The Bonds of Memory

Presentation

A study of the interweaving of personal, community and national memories in Taiwan and the links they form between individuals across time and across different experiences.

Ten years after Taiwan, Island of Memory, which revealed the richness and diversity of Taiwanese memory dynamics, we propose a new exploration of the links that these reminiscences help to forge. Looking beyond the borders that separate and distinguish, where identities take root, this book questions what brings people together and unites them.

We begin by exploring the depths of memory, the “eternal present” evoked by Pierre Nora, capable of weaving threads between past and present. We go on to explore temporalities marked by generational divergences, demonstrating the vitality of the intergenerational bond. Finally, we turn to nostalgia, the feeling that anchors our memories in places and times, soothing the bitter-sweetness of time as it passes and inevitably leads to separation.

Director

Samia Ferhat is a senior lecturer (HDR) at the University of Paris-Nanterre and a researcher at the EHESS Centre for Studies on Modern and Contemporary China (UMR 8173 CCJ). For the past few years, she has been working on the issue of memory and uses of the past in the context of relations between China and Taiwan. Since 2017 she has directed the Taiwan Studies Project programme at EHESS. Her latest books, published by Youfeng in 2022 and 2023, are entitled Le temps des mots - Un dialogue sino-taïwanais and Chine-Taïwan, imaginaires croisés.

Hsiau A-Chin is a researcher and professor at the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He works in the fields of nationalism, ethnicity, generation, collective memory, historical narrative and Taiwanese literature. He is the author of Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan: Youth, Narrative, Nationalism (Columbia University Press, 2021).

Around the book

Interview for IRIS. “Taiwanese memoirs: catalyst for reconciliation or source of discord?”

Between Taiwan and China, memory can be what “connects, relays, recounts” Does this mean that despite tensions, the link between the two sides of the strait is maintained, even enriched from one generation to the next? Why does the issue of “memory wars” surrounding the interpretation of the Second World War remain so important in current debates? Is there not a silent majority that is rather wait-and-see, or even completely uninterested in the debates led by the Kuomintang (KMT) or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)? Are there any points of convergence between the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan, in terms of their Cold War-era memory and political dynamics, and that between the two Koreas? How do Taiwanese people perceive the Japanese today? And vice versa? How do the descendants of Taiwanese soldiers enlisted in the Japanese Imperial Army deal with this memory, which has often remained silent?

An exchange to be found on the IRIS website.

Interview conducted by Emmanuel Lincot, Director of Research at IRIS, co-head of the Asia-Pacific Programme.

The IRIS Asia-Pacific Programme and its nationally and internationally recognised network of researchers aim to decipher the major dynamics of the region, while providing detailed analysis of the different countries that comprise it and the challenges they face.

322 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication : 04/12/2024
ISBN : 9782858314430