Presentation Type: Panel Presentation
Tradition and Transformation of Legal Culture in the Mongol Empire
The Mongols brought the shock of transformation at the same time as destruction in Eurasia in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The huge integration and connection amid the diversities of races, languages and cultures was a new transition. The unification of the empire did not necessarily mean a transparent society. The Mongols were perhaps almost …
Rethinking Women in Asia Under the Aggression of the Japanese Empire, 1931-1945
Even though considerable research has documented the history of women’s oppression under Japanese nationalism and fascism, from the Mukden Incident in 1931 to the end of the Asia-Pacific War in 1945, the analysis has generally been from a Japanese standpoint. Focusing on areas outside the main islands of Japan, such as Manchuria, China proper, Taiwan, …
At the Crossroads – Verism & Artifice in Early Modern Japanese Art
This panel examines the function of, and/or relationships between, verism and artifice in art during Japan’s early modern period (1603-1868). While the focus of each of the four papers will be on specific works of art, the roles played by poetry, literature, popular storytelling, and encyclopedic compendia in their creation also will be explored. Under …
China’s Modernity at the Crossroads: Heritage and Society in Dialogue with the Past and With the World
Ever since the May Fourth Movement (1919) spread, China positioned itself in the process of developing its own modernity using binary categories traditional/modern, past/future, Chinese/Western, but at the same time constantly proved how misleading these oppositions often are. Closer examination of cultural practices, experiences and styles seems to prove that China’s ongoing struggle with modernity …
Family and Social Inequalities in Chinese Societies
This session foregrounds family, as a social institution, in the process of (re-)production of social inequalities in the Asian context. Family has long been recognized as a significant institution in perpetuating inequalities and in transferring wealth, social and cultural capitals across generations. It also intertwines with other social axes, such as gender and class, which …
Buddhist Images Across Borders: the Transmission of Dunhuang Mural Imagery in the 6th-13th Century
The spread of Buddhism and Buddhist art facilitated constant cultural exchanges among the Silk Routes. Dunhuang, situated at the conjunction in the Hexi corridor, is well-known for the enormous amount of image-caves and murals. Also, Dunhuang murals provide evidence of its artistic inspirations and adaptations from regions other than itself. Dunhuang, in turn, played a …
Contested Belongings: (Un)Imagining National Subjects in Chinese Political Cultures
Despite intensifying mobilities within and beyond national borders in Asia, the constructed imaginary of unified, homogeneous “national subjects” continue to permeate political discourses and create tensions, disjunctions, and precarity. Offering a multi-sited critical analysis of the role and the intervention of “the nation” in Chinese political cultures, this panel probes into the meaning-making processes that …
Unconventional Travelers: Asia in Motion, 1860-1912
While the traditional image of the nineteenth-century explorer might have been that of an elite European man, recent scholarship has increasingly focused on less typical travelers and explorers, often implicated within the same networks of empire, but seeing things quite differently. Our panel engages with this growing body of scholarship aimed at destabilizing ideas of …
Rightward Bound: At the Crossroads of Nationalism and Gender in East and South Asian Cinema
Our panel shows a powerful link between re-imaginings of national destiny and gender normativity in both South and East Asian cinema. We blend accounts from multiple national cinemas and explore both contemporary and earlier films, eschewing a nation-specific focus and moving beyond traditional boundaries of historical and cinematic inquiry. Key for us is identifying the …
The City Remade, the City Evaded: Transformations of Life in and Away from Urban Japan
Urbanity is a filter for life in Japan, orienting labor, social space, and regimes of taste. This panel brings together ethnographically-driven research in the social sciences to consider changes in urban life as it evolves both within and beyond the megacity. We take up novel places like the “hidden” slices of urbanity found in the …