11th Enemy Encounters Webinar “The World of Wokou Piracy in East Asia, 13th-17th C.”

[Barend Noordam]

Dear colleagues, 

  

Please see below for information about the eleventh session of the 2025-2026 Enemy Encounters in East Asia webinar series of the Research Training Group "Ambivalent Enmity: Dynamics of Antagonism in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East” at Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, Germany.

 

“Climate Change, Shipwrecks, and Coastal Defense: Wokou and the Making of an 'Enemy' in the East Asia, 13th-17th Centuries”

Ma Guang 

(Associate Professor, Macao Polytechnic University)

• October 30, 2025, 3:00 PM (Heidelberg, CET) via ZOOM.
• The webinar will be recorded, but not the question time.
• If you would like to attend the webinars, please contact barend....@hcts.uni-heidelberg.de.

In this session, Ma Guang (Associate Professor, Macao Polytechnic University) will share his thoughts on the environmental and political context behind the Wokou piracy in East Asia:

From the 13th to the 17th centuries, wokou (Japanese pirates) repeatedly raided the coasts of China and Korea, threatening maritime security across East Asia. This talk examines the broader environmental and political contexts behind these incursions, arguing that not only instability in Japan but also climatic changes, including cooling temperatures, droughts, floods, and typhoons, intensified wokou activities. By tracing diplomatic missions among China, Korea, and Japan, and analyzing shipwrecks and coastal fortifications, the lecture reveals how climate shifts, piracy, and defense together shaped the making of an “enemy” and the maritime order of East Asia.

 

 

BACKGROUND

For more information about the Research Training Group "Ambivalent Enmity: Dynamics of Antagonism in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East”, please go to our website https://www.ambivalentenmity.uni-heidelberg.de/en.

The RTG also produces the podcast series Enemy Encounters which features interviews and in-depth discussions conducted by members of the RTG with scholars, researchers and journalists about various cases of ambivalent enmity in Eurasia as a whole. It can be accessed here and here.

This project has received funding from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Barend Noordam