Michael Facius
Biography
Michael Facius is Research Fellow and PhD Student at Freie Universität Berlin, East Asian Seminar. He is currently writing his doctoral thesis with the working title "Translating Asia: Chinese knowledge in late 19th century Japan" as part of the DFG (German Research Council) sponsored project "Actors of cultural globalization 1860-1930".
Title of Paper
Globalizing knowledge: The Japanese Tōa dōbun shoin in Shanghai
Abstract
The Japanese Tōa dōbun shoin, or East Asian Common Culture Academy, in Shanghai has been characterized as a spearhead of Japan’s “informal empire” in China. This presentation attempts a different perspective on this important institution, without losing sight of its political entanglements. It situates the Tōa dōbun shoin at the endpoint of the transformation of the order of knowledge that took place in Japan in the course of the nineteenth century. One major effect of this transformation was the allocation of a new meaning and role to “Chinese knowledge”. The paper discusses aspects of this new role that relate to 19th century globalization. It argues that, paradoxically, the generation of knowledge about “living China” was in fact encumbered by the globalization of Japan that set in with the Meiji period (1868–1912) and became an option only after China’s end as Japan’s political enemy, i.e. after the Sino-Japanese war. Exploring the curious tension between the Academy’s stress on fact-finding and its entanglement with political issues, the paper argues that the latter were in fact a necessary precondition for the establishment and success of Tōa dōbun shoin.