China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney
1:00-2:30pm AEDT , Thursday 31 October 2019
Room 708, Jane Foss Russell Building, The University of Sydney NSW 2006
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The early post-war years (1945-1948) in Asia witnessed the dismantling of empire leading to a massive territorial reorganization of the region under the framework of ‘reconstruction’. Contested borders dating from the age of empire were soon to be settled as new national borders were drawn along ethnic or religious lines in the region. Yet, the settlement of borders posed important challenges for those communities who had long resided in the interstices of state power. In this respect, the borderland areas between Yunnan, Western Sichuan and Burma during this period were a good example of the above. After years of relative autonomy in relation to different centers of power, its communities now became categorized as ‘ethnic minorities’ to be incorporated into the emerging independent nation-states of either China or Burma. Taking as a starting point the legal mechanisms in which both states sought to reorganize their respective border regions during this period such as new constitutional frameworks and the formation of representative political bodies, this paper will assess the ways in which both China and Burma sought to ‘decolonize’ this ethnically diverse border area. In face of the state’s attempts to restructure these communities by incorporating global discourses of development and citizenship into their policies, this paper will argue that its inhabitants presented their own interpretation of emancipation, equality and modernity for the region.
This event is part of the lecture series ‘Borderlands in Chinese History and Archaeology’, co-presented throughout 2019 by the Department of History and the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. SSEAC is also a co-presenter for this event.
About the speakers
Dr Andres Rodriguez is lecturer in modern Chinese history at the University of Sydney Department of History. His research has focused on the construction of ethnic identities and state building in China’s southwest borderlands through the lens of fieldwork during Chinas’ Republican period. He is finishing a manuscript tentatively titled Building the Nation in the Field: Frontier Modernity In Republican China’s Southwest. Andres is currently examining early post-war political movements of ethnic minorities across China, Burma, and India as part of a larger framework of ‘frontier reconstruction’ and decolonization across the region.
Dr Susan Banki works in the University of Sydney Department of Sociology and Social Policy. Her research interests lie in the political, institutional, and legal contexts that explain the roots of and solutions to international human rights violations. In particular, she is interested in the ways that questions of sovereignty, citizenship/membership and humanitarian principles have shaped our understanding of and reactions to various transnational phenomena, such as the international human rights regime, international migration and the provision of international aid. Susan’s focus is in the Asia-Pacific region, where she has conducted extensive field research in Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh and Japan on refugee/migrant protection, statelessness and border control. She is currently investigating the local, regional and international mechanisms (and the interactions between them) that serve as potential levers for change.