ABSTRACT. There is on-going discussion whether Buddhism and Oriental martial arts are related. Older studies (Nitobe, Deshimaru, Hegel, Donhue, Krug etc.) argue the existence of connection between the two, while newer studies (Benesh, Benett) denies it. The relationship of the Buddhism and Oriental martial arts has been recently explained by Mann and Eisenberg, the former one is scholar in religious studies, the latter one is former bodyguard, who practice both Oriental martial art and Zen Buddhism. However, all these previous studies focus on Mahayana Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism.

Moreover, Mann and Eisenberg are not Buddhist by birth and were not raised in Buddhist society. Therefore, this research will concentrate on the case of karate practitioners in Srilanka, where Theravada Buddhism is still alive. There are many studies on Theravada Buddhism, especially its doctrine, but only little studies (Naidu, Wickremeratne) described Buddhist beliefs and practice of laymen in their daily life in Sri Lanka. On this background, this research will shed light on how Sri Lankan Buddhist karate practitioners interpret and practice Theravada Buddhism in their karate life. It will focus on three main virtues in Theravada Buddhism: dana (generosity), sila (morality, especially Pansil – Five precepts) and bhavana (meditation).

The research method is qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews of Sri Lankan Buddhist karate instructors and participant observation of their practice of Buddhism in their karate life and daily life.

Benesh, Oleg. (2014). Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bennet, Alexander. (2017). Bushido and the Art of Living, An Inquiry into Samurai Values, Japan Library. Eisenberg, Jeff (2017) Fighting Buddha. Martial Arts, Buddhism, Kicking Ass and Saving It, Findhorn Press. Mann, Jeffrey K. (2012) When Buddhists Attack, Tuttle. Naidu, Sushil K. (2008) Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Kalinga Publications, Delphi. Wikremeratne, Swarna. (2006) Buddha in Sri Lanka, State University of New York Press.

ABSTRACT. The Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660) was a key figure of the early modern Catholic missions in what is now Vietnam; in addition to his missionary work, he also made a systematic effort to familiarize European readers with his missionary activities and their Vietnamese setting through his extensive literary output. His work Relazione de' felici successi della santa fede (Rome, 1650) contains a remarkable account of the origin of Buddhism and its spread to China (and from there to what is now Vietnam); in keeping with the religious exclusivism of Christianity in this era, Buddhism is described in highly denigratory terms and its birth and expansion are attributed to the work of demons. In this paper, I will attempt to analyze this account of the foundation of Buddhism as an example of how early modern Catholics interpreted Buddhism and reflected on it, as well as show the sources and context of de Rhodes' narrative.

ABSTRACT. This paper provides new insights into the reception of Ketsubon-kyō (Bloody Pond Sutra) within the Zen Sōtō tradition, focusing on a recently-obtained anonymous manuscript titled Ketsubon-kyō innen (Circumstances Surrounding the Emergence of Bloody Pond Sutra). Building upon pre-existing research (Nakano Yūshin, Nakano Jūsai, Nagahisa Gakusui), that confirms strong associations between the Bloody Pond Sutra and Buddhist ceremonies of bestowing precepts (jukai-e), I argue that the manuscript contains a draft of a sermon delivered (or meant to be delivered) in two sessions to attendants of such a ceremony held at an unidentified temple – suggested by certain details to be located in Kyoto or its vicinity. Written by a person, who identifies himself merely as a temple servant (jisha biku), it offers a unique synthesis of materials addressing women's impurity caused by blood and their potential for salvation. It primarily combines two texts with diverse origins: Ketsubon-kyō wage (Japanese Exposition of Bloody Pond Sutra), a 1713-year lengthy commentary by Shōyo Ganteki from the Pure Land sect (Jōdoshū), and Ketsubon-kyō engi (An Account of the Origin of Bloody Pond Sutra) popularized in the late eighteenth century through woodblock-printed booklets by Shōsen-ji (previously known as Hosshō-ji), a prominent center of the Ketsubon-kyō cult within the Zen Sōtō School. Both of them offer crucial points of reference for establishing details regarding the composition of the manuscript. The former demonstrates a common understanding of the role of the Bloody Pond Sutra, transcending sectarian differences to the extent of reusing exegetical materials from the Pure Land sect in Zen preaching. The latter provides grounds to establish the upper limit of its compilation in the second half of the eighteenth century. With this analysis, the paper sheds light on the reception and interpretation of Ketsubon-kyō within the Zen Sōtō School, contributing to a broader understanding of the interplay between different Buddhist traditions and the evolution of religious texts.

ABSTRACT. This paper looks at how the female literary characters from early Buddhist literature are reinterpreted by modern Western authors. Paper takes into consideration the literary characters of Buddhist nuns appearing in the Therīgāthā - ancient Indian collection of Buddhist poems ascribed to the early Buddhist nuns, being the part of the oldest Buddhist canon. The Therīgāthā, being the most well-known early Buddhist text concerning women had been studied by various scholars and had been translated to several Western languages. In recent years, some western authors also used it as an inspiration. This paper will focus on two such attempts: a book of poems by Matty Weingast (The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, Shambala 2021) and a recent novel of Vanessa R. Sasson (The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women, Equinox 2023). I hope to give some insights about the approaches of afore mentioned authors to the ancient Indian Buddhist material and their attempts to make it approachable to modern readers. Lastly, I will reflect on the controversy over Weingast's book and criticism and even accusations of misinterpretation it received from Buddhist communities.

Selected bibliography: Blackstone, Kathryn R. 1998. Women in the Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for Liberation in the Therigatha, Routledge. Collett, Alice. 2016. Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Gruszewska, Joanna. 2016. Some Remarks on Research on Gender Roles in the Textual Sources of Buddhism, “Studia Religiologica” 3 (49) 2016, p. 277-286. Sasson, Vanessa R. 2023. The Gathering: A Story of the First Buddhist Women, Sheffield: Equinox. Wadhwa, Soni. 2021. Feminist Literary Criticism Meets Feminist Theology: Yashodhara and the Rise of Hagiographical Fiction in Modern Feminist Re-visioning. “SAGE Open” 2021, 11.4, 1-11. Wadhwa, Soni. 2023. Love as Enlightenment and Enlightenment as Love: Reading Feminist Hermeneutic of Reconstruction in Vanessa R Sasson’s Yasodhara and the Buddha. “Feminist Theology”, 31(3), 353–365. Weingast, Matty. 2021. The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, Boulder: Shambala.

ABSTRACT. In 1924 British archeologist John Marshall published an article in which he informed the public on his work in Mohenjo Daro which revealed an advanced urban settlement now considered to be one of the centres of the Indus Valley Civilization. Since then, the identity of the builders of Mohenjo Daro, Harappa and other settlements in the Indus Valley has become a topic of debates not only among scholars of various disciplines, but also political ideologists and activists representing different communities and political visions. Deriving the ancestry from Indus Valley Civilization became a way of establishing for the groups as the oldest and most ancient, thus having more legitimization for their projects concerning national identity.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the role of the Indus Valley civilization in selected nationalist discourses. The paper argues, that the interpretations of the past of the Indus Valley are treated as political myths concerning the beginnings or the ‘Golden Age’, typical to nationalist narratives and discourses. The paper will take into account Indian and Hindu nationalisms (both secular and religious), regional ethnic nationalisms (Sindhi, Dravidian) and the Pakistani approach to the Indus Valley Civilization. By providing the analysis of their discourses, the paper will attempt to determine the role of the Indus Valley Civilization in their respective political narratives.

ABSTRACT. Locating the victim: Russia’s War Against Ukraine Coverage in Indian Printed media

Russia’s war against Ukraine has been extensively covered in the media. The war itself included battle of narratives and propaganda which can be traced in the media all over the world. India is not an exception. Since the start of full-scale invasion, the war has got a vast coverage in Indian online and printed media, also on TV. As printed media remains the most credible source of information in India, this paper offers an analysis of the main narratives on the war in Ukraine in the four biggest English language printed newspapers in India over the period of almost two years: half a year before the full-scale invasion and till June 2023. This allows to see how the media vision of the Indian positioning concerning the war has been changing throughout the period of full-scale war, starting from the NATO vs. Russia narrative, and bringing more to the narrative of the future of Indian multipolarity. Many publications also stressed India’s self-vision as a global player and a mediator in the conflict. Over the period of research there is visible tendency of changing the narrational location of Ukraine as from the indefinite geographical territory that has “pro-Russia and pro-Ukrainian people” to the free-standing actor, but in the cooperation with NATO and the EU. The notion of Indian strategic neutrality preserves all over the period, however with the voices that New Delhi “cannot sit on a fence”. A qualitative content analysis reveals that commentators in Indian media has mainly focused on Indian interests, consequences and possible gains and losses that this conflict may cause to their country than by the global consequences or the suffering of Ukrainian people.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to bring forth the gendered experiences of Tamil women focusing on the implication of sociocultural norms related to notions of shame and honour. The paper includes the personal stories of Sri Lankan Tamil women, who are living as refugee persons in the Devakottai camp. The camp is located in the district of Sivaganga in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. In the camp, a clear gender division exists, as certain expectations and pressures are placed upon women to conform based on social norms and code of conduct. However, women of the camp enjoy a relatively satisfactory position in comparison to women in other societies of South Asia, as they participate in earning for the household and decision-making for the family. Despite posing a liberal outlook, maintaining a physical separation between public and private space is viewed as an important step in ensuring the conservation and stability of traditional cultural values by male members of the camp. Women are generally subjected to very strict shame-honour norms and scrutiny, and any deviation from it attracts social, cultural, and moral consequences. These cultural notions are often reinforced with greater emphasis, especially on young girls who attain puberty. Regulating their sexuality, mobility, and gendered relationship to safeguard their ‘purity’ is extremely common among the Tamil families here. As women’s bodies, ideologically, heralded as repositories of honour and status of their families, thus any act by women beyond the traditional patriarchal role is considered equivalent or any harm to their bodies is regarded as bringing shame or disrespect to the family or community. Thus, a male member of the camps puts patriarchal surveillance on women’s behaviour which is reinforced by systematic and often quite severe control of women's social and especially sexual behaviour including their mobility and access to certain spaces. These strict rules constrict women’s behaviour and make them perform according to the demands and wishes of the family and community members. For understanding the gendered experiences of Tamil women the paper is using the qualitative methods of ethnography and case study. For conducting interviews the paper is using a method of semi-structured interview but is also relying on informal conversational interviews with no predetermined questions in order to remain open and adaptable to the needs and priorities of interviewees.

Shame, honour, refugee, gender, public-private, purity.

ABSTRACT. Telling A Leftist Story: Narratives of Communist Women from Bombay

This paper examines how communist women represent themselves in their personal narratives to address the misinterpretation of their lived experiences both political and personal in the contemporary public domain, in the context of anti-colonial struggles amongst the working class of Bombay, India. Women who associated themselves with the new kind of political ideology- which emerged with the popularisation of Marxist writings and ideas of revolution emanating from the Russian revolution, especially among the youth in the early twentieth century- found themselves caught in a quagmire of challenges with communist politics being considered disruptive not only by the colonial state but by mainstream nationalism led by the Indian National Congress. These women found themselves outside the purview of the popular construct of ‘nationalism’ and notions of ‘womanhood’ simultaneously struggling with new political concepts, process of building an organisation and treading an alternative path to Independence of India

The constant web of conflict had ramifications both personal and political which these women have underscored to inspire informed interpretations of their contributions to women’s political development and history. Therefore, I will focus on the autobiographies of Ushatai Dange (But Who Listens?, 2003) and Parvatibai Bhor (The Truth About a Fighter, 1977) supplemented by other kinds of narratives to address the above mentioned concerns.

ABSTRACT. The presentation shows how precarity is produced and reproduced by Vietnamese migration to the Czech Republic. The presentation argues that in Vietnam, the migrants do not benefit from the state welfare system. Instead, they create a complicated family system of negotiated reciprocity, providing them with a basic degree of socio-economic security. The migrants transplant this mentality to the Czech Republic, where the migrants rely on their traditional social family/kin network, providing them with a certain degree of socio-economic security. But, due to various factors, the system is too expensive that it only reproduces the migrant's precarity that is passed to the next diasporic generations.

ABSTRACT. Existing research shows that the diasporic life leads to a higher frequency of mental illnesses among those in the diaspora living in other countries. This presentation will show how the situation in the Czech Republic,and analyze the attitudes of diaspora people to mental health, prevention of mental illness, and its treatment. The presentation shows that diasporic members consider wearing a mental disorder as a stigma. To avoid diasporic stigmatization, first-generation migrants usually do not look for medical treatment if they face a mental disorder. The situation is much better in the second generation, which already do not face a language barrier and does not consider diasporic stigmatization as an important factor in their decision-making about medical treatment. Those people usually visit doctors and openly speak about their mental problems.

ABSTRACT. The article compares two sets of inter-generational conflicts, those over inter-ethnic and same-sex romantic relationships of the second-generation Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic. The research reveals that the first-generation Vietnamese in the Czech Republic display strong homophobic tendencies and believe that homosexuality is a spreadable sickness, curse, or bad karma and shame of the parents/family. But, collected data show that the conflicts over interethnic relationships between the parents and their LGBT+ children are less intensive. In the end, LGBT+ children enjoy more freedom in terms of inter-ethnic romantic relationships. The article argues that allowing the inter-ethnic same-sexual relationship of their children is a part of parents’ strategy how to keep the family reputation intact. More importantly, same-sex children usually use a complicated strategy to prove to be good children, which usually leads to slow acceptance of the same-sex inter-generational relationships of the children by the parents. On the other, heterosexual children are considered a part of the migrant system resisting various precarity. As such, it is essential to keep them within the parents' socio-cultural environment, which can be disturbed by a non-co-ethnic and non-co-cultural romantic/marital partner.

ABSTRACT. Although not originally created to spread awareness about and convey a sense of urgency towards the current environmental crisis, the novel Red Sorghum (1987) by Mo Yan (1955-) and the novella The Years, Months, Days (1997) by Yan Lianke (1958-) stimulate one to deeply reconsider the modern conception of the relationship between man and nature, which is at the very basis of the crisis. The hybrid identities of the two authors, both urban intellectuals of rural origins, has allowed them to recover an ancient vision in which a mysterious and powerful nature inexorably acts upon small individual or collective human events. This broad gaze on men – which never forgets the ‘species horizon’ (Benedetti, 2021), i.e. the vast background in which human events unfold – ultimately restores a tragic and epic sense of their lives. Recent contributions in the Western ecocritical debate have identified the epic and mythic dimension recovery – in which the art of the written word is never detached from the art of thinking – as a device that gives life “to a powerful word, capable of enchanting” and eventually redesigning the world due to its awakening and mobilizing force (Benedetti, 2021). This paper proposes a preliminary analysis of recurring themes and rhetorical devices through which the two authors systematically reintegrate the ‘species horizon’ into the daily lives of their characters, thus making small human events even more worth the storytelling experience. Considered from this peculiar perspective, Mo Yan’s and Yan Lianke’s works deserve to be placed alongside those of great writers, from Dostoevskij to Achebe and Powers, who have never forgotten to outline diverse human stories within a broader horizon in which men are simply terrestrials among terrestrials.

ABSTRACT. This paper looks at environmental themes in novels by the Kyrgyz author Chinggis Aitmatov and the Uzbek writer Hamid Ismailov, both set in Soviet Kazakhstan. Central Asian countries share cultural and religious heritage, as well as experiences during and after the Soviet period. The novelists came from different Soviet republics, but writing in different periods under different regimes, address issues of environment and ethnicity in similar ways. In Aitmatov’s The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years (1980), Soviet space research bases are out of bounds to local people, who are denied access to their own sacred territory. Aitmatov borrows the Kyrgyz concept of mankurtisation to critique the subalternisation of Central Asians in their own land. Ismailov’s The Dead Lake (2014) tells the story of a Kazakh boy physically and emotionally damaged after entering a Soviet nuclear testing zone. The boy’s background and suffering are both linked to a local man who serves the Soviet regime as a scientist and ideological supporter. The authors’ positioning of Moscow as the metropole and use of traditional Central Asia legend and imagery in their critiques of Soviet environmental and ethnic modernism and neo-colonial practices reveal a sense of helplessness and anxiety in the face of forces beyond the control of local people. The culture, beliefs, and identity of Central Asian people are strongly connected with their land and environment. I examine the linked motifs of Soviet environmental exploitation and denial of agency to local people from a post-colonial angle which uses place to interrogate Soviet othering of nature and human beings. Although the stories relate to Soviet Central Asia, the events in them and their effects on local people will resonate with any culture or society similarly threatened and disenfranchised by powerful external entities.

ABSTRACT. his paper explores the travels of Ma Huan, a Muslim sailor and translator who accompanied Chinese Admiral Zheng He on his voyages to the Indian Ocean in the early 15th C. After travelling to littoral states such as Java, Malacca, Ceylon, Calicut and Aden, he wrote down his observations and experiences in a book named The Overall Survey of the Ocean (1433). This travelogue is important to us for various reasons. Firstly, it allows us to see how the Chinese approached their neighbouring countries through the sea-route. Secondly, the exhaustive detail provides us a glimpse of the custom and the people of South-East and South Asia of the 15th Century such as wives taking foreign men with the consent and blessings of their respective husbands. It elicits curiosity in him but unlike Ibn Batutta or Marco Polo, he doesn’t rush to establish a sense of cultural superiority. Thirdly, his eagerness takes him beyond the port cities where he engages with village elders and records the local myths, legends and folktales. He also vividly describes the local flora and fauna for his readers back home. Most importantly, in this text we see the East through the lens of a Chinese translator in which the travel is taking place from East to West rather than the other way around. To critically analyse his text, I aim to take an multidisciplinary approach involving literature, history, cultural studies and anthropology. Furthermore, I compare Ma Huan’s travels with the works of Ibn Battuta and Nicolo Di Conti to understand the cultural and political climate of the 15th C Indian Oceanic region. My intention is to bring Ma Huan from periphery to the center and place him at par with his popular counterparts.

ABSTRACT. Ji Xian 紀弦 (1913-2013), a Mainland Chinese poet who moved to Taiwan in the late 1940s, is known to be the pioneer of Taiwanese poetic modernism. Nevertheless, Ji Xian’s poetic theory and stance on modernism were often misinterpreted by his contemporaries, such as the Blue Star poetry society’s leading authors Qin Zihao覃子豪 (1912-1963) and Yu Guangzhong 余光中 (1928-2017), who initially failed to understand Ji’s modernist project. The famous Horizontal Transplantation (Heng de yizhi 橫的移植) tenet on the introduction of 20th-century Western poetry is undoubtedly his most misinterpreted proposal, as the poet was harshly criticized for promoting a complete Westernization of Chinese poetry and for the removal of any element of Chineseness from local poems. This contribution aims to explore the interpretations and misinterpretations of Ji’s modernist stance by his contemporaries. Specifically, it will examine the Poetic Debate on Modernism that arose in 1957 and the renowned Horizontal Transplantation theory to define what Ji Xian truly envisioned for the future of poetry in Taiwan and shed light on the existence of different viewpoints on modernism in the 1950s.

ABSTRACT. I will present some poems by the contemporary Taiwanese poet Chen Li 陳黎 (b. 1954), known not only in Taiwan and China for his experiments in visual sound poetry. These texts allow the reader-listener a multiplicity of interpretations, forcing him to go beyond the purely semantic reading mode and focus on the poem’s sonority. I will illustrate the main ways of experimenting with the sounds offered by Chen Li’s texts, with particular attention to those that have undergone a multimedia re-mediation or recreation, and which draw attention to the centrality of the voice and its power. Because, as Zumthor (1983) states, 'A message is not reduced to its manifest content, but entails a latent one, consisting in the medium that transmits it', and the voice can go beyond the word. This is the case with Chen Li’s poetic experiments, whose intention is not only to communicate sense but also to attract the reader-listener to the illocutionary power of the voice in a game indifferent to the production of meaning, to drive him to hear the sounds of a language, rich in homophones, with new ears.

ABSTRACT. Although Italy is renowned in Taiwan for its refined cultural production, it is not uncommon for this knowledge to remain limited to a classic, past time-bounded and often stereotyped canon. This limit is particularly evident in the field of poetry. Generally speaking, as far as Italian poetry in Chinese translation is concerned, only Dante’s masterpiece The Divine Comedy finds wide circulation in Taiwan. Other poets translated and published (in monographs, but more often in mixed anthologies) are either very prestigious names, as in the case of Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), Cesare Pavese (1908-1950) and Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970), or winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, such as Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907), Grazia Deledda (1871-1936), Salvatore Quasimodo (1901-1968) and Eugenio Montale (1896- 1981). But how are these poets translated and how are they presented to Taiwanese readers? If the selection criterion is mere fame, and the poetic production of the respective authors is read and translated independently of its original production context, then which interpretative practices and which possible misunderstandings come into play? By analysing a selection of significant case studies, this contribution is intended as a preliminary investigation into the translation practices of Italian poetry in Taiwan, reflecting on the more or less faithful and more or less effective solutions found by Taiwanese translators, as well as on their respective motivations and effects.

ABSTRACT. The fact that metaphors are not solely rhetorical or literary, but primarily a cognitive phenomenon that structures language, understanding, and even our own thoughts and actions as "metaphorizing animals" (Johnson, 1995), has been extensively demonstrated in the pioneering study by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Poetry, as a form of language and literary expression, is the privileged realm for metaphor. Consequently, the translators are constantly exposed to metaphors, and their work is therefore constantly at risk of distortion and misinterpretation. In some cases, puns can combine with metaphors, pushing translation and linguistic/cultural mediation to the boundaries of untranslatability. My contribution aims to analyze the interaction of metaphor and wordplay in selected songs from Midnight Songs (Ziyege 子夜歌), a collection of forty-two anonymous pentasyllabic quatrains written by, or for, female singers, believed to have originated in the 4th and 5th centuries AD. Specifically, I will present some instances of challenging interpretation, others of 'extreme mediation', and still others where mediation seems impossible. It is precisely in these latter cases that the translator, instead of admitting defeat, may discover a “thirdness” (van Crevel and Klein, 2019) which could open up new perspectives and solutions to poetry translation.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the motivations, strategies, and implications of the 'End Comfort Women Fraud' (ECWF) movement, a South Korean civic group that staged a four-day demonstration in the summer of 2022 protesting the permanent installation of a 'Statue of Peace' commemorating the contested history of what are euphemistically called ‘comfort women’—in the public sphere of Moabit-Berlin, Germany. Comprised of activists with ties to conservative groups in South Korea and Japan, the ECWF movement has gained minor attention for its historical revisionist discourse and transnational activism. Through an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach combining participatory observation and content analysis of online media, this study investigates the value and reception of the ECWF movement among the Japanese online participatory audience.

The findings reveal that the ECWF movement strategically employed the comfort women issue to advance broader political agendas and mobilize support. Moreover, social media platforms played a crucial role in disseminating their messages and mobilizing financial contributions, particularly from a predominantly Japanese audience. Finally, this paper explores the intricate connections between the ECWF movement, other conservative organizations, historical revisionism, and the transnational circulation of their narratives.

While ostensibly focused on contested history, the primary aim of the ECWF movement is to signal activity and solidarity to (a predominantly Japanese) online audience, rather than engaging in dialogue with German and South Korean counter-protestors or unrelated bystanders. By analyzing the discourse surrounding the protests from the Japanese recipient side, this study delves into understanding the perceived significance and reception of the ECWF movement among the Japanese online participatory audience, shedding light on the broader transnational dynamics at play.

Overall, by unpacking the motivations, strategies, and cross-cultural reception of the ECWF movement, this research contributes to our understanding of historical revisionism, transnational activism, and the interplay between socio-political civic movements, public discourse, and online audiences.

ABSTRACT. This paper looks at how a socio-economically disadvantaged group of Muslim barbers in south India interpret various verses in the Quran to shore up their challenge against unequal social relations. Both barber men and women have historically been engaged in Malabar on the south-west coast of India in providing barbering services such as shaving, cutting nails, trimming beard and circumcision and midwifery to other Muslims. They often received rewards for these services in kind rather than in cash. Owing to their occupation, barbers were seen as different and low in status. Not only that other Muslims did not engage in marital relations with barbers, they also did not usually allow barbers to have commensal relations. Since such hereditary occupations and unequal relationships have largely been colored in the whole Indian subcontinent by caste, Muslim barbers have to often distinguish and legitimize their work not as ‘caste-occupation’ but an Islamic one. To assert that, Muslim barbers resort to a moral imperative in Islam to have a barber in the community to keep the comportment of a Muslim. In addition, they claim that their ancestor did not convert from a Hindu caste to take up the barbering job but was an original Arab Muslim who volunteered for the job. Muslim barbers also challenge any characterization of their work as ‘caste’ by asserting that Islam is an egalitarian religion. I argue that Muslim barbers construct egalitarian vision of Islam by interpreting myths, various versed in the Quran and contesting any misinterpretation of their occupation. I suggest that categories of interpretation/misinterpretation are key to the construction of group identities and imagining newer forms of sociality.

ABSTRACT. The process of transition to socialism in early 1950s China ushered in a new era in the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the rural masses. The agricultural policies introduced at this stage paradoxically harmed those poor and middle peasants who had allied with the CCP during the communist revolution and land reform, causing waves of resentment in the villages. Considered by the central authorities as an expression of the “non-antagonistic contradictions” (feiduikangxing maodun) persisting in rural society, peasant aversion should have been countered through non-violent methods of “persuasion and education” (shuofu jiaoyu). Contrary to what is generally claimed, however, this praxis was not always respected. My analysis of some public security bureau documents stored in Jiangxi province local archives has evidenced that many ordinary villagers were often arrested and interned in the reform through labour camps (laogaiying) even for minor offences. They thus suffered similar treatment to the rich peasants, former landowners and the other so-called “counter-revolutionaries” (fangeming fenzi). These findings therefore shed new light on the relationship between the CCP and the rural masses in the early years of the communist regime, showing that even before the 1957-58 anti-rightist purges the State did not hesitate to severely punish individuals from “good” classes also for trivial crimes. They also provide valuable details on the still little-known prison labour system in post-liberation China.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines factors driving Indonesia’s and Vietnam’s approaches to the US-China strategic competition and implications to the East Asian security framework. The two countries are studied due to their significance in the region. Indonesia is known as a de facto leader of ASEAN due to its overwhelming population, territory, and historical claims. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s long coastline faces the South China Sea, a “strategic flashpoint” in the US-China strategic competition. The geopolitical significance, coupled with Hanoi’s ceaseless struggle against China’s influence, makes it a critical player in the regional security architecture. In this paper, the author posits Indonesia’s and Vietnam’s foreign policies under a combination of hedging theory and middle-power diplomacy. She contends that the hedging theory clarifies nuances between middle powers’ perspectives on powerhouses’ statecraft in their race for influence. At the same time, middle-power diplomacy yields an illuminating insight into how they respond to the great-power rivalry dynamics and contribute to regional security and stability. Therefore, by adopting both hedging and middle-power diplomacy theories, this paper is expected to comprehensively analyze Hanoi’s and Jakarta’s foreign policies vis-à-vis the US-China competition. Despite both highlighting strategic autonomy in their doctrines, Indonesia’s and Vietnam’s hedging strategies and middle-power diplomacy differ in practice. The author argues that how they hedge against the US-China competition and practice middle-power diplomacy is decided by their distinctive historical contexts, strategic environments, and resource availability.

ABSTRACT. This paper depicts collaborations, conflicts, misunderstandings, and negotiations between Japan and Thailand during the Second World War (1941–1945). It shifts from a broad picture of research on Japan's and Thailand's big-scale policies to a more detailed look at what happened in real situations by investigating the recorded experiences of Thai officials and Thai people who interacted with Japanese government and officials. This paper contends that it is necessary to comprehend a period in which two disparate countries needed to compromise and tolerate each other as they were united by a common goal: war. It is also necessary to understand more on civilians' perceptions and emotions during a time of war as they were the ones most affected by state decisions to form alliances.

Widely known that Thailand declared an official alliance with Japan in 1941, this relation was unique from those of other then-colonised Southeast Asian countries occupied by Japan. However, while Japanese troops were stationed in Thailand, language barriers and cultural differences led to conflicts between Thais, Thai officials, and Japanese officials, which sometimes resulted in hostile situations. These were worrisome for the two governments as they might affect the relationship. In terms of states’ perceptions, Japan positioned itself as the "big brother," while Thailand was regarded as the "little brother." Thus, Japan claimed a leading role in the direction of military, economic, and civilian policies in Thailand. The Thai government, on the other hand, sought to reaffirm its sovereignty and independence in state operations. Historical details illustrate struggles and compromising of the two countries in maintaining their relationship during the war, and how the alliance affected Thai civilians.

