Impact Objectives• Research on the development of cities and architecture in the open ports(international settlements and foreign concessions) of East Asia
• Investigate the history and architecture of the Japanese consulate, banks,schools and spinning companies

How Europe, the USand Asia impacted
each other’s societies
Professor An-Suk Son is investigating the societal and cultural impacts of East Asian open ports. He talks
about the type of research he is currently engaged in and some of the collaborations his team have createdto aid their studies
How did you
become involved inthese investigations?
My research began
in the field ofChinese modern
history and Sino-Japanese relations history.
However, when I was at the Diplomatic
Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairsof Japan, I encountered materials related
to Shanghai and decided to devote myself
to Shanghai City research. After that, I
focused on researching the Shanghai foreign
settlement and making use of the illustrated
news magazine The Young Companion,
which was published in the 1920s. The
publication provides a fascinating insight
into the societal and cultural impacts of East
Asian open ports across a range of differentcountries.
What type of research is underway at The
Research Center for Non Written Cultural
Materials at Kanagawa University in Japan?
There are four main research projects that are
currently underway at our Research Center:a joint research and compilation project on
the Multilingual Version of Pictopedia ofEveryday Life in Medieval Japan; 20th-Century

European Popular Culture as Seen throughthe Media and the Body; Reorganization ofReligious Services and the Establishmentof Japanese Shrines in the Border Areas ofImperial Japan; and Research on Wartime
Japan’s Propaganda Kamishibai.
Can you talk about your collaborations
with other academic institutions and theimportance of these collaborations to yourresearch?
Since we are studying the cities in East Asia,
the cooperation of many different researchorganisations in China, Taiwan and South
Korea is indispensable. In particular, we are
actively engaged in the exchange of activities
with the History Research Institute of theShanghai Academy of Social Sciences,
Institute of Modern History of Taiwan
Academia Sinica and the Academy of ChineseStudies of Incheon National University inSouth Korea.
What approaches are you adopting in yourproject?
The foreign settlements research projectis important not only from the findings wehope to make, but also for the promotionof joint research by experts from a wide

range of different fields. For example, many
Japanese spinning factories were expanding
into Shanghai before the war - these spinningcompanies left many factories and company
housing buildings in their wake, but in order
to investigate the substance and impact ofthese companies, it is necessary to approachand analyse the situation from different areasof expertise and perspectives. Therefore, weare looking at things from the point of viewof history, architecture and economics, witha view to achieving a well-rounded picture ofthe impacts.
What are you planning to work on next?
For the time being, I would like to departfrom our focus on Shanghai and proceedwith my research investigation that looks
at the foreign settlements of Guangzhou
and Xiamen (Amoy) in South China. I am
particularly interested in the process bywhich the modern cultures of the west wereintroduced to Hong Kong and Guangzhou,
and then expanded to other cities in North
China such as Tianjin, via Shanghai. Of
course, within this process, we also expect todetermine the effects of western culture onJapan and the Korean Peninsula.

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Ground Plan of the Foreign Settlement at Shanghai (1855; excerpt from Shanghai Library (ed.)“Maps of Old Shanghai (Lao Shanghai Ditu)”, 2001 Shanghai Pictorial Press)

generally include a foreign settlement, so a
foreign entity would essentially control anarea in Japan, Korea or China. As a result,that area, although located in the East,
would have significant Western influence.

North China Daily News, magazines,
including The Far Eastern Review, pictures,
leaflets and photo books that have been
discovered in various archives. These
include the Shanghai Municipal Archives,

Our team is composed of experts from a wide rangeof different fields, including history, architecture andeconomics

Cultural impacts ofEast Asian port concessions
and settlements
A team based at The Research Center for Non Written Cultural Materials, Kanagawa University isinvestigating the development of cities and architecture in the open ports of East Asia, which is hoped willshed light on the effects of Western influence on Japanese society and culture

