EASC Events
Contents
Committee on Asian Security Hosts Nuclear Proliferation Symposium
The I.U. Committee on Asian Security, jointly sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center and the India Studies Program, presented its 
inaugural event on November 18, 2004 on the Bloomington campus. Students, faculty, and other interested individuals participated in a symposium on “Nuclear Proliferation in Asia.” Bill Finan, Editor of Current History, opened the program with an overview of nuclear proliferation in Asia. He urged the international community to take steps to make the nonproliferation regime both relevant and persuasive. These steps include strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT), using inspections, and creating a regional arms control mechanism in Asia.
Two panels of experts then examined first the historical roots of the nuclear problem in the region and then the future prospect for stability in a nuclear-armed Asia. Panelists discussed conditions in North Korea, India, Pakistan, and China while also considering the intentions of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Peter Scoblic, Executive Editor of The New Republic, concluded the symposium with a call for governments to make nuclear nonproliferation a foreign policy priority. Recognizing that the global community cannot solve this problem immediately, he suggested that the United States Government needed to take a pragmatic approach to nonproliferation.
The Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of International Programs, the Center for the Study of Global Change, and the College of Arts and Sciences also provided generous support for this event. Audio files from the symposium are available on the EASC website.
“Globalizing East Asian Studies” Workshop to be Held at I.U.B. in April
A workshop that focuses on classroom strategies for linking East Asian studies with international and global studies will be held from 12:00 to 3:45 p.m. on April 4th in the Oak Room of the Memorial Union on the I.U. Bloomington campus. The main activities will be a series of presentations and roundtable discussions that will include participation by local faculty and several invited speakers, such as Kären Wigen and Martin Lewis of Stanford, the co-authors of an influential book on The Myth of Continents, Rana Mitter of Oxford University, who has written on Chinese responses to Japanese imperialism, and Adam McKeown of Columbia University, who works on the history of migration and immigration, with particular emphasis on overseas Chinese communities in North and South America. These events will be open to the public, but those who would like to be included in the luncheon that will begin the workshop (12-1 in the Oak Room) should e-mail Melissa Gross (meagross@indiana.edu) by March 30th. In the workshop, a variety of issues will be discussed, ranging from new ways of using maps in the classroom, to the way that growing interest in world history might affect teaching and research within East Asian studies, to the need to develop novel methods for bringing East Asian case studies into general disciplinary classes s uch as “Food and Culture” or “Social Stratification.”
SOFOKS Supports Many Campus Programs
The Society of Friends of Korean Studies at Indiana University (SOFOKS) was started in 1982 and has been contributing to Korean studies at I.U. every since. “The Society of Friends of Korean Studies was begun at I.U. in the early '80s to capture the energy and interest of a number of Korean-Americans living in Indiana as well as some of the many Korean graduates of I.U. SOFOKS wanted to do something to promote Korean Studies at IU, and the new East Asian Studies Center (founded 1979, when the first Title VI Center grant came in) was most happy to help them,” explains former EASC Director George Wilson. SOFOKS funds have been used to fund the acquisition of Korean books at the library, conferences on Korean studies, and overseas study. SOFOKS also helps pay AI salaries, sponsor film series and special lectures, and to provide graduate fellowships and undergraduate awards. Wilson continues, “EASC and Indiana University are enormously grateful for the 20-plus years of support from the Korean community and the Korean alumni of I.U. SOFOKS is a valuable partner in promoting the cause of Korean studies on the Bloomington campus, and its influence is felt throughout the university. China and Japan are larger and there are more faculty and students who specialize in them at I.U.; SOFOKS is therefore invaluable as a source of expanding the interest and study of Korea.”
The SOFOKS Graduate Fellowship application deadline is March 15, 2005. This fellowship is awarded to students who have excellent academic records and who are pursuing the study of Korean language and culture. To learn more about how to apply for a SOFOKS Graduate Fellowship, go to www.indiana.edu/~easc/fellowships/index.htm.