The argument of this paper was based on employing a historical approach and analysing Thai documents in Thailand's National Archives, which included state documents, official reports, court cases, and newspapers.

ABSTRACT. April 30th, 1975 holds significance for the Vietnamese Government as a day of unification and reconciliation between the previously divided North and South regions of the country. However, within the refugee diaspora, this date represents the commencement of the boatpeople exodus, known as Black April, which is still commemorated and remembered. A notable opposition persists between the Communist Party and the Anticommunist refugees. Nevertheless, a closer examination of the discourses emerging from younger generations, encompassing perspectives from within and outside Vietnam, reveals a more complex discourse. Through an extensive study consisting of sixty interviews and content analysis of Facebook discussions, totaling over 3000 messages contributed by a thousand individuals, it becomes evident how descendants who did not directly experience the aforementioned event and era still connect with its memory and construct more nuanced narratives about the past.

Our research discerned several key interpretive discourses regarding the past, each with varying implications for present-day reconciliation. Firstly, these debates challenge the influence of ideologies from both sides on collective memory. Secondly, participants exhibit critical perspectives towards discourses rooted in trauma, nostalgia, or anger. The psychological dimensions of memory contribute to potential misinterpretations of the past. While the younger generation seeks objectivity, they also strive to remain loyal to their families' experiences. Lastly, the perspectives individuals defend are deeply intertwined with their values, revealing conflicts that oppose past and future, as well as unity of the people and particular identities.

In summary, the discussions surrounding April 30th illuminate the dynamics of memory transmission among different generations of Vietnamese diasporas, including young Vietnamese individuals. Furthermore, these debates raise important questions about the influence of memory on interpretations of the past and its lasting effects.

ABSTRACT. Japanese tea ceramics show marks carved into the bottom of the vessels before firing them. This paper deals with the different interpretations of these oven marks (kama jirushi) and how they help to show the impact of military leader and tea master Furuta Oribe (1544–1615) on the aesthetics, production, and distribution of tea utensils during the Momoyama period (1673–1615). The interpretations and misinterpretations of oven marks will be traced and the broad production of tea utensils ranging from Mino kilns in today’s Aiichi prefecture to Karatsu and Takatori kilns in Kyushu in southern Japan and even in South Korea according to the aesthetics of Oribe are explained. The second half of the 16th century was not only characterized by military conflicts between local military leaders fighting for hegemonial power in Japan but also extensive contact and exchange with foreign cultures. This triggered an aesthetic revolution in the tea ceremony (chanoyu). Regarding tea utensils extraordinary designs and shapes (ifū itai) were celebrated. and bold and willfully irregular ceramics were appreciated by Furuta Oribe and his circles. Shino, Seto and Kiseto, Karatsu, Iga, Bizen and Oribe ware as well as some Korean tea bowls not only share Oribe’s favored aesthetics (Oribe gonomi) of bold and distorted shapes, innovated glazes, and unconventional design, some of them also share the same carved marks on their bottoms. These marks were attributed to certain potters as a kind of signature or have been regarded as special marks by certain merchants who ordered the vessels in order to distinguish their ware. There are also marks connected to special potters. It is said that following the example of the military leader Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) who singled out six potters from the old ceramic production center of Seto to promote production there, Oribe also appointed ten potters from the Mino region and six potters from Kyoto for particular patronage. Their existence was contested in recent scholarship; however, some names can be detected in historical documents and their marks on Oribe ware that first appeared in Mino the 16th century and was mass produced until the second decade of the 17th century. Furthermore, oven marks provide evidence for the involvement of Kyoto tea ware merchants in the production of Oribe gonomi tea ware. In addition, they provide evidence for the existence of certain potters who were touring all over Japan to guide the production of such tea ware. Even though not all oven marks are fully interpreted yet, it can be stated that they elucidate the highly professional production and distribution of vessels sharing the innovative aesthetics of the tea master Furuta Oribe during the period of the end of the 16th to the early 17th century.

ABSTRACT. There have been long-standing debates on the nature of early „Korean-Japanese” relations. One issue involves topics such as the interpretation of keyhole-shaped tombs in Korea’s South Chŏlla region, or the influence and limitations of geonationalist frameworks and historical records when interpreting the relations between Korea and Japan. (Lee 2019) In recent years, a consensus were made among scholars that there was a wide trading and maritime network between the Yŏngsan River basin in present-day South Chŏlla province (South Korea) and the Ariake Sea coastline (Kyūshū, Japan) presumably with a transnational community.

According to archaeological evidence such as the recognizable change in burial styles, Paekche kingdom expanded into the southwestern Korean peninsula between the late fifth century and early sixth century. (Tanaka 2008, Takata 2019) During this time, keyhole-shaped tombs - that have been considered a characteristic unique to Japan during the Kofun period (between the third and sixth century) – were built in the Yŏngsan River basin area. (Lee 2014)

In this paper, based on archaeological data and prior research, I will focus on the characteristics of one of the external tomb features, the terracotta clay figures 埴輪 (normally found on the Japanese archipelago), comparing them with Japanese Kinki region-style ritual pottery from the same time period, examine the change in their stlye and manufacturing techniques, while (re)considering the cultural-historical reasons behind this process.

References: Lee, Dennis: Keyhole Shaped Tombs and Unspoken Frontiers: Exploring the Borderlands of Early Korean-Japanese Relations in the 5th–6th centuries. Ph.D. diss. University of California, Los Angeles. 2014. Takata, Kanta: Ikei no kofun – Chōsen hantō no zenpōkōen-fun. Tokyo: Kadokawa, 2019. Tanaka, Toshiaki: Chōsen no rekishi: Senshi kara gendai. Kyoto: Shōwadō, 2008.

ABSTRACT. The presentation examines diplomatic contacts between Europe and the kingdom of Ayutthaya in the seventeenth century. During the century, economic, political and religious interactions between the two regions have increased remarkably. Before the rise of European imperialism in the nineteenth century, however, Europeans in Southeast Asia were not in a position to act as conquerors, but largely depended on political negotiation and the goodwill of Asian kings and courts. At the same time, trade relations within Southeast Asia intensified to a previously unknown extent and made diplomacy an important tool for political and economic intercourse between the kingdoms and principalities in the region. Diplomatic missions were crucial instruments for regulating Europe-Asia relations and are therefore at the center of my presentation. Embassies and royal audiences provided opportunities for kings, courtiers and companies to negotiate political hierarchies, economic interests and cultural conflicts in public, representing competing political claims expressed in symbolic gestures and languages. My talk aims at describing the complex diplomatic interactions between Europe and Siam and seeks to capture some of their essential characteristics. First, it considers the ideological foundations of European-Asian diplomacy by tracing the different political cosmologies and concepts of world order involved in diplomatic negotiations. Secondly, it offers a comparative perspective on the different visual languages, rituals, state ceremonies and other ways of symbolic communication that informed political intercourse between Southeast Asia and Europe. Thirdly, the project will deal with cultural intermediaries, their personal networks and modes of perception of other cultures.

ABSTRACT. After the arrival of the first groups of members of Missions Étrangères de Paris (MEP) comprising Pierre Lambert de la Motte, Jacques de Bourges, and François Deydier in 1662 in Siam, the wave of French priests appears continuously in this land until nowadays for catholicizing non-believers. Among these missionaries was Louis Laneau, who arrived in Siam in 1662 before becoming the first vicar apostolic of Siam and the titular bishop of Métellopolis until he died in 1696. Throughout his first years in Ayutthaya, he spent time at an unknown temple to learn to speak Siamese and study the Pâli language. Consequently, Bishop Laneau composed a dictionary, a handbook of Siamese grammar, and many versions of the catechism and translated the New Testament into the Siamese language. These literary works were used to introduce Christian doctrines to the local society. Moreover, Bishop Laneau borrowed technical terms used by the Siamese Buddhists to familiarize the Siamese people with the divergent concept of Catholicism. Amongst these countless borrowed words, savan, narok badan, and three vocabularies meaning the celestial being – thevada, ruppaphrom, and aruppaphrom were used for interpreting, respectively, the paradise, hell, limbo, angel, archangel, and seraphim in Catholic books. Although, the conventional use of terms borrowed from the technical vocabulary of Buddhism to express concepts led to ambiguities, misunderstandings even misinterpretations, given that the foundations of the two religious doctrines are without analogies. Additionally, it led to the nourishing high-level intellectual debate between the Siamese religious and ruling elites and the French fathers, which did not go without provoking a hostile reaction. Then, after the early twenty century, using some of these words was abolished and replaced by another neutral-meaning word.

ABSTRACT. Since the colonial era and under ever-evolving political and scientific paradigms, the exchange of people, goods and ideas along the maritime trade routes that once connected the Indian subcontinent with Southeast Asia has been the object of scholarly research. Monumental architecture dedicated to Indic gods and numerous Sanskrit inscriptions found all over Southeast Asia, bear witness to the profound influence Brahmins, as custodians of the Vedas, exerted as intermediaries between these regions. Despite the ascent of Theravada Buddhism to dominance across the Southeast Asian mainland, including Siam (present-day Thailand), during the first half of the second millennium, minuscule communities of Brahmins continued to thrive in close proximity to political elites amongst Buddhist majority societies. In this paper, an attempt shall be made to reconstruct the understanding of and attitude towards the various branches of traditional Indic knowledge (philosophy, arts, and sciences) prevalent in premodern Siamese society (17th-19th c.). What did representatives of the educated classes know about the content of the Vedas and what were indigenous perspectives on the purpose and importance of these texts? To what extent did the population of premodern Siam partake of and interact with the intellectual traditions of the Indian subcontinent? In order to create a comprehensive survey of the historical Siamese experience in relation to the dissemination of traditional Indic knowledge and its adaptation to the local intellectual milieu, written sources from a variety of literary genres will be analyzed. These include, among others, didactic treatises, religious texts, poetry, as well as the earliest anthropological interviews conducted in Siam.

