The History Problem, Quarantine, Politics of Memory and Heritage-Making, and the Road Towards Reconciliation in Asia: Perspectives from the Peripheries of Empires

Principle Investigator：Desmond Hok-Man SHAM, IACS, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Developed from my ongoing concern of the politics of memory and cultural heritage, I am going to explore: (1) How World War II and the Cold War conflicts have been memorized, narrated, and represented, and how such “history problem” shapes and affects the current understanding of the past and present of local societies and inter-Asia relations; (2) How the experience of quarantine has been memorized, narrated, and represented; and how former spaces of quarantine have been reused; and (3) How memory-scapes (including difficult heritage and museums) will be possible to be used for a more cosmopolitan form of commemoration and to bring dialogues and reconciliation in the local, national, and the inter-Asia levels.