Date: Thursday 23 May 2024

Time: 12:00 pm to 13:30 pm (BST)

Venue: Online via Zoom

The event is free to attend and open to all. Please register via Ticket Tailor here.

The talk will be given in Mandarin Chinese. Simultaneous translation into English is provided.

Chair: Huimei Zhang, Assistant Director, Chinese Heritage Centre, Nanyang Technological    University

Speaker: Simeng Wang, Permanent Research Fellow, The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Tracing over 150 years of Asian migration to France, the exhibition “East and Southeast Asian Migration to France Since 1860” sheds light on the little-known part of French history. From 1860 to the present day, the exhibition retraces the collective and individual trajectories of migrants from East and Southeast Asia and their descendants, in the wake of major upheavals in the contemporary world. Works of art, objects, archives and personal accounts weave the thread of the exhibition, blending great history with the individual experiences of migrants and their descendants. As the scientific curator of the exhibition, the speaker will share with the audience the content, planning and production process of this exhibition.

The event is jointly hosted by HOMELandS (Hub On Migration, Exile, Languages and Spaces) at the University of Westminster and the Chinese Heritage Centre of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. It is organised as part of the ‘Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative’ project funded by AHRC.

About the speaker:

Dr. Simeng Wang is a Permanent Research Fellow at The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Her research interests cover Chinese society and overseas Chinese diaspora, global health, and transnational mobility. Her scientific publications include Chinese Migrants in Paris: The Narratives of Illusion and Suffering (Brill, 2021), Chinese in France amid the Covid-19 Pandemic: Daily Lives, Racial Struggles and Transnational Citizenship of Migrants and Descendants (Brill, 2023), Chinese Immigrants in Europe: Image, Identity and Social Participation (Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2020) and Mental Health and Mental Suffering. An Object for the Social Sciences (CNRS, 2018). She is the scientific curator of the Exhibition “East and Southeast Asian Migration to France Since 1860” held at the French National Museum of Immigration History (Paris, 2023-2024), and the founder and coordinator of the research network on East and South-East Asian Migrations in France.