ABSTRACT. The 1980s were the beginning of a new and extremely prolific era in female fiction writing in continental China. The ‘thaw’ in the field of cultural expression, which came with the start of postmaoism, allowеd for the gradual development of new and increasingly bolder forms of literary expression. Wang Anyi, who experienced both the darkest episodes of Maoism and the cultural shift of the 80s and 90s, grew to become one of China’s most formidable and widely recognized contemporary fiction writers. Her 1989 novella „Brothers“ bears the mark of the author’s earlier work in that it focuses on the characters’ psychological landscape, as opposed to painting a wider societal picture. In a broader sense it can be said to occupy a transitory space in Chinese literature where the topics of love and female intimacy started to reappear оn the creative scene, whilst also displaying a type of tameness, a fear of breaking completely free from traditional family conventions. This article will attempt to elucidate these themes through the lens of studies on female homosocial relations, in combination with studies on love (i.e. according to the Ancient Greeks) and sexuality. Its primary aim is to examine the particular brand of female intimacy, explored in the novella, and the ways it was impacted by the sign of the times, as well as to offer an interpretation as to why the love between the characters was, in the end, doomed to fail before it even came to full bloom.

ABSTRACT. Creativity, a concept that has been shaped in diverse ways throughout history, gains even more intrigue with the emergence of a complex and controversial element like AI. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the divergent perspectives on technology that may pose threats to human employment and positions, even in domains previously considered solely within the realm of human capabilities, such as literature, it is valuable to immerse ourselves in the poetry created by groundbreaking AI poets like Xiao Bing and delve into projects like Co-creation 共生纪 (2020), where esteemed SF human writers like Chen Qiufan actively engaged in collaborative endeavors with an AI writer. Creativity now takes on the form of either a novel tool generated through computational processes and databases, as exemplified by the work of Xiao Bing, or a collaborative, integrative, and innovative act, driven by Posthumanist vision, that encompasses the collective efforts of both humans and non-human entities, as demonstrated in the Co-creation project. Writing with or alongside an AI can result in peculiar, inappropriate, or even nonsensical expressions, yet these misinterpretations of the language bear creative effects, as evidenced by the writers involved in the Co-creation project. Moreover, this phenomenon highlights the potential for reinterpretation and the fresh perspectives that AI brings to the creative process and to the very notion of creativity itself.

ABSTRACT. This presentation approaches phenomenologically the Romeo and Juliet thematic complex and observes it in cross-cultural perspective: while William Shakespeare’s original play, published in 1597, has been adapted countless times for a great variety of genres, predominantly in Western contexts, the goal of the forthcoming analysis is to critically underpin the transformation of the Romeo and Juliet significance beyond Western set-ups, e.g., in Takarazuka Revue’s eponymous performances since 2010. Based on Gérard Presgurvic’s highly successful Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l’Amour (2001), Takarazuka Revue’s versions display paradoxical concatenations, both textually and contextually, underscoring conservative messages of masculinity and nation on the background of meta-narrative, subliminal associations of power, enlightenment and love.

This presentation observes critically the transformation of the Romeo and Juliet significance beyond Western adaptation into its Japanese contextualization. Taking as an example Takarazuka Revue’s eponymous performances (2010 star troupe, 2011 snow troupe, 2012 moon troupe, 2013 star troupe, 2021 star troupe) based on Gérard Presgurvic’s Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l’Amour, world- premiered on 19 January 2001 at Paris’ Palais des Congrès, this paper observes the paradoxical ramifications of the original French musical, both textually and contextually. While Presgurvic’s production has had an immense success worldwide, with the inherent dramaturgical modifications, the current analysis showcases the conservative atmosphere of Takarazuka Revue’s version, backed by the meta-narrative, subliminal association of star troupe with strong, charismatic otokoyaku (男役, literally: “man- role”, female impersonators of male roles in Takarazuka Revue) and with overwhelmingly powerful messages to be conveyed to (predominantly) female (predominantly) Japanese audiences. In doing so, Takarazuka Revue’s (predominantly male) administrators distance themselves from the prevailing interpretation of Romeo and Juliet as a tragic love-story and re-imagine it as a site of female identity projection and fulfilment, transcending the conceptualization of “love” as yearning and desire into a vision of “love” as responsibility, self-awareness and existential coolness – lavishly encapsulated in the synthetic character of Romeo.

ABSTRACT. Pema Lhadzé (padma lha mdzes, Chin. Paima Nazhen) is a female Sinophone Tibetan writer. After briefly introducing the evolution of Sinophone Tibetan female writing, I will present an analysis of the author’s novel Resurrected Dolma (Fuhuo de Dumu 复活的度母, 2006), focusing on the question of “translating” Tibetan culture and historical experience of Tibetan women into Chinese-language and Chinese ideological framework through fiction writig. Semantic shifts which naturally occur in every process of translating between languages and cultures are in Sino-Tibetan context entangled in complex power dynamics and ideological discourses, serving the author as a cover enabling her to discuss politically sensitive issues related to recent Tibetan history. The novel examines Tibetan female subjectivities within the frame of official discourses promoted in the PRC, such as “liberation of Tibetan serfs” and emancipation of Tibetan women after this liberation. This framework allowed the writer to record Tibetan historical experience through the point of view of two generations of female descendants of an aristocratic family, juxtaposing the mother’s tragic fate, determined by the circumstances of the “liberation of serfs” and its aftermath, with her daughter’s psychological torment, interpreted in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist faith as karma. In her novel, Pema Lhadzé combined a rational, “scientific” perspective based in Marxism and Mao Zedong’s ideology, with Tibetan perspective influenced by Buddhist philosophy in an attempt to mediate subjective experience of her protagonist. The triple marginalization of her mother, as a Tibetan, a woman, and a “bad class element” in politically turbulent times, left a deep imprint in her daughter’s psyche, implanting the seeds of hereditary trauma for next generations.

ABSTRACT. How can Taiwanese literature mirror the “carnivalesque vertigo” (Gaffric 2019, 73) of the island’s sociolinguistic complexity? What kind of strategies might help decode and recode its multilingual landscape? Among the contemporary writers who create and (re)interpret a mixture of languages, Wu Ming-yi 吳明益 (b. Taoyuan, 1971), who dwells between Hokkien and Mandarin, stands out as a synecdoche of the translingual Sinophone paradigm. His novel Fuyan ren 複眼人 (2011, The man with compound eyes), described as “an environmental fable blending fantasy with realism” (Lin 2019, 14), transcends individual diglossia with a performance of a broader linguistic heterogeneity. Via his creative approach to multilingualism, Wu gives shape to a hybrid and multi-layered heteroglossic landscape, where real and fictional indigenous traditions from the Sinophone-Austronesian world access and enrich the Chinese sphere, generating a translingual-transcultural dialogue through and beyond translation. This paper intends to explore several theoretical and practical aspects of linguistic hybridization and translation in the orbit of Wu Ming-Yi’s novel. To tackle the intersemiotic issue of the novel’s polyglossic and polyphonic interactions, I will describe the various linguistic constructions of the author’s “imaginary of languages” (Glissant, 2010). The subjects of my investigation will be Wu’s translational practices of code-mixing and code-switching, displayed and developed throughout his literary language as well as by his personal self-translating narrative.

References: Gaffric, Gwennaël. “Creolization, Translation, and the Poetics of Worldness: On Wu Ming-Yi’s French Translation”. Ex-position 41 (2019): 71-92.

Glissant, Edouard. L'Imaginaire des langues, Entretiens avec Lise Gauvin (2001-2009). Paris: Gallimard, 2010.

Lin, Pei-yin. “Positioning ‘Taiwanese Literature’ to the World: Taiwan as Represented and Perceived in English Translation”. In Positioning Taiwan in a Global Context: Being and Becoming, edited by Chang Bi-yu and Lin Pei-yin, 13-29. London: Routledge, 2019.

Wu Ming-yi 吳明益. Fuyan ren 複眼人 (The man with compound eyes). Taipei: Summer Festival, 2011.

ABSTRACT. Merlinda Bobis is a contemporary Philippina Australian author born in Philippines who currently lives in Australia. She has been awarded several prestigeous literary awards and her collection of stories, White Turtle, won the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Collection of Australian Short Stories in 2000 and the 2000 Philippine National Book Award. Both in this collection, but also in her other novels and stories she writes both about the complicated nature of Philippino history and about the immigrant´s experience trying to cope with cultural belonging in a new country. These themes appear in her stories White Turtle and The Long Siesta as Language Primer from the above collection. In addition to this, in these stories she uses Philippino expressions and words to point out cultural hybridity of her characters in a multicultural setting. This paper will analyze Bobis´ depiction of hybrid cultural identity of her characters as well as the role of place (Philippines and Australia) in a construction of a problematic nature of cultural identity of her characters which is close to Bill Ashcroft´s concept oftransnation. In addition, this paper will also point out the role Philippino culture in a formation of transnation/al nature of Bobis´characters.

