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Reflections on the "Visualizing Cultures" Incident

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Who would have imagined that a 100-year-old Japanese woodblock print could have caused so much trouble? It all began innocently enough, on April 23rd, when the MIT homepage, in its “Spotlight” section, posted a link to the ““Visualizing Cultures”” project, a multi-media educational Website on East Asia directed by Professors John Dower of the History Faculty and Shigeru Miyagawa of Foreign Languages and Literatures. This simple act led to a cyber-onslaught on the site from Chinese Internet users around the world. It drew MIT faculty, graduate students, top administrators, alumni, historians, scholars, and students into passionate engagement with crucial issues of modern East Asian history, in a very tense atmosphere. The Website was taken down in response to a tidal wave of criticism, but on May 10th the site was restored. The immediate crisis had passed, but ominous echoes lingered. Here I would like to describe briefly the course of the incident and reflect on some of its implicatio

Reflections on the "Visualizing Cultures" Incident home this issue archives editorial board contact us search issues X Search FNL's public issues Vol. XVIII No. 5 May / June 2006 contents Meritocracy and a Diverse Faculty A Brief History and Workings of the MIT Corporation From The Faculty Chair Committees of the Faculty: An End-of-Year Recap Lippard and Sharp Awarded National Medal of Science Energy Research Council and Forum: A Major New Institute Initiative Efficient Use of Energy: Part of MIT's New Energy Initiative Fueling Our Transportation Future Lighting a Fire in MIT's Undergradute Ed

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