All Aboard the Orient’s Expression: Reclaiming Asian Perspectives & Identity in the Imperial Age
Channel: AskHistorians
Date: 2021-10-19

Modern Asian histories have been profoundly shaped by European-led imperialism, which has ushered in new forms of trade, migration and conflict. All too often, these histories are interpreted through the lens of anachronistic national narratives, shaping our judgement of what events and experiences are deemed ‘important’ and the ways that these are contextualised. Yet the full range of Asian experiences, identities and responses cannot be contained within such narrow frameworks. This panel explores local perspectives on the encounters and ideas engendered by these processes of imperialism and colonialism, using Asian sources to tell Asian stories.

Learn more about this panel at https://www.askhistorians.com/asian-perspectives

This panel includes a live Q+A with the panelists 20 October 2021, 9-11 AM EDT, on https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians

Featured in this panel are:
"'Merchants Now Rule Our Land': Early British Rule in Singapore (1819–1840) Through the Eyes of the Native Trading Classes" by Syafiqah Jaaffar
"Contemporary Anxieties, Selective Memories: The Missing Narrative of the Indian Prisoner of War in Hong Kong" by Simon Lam
"Three Wise Men of Meiji: Forging a Japanese Aesthetic Tradition at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893" by Shirin Sadjadpour 

Moderated by Jeremy Salkeld

This panel is part of the AskHistorians 2021 Digital Conference. For more Conference content, please go to: https://www.askhistorians.com/2021-digital-conference

Land Acknowledgment:

The AskHistorians Digital Conference (AHDC) Organizing and Diversity and Inclusion Committees acknowledge that the AHDC 2021 is being produced in and viewed from various locations across the world. Many of these locations include lands that are the ancestral, unceded, and treaty territories of Indigenous Peoples from Turtle Island, Abya Yala  [ab-EE-ah ee-AH-lah], and the Americas in their entirety to the traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples in Sweden, Australia, and across the globe. We acknowledge that these lands have been stewarded by these Indigenous communities and nations since time immemorial and we offer our gratitude to these Peoples. We, moreover, recognize that, five hundred years later, settler colonial nations continue to benefit from the brutal realities of genocide and forced removal that enabled the original settler colonizers and conquistadores to seize these lands.

The AHDC organizers acknowledge both the land upon which we are virtually hosting this conference, those lands from which the conference is being viewed, and the deep-rooted and long-lasting wounds caused by white imperialism and settler colonialism. The harmful effects of these actions continue to hurt Indigenous communities across the world. We recognize the responsibility we have as historians to amplify Indigenous Voices and speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. We also acknowledge that while we pursue this goal, academia itself has often been at the forefront of colonial domination and must therefore reckon with its own injustices. Understanding this, we have chosen to make a donation to the Indigenous organization, Forest Peoples Programme, in an effort to give back to Indigenous communities around the world. While we appreciate that Indigenous political, trade, and kinship relationships extend beyond the geographic boundaries that we commonly assign to distinct communities and nations, we would like to particularly acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples upon whose ancestral lands the AHDC 2021 has been produced or hosted as follows:

Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi)
Doeg
Kaskaskia
Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo)
Myaamia
Peoria
Piscataway