ABSTRACT. In traditional Chinese painting, the portrait genre was chiefly represented by portraits of deceased ancestors. They were considered a craft, not an art, and served a ritual function during ancestor cult ceremonies. The portraits depicted a figure sitting rigidly on a ceremonial seat. Related studies tend to focus on the face of the sitter, however, the clothing is no less, if not more important. In Qing dynasty, men were portrayed in dragon robes or court dress, Han women were dressed in red wedding robes. The opulence of the garment and jewellery is possibly exaggerated, in order to stress the sitter’s social significance. In contrast to the portraits of ancestors, the portraits of living persons depict the sitter in informal clothing, often in a natural pose.

ABSTRACT. This paper deals with depiction of Chinese dragon robes in late Qing paintings and photographs. The dragon robe, along with other insignia of social status represented the clothing of imperial officials. The Náprstek Museum houses several dozen dragon robes and other insignia of authority such as rank badges and court beads. Dragon robes are depicted on portraits and photographs. The presented paper compares historical photographs and clothing with portraits of officials to study pictorial representation of clothing. Considering the social position of the imperial officialdom, the question is whether the pictorial representation involved an intentional or unintentional distortion of reality when depicting the official's authority.

ABSTRACT. An interesting, if in many ways complicated and ambiguous, visual source for the study of Chinese historical clothing and clothing accessories is the figurative genre of “paintings of gentlewomen” or “paintings of beautiful women”. In general, these works depict a figure of an anonymous palace beauty, but more broadly they also include scenes with the characters of famous and talented women from Chinese history and literature. This characterization also underlies the tradition of depicting women's clothing within this painting genre, which is often subject to considerable idealization and iconographic conventions. The depicted clothing mostly does not correspond to the fashion of the time or the national composition of the society, but it does reflect some fundamental cultural and socio-political themes of the time.

ABSTRACT. In the bakumatsu period, Japanese rulers, intellectuals and the society as a whole were once again facing a rising wave of intense contact with different and possibly hostile culture(s). Interpretation of this challenge became a necessity of the day. Samurai intellectuals took a variety of stances to the imminent threat, from simply xenophobic to open-minded ones that tried to include the “other“ into the “self“. But what was the “self“? What was the essence of the most open-minded and far-sighted attitudes? Where were the limits of such inclusiveness and what price did the advocates of opening up the country sometimes have to pay? What was the impact on the ”self“, on their own, presumably universal values? I shall explore these questions through the personal letters and official petitions of several bakumatsu intellectuals in the 1850s and 1860s. I will try to demonstrate how surprisingly quickly and easily the originally xenophobic and supposedly ideological attitudes were eroded and gave way to basically pragmatic attitudes that not only divided the political scene but contributed massively to changes in political structures and ties.

ABSTRACT. “Rice makes you stupid.” This was the mic drop takeaway from the 1950s’ work of neuroscientist Hayashi Takashi. It was also a misinterpretation of the data. A misinterpretation that has subsequently been misinterpreted. My presentation will trace entangled popular and professional discourses of nutrition in postwar Japan, beginning in the broader 1950s’ context in which Hayashi worked and ending with contemporary online conspiracy theories about the role of mainstream, institutional nutrition science and shadowy American and Japanese political forces in undermining Japanese national health by discrediting the embodied wisdom and value of “the traditional Japanese diet.” The 1950s , when intellectuals such as Hayashi struggled to understand Japan’s military defeat and envision a way to rebuild and reclaim a place in the world, set the parameters for discourses of food and nutrition for the following decades. However, as Japan’s socioeconomic and geopolitical situation changed in subsequent decades, the assumptions of these years came under suspicion from conspiracy theorists who saw men like Hayashi as pawns of American political and economic interests dedicated to keeping Japan an emasculated junior partner in the Western Cold War bloc. I argue that the emergence of nationalist, xenophobic, neo-culturalist conspiracy theories about diet and nutrition in Japan are inseparable from a series of misinterpretations of scientific data and policy decisions. While internally diverse, these conspiracy theories center on a notional “traditional Japanese diet” as what Michael Barkun (2003) dubbed “stigmatized knowledge,” i.e., ideas whose rejection or suppression by “authorities” becomes proof of their validity for believers (“truthers”). Additionally, I tentatively tie the development of this belief framework to the rise of “spiritual” and nationalist discourses on the one hand and the social internet’s promotion of self-referential and unfalsifiable discourse in communities of stigmatized knowledge.

ABSTRACT. Feminism-related and gender-related thoughts or opinions have been emerging in China for a long time, yet we still know little about the intersection between feminist thoughts and official (and prevailing) political ideologies in China. Using textual evidence from Zhihu and WeChat Official Accounts and applying critical discourse analysis, this paper asks 1) whether there is an intersection between people’s perceptions and understandings of socialism or Marxism and their understandings of gender-related or feminism-related topics 2) if so, what are the specific manifestations of this intersection and 3) what insights into the dynamics and challenges faced by feminism in China today can we gain from this intersection. I identified four ways understandings of socialism or Marxism entwined with understandings of gender-related or feminism-related topics: 1)arguing that gender issues are essentially class issues and the problems brought by the hostility between men and women are just an attempt by capitalists and capitalism to create a false consciousness and cover up the class issues 2)exalting the achievements of women in Mao’s era who participated in both the family chores and collective labour, while 3) disparaging contemporary Chinese women as being brainwashed by hedonism and consumerism in terms of aesthetics, daily cultural consumption and intimate relationships and finally 4) maintaining a controversial views on homosexuality and other gender identities, with a minority reckoning that homosexuality and other gender identities are acceptable, and others believing that homosexuality and other gender identities are against socialism in that they can be an erosion of socialist culture and ideological beliefs and be related to foreign hostile forces. The paper further illustrates that through the lens of examining prevailing political ideology in China, we can better understand the various kinds of and sometimes contested feminist thoughts in China, as well as the challenges and dilemmas these feminists face.

ABSTRACT. The slogan “telling Chinese stories well, spreading the Chinese voice well, and explaining Chinese characteristics well” marks the determination of Xi Jinping’s administration to increase China’s soft power and international discourse power by shaping the image of the PRC as a civilized power with a rich history, ethnic unity, and harmonious cultural diversity (Renmin Ribao 2014). Traditional culture – China’s deepest source of cultural soft power (Renmin Ribao 2016) – is an essential component of Xi’s concept of “China’s story” (Xu Shanna 2020). Xi himself has been described as a master narrator of tales of heroism and patriotism, often recounting in his speeches the stories of Yue Fei or other heroes of the Chinese revolution from which he draws inspiration (People’s Daily Commentary Department 2020). Song dynasty General Yue Fei 岳飞 (1103-1142), who fought the invading Jurchen in the 12th century, is a long-established legend in Chinese tradition. Throughout history, his image has been shaped by strategic narratives leveraging different aspects of his legacy: loyalty, ethnic nationalism, patriotism, hero of the people (see Matten 2011; Carter 2021; Du Yue 2023). This paper focuses on the latest cultural depiction of Yue Fei’s story and its aftermath, Zhang Yimou’s 2023 historical comedy thriller Full River Red (满江红). It offers a critical analysis of the movie's storytelling of a well-known historical event and the representation of the characters involved, looking specifically at narrative and lexical strategies employed in the creative rewriting of China’s cultural tradition. References to Chinese scholarly analyses in specialized magazines will help to reflect on whether and to what extent the movie functions as a place of (re)interpretation of China’s ancient history aimed at serving the present construction of the PRC’s national identity.

ABSTRACT. Fang Fang has recently attracted international attention after the publication of her Wuhan Diary (武汉日记). However, she has been an established writer in China for almost forty years, and some of her earlier works also merit careful reading and study. This paper examines her take on the PRC’s history in The Scenery (风景, alternatively translated as Children of the Bitter River), a novella written in 1987, at the time when Fang Fang was a representative writer of new realism (新写实). In the late 1980s, recent history, especially the excesses of the Maoist period, featured strongly in the prose of the avant-garde (先锋), who contested realism in search for a new, experimental language to express their almost inexpressible traumas. While the avant-garde occupied the central position in the Chinese literary space, another manner of interpreting the latest history and the present social situation in China appeared with the concurrent trend of new realism. Its authors tend to be overlooked by researchers of contemporary Chinese literature as the style of their prose seems understated when read against formal experimentation of their contemporaries. Authors like Fang Fang, Chi Li and Liu Zhenyun attempted to recover and remodel realism, which was considered as discredited and useless by the avant-gardists, to describe recent events in China in an unvarnished, painfully incisive manner. In The Scenery, Fang Fang paints a bleak picture of the PRC’s history, employing the narrative voice of a deceased child of an impoverished Wuhan family. It can be claimed that Fang Fang, alongside other new realist writers, has paved the way for the kind of sober, penetrating prose that is now dominant among younger generations of Chinese authors.

ABSTRACT. It has been accepted as a common knowledge, that ASEAN and its members do not wish to choose between China and the US. However, the growing potential of an open conflict between the two great powers raises the question of which one would various ASEAN members choose if indeed forced to align with one. The case of Singapore is specific for various reasons, and it merits a closer look also due to its regional and global importance. Singapore, too, has chosen to hedge, continuing cordial relations between both great powers – including preserving vivid economic exchange with China, while developing security partnership with the US. Moreover, as a majority Chinese society – sometimes even referred to as the ‘third China’ – there have long been discussion about what preferences the Singaporean public holds. Acknowledging this context, this presentation contributes first of all to our empirical knowledge and understanding of Singaporean international attitudes by sharing results of a new and unique poll conducted between April and June 2022. Specifically, we analyze not only the general favorability towards China and the US, respectively, but we also consult additional variables on public preference to align in foreign policy with either China or the US. As a result, we find that although Singaporean citizens have only slightly more favorable views of the US than China, when forced to choose, they overwhelmingly prefer to align with the United States over China. We then move on to analyze driving forces of the general favorability and alignment preferences.

