Session Submission Summary

Toward a New Perspective to Understand Japan in Hong Kong

Wed, June 24, 11:05am to 1:00pm, South Building, Floor: 9th Floor, S901

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

This panel's members are interested in understanding Japan in certain periods through different perspectives. The idea is to capture some synchronic ideas based on diachronic snapshots of Japan’s historical images and culture identities. Ding’s work is situated in historical and literary images of Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Lin’s thesis aims to reexamine China’s role in the culture and thought of Meiji Japan through an investigation of Okakura Tenshin’s views on China. While, Chi focuses on the legal system of Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. Yao strives to understand Hong Kong people’s views of Japan through a Hong Kong local newspaper (Ming Pao).

Though the presenters all tend to use historical methods to conduct their projects, they are looking at Japan from different perspectives and using different materials in a wide range of time. For instance, using literature, traditional arts and legends to understand Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Ding is focusing on the cultural perspective of Japan. Lin examines the intellectual history of Japan in Meiji period, situating on Okakura Tenshin’s collected works (Okakura Tenshin Zenshū) within a historical context and employing current scholarship of modern Japanese history and Sino-Japanese intellectual exchange. Chi studies on the relationship between motherland and colonies in the field of legal issues in Japanese empire by using criminal laws. Yao, falling in the field of media studies, collects all news articles about Japan on Ming Pao to investigate Japan’s changing images among Hong Kong people from 1994 to 2014.

Area of Study

Session Organizer

Individual Presentations