Four members of Research Training Group GRK 2833 “East Asian Futures”, Prof. Dr. Christine MOLL-MURATA, Dr. Aya HINO, Dr. Qinqin PENG, and Ms. Nora WÖLFING presented their research in an organised panel, “Challenging the Modern Time Regime: Heterotemporal Imaginations in China and Japan”, at the 18th Annual Conference of Asian Studies (ACAS) in Olomouc, Czech Republic (November 22–23, 2024).

This panel explored, with empirically grounded case studies, the ways in which heterogeneous conceptualisations of time and temporalities are articulated in China and Japan, in relation to or as an opposition to modern, homogenous, empty, and linear time, in religious discourses, imperial and colonial ideologies, and artistic practices. Dr. PENG discussed the corpus of Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947) and the ways in which he utilised multiple temporalities to forge a location of Buddhism in a world marked by a modern, linear, progressive temporality. Dr. HINO questioned the adequacy of analytical categories of time and temporality for the study of utopian visions of the Japanese Empire promoted by the political and intellectual ranks as the legitimate extension of the present. Ms. WÖLFING explored a myriad of time and temporalities represented in a contemporary art project by Cao Fei 曹斐 (1978–), demonstrating how Cao’s storytelling through historical research, various artistic practices, and multi-media exhibition embodied multiple temporalities.

Each presentation was followed by a Q&A session. Questions raised by the audience will certainly benefit the presenters in reshaping and enriching their empirical case studies. Prof. Dr. MOLL-MURATA, as the discussant of the panel, also offered detailed comments on the presentations while emphasising the importance of attending to heterotemporality as a common thread of future imaginaries discussed by the presenters.