ABSTRACT. This presentation examines the potential of middle powers’ cooperation to establish communities of practice to reinforce their ability to influence world affairs. Illustrating the argument with three case studies – Australia, Indonesia and South Korea –, we assert that middle powers play key roles in structuring the world order. We test the following hypotheses: (i) middle powers do not look, nor do they need to look to great powers for leadership, and can influence events by forging new regional relationships; (ii) when leadership topples or tensions emerge between great powers, with a potential or nascent leadership vacuum, the initiative to guarantee the status quo (i.e., a liberal order) can be provided by middle powers. While rooted in IR theories, the research mostly builds upon the framework of communities of practice and management theories, linking them to highlight the importance of existing interactions, the opportunity for and advantage of greater cooperation and its potential systemic impact.

ABSTRACT. Cyber technologies, the internet and social media are ever pervasive in our lives. They provide plenty of beneficial developments, such as a more connected society and freely accessible knowledge, but they are also increasingly spreading false information. Moreover, countries are enhancing their cyber security measures; they began to include cyberspace in national defence policies and as a new domain in military operations. These developments are especially true in regions where geopolitical tensions are already high like East Asia. According to reports published by Japan’s National Institute for Defence Studies on China’s security, Japan perceives China’s military rise and cyber capabilities as a threat. From 2009 onwards more cyber-attacks targeted Japan and most of them could be traced back to China and North Korea. Consequently, the fast improvement of its neighbours’ cyber capabilities prompted Japan to invest more resources into its own, too. The spread of misinformation online is increasing the perception of threats and the fast advancement of cyber technologies is exacerbating the security dilemma. This can be interpreted as an increased chance of conflict. Due to strained diplomatic relationships, historical issues, and previous cyber-attacks, Japan and China need to be cautious to avoid escalating regional geopolitical tensions by misinterpreting one other's intentions. In this presentation, I utilize the securitization theory which combines neorealism and constructivism. A neorealist approach allows me to start from a fixed assumption that the international system is inherently anarchic and a constructivist approach allows me to analyse the internet's potential for shaping identities and perceptions. Content and discourse analysis of policies, speeches and social media posts are the preferred methodology.

ABSTRACT. The paper provides a critical analysis of the representation of Dalit individuals in Hindi cinema, with a particular emphasis on the depiction of their identities, experiences, and societal concerns. Dalits, being a marginalized community in Indian society, have frequently been subjected to stereotypical and constrained depictions in mainstream cinema. The objective of this study is to examine and assess the depictions of Dalit characters in contemporary Hindi cinema, with a focus on the perpetuation of stereotypes as well as the emergence of more authentic and nuanced representations.

This study employs a multidisciplinary approach that integrates film analysis, sociocultural theories, and qualitative research methods to investigate a group of Hindi films that showcase Dalit characters. The films under scrutiny include "Aarakshan" (2011), "Masaan" (2015), "Dhadak" (2018), " Article 15" (2019), "Serious Men" (2020), and "Geeli Puchhi" from "Ajeeb Daastaan" (2021). This study analyzes the manner in which these depictions are narratively portrayed, the evolution of the characters, and the use of visual symbolism. The study endeavors to offer a comprehensive comprehension of the representations of Dalit characters by analyzing the social, cultural, and historical contexts that envelop these films.

The results indicate a variety of depictions, ranging from those that perpetuate caste-based hierarchies through regressive and stereotypical portrayals to those that challenge societal norms and promote empowerment through progressive representations. The article emphasizes the necessity of incorporating genuine and varied portrayals that encompass the intricacies of Dalit existence, their challenges, ambitions, and successes.

The objective of this analysis is to make a contribution to the ongoing discourse on representation and social justice in Hindi cinema. The research aims to promote the production of accurate and respectful portrayals of Dalit characters in films by advocating for a more sensitive and inclusive approach among filmmakers. The ultimate goal is to cultivate empathy, understanding, and social change through these portrayals.

ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to explore the new interpretations in the language of cinema that emerge from the interplay between cinema and other forms of media, such as television, digital technology, and new media in India. Cinema in India in the twenty-first century is shaped by the neo-liberal context, which composes of transnational financial flows and the pervasiveness of digital technology.

The advent of digital technology and the prevalence of the internet in the aftermath of economic liberalization of the Indian economy has opened up new avenues for the production, circulation, and consumption of cinema. Prevalence of television, the emergence of media formats such as VHS tapes, DVDs, and CDs, and the spread of parallel pirate economy have facilitated the expansion of film production from metropolitan centres to provincial locations in the early 2000s in India. It has led to new cultures of film production and consumption, in different parts of India, mobilising marginal cultures, centring provincial localities and small towns and using local dialects. These audio-visual productions, featuring non-professional actors, affordable technology, and limited budgets, thrive at the fringes of multiple categories such as traditional oral forms, regional films, narrative cinema, music videos, and new media practices. They offer new modalities for the interpretation and reinterpretation of the medium of cinema.

This paper focuses on the home cinema movement which was started in the locality of Malabar – the northern part of the south-Indian state of Kerala - in the early 2000s. Home cinema, also known as home video or tele-cinema, is the local production of amateur films in DVD format using low-quality technology. Like other local film cultures in India, the rise of home cinema in Kerala is a consequence of digital production and consumption driven by the twenty-first century's digital revolution. Home cinema predominantly showcases feature-length films set in the Muslim environs of Malabar, employing the regional dialect. It aimed to introduce cinema to a segment of the Muslim community in Malabar that initially considered it contrary to Islamic principles. The paper reads home cinema as a category that offer a language of cinema that can explore beyond the contested categorisations of national/regional cinema in India and make possible new definitions and interpretations of both cinema in India and the category of regional cinema.

ABSTRACT. This paper close reads a late eighteenth-century travel account in Malayalam from Kerala, South India. This account titled Varthamanappusthakam (1785) foregrounds the struggles of the indigenous Malankara church under the Catholic European missionaries. The text provides a fascinating account of the travel undertaken by the representatives of the local church to Europe where the traveling party meets with the Pope in the hope of resolving the issues between the local church and their missionary superiors. The pre-print manuscript offers a glimpse into how the indigenous community attempts to carve out an interpretation of the world while fighting misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the local indigenous Christian tradition, culture, and faith as ‘unchristian’ by the missionaries.

The paper looks at how ‘writing’ becomes central to this struggle of the local Malankara church. It shows how writing emerges as an important part of the community. As the text demonstrates, writing and written texts commanded considerable respect among the members of the church, even when large parts of the population were illiterate. The paper suggests a link between writing and local collectives called church assemblies. The interpretive moves evident in the text Varthamanappusthakam appear to be connected to these semi- independent and representative body of the members of the local church. The paper explores these interconnections between writing and community especially before the socialisation of print and allied technologies through Varthamanappusthakam. It particularly focuses on the use of first-person plural ‘we’ narrator instead of a first-person single narrator in the text as it addresses the members of the local church. It further explores presentation of writing as a communal act instead of an individual work.

ABSTRACT. Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861) was one of the significant ukiyo-e artists, best known for his musha-e woodblock prints depicting the warriors. Kuniyoshi´s prints were unusual not only in the theme but also in foreign-inspired motifs and unprecedented dynamics. The beginning of the Kuniyoshi popularity, and also the popularity of the warrior prints, a formerly marginalized genre among Japanese prints, are associated with the depiction of heroes of the Suikoden, a Chinese novel popularized in Japan at the beginning of the 19th century through the illustrated books e-hon. The popularity of Suikoden prints, and also the impact of the Tenpo reforms, which banned more popular prints of beauties (bijin-ga) or kabuki actors (yakusha-e), made others ukiyo-e artists design warrior prints of their own. The paper will deal with Kuniyoshi´s Suikoden-inspired prints which are part of the collection of the Náprstek Museum, and the story of Suikoden as the primary source for their creation.

ABSTRACT. This research considers an unattributed work of art and aims to enhance the existing documentation by defining a point of origin as specific as possible, by attributing a particular hand, place, and time of origin. Described as an oriental painting representing a Japanese woman, the work belongs to the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts of Santiago de Chile and has not been exhibited since its entry into the institution. The attribution process of this work of art will rely upon stylistic criteria of the composition, along with material elements, condition, and other clues tracing back its provenance. Employing technical art history, comparative methodology based on morphological criteria, and documentary evidence, it is our objective to obtain a high degree of certainty about its author. That will also allow to deepen the understanding of its iconographic content, as well as delving deeper into its provenance. By undertaking this research, we seek to contribute towards the visibility and appreciation of an Asian artifact conserved within Chilean public collections. Furthermore, its attribution would reveal an additional original painting of the artist, thus broaden our understanding of his/her body of work and enriching our knowledge thereof.

ABSTRACT. In the modernizing Japan of the late 19th century, the education of the youngest citizens was the main goal. Moreover, under the influence of massively incoming Western writing in Japan in the field of not only literature, but also education etc., the child became an important and active participant in Japanese society. The term kodomo no hakken 子供の発見, popular among educators at the time, meant discovering a child, recognizing its importance and role in the society, recognizing its needs, and then providing them. The child was a recipient and a participant of the generally understood culture, including children’s theater created under the influence of the shingekiundō 新劇運動reforms initiated in Japan in the 1890s. Moreover, during “The Taisho Era Democracy” period, children’s culture developed in various fields. Also, the aforementioned children’s theatre faced considerable changes and transformations. As the theatre for children was inseparable in the process of making a new child’s world, shaping a young citizen’s idea of childhood and the daily life, yet shaping the childlike child 子供らしい子供, the authors (as well as translators of Western plays), producers of performances for children, had to respond to the changing trends and provide children (and the main educators - mothers) with a good piece of culturally valuable entertainment. The paper will present and analyse Yūrakuza kodomo no hi有楽座 子供の日- performances for children founded in 1909 and continued for 12 years (till 1920) and its essential role in shaping childlike children, as well as briefly introduce the program of the performances and its producers. It will also focus on tracing how the content of the performance corresponded with the Taishō Democracy’s cultural policies in the field of children’s cultural education.

