![](\"https:\/\/www.ukm.my\/ikmas\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Eboard-IKMAS-SEMINAR-SERIES-NO12017-1024x768.jpg\")
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Date: Thursday, 2nd February 2017
\nTime: 10.00 am – 4.30 pm
\nVenue: IKMAS Seminar Room, Level 1, IKMAS Building, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia<\/p>\n
Session 1 (10.00 am – 1.00 pm)
\nTitle: Sites of Translocal Encounter: Hui Mobility, Place-making and Boundary-crossing in Urban Malaysia and Indonesia
\nSpeaker: Dr Dr Hew Wai Weng, Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore<\/p>\n
ABSTRACT<\/p>\n
Hui Muslims have a long existence in Southeast Asia. Their recent increase and visibility of presence in Malaysia and Indonesia started since 1990s. Many Hui Muslims, primarily from the Northwestern parts in China, arrived in Malaysia to further studies. Some of them came as businessmen or religious scholars. They run shops selling Islamic clothes which are imported from China, open restaurants serving halal Chinese cuisine, operate a website on Islam in Mandarin and participate in the activities of Chinese-style mosques. For many Hui migrants, mobility goes hand in hand with business, and their business activities intersect with their religious commitments.<\/p>\n
This seminar aims to examine the intersection between trans-local mobility, economic aspirations and religious activities of Hui migrants; as well as the interconnection between migration, urban diversity and social encountered in Malaysia and Indonesia today. Hui mobility entails not only the movement of people, but also the travel of architectural style, cuisine and knowledge, as reflected in various urban infrastructures such as the Hui restaurants, Chinese-style mosques and various Islamic educational institutions. These places provide sites of interaction between Muslims and non-Muslims, between Chinese and non-Chinese, between citizens and non-citizens.<\/p>\n
Based on ethnographic fieldwork, informal conservations and semi-structured interviews, this paper explores trans-local migration routes many Hui have taken, often begin with travelling across different cities in China, before reaching Malaysia and Indonesia, and followed by the desire to visit to Middle Eastern countries. I will discuss two possibilities to further develop this research project \u2013 first, a comparison of Hui Muslims in Thailand and Myanmar; second, a multi-sited ethnography of Hui mobility by visiting their places of origin in China. Broadly speaking, this research on contemporary Hui mobility allows us to reflect on key issues such as globalisation, migration, urban diversity and identity politics (especially related to Islam and Chinese) in Southeast Asian region<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE SPEAKER<\/p>\n
Dr. Hew Wai Weng is a Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore and working on a project, \u2018Religious Gentrification: Islam, Middle Classes and Place-Making in Urban Malaysia and Indonesia\u2019. He has been writing on Chinese Muslim identities, Hui migration patterns, and urban middle class Muslim aspirations in Malaysia and Indonesia. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden and a research fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. He is the author of Identiti Cina Muslim di Malaysia: Persempadanan, Perundingan dan Kacukan Budaya [Chinese Muslim Identities in Malaysia: Boundary-making, Identity Negotiation and Cultural Hybridity] (UKM Press, 2014) and Chinese Ways of Being Muslim: Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia (NIAS Press, 2017).<\/p>\n
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Session 2 (2.30 pm – 4.30 pm)
\nTitle: Exorcising Ghosts and Phantasms: Reinterpreting Indonesia\u2019s Past through unseen Realms
\nSpeaker: Dr. Leong Kar Yen (Tamkang University Department of Global Politics and Economics, Taiwan)<\/p>\n
ABSTRACT<\/p>\n
The historical interpretation as well as presentation of the events of post-Sukarno 1965 is often shrouded in fear and silence. Despite the efforts of NGOs, human rights groups and academics, attempts at reinterpretation or revising the Indonesia\u2019s past has often been met with fierce opposition. Groups which are religiously or militarily-affiliated often brand any such attempts at revising the history of 1965 as being a form of conspir
\nacies to the flag of communism on Indonesia\u2019s soil. Fringe groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front and the Anti-Communist Front have been at the fore front of violently disruptive actions against, exhibitions, movie screenings or even discussions about that specific period. These groups often brand any revisionist retelling of 1965 as arising from an ethereal latent danger (bahaya laten) present in Komunisme Gaya Baru or new-style Communism.<\/p>\n
This discourse bears an uncanny resemblance to the New Order regime\u2019s paranoiac fears of \u2018formless organizations\u2019 or \u2018organisasi tanpa bentuk\u2019 subverting the state from within. Utilising opaque language and taking advantage of an \u2018occult economy\u2019 already present within Indonesia, the New Order regime was able to create an atmosphere of fear and foreboding. Nonetheless, despite the overthrown of Suharto\u2019s New Order regime, Indonesia continues to live amongst the shadows and phantasms which have yet to exorcise even after nearly 20 years of democratic transition. This paper aims to investigate the rising phenomenon of an \u2018occult economy\u2019 arising from the \u2018unspoken\u2019 events of 1965. My paper will specifically look at how spaces of past violence have been transformed into memorials testifying to Indonesia\u2019s \u2018silenced past\u2019. I will also be investigating rumors and ghosts stories hypothesizing that these elements of the \u2018occult economy\u2019 represent a way in which the past expresses itself even as fringe factions and groups continue to maintain an \u2018enforced silence\u2019 on the events of 1965. This paper highlights that through the investigation of these events and by presenting them as symbolic tropes, we can gain deeper understanding of how nations and societies reconcile with their pasts in transitional contexts.<\/p>\n
ABOUT THE SPEAKER<\/p>\n
Dr. Kar-Yen Leong is an assistant professor of Global Politics and Economics at Tamkang University in Taiwan. With a background in Southeast Asian Studies, Dr. Leong is interested in the ways the region grapples with its past, present as well as future.<\/p>\n
We kindly request to confirm your attendance through this link: https:\/\/goo.gl\/PIW2h6<\/a><\/p>\n We look forward to your participation in this seminar. Confirmation of your attendance is greatly appreciated. For further information please call 8921- 4169 or 8921-5855.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"