UM's China Studies Institute Open To Academic Collaboration On 'Battlefield In The East' Studies

By Rohani Mohd Ibrahim

BEIJING, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- Malaysia’s Institute of China Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya, has called for deeper academic collaboration with Chinese institutions to shed fresh light on the Battlefield in the East.

Its director, Assoc Prof Dr Ngeow Chow Bing, stressed that gaps in World War II studies in Southeast Asia, particularly during the Japanese occupation, require further research to build a more comprehensive picture of the era.

“Lack of popular films and television series, as well as the gradual fading of memory, make the battlefield in the East less known to the world,” he told Bernama.

He was speaking during a discussion on Friday titled “The Main Battlefield in the East and the Asian People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”, which was part of the conference The Global Significance of the Main Battlefield in the East. The event took place two days after China’s massive military parade in Tiananmen Square, commemorating the 80th anniversary of its victory over Japan in the Second World War.

When asked for his personal view on Wednesday’s military parade, Ngeow described it as an extraordinary display of the organisational skills of the Chinese government and its military, as well as their latest advances in capabilities and technology.

“For a long time, China’s role was marginalised in the mainstream Western historical narrative of World War II. Today, China seeks to provide a corrective to that interpretation,” he said.

The parade on Wednesday, China’s largest ever, was attended by more than 20 world leaders, including Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The conference on Friday, hosted by the Institute of Party History and Literature of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Xinhua News Agency, gathered scholars and experts from various countries, including Malaysia, Brazil, Italy, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and Argentina.

-- BERNAMA