Author: Lin Li, Department of History, University of St. Thomas - Academia.edu

Abstract: »Using the Liji Alley Museum as a vantage point, this article examines the politics of remembering comfort women in contemporary China. I situate the museum within three contexts: Chinese museums on Japanese aggression, the global initiative to create women s museums, and the trans-Asian movement to found museums dealing exclusively with the comfort women issue. On the one hand, I discuss how the Liji Alley Museum has made important interventions by foregrounding the relevance of gender to discussions of civilian wartime experience and by normalizing critical discussion of violence against women. By examining the museum s physical layout, narrative frameworks, and display techniques, I reveal its use of a combination of survivors testimonies and affective devices to engage visitors. On the other hand, I analyze its limitations vis- -vis present-day China s gender politics. The museum s reliance on government funding and its incorporation into the state-sponsored system of patriotic education have constricted its potential to offer a more complex critique of the multilayered causes behind comfort women victims suffering, and to connect the comfort women issue with contemporary discussions of gender-based violence.« (Source: The Journal of Asian Studies)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 570)
	Historical Background (p. 571)
	Chineses Museums on Japanese Aggression (p. 572)
	From Women s Museums to Comfort Women Museums (p. 574)
	An Overview of the Liji Alley Museum (p. 575)
	Transnational Solidarity and Global Women s History (p. 577)
	Rethinking the Archive: Survivors Testimony (p. 580)
	The Imagery of Tears as an affective Device (p. 582)
	Missing Decades, Forgotten Stories (p. 584)
	Conclusion (p. 587)
	Acknowledgments (p. 588)
	Notes (p. 588)
	Works Cited (p. 590)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of China / Republic of China (1912–1949), History of the People's Republic of China / History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | Museum: Museums in China | Prostitution: Forced prostitution / Comfort women | Sex and the law: Wartime sexual violence / Wartime sexual violence in World War II | War: Pacific War / Japanese war crimes