For a comparative film studies

The paper argues that the comparative approach to the study of modern cultural forms should be founded on the common experience but divergent histories of the development of a capitalist mode of production and the impact of its reformatting dynamics on social, including cultural, relations. The paper then goes on to explore and propose a number of probably inevitable theoretical frameworks and tools to implement a comparative approach to the study of a thoroughly industrialized cultural form, such as cinema and films.     

Routed through Canada: a roundtable discussion on Inter-Asia and transnational research

ABSTRACT

The series of reflections are based on a roundtable discussion amongst Canada-based scholars with research interest in transnational, postcolonial, migration and diaspora studies. Their reflections engage with key ideas from Inter-Asia Cultural Studies through the lens of their research practices and personal histories. Y-Dang Troeung revisits generational memories that are shaped by the “Cold War fraternity” of China, Cambodia, and North Korea through the perspective of Critical Refugee Studies and her personal transits between Asia and Canada. Robert Diaz traces shifts in migratory routes by attending to diasporic returns to the Philippines under complex conditions of globalization that shape and constrain mobility between North America and Asia. Lara Campbell examines overlooked moments of transpacific connections in Canadian women’s history to show how Inter-Asia encounters complicated the racial dynamics of the suffrage movement in early twentieth century British Columbia. The roundtable discussion demonstrates the potential for ongoing dialogues on Inter-Asia issues among scholars in Canada and beyond.     

萨丽·摩根的《我的位置》中土著性的重建

摘要：萨丽·摩根的《我的位置》通过她的家庭三代人的回忆记录,向所有人,包括不了解情况的土著人后代和很多对此一无所知的白人,揭露了土著黑人令人震惊的真实过去,使之几乎成与白人虚构的历史相对抗的另一部历史。由此说明,只有在这样的重述历史、重构历史中。土著人（包括萨丽-摩根及其他叙述者们）才能找到他们的位置,重新修复他们的土著性这个被白人政府强行割断的文化身份。作者通过分析主人公悲剧的原因,试图揭示出压制土著人的复杂主流白人文化和父权制作用的真实一面。     

Indigenous Métissage: a decolonizing research sensibility

This paper is a report on the theoretical origins of a decolonizing research sensibility called Indigenous Métissage. This research praxis emerged parallel to personal and ongoing inquiries into historic and current relations connecting Aboriginal peoples and Canadians in the place now called Canada. I frame the colonial frontier origins of these relations – and the logics that tend to inform them – as conceptual problems that require rethinking on more ethically relational terms. Although a postcolonial cultural theory called métissage offers helpful insights towards this challenge, I argue that the postcolonial emphasis on hybridity fails to acknowledge Indigenous subjectivity in ethical ways. Instead, I present an indigenized form of métissage focused on rereading and reframing Aboriginal and Canadian relations and informed by Indigenous notions of place. Doing Indigenous Métissage requires hermeneutic imagination directed towards the telling of a story that belies colonial frontier logics and fosters decolonizing.     

Mother Imagery Analysis of Jamaica Kincaid＇s Lucy

The mother-daughter issue is a common topic throughout many of Jamaica Kincaid＇s novels. Annie Potter, Lucy＇s mother has great influence on Lucy＇s thoughts and acdon. The author not only uses it to explore the complex tension between mothers and daughters, but also uses it to represent the strained relations between colonized region and colonial power. The image of Lucy＇s mother is really worth exploring.     

解读他者：康拉德笔下的非洲

在后殖民语境下康拉德的小说《黑暗的心》是争议最多的作品之一。通过分析非洲地理地貌、非洲黑人、非洲语言在该文本中的建构,可以看出从地理空间到语言文化,他者是被解读的。对于“他者”形象的主观再创造是基于西方中心论的,作家难以摆脱西方殖民主义话语的巨大影响,而西方评论界面对阿切比的指控时反应之激烈也印证了这一影响的根深蒂固。     

伽里马之死—对《蝴蝶君》的后殖民女性主义视角解读

《蝴蝶君》是以冷战背景下一位法国外交官与一位中国京剧旦角演员之间的间谍谜案为主线,以著名歌剧《蝴蝶夫人》作为颠覆的原型而创作的。剧中的殖民关系主要表现在性别关系上,从作为西方殖民者的代表-男性伽里马与东方被殖民者的代表-女性宋丽玲之间的博弈来看,性别关系的重构具有至关重要的地位,要想彻底颠覆殖民关系必需先颠覆性别关系。     

殖民话语的建构与颠覆——《等待野蛮人》的后殖民解读

《等待野蛮人》超越了时间和地域环境的制约,是一部寓言作品。小说中充满后殖民研究者所关注的多种问题,如：种族、身份认同、霸权等等。通过解读帝国殖民话语所建构的虚假的“他者”以及被压迫者做出的反殖民话语抗争,得出结论：被帝国压迫的人要想生活在帝国强加于他们的历史之外,必须要勇于挑战殖民话语。只有完全脱离霸权帝国的统治,才有可能建立一个宽容和谐理想的家园。     

From ‘civilising the young’ to a ‘dead-end job’: gender,teaching, and the politics of colonial rule in Hong Kong (1841–1970)

The feminisation of teaching is an important topic in education and gender studies. Discussions have been enriched by comparative and international studies as well as a gendering perspective in which a complicated view of the role of the state has emerged. In colonial Hong Kong, although the government was limited in its support of teacher training, its strategic control was not ineffective. Through regulating the teaching force, the colonial regime was instrumental in training women to help civilise the young and in creating a dead end job – that of a ‘primary school teacher’. It also constantly (re)constructed the nature and role of ‘Chinese teacher’ and ‘Chinese women’. By revealing some seldom-explored strategies and disrupting the fixed meanings of ‘Chinese teacher’, ‘Chinese women’, and ‘primary school teacher’, this paper unravels the intervention and (re)invention of the colonial regime in the teaching occupation and probes their implications for a patriarchal society.     

Archives and trails from the First World War: repurposing imperial records of North African and Indian soldiers in Palestine and Syria, 1917-1923

ABSTRACT

First World War scholars more or less agree on the limitations imposed by archival sources on the study of North African and Indian troops. Conventional methods to find ‘the voice’ of the soldier do not apply in this case and the scarcity of records partly explains why so little is written. So, what opportunities are there in such an endeavour? This article argues for the need to decolonise military archives from the Great War era. That is to say, to use information that was originally gathered to serve narrow military interests as a means to understand the war experiences of the colonial soldiers. These sources, largely official records, bearing stamps of the past regimes, cannot be separated from the context or intent of their production. Nonetheless, they must not be overlooked as new historiographical demands make it necessary to read colonial archives for evidence of their context. Failing to draw from, and reflect upon, colonial era records on the Great War, despite their shortcomings, is tantamount to condemning valuable aspects of global history to oblivion. In turn, acknowledging these shortcomings, paradoxically, lends greater value to such sources as the colonial context in which they were produced becomes observable.