4 p.m.
SSEAS Reading Room, 341 Dwinelle
Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asia Studies, American Institute for Indonesian Studies
About the talk: Language and language education are two central topics in the studies of Chinese diasporic culture. However, existing scholarship has overwhelmingly focused on how overseas Chinese populations deal with language politics in their hosting societies. This research adopts a different perspective by examining how overseas Chinese played central roles in establishing Indonesian language programs in mainland China between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s. Specifically, overseas Chinese “returnees” were indispensable in establishing the National College of Oriental Studies (NCOS) during World War II under the nationalist Guomindang government and several Indonesian language programs in the early years of the People’s Republic (PRC). While such programs served drastically different political purposes across time, they also reflect crucial yet often ignored aspects of, and surprising continuities in, China-Indonesia cultural exchange during the tumultuous period of decolonization, domestic conflicts, and the Cold War. On the one hand, such continuities reflect the persistent demands of top decision-makers in handling geopolitical issues concerning the neighboring region; on the other hand, they are also closely associated with the changing contexts of diaspora politics in the mid-20th century. Moreover, although such language programs’ primary objective was to fulfill the operational needs of various government agencies, they also actively promoted Indonesian cultures and stimulated Chinese people’s sustained interest in understanding the country in the long run.
About the Speaker: Kankan XIE (Ph.D., UC-Berkeley, 2018) is an assistant professor of Southeast Asian studies at Peking University, China. His research and teaching deal with various historical and contemporary issues of the broadly defined “Nusantara” (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore), particularly the region’s leftwing movements, the intersection of colonialism, nationalism & decolonization, as well as China’s knowledge production about Southeast Asia throughout the 20th century. His current research, funded by China’s National Social Science Foundation and the Institute of Overseas Chinese History Studies, focuses on the history of Indonesian leftism and the Chinese diaspora. Kankan’s work has appeared in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, Dongnanya Yanjiu, and Nanyang Wenti Yanjiu.
If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Alexandra Dalferro at adalferro@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event
Speaker: Kankan Xie, Assistant Professor, Peking University
Contact Info: cseas@berkeley.edu