The Wang Gungwu Prize for the best Asian Studies Review article in 2023 has been awarded jointly to Thi Gammon and Shuk Man Leung.
Thi Gammon is an Associate Lecturer and Researcher at Kings College London and was awarded the Wang Gungwu Prize for the article “Your Bodies are Our Future: Vietnamese Men’s Engagement with Korean Television Dramas as a Technology of the Self”. The Committee endorsed the article in the following way:
“Thi Gammon adopts Foucauldian ideas about technologies of self to analyse how working-class Vietnamese men engage with K dramas to imagine their future selves. Based on an interview method of free analysis the author interrogates the viewing experiences of Vietnamese men to examine their self-perceptions and ideas of neo-liberal and upwardly mobile selves. The article argues that K dramas resonate in Vietnam because there are similar patterns in both countries in relation to patterns of tradition and resistance in relation to gender and due to changes over time in Vietnamese gender politics. This article includes an innovative trans Asian perspective and provides some original analysis of shifting ideas of class and gender in Vietnam.”
Shuk Man Leung is an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong and was awarded the Wang Gungwu Prize for the article “Chinese Settler-Colonialism and the Borderless National Imagination in Lü Sheng’s A Madman’s Dream.” The committee endorsed the article in the following way:
“Shuk Man Leung takes a broader theoretical framework centered on colonialism to effectively explore the relationship between Chinese utopian imagination and colonialism during the late Qing dynasty. The author suggests that amidst global trends favoring colonialism for modern nation-state building, Chinese intellectual discourse also embraced Darwinistic notions of strength and expansionism to overcome semi-colonial status. The article convincingly argues that the utopian imagination of this period mirrored intellectual discourse, with “A Madman’s Dream” serving as a notable example envisioning an overseas colony to benefit China’s future. Additionally, the article astutely highlights the dual character of Chinese intellectuals as both colonizers and colonized, as portrayed in the analyzed fiction.”
Congratulations to the joint winners! We also thank this year’s Prize Committee, Professors Li Narangoa (ANU), Andrew Levidis (ANU), and Kate McGregor (Melbourne), for their service to ASAA.
More about the Wang Gungwu Prize
The Wang Gungwu Prize was established and funded as an annual prize by the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) in 2013 to recognise and encourage scholarly excellence in its flagship journal, Asian Studies Review. It recognises the best article published in Asian Studies Review in the calendar year.
The Prize is named in honour of Professor Wang Gungwu, the distinguished historian who has contributed enormously to scholarship not only in Australia but also in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Professor Wang was also a key person behind the formation of the ASAA in 1976 and has served as its president.
The Wang Gungwu Prize is an award of $1,500. Browse the past winning articles here, available open access.
