On May 27, 2024, the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University invited Farish A. Noor, a professor of political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FOSS) of the International Islamic University of Indonesia, to give a lecture entitled "The Visuals of Empire: The Invention of the Stereotype of the 'Backward Native' in Colonial Photos and Postcards". The lecture was hosted by Wang Xiaofeng, a doctoral student at the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University, and nearly 100 teachers and students from domestic and foreign universities and professionals interested in the topic attended the lecture.

In the lecture, Professor Farish first introduced a mainstream view that postcards were a visual propaganda tool of colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, shaping and spreading the West's inherent impression of the East, namely "civilized" Europe and "backward" Asia. Then, by comparing European architecture and Asian rural scenes, he emphasized that postcards created a binary contrast between Western civilization and backwardness in the East, which invisibly rationalized and justified colonial rule and became the continuation and dissemination of colonialism at the cultural level. Finally, he guided the audience to think about the important role of postcards as a visual media in shaping and spreading colonial ideology and the ideological construction mechanism behind it. After the lecture, Professor Farish and the online audience had an in-depth discussion on the selection of postcard themes, composition, how to convey colonial narratives, and gender contrast in postcards.

Farish A. Noor is Professor of Politics at the Faculty of Social Science FOSS, The International Islamic University of Indonesia UIII，and a political scientist and historian of Southeast Asia, whose focus has been on the impact of colonialism in Asia. He has written extensively about the power of ideas and how colonization was never simply a case of violent conquest but also subtle transformation and coercion. His main area of research has been Southeast Asia in the 19th century, focusing on the discursive aspects of colonial rule and the production of Orientalist writings in the region. Over the past ten years, he has also been researching the phenomenon of transnational religio-political movements, as well as the development of religio-politics in South and Southeast Asia, looking at the rise of Muslim, Christian, and Hindu political-religious revivalism in particular.

Editor：Changhan Cao
Proofreader：Southeast Asian Studies group