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Theme: 2. From Oceanic Crossroads: Empires, Networks and Histories
Bernard Keo
The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
Michael Yeo
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Catherine Chan
Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Bernard Keo
The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland
Katon Lee
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
The intricate network of connections that stretched across Asia during the colonial period were not forged by European imperial powers alone. Rather they were layered atop pre-existing linkages that tied Asian centres with all corners of the world. These networks–be they political, economic, diplomatic, intellectual, social, or cultural–were underpinned not only by oceanic crosswinds but ties, interactions, networks, and collaborations that facilitated the flow of people, goods, and knowledge through myriad port-cities both within East and Southeast Asia and beyond them. In facilitating a constant state of motion, what we might call “hybrid imperial networks” contributed to the porosity of borders across much of Asia, ironically undermining the boundaries that colonial states and their counterparts in the metropole sought to impose. The mobility enabled by these networks was not solely the preserve of European imperial powers, but was oftentimes utilised by a dizzying array of actors from across the globe with variegated interests in the region. Building on a wave of recent scholarship exploring global interconnections during the longue durée of European colonial rule, this double-panel seeks to generate new perspectives on imperial networks that weaved their way through East and Southeast Asia and beyond.
The papers focus on a wide variety of historical actors that were not only physically mobile but demonstrated fluidity in relation to their identities and intellectual approaches, as well. More specifically, the two panels will explore the ways in which heretofore under-examined groups including radical Filipino revolutionaries (Chan), creolised overseas Chinese communities (Keo), Ningbonese tailors (Lee), Malay and Javanese Sultans and nobilities (Manse), indigenous language teachers (Reeder), travelling theatre troupes (Yeo), and local and European builders of climate-resilient VOC port cities (Lin), both appropriated imperial networks as well as assisted in their development and expansion. In tracing these individuals and communities through their mobilities along these hybrid imperial networks, our papers explore a range of port-cities across East and Southeast Asia such as Bangkok, Hong Kong, Penang, Jakarta, Banten, Johor, Shanghai, and Yokohama. While the papers investigate a kaleidoscope of peoples and places, they are woven together by the desire to shift the focus away from conventional subjects of historical analysis in relation to imperial networks. Instead we propose looking towards groups that have been oft-overlooked so as to recover their stories and voices in order to produce more holistic and nuanced understandings of these networks as complex, multi-layered connections rather than as wholly imperial.
Presenter: Catherine S. Chan – Lingnan University
Presenter: Bernard Z. Keo – The Graduate Institute, Geneva
Presenter: Katon Lee – Hong Kong Baptist University