Abstract
This article focuses on the ways in which concepts and tropes of the Holocaust are used as political instruments in a part of the world that was not immediately affected by its events. It reviews the use of these concepts in selected cases from areas of political conflict in South Korea, Malaysia, and China and compares them with a view to finding a common denominator specific to these Asian countries. The article questions the futility of the current attempt to regulate definitions of antisemitism and its detachment from the realities of politics and academic and public discourse, especially in Asia. Finally, it demonstrates that the semantics of the Holocaust in the selected cases seldom signify anti-Jewish sentiment but are used for other rhetorical and political purposes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 166-184 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Israel Affairs |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
This work was supported by the Seed Program for Korean Studies of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies Promotion Service at the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2022-INC-2230013). In addition, participation in the International Research Workshop, ‘The Holocaust and Asia: Refugees, Memory, and Material Culture,’ at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies contributed significantly to the development of the research presented in this article.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | |
| Ministry of Education | AKS-2022-INC-2230013 |
Keywords
- China
- East Asia
- Holocaust
- Japan
- Korea
- Malaysia
- Xinjiang
- antisemitism