Announcement: 14.06.2024 – Online Lecture by Stefan Hell: "Art, Diplomacy, and the Projection of Power: The Thai Elephant Statues in Singapore, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City"

1 June 2024, 12:00 am, by AAI Webmaster

Photo: Stefan Hell (cropped)

We kindly invite you to this online lecture in English language on Friday, June 14th, 2024, at 14:00–16:00 h (CEST/MESZ).

Topic:
    "Art, Diplomacy, and the Projection of Power: The Thai Elephant Statues in Singapore, Jakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City"

Speaker:
    Stefan Hell (PhD)

Affiliation:
    Department of History, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Date/Time:
    June 14^th, 2024 (Friday), 14:00 – 16:00 (CEST/MESZ)

Language:
    English

Zoom Link:
    https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09

Zoom Meeting-ID:
    645 6352 1222

Zoom Passcode:
    hgtlecture

About this lecture:

In Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) stand bronze elephant statues gifted by Thai Kings in 1872 and 1934, respectively. The monuments were designed to commemorate the kings' visits to these cities and to provide a visual record of Siamese royal power. The lecture will contextualize these statues in diplomatic practice and contemporary politics, in terms of both cultural setting and symbolism, and the history of secular bronze sculpture in Thailand. A focus will be on the statue in Ho Chi Minh City, which is identified as the first major bronze statue to be cast at the foundry of the Fine Arts Department in Bangkok in 1932.

Brief profile:

Dr. Stefan Hell is a historian and a visiting research fellow at Chulalongkorn University's Department of History. He holds an MA in History and Philosophy from Tübingen University (Germany) and a PhD in History from Leiden University (Netherlands). Stefan is the author of three books: The Manchurian Conflict: Japan, China, and the League of Nations, 1931-1933 (in German), Siam and the League of Nations: Modernisation, Sovereignty and Multilateral Diplomacy, 1920-1940; and Siam and World War I: An International History (both in English and Thai). Stefan has also co-edited books, authored articles, and contributes to the Bangkok Post. His current research projects focus on the history of Franco-Thai relations during the Holocaust and on the confluence of architecture, religion, and politics in modern Vietnamese history.

We would like to thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies for the cooperation. 

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