HONG KONG June 6-8, 2012
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CONFERENCE ON INTER-ASIAN CONNECTIONS III: HONG KONG June 6-8, 2012 WELCOME We are delighted to welcome you to the conference on Inter-Asian Connections III: Hong Kong. With this third conference in the series (Dubai 2008, Singapore 2010), we hope that we have succeeded in creating an important venue that enables the intersection of research agendas and the networking of researchers to develop new paradigms on Asian pasts, presents, futures and global connections. The conference is the product of an active collaboration with three main partners (NUS, HKIHSS and SSRC) and several supporting institutions, as detailed in the acknowledgements section. The event is also part of the Centenary celebrations of the University of Hong Kong. Following the conference, we look forward to further expanding the network of institutions participating in this initiative and to begin putting in place new modalities and inter-conference activities for linking research, training and teaching on Inter-Asian themes as well as the development of collaborative research groups. We also plan to redesign the initiative website to become a tool for networking and dissemination of research. Through the exciting themes presented at this third conference in Hong Kong, we continue exploring new dimensions of the varied connections and continuums that criss-cross the Asian expanse, connecting its many parts with one another and with the globe. We thank the Workshop Directors for their hard work in conceptualizing their themes and helping us attract a wide variety of excellent paper contributions. So, welcome to Hong Kong and to the University of Hong Kong. We hope that you will enjoy and profit from all the activities of the conference. Angela Ki Che Leung Prasenjit Duara Seteney Shami Hong Kong Institute for the National University of Singapore Social Science Research Council Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Angela Ki Che Leung would like to thank Helen Siu, the then Honorary Director of the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, for her invaluable support of and advice on this initiative. She also thanks the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Tsui Lap-chee, and the University’s senior management for their unstinting support to the Institute. She is most grateful to the Institute’s Executive Committee, Advisory Board, donors, colleagues and friends for appreciating our unconventional academic agenda and for providing institutional guidance. Special thanks to the Institute’s staff for their thoughtful planning and hard work. Prasenjit Duara would like to thank Deputy President of Research at NUS, Barry Halliwell for his continued support of IAC over the years. Additionally, Professor Robbie Goh, Vice Dean of Special Duties and International Relations has also been very active in his support. Finally, without the help of Brenda Lim, Valerie Yeo and her events team at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), NUS, we could not have continued this notable collaboration between NUS, SSRC and HKU. Seteney Shami would like to thank SSRC President Craig Calhoun for his enthusiastic support of this initiative as well as Executive Director, Mary McDonnell for her advice and guidance throughout the organizing process. A special thanks to Holly Danzeisen for organizational and substantive support. Finally, a note of gratitude to Srirupa Roy, now with the University of Göttingen, who has fully participated in shaping this initiative from its very beginning. All three Organizing Partners thank the Lee Hysan Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and the South Asian Studies Council at Yale University for their generous financial support. ORGANIZING PARTNERS HONG KONG INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Website: http://www.ihss.hku.hk The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences was established in 2001 at the University of Hong Kong. It aims at promoting innovative, multi-disciplinary, and inter-institutional research and teaching in the humanities and social sciences related to China in the world, with special focus on the humanities in medicine, technology and science, and on inter-Asia connections. It creates multi-layered platforms for a critical community of scholars to share experiences across the globe. Its outreach programs and commissioned projects connect with policy and business professionals. It is also the Institute’s mission to nurture young scholars in the humanities and social sciences by providing a vigorous interdisciplinary and international research environment. The Institute also developed a new postgraduate program on China in the world, with an initial focus on medicine, science and technology in East Asia. Built across HKU faculties and schools, this program will be offered from the year of 2012-13. The Institute is blessed by the commitment and hard work of students, staff and colleagues, and the generous support of public and private funds. It promises to provide an ever robust platform for Asian and China studies, well connected at The University of Hong Kong and with global academic partners, and endeavors at attracting more talented researchers to the region. THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG Website: http://www.hku.hk The University of Hong Kong (HKU) was established in 1911 with a mission to attract and nurture outstanding scholars from around the world through excellence and innovation in learning and teaching, research and knowledge exchange, contributing to the advancement of society and the development of leaders through a global presence, regional significance and engagement with the rest of China. It has faculties in Arts, Architecture, Law, Social Sciences, Business and Economics, Science, Education, Medical Sciences and Engineering. In 2011, there were 22,260 students (11,255 undergraduates, 11,005 postgraduates), among which 33% were international students. There were 988 professoriate staff members with over 57% recruited overseas. As a comprehensive university, HKU is able to support a diverse range of research interests. The quality of its work enables it to attract more research funding than any other universities in Hong Kong. SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL http://www.ssrc.org/ The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is an independent, nonprofit international organization founded in 1923. It nurtures new generations of social scientists, fosters innovative research, and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. The SSRC pursues its mission by working with practitioners, policymakers, and academic researchers in the social sciences, related professions, and the humanities and natural sciences. With partners around the world, we build interdisciplinary and international networks, link research to practice and policy, strengthen individual and institutional capacities for learning, and enhance public access to information. We award fellowships and grants, convene workshops and conferences, conduct research and participate in research consortia, sponsor scholarly exchanges, and produce print and online publications. Under the leadership of Craig Calhoun (1999-present), the SSRC has focused on conflict and peacebuilding, development and social change, the public sphere, knowledge and learning, and strengthening global social science, with close to thirty major programs within these five program areas. Topics past and present include academia and the public sphere, American human development, digital media and learning, the environment and health in China, international migration, media reform, the privatization of risk, religion and international affairs, scholarship in Eurasia, and the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS in Africa, Russia, and around the world. We also offer a number of prestigious fellowships for researchers doing promising work in the social sciences and related disciplines. Our largest fellowship program, the International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF), funds graduate students for research across the globe. The SSRC is guided by the belief that justice, prosperity, and democracy all require better understanding of complex social, cultural, economic, and political processes and committed to the idea that social science can produce necessary knowledge—necessary for citizens to understand their societies and necessary for policymakers to decide on crucial questions. The Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Division in the Office of the Deputy President (Research and Technology) NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE (NUS) Website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/dpr/hss/index.htm The HSS office seeks to oversee and co-ordinate the many research projects undertaken at the university in HSS (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) and allied areas such Business, Law, Public Policy, Design and Environment and Social Computing as well as in the various research institutes (RICs) at NUS such as Asia Research Institute (ARI), East Asian Institute (EAI), Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), Middle East Institute (MEI) and the recently established Global Asia Institute (GAI). HSS research in NUS research is certainly not limited to Asia. But given the extensiveness of Asian research conducted in the university, the strategic thrust of HSS is to co-ordinate research on different parts of Asia in NUS to maximize its impact. The HSS office administers and supervises the research funding process at NUS for Academic Research Fund (ARF) and HSS research projects, faculty research