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Theme: 2. From Oceanic Crossroads: Empires, Networks and Histories
Masakazu Matsuoka
Ohtsuki City College, Japan
Masakazu Matsuoka
Ohtsuki City College, Japan
Masakazu Matsuoka
Ohtsuki City College, Japan
Kentaro Sakai
Showa University of Music, Japan
Yin-Lun Chan
Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Claudia Hui
Columbia University, United States
In the landscape of sociopolitical struggles, this interdisciplinary panel examines how identities of global-Asian communities (re-)confront the diasporic ‘self’ and their counterparts from wartime to contemporary times. The multifaceted dimensions of community identities will be showcased through narratives on wartime cultural policy, war memory, ethnic settlements, and protest aftermath. The first paper examines Japan’s wartime children’s songbook, which was sent to Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia to familiarise local children with Japanese language, culture and society. Wartime Japan, as the head of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, took it for granted that it had a role to play in indoctrinating the rest of Asia with its most outstanding civilisation and rich traditions. But through the occupation of Southeast Asia, they faced a different reality from their ‘self-portrait’. The second paper introduces the “Hong Kong Trilogy”, a 1960s series of Japanese films featuring Hong Kong and memories of the Sino-Japanese war. It confronts the complexities of postwar community identities and popular desires projected by cinema in the historic framework of international relations. Proceeding to the late-20th and early 21st century, the third paper studies the transforming settlement patterns of Chinese migrants in western cities, more specifically those North American cities along the Pacific coast. Reviewing the continuing relevance of diasporic neighbourhoods, it explores the changing cultural representations of ‘Chinatowns’ in the context of contemporary digital lifestyles. The fourth paper presents an empirical study on the civic and ethnocultural identity among Hong Kong youth who experienced the 2019-2020 territory-wide protests in the city. It illustrates how the youth (re-)confront their dynamic identities in relation to global-Asian struggles for democracy and autonomy. Participants are invited to further discuss on the challenges of articulating the diasporic global-Asian community identities in the transnational social climate from past to present. Presenter: Masakazu Matsuoka – Ohtsuki City College Presenter: Kentaro Sakai – Showa University of Music Presenter: Yin-Lun Chan – Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong Presenter: Claudia Hui – Columbia UniversityPresentations:
16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)
Memories of War in Toho/Cathay's “Hong Kong Trilogy”
16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)
Japan's 'Self-Portrait' in 1943: An Analysis of Children's Songbook “Daitoa Kodomo no Uta: Uta no Ehon (Songs for Children in Greater East Asia)”
16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)
The Continuing Relevance of Chinatowns: Cultural Representations and Diasporic Landscapes
16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)
"It felt like we were soldiers on the battlefield, but we were only singing”: Understanding Hong Kong Youth's Everyday Citizenship and Multi-layered Identities Post-2019-20 Hong Kong Protests