This "work-in-progress" opens the floor for sharing the gains and pains of doing comparative research in the area of peace and reconciliation studies. It draws on the speaker's previous and ongoing works comparing Sino-Japanese and German-Jewish relations after the Second World War, Chinese and European cultures of remembrance, and comparative "coming to terms with the past" in Northern Ireland and postwar Germany. On the theoretical level, it deals with the issues of comparative framework, categories and argumentation. On the practical side, it discusses the problem of length, the choice between single case studies and the comparative approach, and common pitfalls such as the idealisation of the comparative example and the failure to address objections to comparison. It is suggested that making meaning and useful comparisons trumps formalistic considerations.

Martin Chung holds a PhD from the University of Hong Kong (2014). He is the principal investigator of the research project “The Politics of Antagonism Revisited: Assessing Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement (1998-2018)” funded by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (#22612318). His major publications include “Repentance for the Holocaust: Lessons from Jewish Thought for Confronting the German Past” (Cornell University Press 2017) and “Reconciling with the Past: Resources and Obstacles in a Global Perspective” (Routledge 2018, co-edited with Annika Frieberg). Among other subjects, he teaches British politics and peace studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also a graduate of Yad Vashem (2010) and Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (2017).