studies
A Proud Apprentice: Maintaining Japanese Identity throughout the Age
In the decade between 1884 and the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese
intellectuals engaged in a vibrant debate about the future of Japanese identity. Extensive borrowing of
Western knowledge for the purpose of modernization led to wholesale abandonment of Japanese cultural
heritage by many progressives in the early years of reform. This produced a backlash from those who
refused to equate the West’s scientific advancements with outright superiority. This interaction between
foreign indebtedness and self-assurance, however, was not unprecedented in Japanese history. Centuries
prior, intellectuals had been forced to navigate a similar question in regards to Chinese learning and
cultural dominance. Extreme positions struggled, and produced a viable middle way; which could have
served as a template for the Meiji era debate. Indeed, such a formulation was beginning to surface when an
unprecedented new element tempted the nation away from this essential self-reflection.
Room 406: National Identities and the Circulation of Discourse
Chair: Rebecca ROBINSON, McGill University
Emilie-Anne LEROUX, Université du Québec à Montréal
La perception de la menace chinoise à travers le discours américain
Dans le contexte contemporain du Chimerica, la Chine est une frontière méconnaissable à l’occident. On
tente de la décortiquer, prédire sa « montée » et comprendre son développement économique et militaire.
Elle mystifie encore les esprits américain : il y a tant de titres d’ouvrages pour « percer les secrets » et
rendre à la lumière la mystérieuse civilisation. Depuis 500 ans que l’occident tente de percer les secrets de
la Chine, tout en maintenant une vision de celle-ci comme étant « l’autre » . L’orientalisme, développé par
Edward Saïd dans les années 1970, demeure un cadre d’analyse pertinent pour ceux qui s’intéressent non
pas à expliquer la Chine, mais qui tentent de la comprendre. En l’appliquant à la perception américaine de la
Chine, il est possible de noter une tendance en observant le d’œil américain : La Chine est « dépeinte » ou «
construite » comme constituant une menace pour la première puissance mondiale. Que ce soit dans la
culture populaire, le monde académique ou le discours officiel, nous avançons qu’il est possible de noter
une tension, une angoisse américaine vis-à-vis de la « montée » de la Chine : sa puissance économique et
militaire légitime en effet un intérêt de la part des États-Unis. Mais il y a des limites à s’en tenir à un cadre
d’analyse réaliste : au-delà de la puissance économique et la question géostratégique. Le contexte de
compétition international est bien présent, mais quelle est l’image construite autour de cette perception
de la Chine? Il y a des limites à s’en tenir à une analyse réaliste et géostratégique de la relation entre la
Chine et les États-Unis. Nous voulons donc procéder à une analyse discursive afin de déconstruire ce qui est
dit à propos de la Chine et démontrer en quoi il s’agit d’un discours orientaliste. Basés sur l’ouvrage «
Shoppers Republic of China » : Orientalism in Neoliberal U.S. News Discourse (Ban 2013), nous voulons
démontrer les implications de cette construction de la Chine comme menace dans le discours américain
21
Toru MOMII, McGill University
Neither Here Nor There: The Musical Identity of Toru Takemitsu
In recent years, Timothy Koozin (2002), Hideaki Onishi (2004), and others have challenged the assertion that
Toru Takemitsu synthesized elements of Western art music with the aesthetics of traditional Japanese music
and culture. Our understanding of Takemitsu’s music, Onishi has argued, should not consist of a simple
dichotomy of “Japan” and “the West.” Building upon Onishi’s view, I argue in this paper that Takemitsu’s
musical language results not from a synthesis, but from a conflict between his Western musical training and
his Japanese cultural background. Using Toward the Sea (1981) – a work that has received minimal attention
from analysts – as a case study, this paper will demonstrate that traditional Japanese aesthetics coexist with
Western musical techniques within Takemitsu’s music, rather than coalescing into one unity.
In particular, Takemitsu’s musical language embodies the Japanese aesthetics of ma and sawari. The
concept of ma refers to “an ‘interval’ between two (or more) spatial or temporal things and events” (Pilgrim
1986). Silences are able to convey meaning just as clearly and effectively as the sounds themselves. Ma is
represented in Takemitsu’s control over dynamics and tempo, consequently affecting both the temporal and
spatial perception of the piece. The concept of sawari, which originally refers to a shamisen technique that
imitates a cicada, embodies an appreciation for timbre over melody. Sawari is reflected in Takemitsu’s
detailed performance instructions and use of extended technique.
Despite the heavy influence of Japanese aesthetics, Takemitsu’s pitch language is rooted in Western
scales. His musical language is rized by its extensive use of octatonic scales. Moreover, Takemitsu makes
reference to the S-E-A motive, a three-note motive consisting of pitches E-flat (“Es” in German), E, and A. A
frequently used motive in Takemitsu’s works, the three-note motive is presented throughout the piece in
both prime and inverted forms.