It is difficult for us to imagine from thevantage point of the 21st century, but it was
not so long ago that travelling to and fromcountries around the world required long
journeys on ships. Equally, trade between
countries was done by carrying cargo on
massive ships and there were an almost
unimaginably large number of shipping
routes on the seas and oceans around theworld. To accommodate trade between
countries, there were also ports at locationsin specific countries, many of which in East
Asia were opened as a result of unequal
treaties with Western powers.
These treaty ports were often establishedfollowing military action, where Westernpowers, such as the United Kingdom and theUnited States, defeated military powers in
China, Japan and Korea, then agreed terms
that were extremely favourable towards
the successful nations. It is fascinating to
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consider the impact these treaty ports hadon the countries in which they were located.
For instance, foreigners would pour into
these areas where the treaty ports wereformed and, as a result, restaurants,
foreigners clubs, churches and evenracecourses were built to accommodate
these new citizens. The impact wasultimately colonisation, with foreign powersessentially commandeering specific areas in
China, Japan and Korea and transplanting
a slice of British, North American orEuropean life. It is therefore interesting toconsider the cultural and societal impactsof these arrangements and to what extent
they continue to exist, even though several
decades have passed since the closure of theunequal treaty ports.
THE IMPACTS OF FOREIGN SETTLEMENT
It is with ideas such as this in mind that ateam based at the Research Center for Non
Written Cultural Materials at Kanagawa
University in Japan is looking at the open
ports of East Asia. The team is led byProfessor An-Suk Son and is specificallyinterested in investigating the history andarchitecture of the Japanese consulate,banks, schools, hospitals and spinningcompanies. Spinning companies were thosethat worked with fibres such as silk, spinningthem into yarn to be used in a wide rangeof textiles. Of course, the period of time inwhich the team’s studies are focused wasgreat for industry, and spinning companies
were an essential part of this.
A foreign settlement is based on a contract
where a government (such as the Japaneseor Chinese) transfers the operating rights
within a port to a foreign entity or entities.
When such powers as the UK or US makean agreement to open a treaty port, it would

The research is therefore focused on awide variety of existing buildings thatwere developed during the time of foreign
settlement. ‘Our team is composed ofexperts from a wide range of different
fields, including history, architecture andeconomics,’ outlines Son. ‘We are looking
at consulates, ports, factories, hospitals,schools, banks, etc., that are located at thevarious concessions and settlements. It
has been approximately 150 years since theforeign settlement was established, so it
is very surprising that the historical use ofbuildings and/or the landscape has hardly
changed.’Taiwan Academia Sinica and the Diplomatic
Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairsof Japan. Importantly, the team hopes
to expand the focus of previous studies
to include places such as Qingdao andGuangzhou, with a view to securing acomparative perspective between thedevelopmental relationship of cities in North
China, Central China and South China, andthe various foreign settlements they werepart of.

CULTURAL AND SOCIAL EXCHANGES
There have been previous studies whichhave focused on similar ideas to that ofSon and his team. One of the key ideas
behind this research has been to look at
the exchanges between Europe, the USand Asia over East Asian open ports, andhow they had a significant impact on eachother’s society and culture. However, themajority of previous studies have placed anemphasis on Shanghai in China, Yokohama
in Japan and Incheon in Korea. What makes
Son’s project original and exciting is that itrefocuses these previous studies by utilising
new materials that have come to light in theyears since.

FOSTERING RELATIONSHIPSFOR FUTURE RESEARCH
In addition to the specific research aims, interms of shedding some light on the societal
and cultural impacts of treaty ports morethan a century ago, the team also wants tofoster relationships that will benefit othermodes and forms of research in the future.
‘Our foreign settlements research projectis extremely important for the promotion of
joint research from different fields,’ observes
Son. ‘For example, many Japanese spinningcompanies were expanding into Shanghaibefore the war. The spinning companies
left many factories and company housingbuildings, but in order to investigate thesubstance of these spinning companies, itis necessary to approach and analyse it fromdifferent fields such as history, architectureand economics.’

For instance, the team is studying English
newspapers from that time, such as theBy solidifying these collaborations over thecourse of this project, the team hopes todemonstrate how each area of expertise(and the researchers contained withinthose areas) can come together to generate
findings that are more expansive than thosethat would be generated if they all conducted
research independently. Ultimately, thefindings should provide fascinating insights
into how different cultures came together toinfluence and shape each other over time and how many of these influences continue
to this day. Given that the world is becoming
increasingly globalised, it will be interesting
to see the extent of homogeny and what thismeans for the people living in the locations
being studied today. lw

Project Insights
FUNDINGThe Research Center for Non Written
Cultural Materials at Kanagawa
University was originally funded by theMinistry of Education, Culture,Sports, Science and Technology, Japan,
from fiscal 2003-2007. Since thenthe Center and the East Asian port
concessions and settlements project havebeen sponsored by Kanagawa University
research support funding.
KEY TEAM MEMBERS
Hiroaki Osato (Chinese History), Seizo
Uchida (Architecture), Masanori Tomii(Architecture)
CONTACT
Professor An-Suk Son
Team Leader
T: +81 45 481 5661
E: sona0001@kanagawa-u.ac.jp
W: http://himoji.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/
BIO
Professor An-Suk Son is Senior
Assistant to the President and Professor,
Department of Chinese, Faculty ofForeign Languages, Kanagawa University,
Japan. He earned his PhD from theGraduate School of Arts and Sciences,
the University of Tokyo. Son has
previously held positions in the Facultyof Law at Hokkaido University and theFaculty of Foreign Languages at Kanagwa
University.

THE RESEARCH CENTER FOR NONWRITTEN CULTURAL MATERIALS

Combined presentation session with the research group of Seizo Uchida (March 2019)www.impact.pub 95