Shun-wen Auditorium, 2nd floor of Art & Culture Center, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

(國立政治大學藝文中心二樓舜文大講堂)

Theme

With the rise of renewed global economy at the end of the 20th century, East Asia once again makes itself a strongly felt presence in world history. It gives itself a new prominence by riding on the crest of the wave of economic regionalization, and thereby steps onto the world stage in new guises. Compared with the fate it suffered in the last two centuries, East Asia at the moment is no longer the wretch of the earth always forced to buckle under the pressure of imperialist encroachment. It now is constituted with fast-growing economies competent and flexible enough to engage with one another, and more importantly, with the so-called "West" in general and U.S. in particular on a relatively equal footing.

However, a series of economic success stories is no guarantee of genuine parity with the “West,” to say nothing of complete autonomy for this region. At the same time, it is on its way toward the formation of a coming new East Asia in the midst of inner-tensions, uncertainties, crises and (im)possibilities, some of which are complicated by China's “peaceful rise” to great-power status. All things considered, unless we are able to raise East Asia from its status quo up to the epistemological level and try to theorize it in/as a brand-new conceptual framework, we can't break away from, or at least stay vigilant against, the ideological constraints of the Cold War, which are to a considerable degree perpetuated by the neo-liberal mantra of today's global economy. Hence the major purpose of this workshop—“problematizing East Asia”—neither seeks to follow in the footsteps of the long-standing area studies by delving too deeply and exclusively into the region in question, nor devotes itself to revitalizing the old glory of East Asia by eliminating every bit of Western thoughts from our brain. East Asia here, in other words, is not a specific object of study to be mapped with the given co-ordinates. Neither is it envisioned as a self-sufficient mine of solution to the complications caused by Western dominance. Casting off the "East vs. West" dyad, we rather tend to consider East Asia as a singular conceptual framework in the making, an open-ended problem awaiting us to formulate in as many ways as possible. By mobilizing all the epistemological resources available and scrutinizing self-reflectively the way we engage in our local artistic or theoretical practices, we hope this workshop can be a platform for all the speakers and audience to work together, with a view to problematizing the existent contours of East Asia and, in doing so, reshaping it into an evolving alternative to our habitual ways of thinking.

Speakers

l   Po-Hsin Chiang (蔣伯欣), Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Art History and Art Criticism, Tainan National University of the Arts, TAIWAN

l   Han-yu Huang (黃涵榆), Professor, Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University, TAIWAN

l   Koichiro Kokubun (國分功一郎), Associate Professor, Takasaki City University of Economics, JAPAN

l   Alex Taek-Gwang Lee, Associate Professor of English, Kyung Hee University, SOUTH KOREA

l   Meera Lee, Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies, Syracuse University, USA

l   Yu-lin Lee (李育霖), Associate Professor, Graduate institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies, National Chung Hsing University, TAIWAN

l   Kwai Cheung Lo (羅貴祥), Professor, Humanities and Creative Writing Program, Hong Kong Baptist University, HONG KONG

l   Ryusuke Okajima (岡嶋隆佑), Research Fellow (DC1), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), JAPAN

l   Tony Sin Heng See (薛承興), Senior Lecturer, Department of Fine Art, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, SINGAPORE

l   Mirana May Szeto (司徒薇), Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG

Artists

l   WU Tianzhang (吳天章), TAIWAN

l   NIMURA Hitoshi (二村ヒトシ), JAPAN

Organizing Committee

l   Po-Hsin Chiang (蔣伯欣), Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Art History and Art Criticism, Tainan National University of the Arts, TAIWAN

l   Yen-bin Chiou (邱彥彬), Associate Professor, Department of English, National Chengchi University, TAIWAN

l   Li-chun Hsiao (蕭立君), Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, TAIWAN

l   Yu-lin Lee (李育霖), Associate Professor, Graduate institute of Taiwan Literature and Transnational Cultural Studies, National Chung Hsing University, TAIWAN

l   Hung-chiung Li (李鴻瓊), Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, TAIWAN

l   Hsin-tien Liao (廖新田), Professor, Graduate School of Art Management and Culture Policy, National Taiwan University of Arts, TAIWAN

l   Jiann-guang Lin (林建光), Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chung Hsing University, TAIWAN

l   Liang-ya Liou (劉亮雅), Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, TAIWAN

l   Ming-hung Tu (涂銘宏), Associate Professor, Department of English, Tamkang University, TAIWAN