WED 11/30 5 PM : Kyle Gardner

Kyle Gardner

University of Chicago

“The Space Between: Trade, Cosmology, and Modes of Seeing in Independent Ladakh”

WED, Nov. 30th 5:00-7:00 PM

John Hope Franklin Room, SSR 224

Discussants:

Matthew Lowenstein, University of Chicago History Department

Please join us for Kyle Gardner’s presentation of a chapter from his dissertation on Wednesday, November 30th at 4 PM in the John Hope Franklin Room (SSR 224). In addition to providing historical background of the making and demise of Ladakh (a region in the northwest Himalayan mountain range), “The Space Between: Trade, Cosmology and Modes of Seeing in Independent Ladakh” explores how four indigenous modes of viewing space–cosmological, political, linguistic, and material–created multiple modes of seeing that space.

Kyle’s paper can be accessed through at the East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop website. The password is “cosmology”

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

Thursday Nov 17 at 4PM : Liping Wang

Liping Wang

Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong

“Legal Pluralism or Jurisdictional Nexuses: The Transformation of Jurisdictional Boundaries in China-Inner Mongolia, 1900-1930”

Thursday, November 17 4:00-6:00 PM

John Hope Franklin Room, (SSR 224)

Discussant:

Yuan Tian (PhD Student, Department of History)

The East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop is delighted to host Professor Liping Wang of the University of Hong Kong next Thursday, November 17. Please see the below abstract for the work.

“This presentation comes from one chapter in my book under work. In this chapter, historical examples from eastern Inner Mongolia will illustrate the hazy jurisdictional boundaries between Mongol banners and Han Chinese migrant communities, a structure that formed under the Qing Empire. Multiple frontier agents, including banner nobles, civilian county magistrates, frontier governors, and local representatives of Lifan yuan, all participated in judicial processes that sometimes involved Mongols and sometimes mixed ethnic groups. Frontier legal jurisdiction was therefore not a whole cloth. Frontier agents, who represented the state or the local Mongolian interests to varying degrees, diversified the expression of legal authority. This structure evokes the question: can we conceptualize the multiple legal orders operating/cooperating in the Qing Empire as a case of legal pluralism? Legal pluralism is a term introduced in colonial studies and reformulated to stress the multiplicity of legal practices in empires as opposed to the legal uniformity characterizing nation-states. Moreover, these rather diversified legal jurisdictions in the frontier were being shattered in the early twentieth century. System decay started with the transformation of Lifan yuan, which destabilized the balance between different agents, and triggered their competitions to augment their respective jurisdictional scopes. Based upon a variety of sources (including the official memorials, local gazetteers, the archives of the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs, and sources collected from the Archives of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region), this chapter pinpoints the most important changes that transformed the frontier jurisdictional divisions, which directly propelled the formation of confrontational ethnic relationship in China-Inner Mongolia in the early 20th century.”

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

November 11 4PM–David Andrew Knight (Co-sponsor with APEA)

David Andrew Knight

“Plain Becomes Patterned: Li Deyu and the White Lotus”

Friday, November 11, 4-6 PM

CEAS 319 (1155 E 60th St)

Discussant:

Yiren Zheng (EALC)

The East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop, in conjunction with the Art and Politics of East Asia Workshop, is delighted to host David Andrew Knight next Friday, 11/11. Below is a brief abstract of the work:

This paper is part of a larger project that situates the fu 賦 poetry of the ninth century minister Li Deyu 李德裕 (787-850) within the context of his life. Through the focal point of a fu poem about a white lotus flower written by Li Deyu, one of the most powerful men of his day, I will demonstrate how this poem captures a retrievable moment of poetic creation. I have discovered that Li Deyu’s fu poem on the white lotus is a literary recreation of his encounter with the fifteen year old Xu Pan who was soon to become his concubine. By analyzing a key stanza in the poem, I will illuminate the links between Li’s literary life and his real life.

The paper can be found at the East Asia: Transregional Histories workshop website at this link. The password is “lotus”. Please do not cite or circulate this paper without express permission of the author.

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.

TOMORROW, Friday Nov 4th at 4:00 PM: Jamie Monson

Jamie Monson

Professor, Michigan State University

“Learning by Heart: Practice as knowledge building along the TAZARA Railway in late Twentieth Century Mang’ula”

Friday, November 4, 4:00 – 6:00 PM

CEAS Room 319 (1155 E 60th St)

Professor Monson’s presentation will include photographs and video clips demonstrating her ethno-historical methodology. Her paper can be found on the East Asia: Transregional Histories Website. 

This paper explores the transmission of knowledge from Chinese experts to African workers during the construction of the TAZARA railway in Mang’ula, Tanzania. Using a practice called shou ba shou (literally “hand holding hand”), the Chinese experts taught local workers how to use drills and lathes to build railroads. Monson’s ethno-historical research reveals that such processes “spanned and charted major upheavals of the mid-twentieth century in the global history of work, technology and politics.” This railway project bridged the divide between China’s socialist internationalism and Cultural Revolution, on the one hand, and Tanzania’s socialist experiment on the other. As Monson states, “the meeting of Chinese experts and African workers in the secluded mountain stronghold of Mang’ula formed a connection between two frontline landscapes of railway building during the Cold War – from the frontiers of Sichuan and Yunnan to the rugged escarpment of the Udzungwa mountains.“

As always, first-time attendees are welcome. Light refreshments and snacks will be served.

If you have any questions or require assistance to attend, please contact Jessa Dahl at jdahl@uchicago.edu or Erin Newton at emnewton@uchicago.edu.