Stateless - My Autoethnography

Опубликовано: 05 Июнь 2024
на канале: Melbourne Law School

On 21 My 2024, the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School hosted a webinar presented by Chen Tien-shi Lara, Professor at the School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University and Founder of the Stateless Network, a non-profit organisation. This webinar is part of the Refugees, Citizenship & Statelessness: Asia in Focus Seminar Series.

In this talk, Lara spoke about her book entitled "Stateless". Japan’s 1972 termination of diplomatic ties with the Republic of China left 9,200 Chinese residents stateless. Chen Tien-shi Lara was one of them, born to Chinese parents in Yokohama’s Chinatown. What does it mean to be stateless? What does it feel like? In a lively blend of life writing, auto-ethnography, and study of stateless communities around Asia, this book unpacks the idea of citizenship by showing the hidden everyday narratives and lived experiences of stateless persons who have no legal ties to any nation state. Originally published in Japanese, this adapted and updated English edition critically engages with questions of borders, mobility, belonging and identity. In her presentation, Lara highlighted the contradictions inherent in the concepts of nationality, nation-state and citizenship, in a world where individual nationality, identity and experience are increasingly complex. She argued that the current system of regulating individuals with citizenship is unworkable in the long run.