The historical construction of Southeast Asia - Sogang University, South Korea

The historical construction of Southeast Asia

2010 SIEAS International Conference of Research Clusters

The historical construction of Southeast Asia

19-20 March 2010

Sogang University

Seoul

Korea

Report by V.T. King, University of Leeds

We have long been contemplating and debating the problems of defining Southeast Asia and the rationale of area studies programmes, but we have tended to be preoccupied with the historical construction of the region in the West and the place of Southeast Asian Studies in academic institutions in North America, Western Europe and Australasia. This conference, which was organised and hosted by the Sogang Institute for East Asian Studies under the Directorship of Professor Shin Yoon Hwan, gave us the opportunity not only to hear from our Korean colleagues about their perspectives on the region, but also to learn  more about Korean views on Southeast Asian Studies generally, the study of the region by Korean scholars within Southeast Asia itself (particularly in Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia) and Korean perspectives on Southeast Asian Studies in China, Japan, the Middle East,  Western Europe and the USA. Of the 19 papers presented 13 were given by Korean scholars, with two additional overviews of major sub-themes and the remaining 6 by invited speakers from Indonesia, Australia, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. Each of the five sessions also had a Korean moderator and two Korean discussants. Korean contributors came from a wide range of local universities: Sogang, Chonbuk National, Kangwon National, Pusan University of Foreign Studies, Sungshin Women's University, Yeungnam, Gyeongsang National, Kookmin, Ehwa Women's University, Seoul National, Hanyang, Yonsei, Konkuk and the Northeast Asian History Foundation.

The first day was devoted to three sessions on the theme of the Construction of Southeast Asian Studies: Chae Suhong,  ‘Overview’; Yu Insun ‘Studies of Southeast Asian history in Japan: 1990-2007’; Ariel Heryanto, ‘Pop culture in Southeast Asian Studies’; Park Sa-Myung, ‘Southeast Asian Studies in China: progress and problems’; James Fox, ‘A genealogy of Southeast Asian Studies in Australia’; Freek Colombijn, ‘The Dutch colonial burden: colonial collections in postcolonial times in Indonesian Studies in the Netherlands’; Victor King, ‘The development of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (and Europe): the making of a region’; Song Seung-Won, ‘Some thoughts on Southeast Asian Studies in the USA’; Park Seung Woo, ‘Historical construction of Southeast Asian Studies in Korea’; Lee Sang Kook, ‘In search of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore’; Choi Horim, ‘The construction of Southeast Asian Studies in Vietnam’.

The second day, with two sessions, focused on the theme of 'Perceiving Southeast Asia' with an overview by Lee Ocksoon, and with the second session delivered in the Korean language. The papers comprised Maria Ng: ‘Selling the exotic in travel writing: Southeast Asian as representational space then and now’; Stephen Keck, ‘The British “discovery” of Southeast Asia’; Kim Eun-Young, ‘Sharing the imaginary: “Indo-China” in travel accounts published in 19^th-century France’; Lee Han Woo, ‘Perceiving Southeast Asia through contemporary Korean novels focusing on Vietnam’; Korean Language session: Lee Ocksoon, ‘Tagore's imagining of Southeast Asia in 1927’; Lee Han Soo, ‘Middle-Eastern perceptions of Southeast Asia: based on the relationships between modern Ottoman state and Southeast Asia’; Yim Sungmo, ‘Japanese perceptions of Southeast Asia in the modern period’; Park Kyung Seok, ‘Chinese views of “Nanyang” expressed in the travel books of 1920s-30s’; Kim Hyung-Jun, 'Is Indonesia a part of Southeast Asia?: "Representations of Southeast Asia" in Indonesian school textbooks’.

The conference is part of an ongoing programme of research funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea and it is hoped that an edited volume of revised versions of the conference proceedings will appear in due course.

The Institute is to be congratulated for organising such a wide-ranging conference so efficiently and effectively and for taking the initiative to promote the study and understanding of the Southeast Asian region within and beyond Korea. We look forward to future events and publications emerging from this research programme.