Formations of international knowledge in and on Asia

Abstract

This panel offers an occasion to reflect on the question of formations of international knowledge in and on Asia. The for- mations that we are interested in are those that are (1) not isomorphic with nation, (2) always exceed national boundaries, and (3) fuse knowledge from various regions. Tani Barlow will examine Christian internationalism and female education in the late nineteenth century Asia, with an emphasis on tracking the nature and the sources of knowledge about the imaginary object, "Asia" (consisting largely of reports from India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Canada), that women missionaries drew on during the training period before they reached the field. In his paper on the role of the Yaeyama Island women's textile collective in the Okinawan revitalization of island cultures movement, Shigeki Takeo considers if a localist communitarian way of thinking grounded in everyday experiences can be squared with the reality that technical knowledge, marketing strategy, interpersonal exchanges among weaving women far exceed the boundaries of Iriomote Island and actually link weavers to their counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines and Taiwan. Ruri Ito proposes, through her review of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal and related public hearings, that the bringing together of local knowledges about violence against women by the testimonies of survivors can lead to the development of international knowledge, which in turn has the capacity to trans- form the codes of international law on criminal violence against women.