Fwd: Spotlight Taiwan Helsinki interview podcast and two online events

Interview podcast featuring Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-great-exodus-from-china-trauma-memory-and-identity-in-modern-taiwan

In this conversation, Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Helsinki discusses with Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang his award-winning book. Yang’s book covers one of the least understood forced migrations in modern East Asia—the human exodus from China to Taiwan following the Nationalist collapse and Chinese Communist victory in 1949. Peeling back layers of Cold War ideological constructs, the book tells a very different story from conventional historiographies the Chinese civil war, Chinese revolution, and Cold War Taiwan. Underscoring the displaced population’s trauma of living in exile and their poignant “homecomings” four decades later, Yang presents a multiple-event trajectory of repeated traumatization with the recurring search for home, belonging, and identity. By portraying the Chinese civil war exiles in Taiwan both as traumatized subjects of displacement and overbearing colonizers to the local peoples, Yang’s work challenges the established notions of trauma, memory production, diaspora, and reconciliation. It speaks to the importance of subject position, boundary-crossing empathic unsettlements, and ethical responsibility of researching, narrating, and representing historical trauma.

Spring 2022 Events Spotlight Taiwan Helsinki will organize 2 online academic lectures in spring 2022. Each lecture is about 40-60 minutes followed by 20-30 minutes of Q & A.

**Time below is Helsinki time, which is 7 hours ahead of US Eastern Time (ET) and 10 hours ahead of US Pacific Time (PT)** **Given the huge time difference between USA and Finland, event organizer Prof. Julie Yu-Wen Chen will record the events in case interested people want to watch later. Pleas note that registration is necessary in order to get access to recording.**

Monday 11 April, 3:15-4:30 PM Helsinki Time

• The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan

• Professor Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, University of Missouri-Columbia USA

Thursday 14 April, 10:15-11:40 AM Helsinki Time

• Milk Tea Alliance: The Last Wave of Decolonization

• Professor Wasana Wongsurawat, Associate Professor of History, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

• This event is in cooperation with Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), University of Copenhagen, Denmark.