Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific
Difficult Heritage and the Transnational Politics of Postcolonial Nationalism
9789888754144
Distributed for Hong Kong University Press
Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific
Difficult Heritage and the Transnational Politics of Postcolonial Nationalism
New directions for comparative research into “difficult heritage” as a concept.
Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific explores the making and consumption of conflict-related heritage throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Contributing to a growing literature on the notion of heritage, this collection advances our understanding of how places of pain, shame, oppression, and trauma have been appropriated and refashioned as “heritage” in a number of societies. The authors analyze how the repackaging of difficult pasts as heritage can serve either to reinforce borders, transcend them, or even achieve both simultaneously, depending on their political agenda. The volume shows how efforts to preserve various sites of difficult heritage can involve the construction of new borders between what is commemorated and what is often deliberately obscured or forgotten. The studies presented here suggest new directions for comparative research into “difficult heritage” across Asia and beyond, applying an interdisciplinary and critical perspective that spans history, heritage studies, memory studies, urban studies, architecture, and international relations.
Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific explores the making and consumption of conflict-related heritage throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Contributing to a growing literature on the notion of heritage, this collection advances our understanding of how places of pain, shame, oppression, and trauma have been appropriated and refashioned as “heritage” in a number of societies. The authors analyze how the repackaging of difficult pasts as heritage can serve either to reinforce borders, transcend them, or even achieve both simultaneously, depending on their political agenda. The volume shows how efforts to preserve various sites of difficult heritage can involve the construction of new borders between what is commemorated and what is often deliberately obscured or forgotten. The studies presented here suggest new directions for comparative research into “difficult heritage” across Asia and beyond, applying an interdisciplinary and critical perspective that spans history, heritage studies, memory studies, urban studies, architecture, and international relations.
272 pages | 18 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2022
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Architecture: History of Architecture
History: Asian History
Table of Contents
Introduction: Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific: Difficult Heritage and the Transnational Politics of Post-colonial Nationalism
Part I: Memory Politics, Colonialism, and Conflict
1. Lapped by the Tide: Borders of Memory on the Island of Peleliu, Palau
2. Whose Difficult Heritage? Contesting Indigenous Ainu Representations
3. Taipei’s National Martyrs’ Shrine: The Past and Present Lives of a Difficult Monument
Part II: Making Heritage out of Memories of Incarceration
4. Unsettling the Familiar: Hong Kong’s Colonial Policing Heritage
5. Beyond a Racialized Representation of Colonial Quarantine: Recollecting the Many Pasts of St John’s Island, Singapore
6. The Prison Gate as Leftist Heritage? Political Indifference and the Pursuit of ‘Healthy Nationalism’ in Japan
7. Organic Heritage Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific Region: Reconciliatory Landscapes
Part III: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and Difficult Heritage Making
8. Staking Claims to Difficult Memories: Diplomacy and Jewish Heritage in Shanghai and Beyond
9. From Offshore Heritage to Shared Heritage: Transnational Difficult Heritage Making and the Shanghai Provisional Government of Korea
10. Mapping Kyushu’s War-Related Heritage: Hard and Soft Frontiers of Memory in Japan’s ‘Asian’ Gateway
List of Contributors
Index
Part I: Memory Politics, Colonialism, and Conflict
1. Lapped by the Tide: Borders of Memory on the Island of Peleliu, Palau
2. Whose Difficult Heritage? Contesting Indigenous Ainu Representations
3. Taipei’s National Martyrs’ Shrine: The Past and Present Lives of a Difficult Monument
Part II: Making Heritage out of Memories of Incarceration
4. Unsettling the Familiar: Hong Kong’s Colonial Policing Heritage
5. Beyond a Racialized Representation of Colonial Quarantine: Recollecting the Many Pasts of St John’s Island, Singapore
6. The Prison Gate as Leftist Heritage? Political Indifference and the Pursuit of ‘Healthy Nationalism’ in Japan
7. Organic Heritage Diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific Region: Reconciliatory Landscapes
Part III: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and Difficult Heritage Making
8. Staking Claims to Difficult Memories: Diplomacy and Jewish Heritage in Shanghai and Beyond
9. From Offshore Heritage to Shared Heritage: Transnational Difficult Heritage Making and the Shanghai Provisional Government of Korea
10. Mapping Kyushu’s War-Related Heritage: Hard and Soft Frontiers of Memory in Japan’s ‘Asian’ Gateway
List of Contributors
Index