Abstract This article discusses how binary thinking about colonialism obscures the complexity and interconnectedness of the Asian past, as it is portrayed primarily in the museums of East and South Asia, as well as in Asia-related historical exhibitions in Britain. Focusing especially on the societies of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China, it argues that dogmatic narratives of ‘coloniality’ prevalent in contemporary public and academic discourse in the West echo and reinforce authoritarian nationalist visions of political identity in Asia. These include the Chinese Communist Party’s neo-traditionalist, totalising vision of ‘Chineseness’, which delegitimates claims to distinct identities by Hongkongers, Taiwanese, Tibetans, and others. It is noted that in China as in contemporary South Asia, narratives of ‘civilisational’ glory threatened by ‘alien’ enemies serve to distract popular attention from structural, economic, and political causes of insecurity. By contrast, public history in Taiwan has evolved in a rather different direction, embracing diversity and questioning more simplistic accounts of colonial victimhood. In analysing the reasons for this, the article argues that the Taiwanese case offers a fresh perspective from which to reassess public debate over colonial legacies not only in East and South Asia but also in Britain and the wider West.
Edward Vickers (Fri,) studied this question.