Adventures in Vancouver: Attending the 2026 AAS Conference

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The AAS 2026 Conference took place from March 12 to 15 in Vancouver, Canada. As a first-time attendee at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, I had a pleasant and enriching experience and would like to share what made it memorable.

This year’s AAS had more than 3000 speakers and 700 panels. The three conference venues (the Vancouver Convention Center, Fairmont Waterfront, and Pan-Pacific Hotel) are located along the waterfront, offering scenic views of the Vancouver Harbour. In a bustling environment, the ocean view provides participants with moments of serenity and a space for reflection.

As AAS itself embodies the successful development of Asian studies, what new challenges and possibilities arise in this field? How can Asian studies help address the ongoing precarity of life shaped by geopolitical conflicts, economic concerns, and environmental challenges?

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The two keynote talks offered by Professor Hyun Mee Kim and Professor Nancy Peluso explore the influence of Asian studies beyond its geographical boundary. Professor Kim’s keynote, “A Feminist Redefining of Democracy in Post-Developmental South Korea,” draws on South Korea’s post-developmental conditions to reflect upon the future of democracy. Kim points out the limits of growth-oriented statecraft and calls for a feminist reframing of democracy grounded in care, interdependence, and social reproduction.

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Professor Peluso’s keynote, “Living Landscapes, Hidden Histories: Durian as Method,” surveys humans’ entanglement with durians and the landscapes of their cultivation in West Kalimantan and the Thai-Malay borderlands. Peluso explores the socio-natural history of durian trees, showing that durian stories provide insights into indigenous identity, territorial claims, and dynamics of violence and peace-making in the border forests. 

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The panel that I co-organized with Prof. Dong Liu brings in interdisciplinary perspectives from anthropology, sociology, and literary and cultural studies to study China’s Northeast Rust. Titled “Poetics and Politics of the ‘Rebirth’ of Northeast China’s Rust Belt,” this panel investigates the rising cultural interest in China’s Northeastern industrial ruins, identifying a new political horizon of “rebirth” differentiated from the state’s slogan “Rejuvenating the Northeastern Old Industrial Base.”

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Delving into the representation of the rust belt, our panelists (Wen Xie, Siyu Tang, Dong Liu, and myself) take the meaning of rebirth beyond the revival of socialist ideology and the reassertion of post-socialist developmentalism. Instead, we maintain that the cultural rebirth, spearheaded by the “Dongbei Renaissance,” recasts the rust belt as an imagined terrain for the emergence of new political currents. I have learned a lot from other panelists’ presentations and the audience’s thought-provoking questions.

I also attended panels related to my research interests in energy, environmental humanities, and literary and media studies. The growing environmental concerns and the call for energy transition have attracted scholars’ attention.

Panels such as “Currents of Power: Energy Infrastructures and Imaginaries in Modern China” and “Technologies of Futurity: Mediating Nuclear Asia in the Cold War” examine the past and future of energy development in Asia. 

The panels “Eco-Encounters: Reconsidering Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art and Material Culture” and “Nonhuman Modernism in Transnational Asia” highlight the various Asian literary and artistic genres in portraying the entanglement of humans and nature.

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In addition to networking with scholars in my field, I met with Duke professors Prasenjit Duara, Nicole Barnes, and Carlos Rojas, as well as Duke graduate students and alumni. Reconnecting with professors and mentors, together with meeting new friends, is among the sweetest and most rewarding parts of attending the AAS conference.

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