Decolonial China Overseas Forum
Dr Andy Law was a keynote speaker at this event at the University of Kent
14 July 2026
On 9th July the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of Kent hosted the Decolonial China Overseas Forum: New Perspectives in China Studies. The Decolonial China Overseas Forum is the inaugural academic forum of the Network for Decolonial China Studies (NDCS), bringing together researchers from the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Supported by the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of Kent, the forum aims to enhance interdisciplinary dialogue on China-related topics through decolonial perspectives.
Senior lecturer in Town Planning, Dr Andrew Law was invited to deliver the opening keynote in the first panel session of Museum, Public Education and Spatial Historical Memory.
Forum Programme
Dr Andrew Law - Keynote Speaker
Dr Andrew Law is Senior Lecturer in Town Planning at Newcastle University. His research examines the way in which societies, governments, social movements, subcultures, communities, and individuals construct their pasts. In exploring these themes, he has conducted research on social theory, the history of ideas, historical imaginaries, historical memory, nostalgia, remembering and forgetting, national myths and narratives, the politics of history, and the uses and abuses of history and/or the past more broadly. Throughout his career, he has often examined these themes in relation to architecture, townscapes, urban conservation, built heritage, intangible heritage, and urban place branding. While his early research explored British and English cases, since 2010, he has investigated Chinese case studies.
Remembering and Forgetting the Opium Wars: British colonial injustice, education, and heritage
This presentation examines the general lack of remembering and/or amnesia surrounding the Opium Wars in China in contemporary Britain. After firstly outlining a brief selective history of the Opium Wars, he traces changing British cultural attitudes to the wars and specifically suggests that one reason the British might have forgotten the Opium Wars is that a discourse of shame and political opposition was transformed into a narrative of Sinophobic blame. In outlining this genealogical history, he points to key political crisis points in the recent past, when discussions of the Opium Wars entered public discourse once again; here it is suggested that through liberal and left-leaning British media, recent years have witnessed a very small but growing culture of remembering. After examining British media, the next part of this presentation explores amnesia and forgetting within history teaching at British schools and heritage institutions. In summarising this amnesia, the final part of the talk explores how British institutions might remember the Opium Wars in the present.