Workshop
Université du Québec à Montréal
Salle des boiseries (J-2805)
25 February 2011
Montréal, Canada

The study of war has changed dramatically over the last few decades moving from a focus on classical military and political history to multidisciplinary reflections on societies and cultures at war and the combatant and civilian’s experience of such sustained violence. Georges Mosse, John Keegan, and the Ecole Péronne in France have led the way in developing new socio-cultural approaches to the study of war. Most of this research, however, remains focused on Western experiences, in particular that of the two World Wars in Europe. Apart from John Dower’s seminal work on the cultural perceptions leading to a “war without mercy” in the Pacific and Diana Lary’s work on the “scars of war” in China, relatively little of this new research takes up conflicts in the Asian theatre during the 20th century. And yet Asia was at the centre of extraordinary violence for much of this period – the site of civil, colonial and Cold Wars. The impact upon societies and cultures was profound.

Nowhere is this better seen than in the cases of China and Indochina (today’s Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). As part of a wider joint research project initiated between the UQAM and the Institut d’Asie Orientale in France, this workshop seeks to better understand the socio-cultural context of warfare in these two areas. It does this in two ways. First, it brings together specialists of Indochina and China in order to examine how – through specific case studies – civilians and combatants experienced war during this violent 20th century. Second, because China and Indochina were at the Asian crossroads of 20th conflict, this workshop has adopted a comparative perspective in order to better identify and analyze specificities and differences in the socio-cultural experiences of war in Asia. However, these Sino-Indochinese case studies also have much to teach us today as wars continue in Asia well into the 21st century.

Program
Friday, 25 February 2011
Opening (9H00-9H30)
Prof. Stein Tonnesson (Peace Research Institute, Oslo) • The Experience of War in China and Indochina: New Prospects and Approaches Panel 1: Total War? Civilians in Wartime Situations (9H30-10H45)
Présidence : Prof. Andrew Barros, Université du Québec à Montréal
• A « Total War » of Decolonization? Social Mobilization in Communist Vietnam during the Indochina War (1950-54) (Prof. Christopher Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal)
• The Transformative Impact of the U.S. Bombing of Laos (Dr. Vatthana Pholsena, Institut d’Asie orientale/École nationale supérieure)
Coffee Break (10H45-11H00)
Panel 2: Chinese Society and War (11H00-12H15)
Chair: Prof. David Ownby, Université de Montréal
• Bingzai: Military “Disasters” and the Experience of War in Warlord China (Prof. Edward McCord, George Washington University)
• 1945-46: Postwar Social Fractures in China (Prof. Diana Lary, University of British Columbia)
Lunch (12H15-14H00)
Panel 3: The Soldiers of the Republic: Mobilization, Resistance and Choice (14H00-15H15)
Chair: Prof. Stein Tonnesson, Peace Research Institute d’Oslo
• « Soyez des hommes ! » : se battre et mourir pour l'État national du Viêt-Nam (1951-1954) (Dr. François Guillemot, Institut d’Asie orientale/École nationale supérieure)
• Les vétérans de la Guerre d'Indochine à l'épreuve de la Guerre du Vietnam (1954-1975): l’ambiguïté des choix (Mme. Phi Van Nguyen, Université du Québec à Montréal) Coffee Break (15H15-15H30) Panel 4: Cities at War: Civilians and Soldiers in the Line of Fire (15H30-16H45) Chair: Prof. Greg Robinson, UQAM
• Soldiers and Civilians in the 1932 Shanghai Battle: Modern City, Life Support, and Casualties (Prof. Christian Henriot, Institut d’Asie orientale/Institut Universitaire de France)
• La deuxième guerre d’Indochine et ses réfugiés : le cas de Phnom Penh (1970-1975) (M. Frédéric Roy, Université du Québec à Montréal)
Closing Remarks
Prof. Christopher Goscha
Dinner (19H00)