News

Sunday 10 September 2023

International Academic and Practical Conference “Colonialism in the East and Its Influence on the Modern World” Within the Framework of the Eastern Economic Forum

 
On September the 10th, 2023, the International Academic and Practical Conference “Colonialism in the East and Its Impact on the Modern World” was held at the 8th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF)

The event program included a plenary session and two sections:

• Section 1: “History and Politics of the Colonial Period and Colonial Legacy Overcoming”;
• Section 2: “Neocolonialism and Issues of Culture and Science Decolonization in the Countries of the East”.

Program and video broadcast on the EEF website: https://forumvostok.ru/programme/start-day-events/?theme=99961

News on the EEF-2023 website: https://forumvostok.ru/news/v-ramkah-vef-sostojalas-mezhdunarodnaja-nauchno-prakticheskaja-konferentsija-%C2%ABkolonializm-na-vostoke-i-ego-vlijanie-na- sovremennyj-mir%C2%BB

Plenary session. Roscongress photo bank: https://photo.roscongress.org/ru/projects/173/6112 

Section 1. Roscongress photo bank: https://photo.roscongress.org/ru/projects/173/6122 

Section 2. Roscongress photobank: https://photo.roscongress.org/ru/projects/173/6123 

The conference was prepared and held by the joint efforts of the Institute of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences), the Federal Archival Agency, the State Museum of Oriental Art, the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Far Eastern Federal University, with the support of the Russian Historical Society and the History of the Fatherland Foundation. More than 40 delegates from Russia, Myanmar, India, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Gambia took part in it. The Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences was represented at the conference by 11 speakers (in order of presentation):

• V.V. Naumkin (“Once Again on the State-Civilization”);
• E.M. Astafieva (“Issues of Overcoming the Colonial Legacy in Malaysia and Singapore: National-Ethnic Aspect”);
• A.Yu. Drugov (“From the History of Military-Technical Cooperation Between the USSR and Indonesia (1961-1965)”);
• V.Ts. Golovachev (“Zheng Cheng-kung (Kosinga) – the Role and Image of the First Chinese Fighter for the Liberation of Taiwan from the Western Colonialists in the 17th Century”);
• S.E. Sidorova (“Colonial India under the Modernization Onslaught of Britain: a View from Russia in the 19th century”);
• A.Sh. Kadyrbaev (“The Collapse of the Colonial Experiments of the Japanese Empire in 1945 and the Role of the USSR in the Liberation of Northeast China (Manchuria)”);
• V.A. Perminova ("Anti-Colonial Movements During the Era of Japanese Rule in Taiwan (1895 1945)");
• A.V. Vorontsov (“The problem of the legacy of Japanese colonialism in the DPRK and ROK”);
• E.Yu. Vanina (“How India Lost its Independence and How It Won It”);
• V.E. Molodyakov (“The Experience of Japanese Rule in Taiwan in Debates on Colonial History”);
• D.S. Panarina (“Philippines: From the Colonial Period to the Struggle for Independence”).

The wide geographical range presented in the reports made it possible to show the countries of the East in different guises: as oppressed colonies and objects of claims from imperialist powers (India, Burma, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Oceania countries) and vice versa, as regional “pan-Asian” hegemons and metropolises (Japan in relation to Korea, China and the Southeast Asian countries).

The colonial history of Asian states and its individual episodes, which were addressed by the participants, served as the basis for raising and discussing issues of a conceptual and theoretical nature: the phenomenon of civilization, state-civilization and nation-civilization, the essence and nature of institutions left as a colonial legacy to this day determining the political, administrative and socio-economic structure of the former colonies, as well as the universality and functionality of these structures in the modern realities.

The speakers reflected on the extent to which today's ethno-confessional conflicts, economic difficulties, and political crises in the region have their origin in the experience of subordinate existence in the past. The speakers analyzed how this past and the emotional reflection associated with its comprehension and experience, accompanied by feelings of resentment, humiliation and often a thirst for revenge, form the behavior strategies of the Eastern countries in foreign policy activities and building a system of international relations. The strife for a polycentric world order, is being increasingly expressed in the socio-political space of Asia, serves as a reason for thinking of whether the colonial past and heritage may become factors for building a community united by a common destiny, or, conversely, become a barrier to intraregional interaction.

Also at the conference was discussed the issue of academic or “scientific colonialism” - the idea that only in the West the scientific breakthroughs may be made and the world-class scientists work only there. This approach is rooted in the Eurocentric picture of the world, according to which the West looks like a logical peak, the crown of the historical process. Due of this prejudice, the scientists in the Western countries, primarily from the USA and Great Britain, read and cite rarely the works of researchers from the other regions of the world. They consider works in other languages to be second-rate and suppress or do not want to notice the discoveries of non-English-speaking scientists. The opponents of “scientific colonialism” do not deny the important, often leading role of the European and the American scientists in many areas of science. But we should not forget that many great discoveries had been made outside the Western world. For example, the term “algebra” came from Arabic, the compass and the printing press were invented in China, and the first manned flight into space was made by Yuri Gagarin, USSR citizen.

The forum included a historical and documentary exhibition “Colonial Policy and Anti-Colonial Struggle in Asian Countries” (14 stands). The text and illustrative material for it was prepared by the Institute of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences) together with the Federal Archive Agency of the Russian Federation, the Russian Historical Society and the State Museum of Oriental Art, with the support of the fund “History of the Fatherland” and JSC “Russian Railways”.