Sami AL DAGHISTANI, McGill / Leiden / Münster
Between Contestation and Expansion – Islamic Area Studies, Toshihiko Izutsu, and Islamic Economics
The term Area Studies can be regarded as the continuation of “Oriental Studies”, covering issues of social
sciences and humanities in the field of Asian, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. The concept of Islamic
Studies indicates the study of the Middle East, North Africa, as well the civilization and culture Islam,
covering Central and Southeast Asia, China, Japan and others. The research unit “Islamic Area Studies”, as
proposed by the Japanese scholars of Islam, was established in 1997 to reexamine the discourses of
domains and regions of Islam, related to the intellectual history of ideas.
Within Islamic Studies the field of knowledge, ethics, and economy appears to be pertinent to many
contemporary issues concerning economic conduct. In this regard, one of the most prominent Japanese
scholars of Islam Toshihiko Izutsu (d. 1993), who examined the theological structure of the Quran by
semantic analysis, will serve as a vehicle of applying his theory of semantic examination to Islamic
economics. Islamic economics is regarded as the subsystem of Islamic law, for its distinct methodology.
Central to Izutsu’s work is that principles of ethics or values are derived from worldviews, thus every
economic system has a particular set of values. These ethical principles are implicitly incorporated in the
notions, assumptions, and theories of economics. By this approach, the paper focuses on certain concepts
of Islamic economics, by presenting its nature as well legal and ethical specifics. Despite the contributions of
the medieval Muslim scholars to the subject of economics, contemporary Islamic economics, spanning from
London to Malaysia, is still in the state of flux. Thus, the paper inquires upon the subject matter of Islamic
economics, and the issues pertaining to utilization of money and overall ethical conduct through the lens of
the knowledge system of Islamic Studies.
22
YI Yuan, Columbia University
Knowledge, Engineer, and Textile Industry in Early Twentieth-Century China
Tracing the early life of Yang Sih-Zung, an American-educated Chinese engineer, this paper examines the
vigorous knowledge production on the Chinese market and the subsequent transmission of engineering
technology that happened along the trade of American textile machinery in early twentieth-century China.
Textile machinery had never been a number one export from the US to China; as a single export item,
Kerosene accounted for the largest portion of the total volume of export trade. Nor was its textile
machinery the most influential supplier in the Chinese market; except the short-lived booming period, the
major supplier was always British machinery. The investigation on the trade of this particular item, however,
reveals unexplored and yet significant aspects of US-China foreign trade and Chinese industrialization. By
focusing on “American” machinery, this study shows how actively the US, a late comer in Chinese foreign
trade, strived to learn about this new market to catch up with existing competitors and increase its market
share. By focusing on American “textile machinery,” this study argues that due to the nature of machinery,
the trade of tangible machinery was always followed by the transmission of intangible technology, through
installation instruction, repair service, and, eventually, copying. At the center of this lively circulation of
commercial and technological knowledge, foreign-educated Chinese engineers, like Yang, played a crucial
role as a knowledge broker, and as a new social group in the era of industrialization, they ultimately laid the
foundation for Chinese industrialization.
Panel Session 6: 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Ballroom: Trade, Wealth, Diaspora
Chair: Ronald Chung-yam PO McGill University
Elizabeth WEBER, UCLA
In Violent Terms: The Coolie Trade as a Site of Meaning Creation in 19th-Century Southern China
The 19th-century trade in contracted Chinese labor (the “coolie trade”) is well known to students of Chinese
history and migration studies as having resulted in the transport of hundreds of thousands of Chinese
laborers to various locations in the colonial Americas and around the world for the purpose of serving as
manual laborers. Also well known is the fact that the conditions under which Chinese laborers toiled on
plantations and in mines were brutal, causing many to perish before the terms of their contracts had
expired. As Lisa Yun demonstrated in her riveting 2008 book <The Coolie Speaks>, testimonies provided by
coolie laborers in Cuba emphasize the extent to which laborers felt themselves to have been victimized by
this latest iteration of imperialist labor recruitment. In my paper, I shift the focus slightly to ask the question:
what impact did the coolie trade have on those who remained behind? I analyze primary source documents
such as government and media reports, and consider the kind of language and terminologies with which the
developing coolie trade was discussed. I argue that, as evidenced in the language of these reports, the
coolie trade was traumatic, on a number of levels, even for those who never left China. Not only were they
exposed to reports of the suffering of their countrymen abroad, as well as the threat of trade-related
kidnapping in coastal cities; but Euro-American reduction of Chinese to racialized, laboring bodies also
resulted in dehumanization and a crisis of what I call “de-positioning.” Yet, despite the violences that the
coolie trade visited upon southern China, I argue that the vocabularies engendered by these violences
created a space within which locals could begin to process and even resist the trade as well as the
imperialist power dynamics of the period.
