Representation of the Margin – Leprosy and Leprosarium in the Past and Present

Panel Convenor(s)

• HP

  Heong Hong Por

  Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Panel Chair(s)

• HP

  Heong Hong Por

  Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Presenter(s)

• HP

  Heong Hong Por

  Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
• SW

  Shu-yi Wang

  Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
• JK

  Jae Hyung Kim

  Korea National Open University, Republic of Korea
• YH

  Yiling Hung

  National Tsing Hua University

Both diseases and heritages involve how social margins are negotiated, drawn and redrawn in regards to what is pathologic and what deserves to be preserved and remembered. This panel brings together four papers on the social history of leprosy and leprosy heritage making in Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan.

Historically, leprosarium was a product of imperialism and inter-empire competition of public health campaign against a socially stigmatized disease in many parts of Asia. Today, leprosarium, despite having a dark past and dissonant narratives, has paradoxically become a site of “national pride” in many parts of Asia. Over the past two decades, heritage activists in Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan have been remaking this colonial legacy in their own country into a “national heritage” and even competed against each other to submit application to UNESCO to make leprosarium in their respective country a “world heritage”.

In the process of heritagization, various actors were mobilized to reinterpret and destigmatize not only the disease, but also the places that were built to segregate people who contracted it. The four papers in this panel chart how the images and representations of leprosy evolve in these countries, and how leprosy heritage movements unsettle both the margin of the disease and that of heritage. Importantly, heritagization, as a selection of past fragments, reflects the newly forged relations between the present generation with the difficult pasts of their societies, and the influence of present day desire and politics on the interpretation of the past and on what should be included or excluded for remembrance, while crafting the future of leprosarium and colonial legacy.    

This panel also brings into the conversation the changing borders of monumentality. As a bottom up and community led movement, heritagization of leprosy sanatorium redefines monumentality, which tends to be premised on the grandeur of architectural structures. Yet, the narratives of leprosy heritage are not homogenous, but often contested.

Presentations:

• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Negotiating the Margin of Difficult Pasts: Heritagization of Sungai Buloh Leprosy Settlement
  

  Presenter: Heong Hong Por – Universiti Sains Malaysia
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Quarantine Landscapes of Losheng Sanatorium in Taiwan
  

  Presenter: Shu-yi Wang – Chinese Culture University

  Co-Author: Chien-ying Yang – Chinese Culture University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  The Politics of Memory in the Sorokdo National Hospital as a Heritage of Hansen's Disease in South Korea
  

  Presenter: Jae Hyung Kim – Korea National Open University
• 09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)

  Illness Stigma and Patient Images of Leprosy in Taiwan
  

  Presenter: Yiling Hung – National Tsing Hua University