"Erased History" Chinese Simplified edition Courtesy of Guangdong People's Publishing House
Guangzhou, April 2 (China News Network) -- The "Untold Story of the Panama Canal - "Erased History" New Book Sharing Meeting" jointly sponsored by the Chinese Embassy in Panama, the PanamaNian Embassy in China and the Chang'an Avenue Reading Club was recently held through online forms. The author, Panamanian historian Marisa Rasso, and scholars in the field of Latin American studies in China discuss the forgotten and erased real history of the Panama Canal region outside the mainstream Western discourse system.
In The Erased History, Marissa Lasso reconstructs a world erased by American commercial and political ambitions, based on a large number of undisclosed archival materials and private memories, describes the real picture of daily life in the Panama Canal Zone, and documents how, after many failures in management, the United States forcibly relocated towns and residents, changed the landscape of the Canal Zone, and left Panama with the despair of brokenness, failure, and displacement. In September 2021, the Chinese Simplified edition of Erased History, published by the Guangdong People's Publishing House, was released in China.
At this online sharing meeting, Lasso introduced her books and research experience, recalling the story of the changes in the Panama Canal River Zone told by her father, showing the rich and excellent historical and cultural landscape of Panama, and the United States in order to control the Panama Canal, relocating hundreds of thousands of residents, completely erasing the history of this area.
The untold story of the Panama Canal - "Erased History" New Book Sharing Session Live Broadcast Guangdong People's Publishing House Courtesy of Guangdong People's Publishing House
Wang Peng, secretary general of the Center for Central American and Caribbean Studies at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed the historical similarities between China and Pakistan, and believed that the book presented a clear Panamanian perspective on the process of modernization, made a strong criticism of the narrative of Westernism, and denied the West's behavior of pretending to be advanced and arbitrarily interfering in the so-called backward areas.
"At present, there is still a lack of historical research on the Panama region, and Dr. Lasso's rich and informative works that are different from the orthodox Western view of history have important academic significance and positive publishing value." Cui Zhongzhou, an associate professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at Southwest University of Science and Technology, pointed out that the history narrated by the secretary presents readers with a typical case of "Western narrative", unveiling the veil obscured by Westernism and "forcing" people to face the real history of the Panama Canal River Zone.
Wei Zhou, a Chinese writer who wrote a book review of "Erased History," said: "Modernization depends on the active absorption, transformation and adoption of our own people, rather than accepting the experience of other countries in its entirety." ”。
Xiao Fenghua, president of the Guangdong People's Publishing House, also mentioned, "Guangdong and Panama have an indissoluble relationship. Historically, many overseas Chinese in Guangdong have participated in the construction of the Panama Canal, and Huadu District of Guangzhou City is the main source of overseas Chinese in Panama. (End)