23
CHEN Boyi, Washington University in St. Louis
The Diasporic Chinese in Quảng Nam and the Dutch East Indies, 1600-1800
This paper discusses the status and the activities of the diasporic Chinese in two pre-modern host societies
of Southeast Asia, Nguyễn political blocs dominating Quảng Nam and the Dutch East Indies. I argue that in
contrast to the law-abiding civilians in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, the diasporic Chinese in
Quảng Nam acted more as restive sojourners under the dominance of Nguyễn political blocs: they not only
enjoyed certain dominance in commerce but were also partially involved in Vietnamese political and
military affairs. This kind of involvement shaped a different type of Chinese diasporic status as a pure
agent system of the Dutch East Indies state, where members of the diaspora served as the community
leaders and councilors, Kapitan Cina.
In general, during the early modern era, Chinese migrants in Southeast Asia can be classified into
roughly three categories: soldiers, merchants, and pirates. Those who chose to resist the dominant
regime or were sent to fight but finally lodged in the host societies were identified as soldiers. Those
sojourners who preferred to develop their business in the host societies, where most of their activities were
sanctioned, were labeled as merchants. Soldiers and merchants who found regular plundering or robbing
to be more beneficial, became so-called pirates. Based on the fact that similar kinds of groups participated
in distinctive forms of rebellion or cooperation, I further argue that the different activities and results of the
heterogeneous diasporic Chinese under the same labels of soldiers, merchants, or pirates, were led or
determined by the monarchial agenda in Quảng Nam or the colonial agenda in the Dutch East Indies.
LIU Zhe, Johns Hopkins University
Sovereign Wealth Funds and Political Survival: the case of China and Abu Dhabi
The growth of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) as major investors in the global economy has drawn increased
scrutiny as they serve the geopolitical ends of sponsor countries. However, it is often ignored that SWFs are
deeply embedded in the political economy of their respective sponsor countries. Understanding the
characteristics of SWFs is crucial for evaluating their role in various investment opportunities. In
examining the establishment of SWFs, their governance structure, and their behavior during times of crisis
in both Abu Dhabi and China, this paper highlights the role of SWFs as tool of domestic political survival. In
both cases, the countries have been governed for decades by ruling elites, and these elites are using an
increasingly diverse array of tools to protect their autonomy within the global system. SWFs serve ruling
elites by concentrating substantial resources to buffer the economy against major downturns and to
mitigate public grievances. Furthermore, SWFs operating in a fragmented regime like China are unlikely to
make foreign policy objectives as priorities, and their behavior can be highly unpredictable.
5:00pm - 6:30pm: Closing Remarks and Reception
24
C o n t a c t
L i s t
McGill / Leiden /
Münster
Washington
University in
St.Louis
University of
Oxford
McGill University
Al Daghistani
Sami
Islamic Studies
Chen
Chen
Boyi
Beichen
Chen
Shuojun
Chen
Allen
Cornet
Candice
Etzcorn
Fotopoulos
Ryan
Annetta
Ghadimi
Amin
Hamilton
Robert
Hu
Xizi
Huang
Kyeyune
Lakser
Ping
Victoria
Moshe
Laurent
LeBaron von
Baeyer
Christopher
History
School of
Archaeology
East Asian
Studies
McGill University East Asian
Studies
University of
Anthropology/
Washington/Mc Geography
Gill University
Center for
University of
Chinese
Michigan
Studies
Cornell
Asian Studies
East Asian
Harvard
Languages and
University
Civilizations
Seoul National
University
Sociology
Political
McGill University Science
Université du
Québec à
Science
Montréal
politique
McGill University Geography
UCLA
History
Université de
Montréal
anthropologie
Sarah
Yale University
Leroux
Emilie-Anne
UQAM
Liu
Zhe
Johns Hopkins
University
Lo
Ina
McGIll
Anthropology
Sciences
juridiques
School of
Advanced
International
Studies
East Asian
Studies
25
[email protected]
m
[email protected]
[email protected]
.uk
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
sarah.lebaron.von.baeyer@g
mail.com
[email protected]
m
[email protected]
[email protected]
Center for
University of
Chinese
Lundquist
David
Michigan
Studies
Music
Momii
Toru
McGill University Research
University of
East Asian
Moody
Peter
Virginia
Studies
Université de
Poulin-Lamarre Mathieu
Montréal
Anthropology
Rousseau
Jean-François McGill University Geography
Toulouse-Ant
East Asian
Roy
onin
McGill University Studies
Jackson School
of International
Royse
Austin
Studies
Japan Studies
East Asian
Wang
Wanming
McGill University Studies
Asian
Languages and
Weber
Elizabeth
UCLA
Cultures
East Asian
Yang
Likun
Yale University
Studies
East Asian
Columbia
Languages and
Yi
Yuan
University
Cultures
Zakaria
Faizah
Yale University
History
26
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
om
[email protected].
ca
[email protected]
m
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]