Crossing Borders in East and Southeast Asian Struggles for Democracy: Recent Trends and Historical Precedents

On April 12th, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies will host a workshop titled "Crossing Borders in East and Southeast Asian Struggles for Democracy: Recent Trends and Historical Precedents." Moderated by Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom (History, UC Irvine), the workshop will feature presentations from Jaran Ditapichai and Professors Chloé Froissart (INALCO), Tammy Ho (Hong Kong Baptist University), Eraldo Souza Dos Santos (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (UC Irvine).

The workshoph will take place at 17h00 in-person in room Q-609 (6, Rue du Colonel Combes) and online over zoom. To attend in-person, please register using the form below. To attend online, please email zfreigaup.edu for zoom details.

A description of the event can be found below:

This informal workshop will focus on the recent emergence of the "Milk Tea Alliance," a term for varied online and in person efforts by activists and exiles with ties to different parts of East and Southeast Asia to connect with, learn from, and support one another's struggles. How substantial is this "Alliance," in which key participants have included veterans of Hong Kong and Bangkok street actions? How is it similar to and different from border-crossing activities of much earlier times, such as early twentieth century gatherings in cities such as Tokyo and Paris that brought together critics of colonialism? What sorts of chronological and geographical comparisons, going back to Europe in the late 1700s and 1848 and forward to Arab Spring and beyond, are most useful for placing recent waves of protest and waves of repression in the varied region stretching from Beijing to Burma and Tibet and Taiwan to Thailand? These are the sorts of questions we will explore together in an informal workshop that will begin with a brief presentation by Jeffrey Wasserstrom on the short book he is writing on the Milk Tea Alliance and move swiftly from there to a group conversation including invited scholars and writers who have engaged deeply with a range of relevant settings and struggles and members of the Center.