ABSTRACT. The harmony between human and nature has been long recognized as a key feature and ideal state in most classical Chinese poems about nature. However, Mid-Tang poets begin to notice, chant, and represent the dangerous and even evil aspect of the seemingly beautiful nature, delineating nature as a challenge to human, especially when it comes to human vision. Among them, Meng Jiao 孟郊 (751–814) and Li He 李賀 (790–816) are two typical representatives and contributors of unmasking the treacherous nature. This paper analyzes how and why the two poets represent the threatening mountains and rivers, two major components of nature, in their poems. By decoding their intentions and manners of writing regarding the two elements, the paper suggests that these mountains and rivers block the poets’ view when they are looking for ways to physical destinations, exploring the nature of deceptive things or people, and pursuing eternity. In these poems about nature, Meng and Li break down the tradition of decorum and balance in Chinese literary tradition and provide readers and later writers with an alternative passage to approach and reexamine the implications of nature in medieval China.

ABSTRACT. This paper examines the works of Chinese writer Wang Anyi and Malaysian Chinese writer Ng Kim Chew, with a focus on constructing and deconstructing the historical, social, and political components related to the concept of Nanyang . By analyzing their writings, this study aims to establish key comparable connections between the two authors. Wang Anyi, an influential female writer in contemporary China, experienced a unique upbringing as the daughter of a Singaporean Chinese returnee who grew up in the People's Republic. Due to this background, Wang lacks a traditional ancestral home (Laojia) in China. In her work, "Sadness for the Pacific," she creatively addresses this absence and transforms it into a global expression of her melancholic subjectivity. By revisiting her family history, Wang highlights the forgotten narratives hidden beneath the glossy modernity of Singapore. In contrast, Ng Kim Chew was born and raised in Malaysia but later moved to Taiwan for higher education and eventually obtained naturalized citizenship. For Ng, Nanyang represents the focal point of his writing, forming a literary entity that exists on the periphery of China and is complicated by the notion of the nation-state. Although Nanyang and China share the same "nation," they belong to different "states." By comparing the writings of these two authors, this paper aims to stimulate critical discussions surrounding the historically informed political conceptualization of the relationship between the nation building of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC), and Nanyang. Through a perspective of literature, this analysis reveals the dynamic power struggles of centre and periphery within the Greater China region. The study focuses on three major themes: the struggle for nationalist identity among Nanyang Chinese, the colonial experiences of the Nanyang Chinese and their involvement in the Malay communist movement, and finally, the politically embodied linguistic differences between the literary Chinese languages employed by the two writers. These themes provide insights into the complex and nuanced interplay of politics and literature in the Chinese language, shedding light on the historical trajectories of Nanyang and its relationship with China.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to analyze the many alternative representations of the Northern Song (960-1127) lyricist Liu Yong 柳永 (987-1053) in drama and fiction produced until the seventeenth century. Widely known as a hero of the pleasure quarters, Liu Yong was often criticized by other members of the literati precisely for his excessive, openly stated proximity to courtesans. The scarcity of contemporary sources on his life and the popularity of his song lyrics (ci 詞) among the common people contributed to building Liu’s myth as a poetic genius and an ideal lover but, at the same time, a dissolute libertine and a traitor to orthodox elite values. Based on the Song (960-1279) sources available on the author, including comments by critics and anecdotes, these conflicting interpretations of the figure of Liu Yong migrated into Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) drama and fiction. I will focus on two Northern plays (zaju 雜劇) and two vernacular short stories (huaben 話本) to show how Liu’s representations have evolved from the eleventh to the seventeenth centuries. I will explore Liu’s disparate characterizations as a talented poet, an intermittently successful official, an empathic romantic hero and, on the other hand, a drunken idiot, a good-for-nothing funded by courtesans or a cynical sexual manipulator, and speculate on the reasons that may have led to these contradictory narratives.

ABSTRACT. The diffusion of Western legal knowledge in China is a fundamental component of the cultural exchange that has taken place between East and West. The reception of the Romanist legal tradition in China began approximately in the second half of the 19th century and, to some extent, is still ongoing. This paper aims at shedding some light on the initial phase of this complex process which, despite the existence of a few valuable studies (e.g.: Schipani 2005; Xu 2002; Wang 2002), appears, in several respects, still little known. More specifically, this paper investigates the image of Roman law emerging from late-Qing and early Republican sources. In this sense, an attempt will be made to highlight how the Civil law system is perceived and “interpreted” (or “misinterpreted”) by the Chinese intellectuals who first mentioned it in their writings and by some of the main exponents of the first generation of Chinese Romanists who were authors of the earliest manuals of Roman law written in Chinese.

References

Schipani, Sandro. 2005. Il diritto romano in Cina. In Diritto cinese e sistema giuridico romanistico. Contributi, ed. Laura Formichella and Enrico Toti, 57-68. Torino: Giappichelli editore. Xu, Guodong徐国栋. 2002. Zhongguo de Luoma fa jiaoyu 中国的罗马法教育. Zhongnan falü pinglun 1: 22-26. Wang, Jian 王健. 2002. Luoma fa chuanbo zhongguo wenxian jikao罗马法传播中国文献稽考, in Luoma fa yu xiandai minfa罗马法与现代民法, ed. Xu Guodong, 59-98. Beijing: Zhongguo fazhi chubanshe.

ABSTRACT. The Edo period was in many ways a defining period in Japanese history. In these two and a half centuries without war, Japan's society and economy were able to develop in peace, and so was its legal system. In the medieval period, with the rise to power of the samurai social class, the samurai legal system (bukeho) developed and survived into the Sengoku period. This legal system was further developed in the Edo period, giving rise to the law of the bakufu (bakufuho) and the law of domains (hanpo). As far as criminal law was concerned, there were many types of brutal punishment in the period to deter society from committing crimes. In my research, I am focusing on the translation and philological analysis of the most important legal texts of the Edo period bakufuho, which have not yet been published in foreign languages. However, this time I would like to present an interesting approach: how did the Meiji people interpret Edo period law, especially criminal law? Through the translation and analysis of source texts, I will shed light on the most important features of Edo period criminal law, and then I will show how the Meiji people related to the punishments of the preceding period by analysing a work published in the Meiji period. This work is called Tokugawa bakufu keiji zufu („Illustrated Catalogue of the Criminal Law of the Tokugawa Shogunate”), which was written at the beginning of the Meiji period with the aim of comparing the criminal law of the two periods in order to highlight the modern features of the Meiji period in comparison with the Edo period, which was considered brutal and barbaric.

ABSTRACT. More than a decade after US President Obama announced his signature “pivot to Asia” policy, Europe, too, set its sights on what is now termed the Indo-Pacific. As the center of economic gravity shifts to the region, and amid intensifying China-US great power competition, the key European powers, namely France, the UK, and Germany, the EU itself, and even a small country like the Netherlands, have all published policy papers on the Indo-Pacific. What is more, they have deployed naval forces to the region to signal the importance they attach to an open, secure, and multilateral Indo-Pacific. Yet to what extent has Europe’s stated benign signal of buttressing the existing rules-based order been interpreted accordingly? This presentation answers this question by analyzing scholarly and policy discourses in Mandarin at key Chinese institutions from 2018 to 2021.

ABSTRACT. Both ASEAN and the EU regard themselves as major contributors to the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. Due to its strong multilateral credentials, the EU is viewed very positively in Southeast Asia. However, while the EU is in Asia and the Indo-Pacific a strong economic actor, it lacks credible military power projection capabilities. This lack of hard power is especially visible in the South China Sea, a globally vital sealine of comm unication. In 2016, an arbitral tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China’s extensive claims, illustrated in the nine-dash line. China, however, does not accept this ruling. This presentation will analyze the EU’s views and policies on the South China Sea, highlighting that it became since the presentation of the new China strategy in 2019 more critical of China and more supportive of ASEAN. Though, it will be argued that the EU’s main contribution to upholding international law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea will in the immediate future be limited to diplomatic support for ASEAN and capacity-building of the Southeast Asian littoral states. This support, albeit limited, is crucial for ASEAN to advance the aim of upholding international law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.

ABSTRACT. In the past years, Hungary has often garnered attention for the notably pro-People’s Republic of China (PRC) attitudes of its leadership. Meanwhile, recent surveys show that Hungary’s population, in general, is not characterized by a significantly more pro-PRC attitude than the population of most other EU states. At the same time, such surveys also indicate a divergence between opinions among government and opposition sympathizers, indicating that pro-PRC attitudes are more common among sympathizers of the Orbán regime. To better understand the possible reasons behind these tendencies, this presentation analyzes the output of Hungarian government-backed think tanks and PRC-supported cultural institutions in Hungary in order to uncover China’s soft power influence in the country. This presentation argues that a foreign “elite capture” is underway in Hungary, in this context referring to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts in persuading foreign elites of aligning with its political and economic interests. This, in turn, is also facilitated by the Orbán regime’s vision of what can be identified as an emerging “post-Western” global order, challenging the prominence of Western values and institutions. The Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is especially frequently emphasized in this context by both government-backed think tanks and PRC-backed cultural institutions in Hungary. Beyond the promotion of BRI as a basis of friendly relations and win-win economic cooperation, it gains a new role in re-imagining Eurasian interconnectivity and hence underpinning the government’s “Eastern Opening” policy.