EASC Brings Kamishibai to Life
The East Asian Studies Center recently purchased a kamishibai stage and a set of wooden clappers to enhance its storytelling program. Sessions using this form of Japanese “paper drama,” have proven very popular with children, as well as their teachers. They made their debut at a holiday party for the Richard Bean Blossom Community at the Eagle’s Landing in Ellettsville, Indiana where they were well-received. Although EASC presentations are not done from the back of bicycles, which was the traditional way that these tales were shared and enjoyed in Japan, students nevertheless enjoy these illustrated tales. By introducing the story with the startlingly loud sound of the clappers, storytellers are able to captivate the attention of the students from start to finish. With the stage and wooden clappers the EASC kamishibai collection is nearly complete, and children in Bloomington benefit by being entertained and taught. To see and hear some traditional kamishibai stories, visit Kids Web Japan at web-japan.org/kidsweb/folk.html and be amused.
Two EASC-sponsored Student Groups Prepare to Go to East Asia
During the Spring semester, EASC is sponsoring two courses which have an overseas component to them. The first is a continuation of the combined East
Asian Languages and Cultures and Kelley School of Business class “Foreign Study in Business,” which has taken students to Japan for spring break the past two years. This year, approximately thirty students will travel to China with Professor Rick Harbaugh and Travis Selmier, a grad student in Political Science, co-teachers of the course. Marc Dollinger, Kelley School of Business undergraduate Dean and former instructor in the course, will also participate in the trip.
A second group of students will travel to China and Japan in May as a part of a class called “Educational Reform in Japan and China,” which is co-taught by Professor Richard Rubinger (EALC) and Professor Heidi Ross (Education). This course and study tour is designed to introduce educational reform in China and Japan, from a comparative perspective. One of the important themes throughout the semester will be considering similarities and differences between the two educational systems. Part I will focus on pre-modern cultural and educational legacies in China and Japan. Part II will explore the experiences of China and Japan in confronting and adapting/resisting to “the West” and to the pressures of modern society in the nineteenth century. Part III will focus on the core material for the course, contemporary educational reform in China and Japan. As students study important cultural and educational issues, they will be able to to draw explicit comparisons between the educational practices, achievements, and problems of these two great East Asian societies. There are 15 students in the course selected from a strong applicant pool based on past experiences and demonstrated academic strengths. Approximately half of the students major in EALC and half in Education. Professors Rubinger and Ross believe that these two different groups of students will bring together two strengths, knowledge of East Asia and knowledge of educational/school processes and contexts.
Look for more about these two study tours in future issues of the EASC newsletter!
Ji-li Jiang Visits Bloomington and Indianapolis
Ji-li Jiang, author of Red Scarf Girl, visited Bloomington and Indianapolis Nov. 19-20, 2004. Red Scarf Girl is Ms. Jiang’s memoir of her life as a young girl in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. Becky Boyle, who is a teacher at Batchelor Middle School in Bloomington and a 2001 Teaching about Asia and 2004 China Study tour participant, contacted Ms. Jiang before last summer’s study tour to ask for more information about the places mentioned in Red Scarf Girl. Becky hoped to photograph Ms. Jiang’s home, school and neighborhood so that Batchelor Middle School students, who read Red Scarf Girl each year, would have a better understanding of the story. Becky then asked EASC to help sponsor Ms. Jiang’s visit to Bloomington in the fall.
Ms. Jiang did two presentations at Batchelor Middle School and a presentation at the Asian Culture Center (co-sponsored by the ACC) on Nov. 19. On Nov. 20 she was the featured guest at the Bloomington Young Author’s Conference which was attended by nearly 200 young people. Later she traveled to Indianapolis for presentation for Teaching about Asia alums and an appearance at the NCTA reception at the National Council of Teachers of English conference.
