Aiming to advance our understanding of cultural, ethnic, and national identities in Eastern Asia, the Department of East Asian Studies of the University of Vienna hosts an international symposium in July 2024, featuring contributions that analyse examples of identity construction in Taiwan, Ryūkyū / Okinawa, and the Korean peninsula. Presentations will examine both historical and contemporary cases of identity construction from a diverse array of disciplinary angles, such as history, cultural history, anthropology, education, politics, tourism as well as literary and media studies. Reflecting ongoing research foci of the department, the symposium will draw attention to examples of identity construction from areas and communities existing (either traditionally or presently) between or at the margins of the more dominant powers of the region (i.e. China, Japan, European colonial powers, the Soviet Union, and the USA). The contributors will investigate processes of identity formation, (self-) conception, and (self-) representation pertaining to – either historically or presently – culturally, ethnically, and politically contested polities, societies, and minority populations.

Approaching these issues comparatively, the symposium aims to highlight commonalities and shared experiences but also to delineate the individual evolution and conditions of each area. In an interdisciplinary setting, patterns of identity construction in East Asia will be analysed both cross-culturally and diachronically, thus identifying broader transcultural and geopolitical processes in the region. 

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