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The (Silk) Road Less Travelled: East Asian Studies and National Identity Formation in Modern Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Ceren Ergenç
Ceren Ergenç*
Affiliation:
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, PRC
*
Ceren Ergenç, Department of China Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, XJTLU South Campus, SIP, Suzhou, Jiangsu HS369, PRC. Email: Ceren.Ergenc@xjtlu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Regional studies in Turkey have long focused on Europe and the Middle East, with which Turkey has traditionally been associated. East Asian studies seem to remain out of the spotlight. This study claims firstly that different phases of Asian studies scholarship in Turkey have all been geared towards confirmation and validation of the process of Turkish national identity formation. Secondly, this process also reflects the Western-centrism of Turkish academic knowledge production.

This paper presents a periodization of Asian Studies in Turkey in three phases to contextualize and demonstrate these claims. During the first phase of the early republican years, the first Sinology departments were expected to actively contribute to writing Turkish national history. Throughout the second phase of the Cold War years, Turkey found itself in both political and intellectual isolation. In the final phase of post-Cold War globalization, the scope of regional studies scholarship expanded to include East Asia. Despite this development, academic scholarship in Turkey still suffers from Western-centrism and it is not able to directly communicate with East Asia. Knowledge production on East Asia in Turkey is still filtered through the theoretical framework of the Western Anglophone academic world.

Keywords

Turkeyarea studiesEast AsiaAsian Studiesregional studies
Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 64 , Issue 3-4: Contesting Method and Theory between Europe and Asia: Asian Studies in Turkey , November 2017 , pp. 51 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2022

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