The beginning of the year is a busy time for the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) programs as we begin a new round of seminars for teachers. This spring’s sites, instructors, and start dates are:
Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, Charles Hayford (Northwestern University), January 11
West Lafayette, Purdue University, Sally Hastings (Purdue), January 11
Bloomington, Illinois, Illinois State University, Richard Pearce (Illinois State), January 12
Indianapolis, Park Tudor School, Jeffrey Johnson (Park Tudor), January 13
East Lansing, Michigan, Michigan State University, Marilyn McCullough (MSU), February 2
Our partner site, the Ohio State University, will be running 2 seminars:
Cleveland, Cleveland State University, Lee Makela (CSU), January 26
Toledo, University of Toledo, William Hoover (U of Toledo), February 2
In addition, our partner site at the University of Kentucky completed a seminar in December, instructor Kristin Stapleton (UKY), and will be running one at Western Kentucky University, instructor Robert Antony (WKU), Jan. 13.
These seminars are professional development opportunities for middle and high schools teachers. For more information about the seminars, please visit www.indiana.edu/~easc/taa_seminar/.
EASC to Welcome Visiting Scholar
Professor Sung Bin Ko, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Cheju National University in Jeju City, South Korea, will be a Visiting Scholar at I.U. from February of 2005 until February of 2006. His visit is sponsored by EASC. Professor Ko will be accompanied by his wife Seong Hee Kim, and their daughter Joo Yeon Ko. While at I.U., he will be researching Northeast Asian security issues. Look for a profile of Professor Ko in future issues of this newsletter.
EASC Contributes to the Year of Languages
Under the guidance of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and its affiliated organizations, elementary, middle and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities will observe 2005: The Year of Languages with special cultural and literary events, competitions and distribution of informational materials promoting the value of language education. EASC will participate in this nationwide observance, which was established by a resolution before the U.S. Senate, by developing materials that will support Chinese language education. While high school French, Spanish and German teachers have access to a wide range of teaching supplies that can be used to elicit student enthusiasm, such materials are not available to teachers of Chinese. By creating resources such as special grade stamps and hall pass cards, EASC hopes to give teachers the resources necessary to spread knowledge about the Chinese languages and draw the interest of teachers, students and parents who have had little exposure to Chinese. Teachers will eventually be able to access and download the materials from the EASC website.
Talks on East Asia to be Held on the Campus of I.U.B.
Professor Harold Bolitho of Harvard University will give a talk called “Leviathans of the Floating World: Sumo Wrestlers and the Japanese Print” on Friday, March 4, 2005 at 3 p.m. During the Tokugawa period, Japanese popular culture produced its share of celebrities. Many of them, particularly the actors and the courtesans, are known to us from the woodblock prints of the time, the ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world.” But another group, no less well-known in their generation than their counterparts from the stage or the pleasure quarter, has been virtually ignored. These are the popular sporting heroes of the day, the sumo wrestlers. In studies of the Japanese print these figures have been marginalized, consigned to the category of the curious and the eccentric. It is not difficult to see why. In the West we have always tended to privilege the delicate, the diminutive, and the understated in Japanese culture, an aesthetic that leaves little room for representations of big, fat, strong, sweaty men. This neglect is undeserved. Sumo wrestling is just as typical of traditional Japan as the more elegant pastimes of the tea ceremony, haiku and flower arrangement. These prints are well worth our attention, for despite wrestling’s thematic limitations, the artists’ desire to emphasize the bulk and might of their subjects prompted the development of new techniques. The resulting icons of power are unique in the otherwise sedate and tasteful world of the woodblock print. Professor Bolitho will discuss masterworks of Katsukawa Shun ei(1762-1819), Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825), Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1864), and Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861).
Also on March 4th, Joseph Tobin, co-author Preschool in Three Cultures and professor in the College of Education atf Arizona State University, will be presenting a talk on his field research and videography associated with the updating of his classic book. The talk is scheduled for 2 p.m., and the location is to be announced. This talk is sponsored by the Discipline Based Scholarship in Education initiative.
