CAS NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Huang Chunming Lecture
Generously funded by the Center for Asian studies, the renowned Taiwanese
writer Huang Chunming gave a public lecture at UC Irvine on May 16, 2008.
The lecture lasted for two and half hours, to a standing-room only audience
at the small theater in Murray Grieger Hall (capacity 140). In attendance
were UCI faculty, students and members from the local community. Mr. Hwang
wove his philosophy of art with his personal experience in Taiwan while the
island was going through dramatic social transition from a rural to an
urban-based society. Punctuated with dramatic enactment and an earthy sense
of humor, his lecture frequently drew up-roaring laughter from the audience.
Huang Chunming (1939 - ) is an influential Taiwanese writer, playwright and
painter. During the 1960s and 1970s, as a major contributor to the
influential Literature Quarterly, Huang was hailed as a representative of
the "nativist literature movement" that focused on the lives of rural
Taiwanese people. His works have been translated into many languages
including English (The Drowning of an Old Cat and Other Stories, Indiana
University Press, 1980, and The Taste of Apples, Columbia University Press,
2001.) Many of his short stories have been turned into films, including The
Sandwich Man (1983).
The event was co-funded by the International Center for Creative Writing and
Translation at UCI.
SUSAN GREENHALGH
Professor
Department of Anthropology
Susan Greenhalgh, anthropology professor, was selected to deliver Harvard University's 2008 Annual Edwin O. Reischauer Lecture Series on April 16-18. Sponsored by the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, those selected to deliver the prestigious talks are chosen from among the most prominent scholars of East Asia - an 'extremely high honor," according to anthropology department chair Bill Maurer.
Widely considered one fo the world's leading experts on China's one-child policy, Greenhalgh has authored mulitple books and journal pieces on the topic including her landmark study, "An Alterntive to the One-Child Policy in China," coauthored in 1985, which opened the political space in China for serious consideration of two-child alternatives. Today, the article is referenced whenever discussion of a two-child option arises.
In her recently released book. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng's China, Greenhalgh documents the extraordinary role played by a handful of Chinese missile scientists in the policy's formation. She explains in her book how the scientists, by borrowing ideas from Western natural science, convinced party leaders the one-child policy was 'the only option' available to avert a 'population crisis' threatening the country's wealth, modernity, and global rise. Drawing upon 20 year of research into China's population politics she details how a nation of one billion decided to limit all couples to one child.
Her extensive population research on both China and Vietnam were the focus of her talks.
Mark Selden
Talk
War Atrocities, Historical Memory, and Reconciliation in the Asia Pacific: From Nanjing to Abu Ghraib
In his lecture to over 30 faculty and students in SSPB 5250 at noon on Tuesday, March 25, Mark Selden, distinguished author and editor of the e-journal Japan Focus discussed the controversies that continue to swirl around the Nanjing Massacre, the military comfort women, and other Japanese military atrocities rooted in the Asia Pacific War. He then juxtaposed what the Japanese army did to a number of high profile war atrocities committed by American soldiers in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq in an effort to understand the myopia and resistance to recognition and acceptance of their actions on the part of perpetrators. This resistance may be traced above all to nationalism or national pride, but it is also the product of interstate relations. It is not the exclusive property of a single nation. Rather, it is a global phenomenon, albeit one whose consequences are notably acute for certain nations. A question raised throughout the talk was what explains the fact that Japanese denial and refusal to provide compensation to victims has long been the subject of sharp domestic and international contention, while the United States has faced relatively little criticism or recrimination for its denial of atrocities?
-
The talk sparked a lively discussion on signature moments in modern warfare that continued after the formal end of the talk at 2 pm.
-
This talk was co-sponsored by the Center for Asian Studies and the Department of Sociology.
A Concert of Yamato Gaku
With the kind assistance of the Japanese 'Ministry of Culture, the Center for Asian Studies is happy to present a very special concert of Yamato Gaku by several
masters of that tradition. Yamato Gaku originated in the 1930's with important support of Baron Kishichiro Okura, a successful businessman, as an attempt to create a new Japanese music fitting the modern age. While frequently such attempts to guide the direction of culture misfire, Baron Okura sought the assistance of the major musicians of the Nagauta, Kiyomoto, Kato bushi, etc. traditions and the result was a new music strongly rooted in established traditions but of great musical significance.
Several musicians forming an ensemble of Japanese string, wind and percussion instruments and vocalists will perform and explain several compositions of this genre.
|
