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Scholars from Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (York University/U. of T.) Revive Memories of Tiananmen During 10th Anniversary of Beijing Massacre
Sponsored by the University of Toronto/York University Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, the conference will assess why China today appears to be stronger than ever, despite its pariah status immediately after Tiananmen. June 4, 1989, the date of China's brutal military crackdown on student-led protests at Tiananmen Square, has become an historical benchmark in the study of international affairs.
But has China succeeded in erasing from the collective memory of its citizenry all traces of that period in its history? Chinese public opinion, particularly in the aftermath of the recent NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade seems to suggest it has.
The following scholars, who will be presenting papers at the upcoming conference, can provide context and analysis to these and other questions:
Bernard Michael Frolic, York University Professor of Political Science and Director of the Joint Centre, has published extensively on the history of the Chinese and Soviet communist systems. He will address why criticism of Chinese human rights practices by governments, advocacy groups, the overseas Chinese community and the media has significantly diminished in the past five years.
"Tiananmen was the most significant event in Canada/China relations since we established those relations in 1970," said Frolic, who is co-organizer of the event with Professor Timothy Brooks of Stanford University.
Gregory Chin, York PhD candidate in the department of political science, will show how China quickly moved to further open its economy after the military upheaval and succeeded in attracting massive investment from other Asian nations, particularly Taiwan, to fill the vacuum left briefly by western governments and corporations protesting the return to martial law. Chin will argue that the potential exists for another Tiananmen-style social upheaval in China, but a less economically abundant Asia will not be there to take up the foreign investment slack.
Isabella Wai, a researcher in the Faculty of Arts at York, will discuss the current raging debate originally sparked by Harvard sinologist Stephen Owen (The New Republic, Nov. 1, 1990) about the perspectives of Chinese writers exiled after Tiananmen and whether they are legitimately "Chinese." She will look at the myth of a monolithic China that is deemed an invention of the West, and the Chinese obsession with ideas of pure and authentic nationhood.
Professor Bernard Luk, a Chinese history scholar specializing in the Ming Dynasty period, and director of the Canada Hong Kong Resource Centre at York, will point out the differing cultural perspectives among the overseas Chinese, whom he describes as a diverse set of communities. Looking at the immigration of Hong Kong Chinese following Tiananmen, he notes that in Toronto alone, they account for two-thirds of the estimated 500,000 ethnic Chinese, and see themselves not only as Chinese, but more specifically in terms of their origins in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
With the Toronto Alliance for Democracy in China, The Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies is sponsoring a series of community events including eyewitness accounts of the military swoop on Beijing and a public discussion on Friday, June 4th from 6:30 p.m. at the Koffler Institute of Pharmacy Auditorium, 569 Spadina Ave., University of Toronto, followed by a candlelight vigil on the campus at Hart House Circle at 8:00 p.m. The conference will begin Saturday, June 5 at 9:15 a.m., registration is at 8:30 a.m. at the Koffler Institute.
For further information and interviews, please contact:
Professor Bernard M. Frolic
Lynne Russell, conference organizer
Susan Bigelow |
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