On April 7th, the Institute for Advanced Study Seminar on Translation will be hosting a talk by Professor Howard Hibbett (Harvard University) at the Lilly Library. Professor Hibbett's talk "Translation Purple: Contemporary Japanese Literary into English" will be held in the Lilly Library Lounge from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
China House Becomes a Recognized Organization
Several years ago, Indiana University began to formulate several residential living-learning communities for students interested in East Asian languages and culture, and as a result, three ‘houses’ focused upon China, Korea, and Japan were developed. Though interest in these houses waned over the years, a good deal of effort of several unwavering I.U. undergraduates helped keep China House alive. These students refused to let the Chinese community die. The sparks initiated by China House’s forefathers and foremothers have now blossomed into this year’s Chinese Language and Culture Club (CLCC), Indiana University’s premiere student organization for everyone interested in all aspects of Chinese life and culture. Unlike the Chinese Student and Scholar Association or the Taiwanese Student Association, the paramount purpose of the Chinese Language and Culture Club is to bring together all students and community members interested in building upon their knowledge of Chinese language and culture, regardless of nationality or heritage. CCLC is a hub that develops its programs based upon the direct interests of its diverse members, many of them not of Chinese or even of Asian heritage. This past fall, the CCLC hosted “An Evening of Calligraphy,” during which a visiting artist from Taiwan gave a professional demonstration of the art of Chinese calligraphy. During the past semester, several Cinema Nights were also held, during which popcorn and refreshments were served up alongside authentic Chinese movies. Capping off the semester was “Fun with Fondu.” During this fun-filled evening, the history of Hot Pot, a popular Chinese dish, was presented. Following the presentation, attendees were given the opportunity to try their hand at cooking and eating the dish. Planning is underway by CCLC executives to host a plethora of new events for spring semester.
New Publications from the National Clearinghouse for U.S.-Japan Studies Available
The National Clearinghouse for U.S.-Japan Studies offers a variety of free publications for K-12 teachers who wish to learn more about Japan, Japanese culture, and U.S.-Japan relations. Here are the new publications for 2004:
Japan Digests: Anne Prescott’s Koto Music brings to life the vibrant, living tradition of one of the most recognizably “Japanese” musical instruments and musical forms. Anne E. Imamura’s The Japanese Family Faces 21st Century Challenges describes the family-related issues that are at the forefront of social challenges facing Japan. Lucien Ellington significantly updated his Japan Digest on Learning from the Japanese Economy.
Internet Guides:Using Literature to Teach Japan offers resources related to Patience Berkman’s Japan Digest of the same name. It presents brief descriptions and links to 22 web sites. Regions of Japan offers descriptions and links to 29 sites that reveal some of the beauty, diverse geography, and uniqueness of Japan. Traditional Japanese Music presents links to sites that describe the varieties and forms of traditional Japanese music. Japanese-Style Gardens offers sites that explain the fundamental principles of Japanese-style gardens and shows how K-12 educators have incorporated those design principles into a variety of lesson plans and activities for their students.
The 2004 edition of the Clearinghouse’s annual Newsletter, Shinbun, is available online (www.indiana.edu/~japan/Newsletters/index.html).
All new and existing Japan Digests and Internet Guides are available full text in a variety of formats at the Clearinghouse’s Web site, www.indiana.edu/~japan/. Or, contact the Clearinghouse by telephone (toll free at 1-800-441-3272) or by email (japan@indiana.edu) to ask for free print copies of the Clearinghouse’s publications.
Aside from providing publications such as those listed above, the Clearinghouse maintains a bibliographic database of over 2500 educational and general interest print materials, videos, artifact kits, and software that can assist in the development of curricula and lessons on Japan, including full-text lesson plans. The Clearinghouse also participates in professional development workshops, attends national and regional conferences, and distributes complimentary copies of the Teaching about Japan Information Packet (also available online).
The spring East Asian Film Series began on January15. The schedule of films to be shown is below. All films are free and open to the public, though most are not suitable for children.
For further information contact Jeremy Mixell at jmixell@indiana.edu. You can learn about past and future series at the East Asian Film Series website at: www.indiana.edu/~easc/filmseries.
February 12: The Funeral 7:30 pm, Woodburn 101
Japan, 1987. Directed by Juzo Itami. There are times when death is appropriate and hilarious material for comedy. In this film, Itami shows a family trying to struggle through an appropriate funeral for the deceased father. They rent videos on appropriate greetings and responses, they hire experts to tell them what direction the coffin should face, and how many sticks of incense to light. While rough in nature, Itami manages to artfully wrap various elements together, without stating the message directly. In Japanese with English subtitles.
February 26: The Story of the Weeping Camel 7:30 pm, Woodburn 101
Mongolia, 2003. Directed by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Faloni, 87 min. This story follows the adventures of a family of herders in Mongolia’s Gobi desert who face a crisis when a mother camel rejects her newborn calf after a difficult birth. In accordance with an ancient tradition, a musician, is summoned to perform a ceremony to coax the mother into nursing the baby. Exploring a distant and exotic culture in which tradition, myth, and family unite (both human and animal), offering us a window into a different way of life and the universal terrain of the heart. In Mongolian with English subtitles.
March 26: The Happiness of Katakuris 7:30 pm, Woodburn 101
Japan, 2001. Directed by Takashi Miike, 90 min. This film is a remake of the Korean film “Choyonghan Kajok,” and tells the story of a family who opens a bad-luck inn, where all the guests keep passing away, whether by suicide or accident. Stylistically, the film follows no conventions, and slips into claymation at whim. In Japanese with English subtitles.
April 2: Yellow Earth 7:30 pm, Woodburn 101
Chinese, 1984. Directed by Kaige Chen, 89 min. This film focuses on the story of a Communist soldier who is sent to the countryside to collect folk songs for the Communist Revolution. There he stays with a peasant family and learns that the happy songs he was sent to collect do not exist; the songs he finds are about hardship and suffering. He returns to the army, but promises to come back for the young girl, Cuiqiao, who has been spellbound by his talk of the freedom women have under Communist rule and who wants to join the Communist Army. In Mandarin with English subtitles.
April 16: Barking Dogs Never Bite 7:30 pm, Woodburn 101
Korea, 2000. Directed by Joon-ho Bong, 106 min. This film tells the tale of a would-be professor, currently laid off until he can bribe his way into a permanent appointment. He then grows increasingly fed up with the yippy dogs downstairs in his rather down-scale apartment. He decides to do something about the noise, and this is what leads to a chain of increasingly disastrous events. The direction and cinematography are as superb as the comic acting, story, and dialog. Surprisingly, the film ends on a morally uplifting note, as forgiveness is delivered with a lost shoe. In
Korean with English subtitles.
Spring Colloquium Series Kicks Off
After a very successful Fall series, the EASC Spring Colloquium series will begin with a lecture by I.U. Bloomington professor, Susan Nelson. The spring line-up is listed below. For information on the time and location of the EASC Spring Colloquium series lectures, go to www.indiana.edu/~easc/eaq/index.htm.
Spring 2005 |
|
Feb. 4 (Fri) |
Susan Nelson (Fine Arts and EALC, I.U.) “One Portrait, Many Faces: Liang Kai’s Tao Qian” |
Feb. 25 (Fri) |
George Wilson (History and EALC, I.U. Emeriti Faculty) “Japan and World War II: The Legacy Six Decades Later” |
Mar. 25 (Fri) |
Aaron Stalnaker (Religious Studies, I.U.) “Ritual and the ‘Mode of Subjection’ in Xunzi, with Comparative Observations” |
Apr. 15 (Fri) |
Lin Zou (EALC, I.U.)
|
Last updated: 01/31/2004
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~easc/newsletter/
Comments: 
Copyright 2005, The Trustees of Indiana University