Colloquium with Professor Momoki Shiro (Osaka University)

Friday, May 4, 2018
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
243 Royce Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

After briefly introducing early historical interactions with and academic interests in Vietnam in pre-1900 Japan, Professor Shiro will summarize the process and the significance of the development of Vietnamese studies in 20th-Century and 21st-Century Japan. The position of Vietnamese studies within Southeast Asian studies will also be mentioned. Mainly against the background of developed Sinology and encouraged with the imperialistic policy of Southward Expansion, Vietnamese studies began to develop in the 1930s. During the 1960s, a new generation, many of whom participated in the anti-Vietnam-War student movement, appeared under the strong influence of first Marxism, then American-style international studies and area studies, to lead Japan’s academia of Vietnamese, and often Southeast Asian studies for almost five decades. After the late 1980s when the doi moi policy was enforced, young scholars stood out one after another, with a great variety of research fields. The scholarship of any generation shares a tradition of in-depth study, a common tradition of Japanese academia, although it is not presented in English so well. Besides the ordinary framework of Southeast Asian studies and global studies, Vietnamese studies in Japan, are now required to participate in the task of creating a framework of “renovated East Asian studies” together with the studies on other countries such as China, Korea and Japan.

Nguyet Tong
cseas@international.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies