Keynote Speeches

Keynote speeches


 This conference will feature six experts to give keynote speeches on the following themes:

 

Confucian Culture and Life Writing

With a long history and vast area of influence in Asia, Confucian culture’s emphasis on the importance of character development and achievements has exerted a profound influence on the emergence and evolution of Asia-Pacific life writing traditions. The plenary will discuss how Confucianism shapes the representation of the biographical subject’s character, and how life writing genres have responded into modern times.

 

Migration, Displacement, and Asylum Seeking

These global concerns have always been crucial in the Asia-Pacific region, and for the life writing that has emerged within it. As perennial components of Asia-Pacific life writing, such mobilities impact our understanding of family and memories, immigration and settlement, and individuals’ and communities’ struggles, successes, and failures to succeed.

 

Cultural Hybrids and Life Writing

The many historical and geographic overlays experienced by Asia-Pacific cultures often result in multiple and uncertain cultural identities. Life writing often documents the tensions, conflicts, and achievements resulting from such cultural interchange.

 

Local Cultures and Life Writing

The Asia-Pacific Region boasts rich and complex local cultures that have developed ways for sustaining their own identities and integrity, often in the face of extreme external pressures and even actual interventions. Life writing’s contributions to defining and preserving such local cultures will be the subject of discussion.

 

Other Issues in Life Writing Associated with Asia-Pacific Cultures

Further information about the plenary related to these issues will be forthcoming; this general area creates further possibilities for discussing other significant aspects of Asian-Pacific cultures and life writing.