Seeking a Future for East Asia’s Past: A Workshop on Sinographic Sphere Studies
Wiebke Denecke
“In the early twentieth century, East Asia’s traditional Sinographic Sphere broke apart. What is the future of its legacy in the early twenty-first century? This workshop presents a day of visionary brainstorming with students and scholars articulating the future of their mission to recapture the region’s shared past in a divisive present.”
Yoon Sun Yang (first on right side, standing); Peter Schwartz (second from left in front row)
On April 27 2018 eleven scholars—ranging from graduate students to senior leaders in the field—gathered at BU for a day-long workshop.
We had set ourselves an ambitious task: to think through the emerging field of comparative studies of Asia’s “Sinographic Sphere” (today’s China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) and come up with ideas about how to strategically build that field, which has recently gained momentum and garnered much interest in particular among younger scholars.
Professor Victor Mair, a central figure in the field of Sinophone Studies (of Chinese diaspora literatures), sketched a broad frame for our discussion with his keynote speech “Sinographic Sphere Studies: Problems, Prospects, and Priorities.” For the rest of the workshop we chose an experimental format, enabling a collective brainstorming of sorts. Instead of papers each of the eleven participants produced “idea statements” of about 5 minutes on four topics (1. Conceptualizing “East Asia”: Master Narratives, Terminologies, Translation Issues; 2. Hot Spots in the Study of “East Asia”: Past, Present, Future; 3. Academic Study of “East Asia”: Institutional Realities, Obstacles, Opportunities; 4. Teaching and Communicating “East Asia”: Pedagogy, Publishing and the Public Sphere). After listening to everybody’s statements we opened up for discussion.
The workshop exceeded expectations: the format proved formidably productive for discussions, and a true expedient means to focus on poignant ideas and identify key issues at stake. Our panelist, as well as colleagues from WLL and other departments and students enthusiastically indulged in a rich day of intensive collective thinking on the future of East Asian Studies in a more transnational, less divisive vein.
Click here to view the program from the event, including the official list of speakers and workshop schedule.
