ISAC-UCAN Series III: Mary in Asia

Description

In Series III, Mary in Asia, Hisako Omori interviews researchers who have participated in the online conference on Mary among Asian Religions co-organized by the Centre for Marian Studies (St Mary’s University, Twickenham, London) and ISAC in May 2023. In each episode, one researcher discusses how her/his work helps to reconsider how Mary is made present across Asian societies and cultures.

This episode features Dr. Shanthini Pillai, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Senior Associate Fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia, and Dr. Angeline Wong Wei Wei, a lecturer at Malaysia Immersion and Pathways, Monash University, Malaysia. Pillai and Wong discuss their research paper, "Marianism, Motherlands and the Collective Unconscious of Tamil and Chinese Catholics of the Classical Diasporas in the Nineteenth Century Malaya."The series' host is Hisako Omori from Akita International University, Japan.

In this episode, Pillai and Wong discuss their studies of Tamil and Chinese Catholic diasporic communities in Malaysia, focusing on the period between the 1870s and 1930s. Drawing on the migrants' experiences of loss, suffering, and hope for salvation, Pillai and Wong argue the figures of Our Lady of Good Health and Our Lady of Sorrows are particularly resonant with these diasporic communities in Malaya.