EASC Newsletter: January 2004 EASC Newsletter: January 2004
Happy Year of the Monkey! In 2004, the East Asian Studies Center is experimenting with a slightly different newsletter format. In the past we have included a “Spotlight On...” ways that East Asian Studies has reached out and formed connections with various departments at Indiana University. This year, we would like to expand the scope of our spotlight to the world beyond the gates of I.U. by inviting specialists on East Asia to write articles addressing current issues in East Asia. The first of these is written by East Asian Studies Center Associate Director Jacques Fuqua, a retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel who spent the latter part of his career in Japan and Korea. Jacques taught a course called “East Asia and Global Security” at I.U. Bloomington this past fall. We look forward to hearing your comments on this new addition (easc@indiana.edu).
Japan: New Nationalism or Seeking Normalcy?
by Jacques L. Fuqua
Recent trends in Japanese security policy discussions seem to indicate a subtle, but growing shift away from the traditional post-WWII adherence to its “Peace Constitution.” For example, in mid-February 2003, Shigeru Ishiba, Director General of the Japan Defense Agency, indicated that Japan had the constitutional right to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea if Japan felt threatened. This shift has not gone unnoticed by those who follow developments in Japan’s security policies. For example, Eugene A. Matthews, a former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes “…while the United States has spent the last few years focusing almost exclusively on Afghanistan, Iraq, and the war on terror, another formidable challenge—rising nationalism—has taken hold in one of America’s closest allies. This development could have an alarming consequence: namely, the rise of a militarized, assertive, and nuclear-armed Japan, which would be a nightmare for the country’s neighbors.”
There has been an increased effort among those following Japan’s defense policies to measure the potential long-term impact of Japan’s endeavors to reassess its security posture in light of the threat it confronts from North Korea and in light of its broader responsibilities to the international community in a post 9/11 world. Key to Japan’s security reassessment is two rather controversial issues: 1) Article 9 of the constitution, which renounces war as an implement of its statecraft; and 2) Japan’s dispatch of its Self-Defense Forces to participate in overseas peace-keeping operations. One such article appears in the Nov/Dec 2003 issue of Foreign Affairs, entitled “Japan’s New Nationalism,” written by Eugene A. Matthews.
The above article contends that Japan’s nationalism and militarism are synonymous. These concepts, however, differ markedly in scope and focus: militarism is not an inescapable result of nationalism. The article also asserts that unless Japan’s growing nationalism is closely watched, in this case by the U.S., Japan’s single bilateral security partner, its budding nationalism might potentially grow into something more ominous.
It may be more accurate to characterize current domestic debate in Japan regarding the security issues it confronts as the natural growth process a sovereign nation undergoes as it re-defines for itself its national interests and foreign policy, rather than some dangerous form of militarization. Security for any nation is its ability to manage to an acceptable level the elements of insecurity it confronts, thus ensuring the safety of the state and its citizenry. Presently, Japan is undertaking a re-evaluation of its own security concerns and its foreign policies in light of world events, particularly after the 1998 North Korean test-fired rocket that flew into Japanese sovereign territory and the subsequent North Korean claims of its highly enriched uranium program and successful re-processing of spent plutonium fuel rods.
The steps Japan has undertaken to ensure its security are both prudent and natural. I would argue what might be considered unnatural is the expectation that Japan would fail to do anything knowing the potential threat it confronts. Japan’s plan to purchase PAC-3 (Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles) is a necessary step; PAC-3 is a high/medium advanced surface-to-air guided missile air defense system. The PAC-3 missile systems, in tandem with SM3 missile-equipped Aegis destroyers, represent the nation’s defense against the threat posed by North Korea and its hallmark brinksmanship diplomacy, which has in the past several years evolved into “missile” diplomacy. Similarly, current U.S.-Japan discussions regarding development of a joint missile defense system, talks which began as early as 1998, are again, a substantive and prudent defensive measure. Neither of these measures, however, rises to a level that warrants concern over a re-emerging jingoistic Japan. They are defensive and responsive in nature, not weapons with a first-strike capability.
While some Japanese politicians have opined that Japan has the right to develop nuclear weapons, this is not a likely course for the Government of Japan to pursue. It is not in Japan’s national interests to do so. Japan presently, for $4.5 billion in Host Nation Support, leverages a $401.3 billion U.S. defense budget that includes protection under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. This is a more economical and strategically sound approach than undertaking development of its own nuclear program. (As an aside, it is difficult to conceive of a Japanese citizenry that would support a policy of a nuclear Japan. There is still a great deal of credence given to the country’s “Three Non-Nuclear Principles”- not to possess, produce or allow the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan - and the annual peace ceremonies in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, all of which point to a broader aversion to the nuclearization of Japan, mitigating against such happenstance.)
Domestic debate as to whether or not Japan should consider revising its Peace Constitution in order to more fully shoulder its share of international peacekeeping and other operations can also be considered part of this natural evolution of reassessing security concerns. Japan is a member of the global community: its security is impacted by world events and conversely, it is expected to share in the heavy lifting of international operations. While it might be convenient to attempt to draw parallels between current domestic debates and Japan’s past, it simply wouldn’t be accurate. First, the mere fact that there is discourse as to the future of the constitution and its impact on Japan’s security is in itself significant; any proposed constitutional changes would likely be subject to a referendum. Also different are the nation’s governing apparatus and form of government. Most importantly, the same set of circumstances and motivations for the courses of action pursued by early 20th century Japan no longer exists.
Debate over the future of the Peace Constitution and Article 9 can be condensed into a single thought offered by noted Japanese TV and print journalist Ms. Yukie Kudo who called this debate the search for a “normal” Japan, which according to Ms. Kudo is a “pragmatic approach to the world.” Matthews alludes to this point in his article, but falls short of capturing its essence: this is not a contributing factor to the growth of nationalism; rather it is the core of the argument itself. This pragmatic approach to domestic security and international affairs is at the heart of much of the domestic debate presently taking place. In fact, one might argue that within East Asia itself, a broader trend toward pragmatism is evolving. The six-party talks, irrespective of their lack of substantive results to date, marks a decided shift in the heretofore bilateral approach to many security issues in the region. Japan of course plays an important role in these talks.
Japan’s recent signing of the Tokyo Declaration with the nations of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is also demonstrative of a pragmatic shift toward becoming a “normal” nation. In order to satisfy U.S. and international expectations, Japan has, at times, had to trade the idealism of its Peace Constitution and Article 9 for a more pragmatic approach: ratification of the PKO law; dispatching the SDF to Iraq, the first time since WWII the Japanese military will operate in an active war zone; dispatching Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to the Indian Ocean to assist the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan; and to a certain degree, although a very necessary step, development of the most recent version of the Defense Guidelines, which expand the logistical support Japan provides to the U.S. during hostilities. The definition of “areas surrounding Japan” within which Japan might provide logistical support was left intentionally vague in order to provide flexibility, hence Japan’s support of the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan.
This trend also has implications domestically. For example, for the first time since the end of WWII, the Government of Japan plans to develop the first completely domestically produced aircraft. Dubbed the PX project, a replacement for its current inventory of P3-C patrol aircraft, it is a project being undertaken through a consortium of Japanese firms: Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries are responsible for the design of the body, while the maritime Self-Defense Force’s Technical Research and Development Institute and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries are focusing on engine design.
While the above can be considered a process of healthy discourse, I did find one point that Matthews made troubling. He hints that the U.S. should consider the practice of directly engaging Japanese politicians outside the Government of Japan to address some of its concerns or perhaps to influence the domestic debate. I can think of nothing more potentially damaging to the bilateral relationship, particularly in a society where personal and organizational relationships comprise the core of social fabric and are built over years of trust and cooperation. To be sure, U.S. Embassy officials regularly engage in discussions with politicians, both inside and outside the ruling coalition, but not for purposes of influencing domestic issues—once U.S. officials engage in such practices they lose their credibility as honest and trusted brokers, potentially adversely impacting issues the U.S. considers of national importance.
In summary, there exists no basis for undue concern regarding the present domestic debates in Japan. They represent a natural and useful reassessment of security concerns confronting Japan as a sovereign nation. And this reassessment, far from being the first potential step down a slippery slope, is a move toward what many Japanese see as a pragmatic and “normal” Japan.
Former Ambassador Gregg Visits
EASC sponsored a visit by former Ambassador to Korea Donald Phinney Gregg in November 2003. While he was in Indiana, Ambassador Gregg gave several talks, culminating in a lecture which was open to the public and held at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington. Through a description of his own experiences in dealing with both North and South Korea, Ambasssador Gregg illuminated how various diplomatic decisions which have been made regarding Korea have impacted the current state of affairs there.
Following graduation from Williams College in 1951, Ambassador Gregg joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and over the next quarter century was assigned to Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Korea. He was seconded to the National Security Council staff in 1979, where he was in charge of intelligence activities and Asian policy affairs. In 1982, he was asked by the then Vice President George Bush to become his national security advisor. He then retired from the CIA, and was awarded its highest decoration, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. During his six years with Vice President Bush, Ambassador Gregg travelled to 65 countries.
Between 1980 and 1989, Ambassador Gregg also served as a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University, where he taught a graduate level workshop entitled “Force and Diplomacy.” Starting in September 1989, he served as Ambassador to Korea for 3 1/2 years. Prior to his departure from South Korea in 1993, Ambassador Gregg received the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, an honorary degree from Sogang University, and a decoration from the Prime Minister of Korea.
In March 1993, Ambassador Gregg retired from a 43-year career in the United States government, and assumed his current position as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Recent awards include an honorary degree from Green Mountain College (1996), the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service (2001) and Williams College’s Kellogg Award for career achievement (2001).
In November, Professor George M. Wilson, the former Director of the East Asian Studies Center and professor emeritus of the History Department, was presented with The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, one of the most prestigious decorations in Japan, for his years of exemplary service to improving and promoting mutual understanding between the United States and Japan. After receiving the medal at an awards ceremony at the Japanese Consulate in Chicago, George was also honored at a reception at the East Asian Studies Center.
As part of the undergraduate initiative underwritten by the Freeman Foundation, EASC and the School of Journalism have sponsored two visits by journalists who have spent extensive amounts of time working in East Asia. The first journalist to visit was Anthony Kuhn who spent a week at I.U. in the fall of 2002. In October of 2003, journalist Philip Segal spent several days at I.U. Bloomington. While at I.U., Segal spoke to journalism classes and visited Professor Scott O’Bryan’s course on war and peace, where he discussed the issue of nationalism and religion in India and Pakistan. He also visited Professor Rick Harbaugh’s course on Chinese economy, where he discussed the Chinese banking system.
Segal received his B.A. in economic geography from Columbia in 1984. He started his journalism career as a writer and assignment editor for Global Television News in Toronto.
For the past ten years Segal has held a range of positions in Asia. Most recently he was the Hong Kong-based markets and finance editor for The Asian Wall Street Journal. He is currently a Knight Fellow and master’s candidate at Yale Law School.
Click here to see the complete School of Journalism interview with Philip Segal.
A workshop entitled “Memory Links: To Self, Culture, and Country” was held on the I.U. Bloomington campus from October 30 through November 2, 2003. It was the second of an international series of workshops which have been planned for the years 2002 through 2006 at the initiative of Prof. Lynn Struve (IUB History and East Asian Languages and Cultures) and Prof. Ping-chen Hsiung (Institute of History, Academia Sinica, Taipei). The purpose of these workshops—to take place in Taipei, Bloomington, Berlin, Tokyo, and Singapore—is to explore ways in which the history of memory in China, as reflected in rich materials going back several centuries, can contribute to the general discourse on memory in historical studies, a discourse which, though active for decades, has focused largely on the West and on modern times.
Historical memory studies often intersect with literary considerations. Indeed, several of the strongest papers from the Bloomington workshop have been accepted for a special issue, on memory and genre, of the journal CLEAR, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews. Four of the other papers, ones which treat traumatic memory in particular, are slated to appear in a thematic issue of the journal History & Memory (the first that this journal has ever published on China).
The workshop was principally funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Ancillary funds were received from the IUB Center for the Study of History and Memory, International Programs, and the Humanities Institute. And all-important logistical, administrative, and moral support was provided by the East Asian Studies Center.
EASC Outreach Assistant Maryanne Kim is coordinating this year’s Exploring East Asia through Stories program, the popularity of which has exploded. In December Maryanne and student volunteers from East Asia presented stories from East Asia and related activities to seven elementary school classes in Bloomington, reaching 140 children and their teachers. Fifteen presentations have already been scheduled for spring semester, with more requests coming in every week. EASC has received enthusiastic response from the teachers, most of whom have recommended Exploring East Asia through Stories to their colleagues, and some of whom have scheduled repeat visits. As a part of this program, Indiana University student volunteers representing China, Japan and Korea share various aspects of their respective cultures with the children through crafts and game. These international students have also reported positive experiences and appreciating the opportunity to learn about children and elementary education in the United States. A description of EASC’s growing library of children’s books is available at: www.indiana.edu/~easc/storytelling/.
The American Historical Association (AHA) maintains a small number of regional “conferences” focusing on specific areas of the world. One of them, established in 1953, is the Conference on Asian History (CAH). Chaired since 1988 by George M. Wilson (History & EALC, Emeritus), CAH has a database of approximately 450 historians who work in the United States and Canada. In cooperation with Professor Wilson, the Center administers the CAH database and organizes a luncheon given during the AHA’s annual convention, held in January. Each luncheon features an address by a prominent East Asian historian. This year the speaker was Jonathan Spence of Yale University, a leading historian of China and the current president of the AHA. Last year the speaker was Ronald Toby of the University of Illinois, whose special interests are Tokugawa Japan and Korea.
EASC, in collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education and eleven Indiana teachers who participated in the 2002 study tour to Japan and Korea, has produced a CD-ROM of lesson plans to be distributed to teachers in Indiana. Through this initiative, more teachers in Indiana will have the opportunity to teach about Asia using materials produced by teachers.
The participating teachers are: Kay Bale (Pendleton Heights High School), Francie Beville (Urey Middle School), Maryann Foster (Clifford Pierce Middle School), John Frank (Center Grove High School), Cathy Gohmann (Southwood Jr/Sr High School), Angelique Jacobson (Hammond High School), Sue Jones (Tecumseh Middle School), Maria Kelsay (Rochester High School), Juan Lewis (Durgan Elementary School),Terri Lewis (Tecumseh Middle School), and Carole Williams (Shawe High School).
Lesson plans include The Ballad of Mu-lan, Asian Mask Making, Cultural Museum, A Visit to the DMZ, Asian Hot Spots, and others for history, social studies, art, media, theater, English and foreign language classes. The lesson plans include numerous photos taken during the study tour with digital cameras supplied by the Indiana Department of Education.
These eleven educators will present their lesson plans to middle school and high school teacher colleagues at a series of workshops at nine sites around Indiana in February and March 2004. Workshop participants will receive a copy of the CD-ROM for use in their own classrooms as well as other teaching resources. For more information about registration, please contact your local Educational Service Center.
Five films remain in the popular EASC film series. Films are shown at 7:30 p.m. in Woodburn Hall 101 on the I.U. Bloomington campus.
February 21, Singles
Korea, 2003, Dir. Kwon Cheol-In, 110 min. This is a film about young urban professionals in Korea and changing sexual mores in a traditional culture. Na Nan stops by a friend’s house after breaking up with her boyfriend. Na Nan and her friends talk about their lives and how they can find happiness. As Na Nan makes the painful transition into a new job with the help of her friends, she finds a new love right under her nose. In Korean with English subtitles.
March 6, Fallen Angels
Hong Kong, 1995, Dir. Wong Kar Wai, 96 min. Originally intended to be a third story in his now classic Chungking Express, Fallen Angels has emerged as what critics consider Wong Kar Wai’s quintessential work. Set in the neon underworld of colonial Hong Kong, Fallen Angels is the story of a contract killer and a mute entrepreneur. Both men struggle with finding love and dealing with isolation among Hong Kong’s bustling streets. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
March 27, Kid’s Return
Japan, 1996, Dir. Takeshi Kitano, 107 min. Shinji and Masaru, two high school dropouts, are dealing with growing up on the streets of a Tokyo suburb. Irresponsible and rude, the two friends ridicule adults and bully their peers in an endless search for fun. The fun, however, comes to an end. Shinji becomes an amateur boxer with some skill, while Masaru finds work in a local gang. Both eventually must deal with their past and try to find a future. In Japanese with English subtitles.
April 6, Memories of Murder
Korea, 2003, Dir. Bong Joon-Ho, 130 min. This is based on a true story that took place from 1986 to 1991 in Korea. In a small town outside of Seoul, ten women were murdered. The victims of Korea’s first serial killer range in age from 13 to 71. Other than the victims, no evidence was found. Over 3,000 suspects were interviewed. Over 300,000 police officers took part in the investigation. This film is about the detectives assigned to the case. Bong Joon-Ho’s film is considered by critics to be a masterpiece of film. However, be advised that this film is very graphic. In Korean with English subtitles.
April 26, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
Taiwan, 1994, Dir. Ang Lee, 124 min. A classic returns to the film series! Not a film to watch on an empty stomach, Ang Lee’s film tells us the story of a chef’s family and their connection through meals. The chef, a traditional man who has lost control over his daughters and his taste buds, continues to make family meals even though little enjoyment is gained from the experience. His daughters, attempting to live every moment of their lives to their fullest, deal with the bitterness life sometimes forces upon a person and the continued dreams their father had for each of them. A film of intense emotion, immense hilarity, and the chaos that is family. Nominated for an Oscar in 1994. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
The Fukishima Kodaly Choir (FKS) will join the International Vocal Ensemble (IVE) in a concert in Auer Hall in the IU School of Music on March 28 at 4 PM. The FKS has given concerts throughout Europe and this will be their first appearance in the United States. Both choirs specialize in music from diverse cultures. For this concert, the FKS will perform Japanese traditional music with instruments and dance, the Balinese Kecak from Indonesia, Finnish, Bulgarian, and South African folk music as well as composed music by Kodaly, Bartok, Faure and contemporary Japanese composers.
The group was founded and is directed by pianist and conductor, Miyako Furiya. Like most Japanese musicians, she was trained in western art music in Japan. For nearly 150 years, Japanese school music education has been modeled on American music education. Ms. Furiya studied in Hungary where she encountered the philosophy of Hungarian composer and educator, Zoltan Kodaly. His model of music education inspired her to incorporate the “musical mother tongue” of Japan into her teaching and choral work. As a member of the International Kodaly Society, she has been instrumental in bringing traditional music into Japanese classrooms and choruses.
The IVE is directed by Mary Goetze (I.U. School of Music) who first encountered the FKS in Amsterdam at an international music education conference in 1997. She and Miyako Furiya have collaborated on projects and conference sessions since that time.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Mary Goetze (goetze@indiana.edu) in the School of Music.
Following hard on the heels of the very successful Fall series, the EASC Spring Colloquium series kicksed off with visiting speaker David Lampton, of the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins. Remaining events will cover research and enquiry relating to Japan and Jamaica, and China. Topics include defense issues, popular music and the Internet, so there should be something for everyone.
All talks in EASC Spring Colloquium series will take place in Ballantine 004, on Fridays at 12 noon. The full series is as follows:
Jan. 23 (Fri)—David Lampton (School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University) “US-China Relations at the Dawn of the 21st Century.”
Feb. 6 (Fri)—Roger Janelli (Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, IU) and Dawnhee Yim (Dongkuk University, Seoul) “Representing Nation and Gender on the Vernacular Korean Internet: The Case of Lee Kyung-sil.”
Mar. 26 (Fri)—Marvin Sterling (Dept. of Anthropology, IU) “Semiotics and New Musical Diaspora: Dancehall in Jamaica and Japan.”
Apr. 16 (Fri)—Gardner Bovingdon (Dept. of Central Eurasian Studies, IU) “China’s Central Asia Problem: Defending Borders in a Globalizing World.”
EASC is gearing up for another busy summer. Here is a glimpse at some of the projects that lie ahead:
Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School
The 6th annual Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School workshop, funded by the Freeman Foundation, will be held at Indiana University, Bloomington, July 18-24, 2004. Designed to help English teachers better incorporate Chinese, Japanese, and Korean literature into their curricula, the workshop includes lectures by university literature and history professors, interactive teaching strategy sessions, cultural activities, and East Asian films. For more information or to request an application, please see www.indiana.edu/~easc/lit.workshop/ or contact Maryanne Kim, Outreach Assistant (800.441.3272, marykim@indiana.edu).
Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom
EASC will repeat the successful Teaching East Asian Music in the Elementary Classroom summer workshop June 13-16, 2004. Featured presenters will again be Kuo-Huang Han, Terese Volk, Hilary Finchum-Sung, and Anne Prescott. Chinese pipa player Hong Shao, from Lexington, KY, will be featured in a public concert on June 15. You can read about the 2003 workshop in the “Spotlight On...” section of the October 2003 issue of the EASC Newsletter.
High School Exchanges to Japan
This year EASC is happy to be able to support students from North Central High School in Indianapolis and Franklin High School in Franklin, IN as they head to Japan to practice their language skills and learn first-hand about Japanese culture.
NCTA Study Tour off to China
From June 23rd to July 12th, EASC will sponsor a study tour to China for past NCTA seminar participants. This two and a half-week study tour for middle and high school teachers is designed to let participants experience first-hand important cultural, historical and educational aspects of the People’s Republic of China. During their travels, teachers will visit key cultural landmarks, museums, and neighborhoods. The group will convene in Chicago the day before departure to continue orientation and enjoy a pre-departure dinner together. Once in the People’s Republic of China, they will visit Beijing, Xian, Nanjing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Highlights of the trip will include an in-depth look at the historical issues that led to Hong Kong ’s reunification with the People’s Republic of China and why “One China, Two Systems” became part of Hong Kong ’s government.
By I.U. Faculty
China Cross Talk: The American Debate over China Policy since Normalization
Edited by Scott Kennedy
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003)
Scott Kennedy’s new book addresses the issue of American policy toward China, the world’s most populous nation and a growing economic superpower. The book relates not just to foreign policy, but to matters of trade and culture as well. Across the past quarter-century, U.S.-China relations have consumed myriad reams of paper in public discourse, occupying some of the best minds in American public and private life. Now, in a new century and millennium, the issue is even more critical.
The problem is that the U.S. is the world’s largest economic power and the only global superpower. As Chalmers Johnson and others note, we stand at the head of a neo-imperialist crusade that seeks “a new world order;” to keep the peace and promote prosperity. China’s prominence on both counts—economic as well as security—has risen spectacularly of late, putting it potentially in the way of the aims of others. Every world issue has implications for China; it’s important to look at how America views issues such as Chinese treatment of minorities and how China handles human rights and dissent within its own borders. How have we approached the China problem since 1978? Do we favor mutual gain, or do we tend to be wary of Chinese ambitions? These are the questions that animate this most useful book.
A collection of opinions put forward during the policy debates of the past 25 years, China Cross Talk reveals the tensions that accompanied what was obviously a hazardous course of reestablishing relations with the People’s Republic of China after the long Cold War divide from 1949 to 1970. There is a sort of theatrical character to the debates, as old arguments recycle and the contestants vie for favor. Plenty of venom shows up in these pages alongside the cautious, cold, measured thought that appears here. Policy choices vary sharply. Experts disagree, sometimes vehemently. As editor Kennedy says in his well-crafted introduction, “Consider China Cross Talk your ticket to a restaging of the debate’s most memorable scenes. Enjoy the show!” (p. xxvii). And a vibrant and colorful show it is!
The book includes newspaper columns, political cartoons, testimony before Congress, and many other primary sources that give life to the China debate since 1978. We pass from Jimmy Carter’s idealism to Bill Clinton’s realism and on to the current Bush years when China evolved into a source of support for American policy aims in Korea and the rest of Northeast Asia. This is a rich smorgasbord, allowing students to review the contested history of recent U.S. relations with China.
Two quibbles. Historians will be pleased to see the materials in this book organized along chronological lines, showing how the China debate has developed over the years. It would help if thematic divisions were plainer. What are the chief themes involving the United States and China? How do different American speakers divide by theme? Second, why start with the late 1970s? The early ’70s, when Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger turned China from an international pariah into America’s newest darling in the era of ping-pong diplomacy, deserve more attention than they get here. But the book is a valuable endeavor for both teachers and students, one that will prove useful in current policy debates as well as in the classroom. Reviewed by George M. Wilson, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University.
Assistant Professor of Sociology and East Asian Languages and Cultures, Ethan Michelson, claims that he is where he is today all because of a little failure and a healthy dose of serendipity. Michelson began to study Chinese as an undergraduate at McGill University but quit after one year and a disheartening grade of B-. After a year off, however, he felt something was missing and took a class on the anthropology of contemporary China taught by Professor Laurel Bossen which renewed his interest in China and encouraged him to resume his study of Chinese. After studying Chinese for three years at McGill (including a summer at Xiamen University), he was selected for the China-Canada Scholar Exchange Program, an honor usually reserved for graduate students and faculty, and spent a year studying in Nanjing while applying to American graduate school programs in anthropology and sociology.
Michelson’s guiding research interest at this point was the plight of collective farming in China. His undergraduate thesis, “In Defense of Collective Farms,” lamented the abolishment of collective farms in the post-Mao reform era. “I thought that collective farms in the Mao era had gotten a bum rap, and I was out to show why,” he explains. In graduate school at the University of Chicago, he continued to be interested in the countryside, theories of development and the plight of the Chinese peasant.
In his third year of graduate school, Michelson received funding from the coveted Social Science Research Council International Predissertation Fellowship Program (SSRC IPFP), which would allow him to travel to China and begin to lay the groundwork for future research by gaining institutional support, developing connections and locating resources. He went to Beijing where he was affiliated with the Sociology Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Determined to do a village study, he spent months asking to be taken to a village. He eventually wound up going on an official visit to a nearby village in Hebei Province, accompanied by bureaucrats from three levels of government. “The villagers were overwhelmed to see this white guy surrounded by a convoy of high-ranking officials. Needless to say, I got the official party line to all of my questions, and left after three days completely disheartened.” He returned to Beijing less one topic of research. “My research prospects in the countryside were looking grim. The SSRC IPFP saved my life because it allowed me to explore the feasibility of my original topic and gave me the freedom to start checking out other, more viable research topics.”
But here is where the serendipity comes in. Earlier that year, CASS had hosted a large conference for Asian sociologists. Michelson became the impromptu translator and tour guide for the Israeli delegation (yes, Israel is included in China’s definition of Asia), as none of its members could speak Chinese. Leon Sheleff, a professor of law and sociology at Tel Aviv University, grilled him with questions about Chinese criminal justice and other areas of the legal system. Michelson could answer none of his questions. “Professor Sheleff told me point-blank that I should do my dissertation on the Chinese legal system because there was no scholarly literature in English on Chinese law written for a social science audience, and there was a great need for a descriptive overview and analysis of the Chinese legal system. He even gave me a dissertation topic—‘Beijing Lawyers.’”
At the time, Michelson “shelved” these suggestions and continued to hold out hope that he could pursue his research on the Chinese village. After the spectacular failure of his village field trip, however, the conversations with Dr. Sheleff echoed in the back of his mind. He started to pay attention to books about law in China, and in a second round of serendipity, he found a collection of “Dear Lawyer Bao” legal advice columns in a bookstore next to the law firm that was responsible for publishing the columns in a local newspaper. Michelson immediately began translating the book and collecting columns that had been omitted. (These translations are the basis of his forthcoming book with the University of California Press.) He also started spending time in the law firm that wrote this newspaper column observing the work of its lawyers. Soon afterwards he found a second influential book, Toward an Age of Rights, which he was surprised to discover was co-written by a scholar at CASS’s Institute of Law, one of the places to which he had accompanied Professor Sheleff as his interpreter. He dug out the business cards he had received on his visit with Sheleff and renewed these contacts. Soon he was collaborating and publishing with Gao Hongjun and Xia Yong. Owing to this good fortune, CASS’s Institute of Law became Michelson’s home base and a major source of logistical support as he carried out his dissertation field research on Chinese lawyers in 1999-2001.
“If my village study had not failed, I would have never seen the unrealized potential of the study of law in China.” Sometimes failure is good.
In the summer of 2003, after he defended his dissertation entitled Unhooking from the State: Chinese Lawyers in Transition, Michelson was deeply saddened to learn that Professor Sheleff had passed away that very year. After once dismissing Professor Sheleff’s suggestions as “good ideas, but not for me,” in the end Michelson followed these suggestions to the letter, proving that good ideas and a measure of luck, both good and bad luck, can be a recipe for success. Written by Susan W. Furukawa
Identity and culture have been abiding themes in Visiting Assistant Anthropology Professor Marvin Sterling’s personal and professional life. After growing up in Jamaica, Sterling came to the U.S. at the age of 13. He went to high school in Queens and attended New York University as a Communication Studies major, with a specialization in print journalism. After graduation, Sterling worked for over a year at a non-profit organization in New York, and then decided to attend graduate school in Los Angeles. He had planned to study the growth of the mass media in Jamaican society, and its effects on Jamaican cultural practices, but his plans, as plans often do, soon changed.
Before beginning UCLA’s anthropology program, Sterling moved to Los Angeles and worked for a year at Para Los Niños, an organization that provides social services for kids living in the Skid Row neighborhood. Every day, on his way from the bus station, he had to walk through the city’s Little Tokyo, which borders Skid Row. One day, in the window of a tourist gift shop, he saw a collectible Mammy doll.
“It surprised me,” he said. “It’s not the kind of thing you’d expect to see in 1990s Los Angeles. It made me think about why it was there, and the nature of the Japanese interest in blackness that this doll seemed to represent.”
While at UCLA, Sterling heard about a series of negative remarks made by several Japanese politicians about people of African descent. The most infamous was made by then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who blamed the U.S.’s decline on the Latinos and African Americans. Nakasone claimed that these groups were responsible for bringing down the nation’s “intelligence levels.” “So with this, of course,” Sterling said, “my interest continued to grow.”
Rather than a study on media in Jamaica, Sterling decided on an M.A. thesis entitled, Double Consciousness and the Black Male Self: An Ethnography of African-American Sailors at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. He was interested in how these African American sailors thought Japanese people saw them, as well as the sailors’ feelings about life in Japan. He discovered that these perceptions depended on such factors as age, extent of military travel, and the on- or off-base residence of the men he studied.
While conducting this research, Sterling discovered that there were vibrant hip-hop and reggae scenes in Japan. In this way his dissertation research came to center on the popularity of roots reggae, dancehall reggae, and Rastafari (an anti-colonialist religious movement emerging from among the urban Jamaican underclass in the 1930s) in the country. By the time he returned to Tokyo to conduct this research, however, he found that roots reggae in Japan had become an exclusively rural phenomenon, and that dancehall-style reggae was growing in urban areas, particularly in Yokohama. This shift enabled him to consider how the Japanese engagement with Jamaican culture evolved across scenes as well as over time.
“In Japan there’s such a fascination with ethnic difference, but also such a fear of it, especially when it’s seen in some way as not being manageable,” Sterling says. “When it’s a product, like a Mammy doll, it’s manageable. But in the form of a thinking, feeling human being, one standing right in front of you, it’s not. That presence is dangerous, unmanageably dangerous. The strength of this pleasure and this fear of course depends on the idea of Japan as a homogenous society. There are groups of people, like Koreans, living in Japan whose presence should call this idea into question and yet it’s still so pervasive. So how is that myth perpetuated? Who does it serve? To me these are really interesting questions.”
Currently, Professor Sterling is reworking his dissertation: In the Shadow of “the Universal Other:” Performative Identifications with Jamaican Culture in Japan, to be published by Duke University Press. In his current research for that book he looks at early Japanese anthropology as one means of exploring how Japan has understood race. Sterling is interested in how that idea was introduced from the West and developed through the 20th century, and ultimately its relevance to Japanese interest today in black popular culture. In addition to this project, he is also exploring the Japanese imagination of New York City, and particularly black youth subculture there. “On Sundays in Harlem, you often see Japanese people riding buses to church as part of these gospel tours. Many of them are actively studying gospel music. They also view New York as a sort of mecca for hip-hop and dancehall culture, and so they are coming to the city to experience it first-hand.”
During his year at Indiana University, courses taught by Professor Sterling include: “Body Power and Performance,” “The Anthropology of Contemporary Japan,” “The Anthropology of Race,” and “Black Music and Identity.” Written by Susan W. Furukawa
Christopher Atwood (CEUS) published “The Mutual-Aid Co-operatives and the Animal Products Trade in Mongolia, 1913-1928,” in Inner Asia 5 (2003), 65-91. He was invited to the Conference on the Current Situation and Objectives of Research Work on Archival Materials Related to the History of Mongolia at the National Archives of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, September 5, 2003, where he delivered a paper “American Archival Resources on Mongolia and the Mongols: Their Nature, Utility, and Availability.” The conference was organized by Professor Hiroshi Futaki of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Khoroldoi Enkhtuvshin of the Mongolia’s Central National Archives. He was also invited to the Symposium on Inner Asian Statecraft and Technologies of Governance sponsored by the Mongol and Inner Asian Studies Unit at Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K., October 2, 2003, and he delivered the paper “Titles, Appanages, Marriages, and Officials: A Comparison of Political Forms in the Zunghar and Thirteenth-Century Mongol Empires.”
Christopher Beckwith (CEUS) was invited to lecture at Columbia University. The lecture, given at the Columbia Early China Seminar on November 22, 2003, was entitled “The Japanese-Koguryoic Peoples and Early China.”
Robert Campany (Religious Studies) received an Arts & Humanities research grant for the fall semester and just ended work on a book project tentatively titled The Making of Transcendents in China, 300 B.C.E.-320 C.E.: The Social Production of a Religious Role. He also received a 2004 summer faculty research fellowship for work on this project. His article “On the Very Idea of Religions (in the Modern West and in Early Medieval China)” was published in the May 2003 issue of the journal History of Religions.
Steve Raymer (Journalism) has returned to I.U.B. after a fall semester sabbatical that took him to Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, and New York. He was in Beijing for 10 days to learn more first-hand about the Chinese news media. He met with editors, reporters, photographers and broadcasters at more than a dozen publications, as well as spent a day at CCTV. Raymer also lectured to journalism students at Beijing Broadcast University and Tsinghua University, as well as to the All China Journalists Association. At a meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Beijing, he met a number of old friends from his days as a National Geographic Magazine photographer and correspondent. With the assistance of U.S. Embassy staffers he met in Beijing, Raymer has arranged a one-hour live video “exchange” in February between his J414 International Newsgathering Systems class and young Chinese journalists from CCTV.
Mike Robinson (EALC) is developing a travel class to Korea for the first intensive summer term. The tentative title of the course is “Controlling Growth: City Planning in Korea.” It is a joint offering of EALC and SPEA open to students by application from both departments. In the course, students will study the problems of urban planning in Seoul and Pusan. Three weeks of the course will be spent on campus in Bloomington, and 10 days will be spent traveling in Korea. While in Korea, students will visit the Seoul Planning Institute and Pusan Planning Institute, Seoul Metropolitian Transport District, and other key offices that have responsibility for planning.
Heidi Ross (Education) will be presenting papers at the Comparative and International Education Society and American Educational Research Association meetings in March and April. The topics include, “Ethnic Homogenization and Cultural Hybridization: Lessons in Educational Policy and Practice from Asia” and “Seeking the Ends of Education from the Best of Both Worlds: China-U.S. Dialogue on Knowledge, Discipline, and Creativity.” In June Ross will travel to China to continue research on private universities with colleagues at the Ford Foundation. She will also work with colleagues on a Shaanxi Province program that provides primary school education for 1,000 girls. The “spring bud” project is supported by the San Francisco based 1990 Institute and the All China Women’s Federation. Heidi Ross’s most recent publication, “Rethinking Human Vulnerability, Security, and Connection through Relational Theorizing,” can be found in Wayne Nelles (ed) Comparative Education, Terrorism and Human Security: From Critical Pedagogy to Peace Building? (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan), pp. 33-46.
Richard Rubinger (EALC) gave a paper entitled, “Book Networking Among Peasants in Eighteenth Century Japan,” on a panel organized by Phillip Brown of Ohio State at the Social Science History Annual Meeting in Baltimore in November 2003.
Natsuko Tsujimura (EALC & Linguistics) has been appointed an associate editor of Language. Language is a journal issued by the Linguistic Society of America, the largest and oldest organization in the field of Linguistics.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom (EALC & History) has recently contributed book reviews to the international edition of Newsweek magazine (October 20, 2003) and the Hong Kong-based Asian Wall Street Journal (December 8, 2003), and in December gave a talk at Harvard called “A Tale of Two Revolutionaries: Mao and Che as Global Symbols.” In addition, he organized and made a presentation during a forum called “Putting China’s History on the Screen: The Long Bow Group’s Documentary and Digital Experiments” held at the Library of Congress on January 9. This session, which was jointly sponsored by the Library’s Kluge Center and the American Historical Association and moderated by Jonathan Spence, included a showing of excerpts from two Long Bow productions for which he served as a consultant: “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” (a Peabody Award-winning film dealing with the protests of 1989) and “Morning Sun” (a new documentary about the Cultural Revolution). Wasserstrom and filmmaker Richard Gordon also presented sample multi-media materials from a web-based interactive encyclopedia of modern China that the Long Bow Group is developing in collaboration with EASC and IU’s Digital Library Program (see www.morningsun.org for a prototype).
Matthew Eynon (M.A. East Asian Studies,1983; M.A. Religious Studies,1989; Ph.D. Japanese Language and Literature,1992), an associate professor of Japanese Studies at Tenri University in Japan, published a Japanese language textbook: Learning Language Through Lyrics, Classical Japanese Pop Songs (Bonjinsha, 2002). Vol. 1 (co-authored with Emi Kaneko) came out in December, 2002 and Vol. 2 is expected by this summer.
Margaret Key (Ph.D. candidate, Japanese) was awarded two travel grants for her participation in the Conference in Honor of J. Thomas Rimer: one from the College of Arts and Sciences and one from the Graduate and Professional Student Organization.
Todd Munson (Ph.D. candidate, Japanese) and Fan Wei (M.A. East Asian Studies, 2000) wish to announce the birth of their daughter, Esme, on October 15, 2003. Todd published an article entitled “A Tempestuous Tea-port: Socio-political Commentary in Yokohama-e, 1859-1862,” in the most recent issue of the journal East Asian History (number 24; December, 2002).
David Nelson (Ph.D. candidate, Japanese history) received a Monbushô scholarship. He is currently doing research in Japan.
Kyoim Yun (Ph.D. student in Folklore, minor in EALC) read a paper at the American Folklore Society Annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico last fall. The title of the paper was “Commodification of Shamanism on Jeju Island: Vocies of Modernity and Globalization.” Kyoim was awarded a COAS travel grant to attend this conference.