This page serves as the repository for the content discussed at past events. Please feel free to look through the individual publications listed here to find out how our events are conducted. For past participants of the events, this page may be useful in acquiring recapitulated texts of the specific discussions for recollection purposes.
Diversity in Asian Studies Session 1
The Diversity in Asian Studies Event Series addressed the need for diverse perspectives in the field of Asian studies. This year’s series focuses on linguistic diversity, highlighting East Asian languages beyond Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese.
Professor Henning Klotter provided an overview of Taiwan’s language situation by taking stock of the languages that are currently spoken, their sociolinguistic status and their social and geographical distribution. Special attention was given to the phenomenon of language shift, i.e. the exclusive use of Mandarin and the discontinuation of regional language use among younger speakers. In the second part of the presentation, he looked at the visible manifestation of different languages in the linguistic landscape of Taipei city. Taking street name signs as an example, he showed that until today, official signage strictly reflects language norms and official standards of the post-1949 period and excludes non-standard linguistic alternatives such as Southern Min or Hakka. The profound ideological shift towards ‘nativisation’ that gathered momentum at the turn of the 21st century has left almost no visible traces on street signage.
Dr. Mirshad Ghalip’s talk delved into the language attitudes and ideologies of the Uyghur diaspora community in the US and their relationship with efforts to maintain their heritage language. Initially, a quantitative approach was employed via a survey to explore participants language attitudes. Subsequently, qualitative methods were used to delve deeper into these attitudes and ideologies. The study also considers the impact of the Chinese government’s genocidal policies since late 2016 on participants’ language attitudes and ideologies. Data was gathered from 76 participants, revealing a prevailing positive attitude towards the Uyghur language, culture, and identity in the US diaspora. The qualitative findings indicate that language ideology significantly influences heritage language maintenance efforts, particularly ideologies viewing the Uyghur language as integral to Uyghur identity and speaking it as a form of resistance against Chinese government oppression. Furthermore, the data suggests that the Chinese government’s policies are measurably affecting participants’ language attitudes and ideologies, further bolstering their positive outlook towards the Uyghur language.
Speakers
Henning Klöter, Professor of Modern Chinese Languages, the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Dr. Mirshad Ghalip, recently graduated PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University.
Diversity in Asian Studies Session 2
The Diversity in Asian Studies Event Series addressed the need for diverse perspectives in the field of Asian studies. This year’s series focuses on linguistic diversity, highlighting East Asian languages beyond Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese.
Menoko Itak: Language of Women in the Ainu language
Kanako Uzawa
The Ainu, meaning “human” in the Ainu language, traditionally lived in the Kurile Islands, southern Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and part of Honshu. In the 19th century, they came under Japan’s colonial rule. In 2008, the Japanese government officially recognized them as the Indigenous peoples of Japan. Ainu were once described and perceived as exotic people of Northern Japan, Hokkaido (Ainu Mosir in the Ainu). The Ainu became a very popular research subject both internationally and domestically from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Thousands of Ainu objects were collected from Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kurile islands which are now stored in many museums worldwide. This presentation focused on hidden stories and narratives of the Ainu women through Ainu museum collections from the eye of Dr. Kanako Uzawa, an Ainu scholar and artist. She presented on the current situation of the Ainu culture and language. She also discussed the process and challenge she faces through ongoing Ainu art exhibition-making in collaboration with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Lastly, she introduced the trailer of her most recent art video production, Ainupuri, in which she reconstructed the counter-narratives that Ainu objects stored in the Historical Museum of Oslo University in Norway. This tells her storytelling in the form of narration, poetry, song, dance, and performance; Laura Liverani’s visual storytelling mediates these personal and collective histories in a constant dialogue between the two artists.
Language diversity, new speakers, and well-being in the Ryukyu Islands
Patrick Heinrich
Just like other nation-states around the world, Japan is multilingual and features autochthonous languages such as Ainu, Japanese Sign Language, and Ryukyuan. There are six different Ryukyuan languages which comprise a total of 700 local Ryukyuan dialects. These local varieties are usually called shimakutuba or shimamuni in Ryukyuan. All local varieties of the Ryukyuan languages are endangered today, and they are set for extinction around the mid century if no counteraction is taken. In the first half of his talk, Patrick Heinrich introduced some background knowledge about the linguistic diversity of the Ryukyus and provide historical and sociolinguistic information on their current status and vitality. In the second half, he reported on two topics that give hope that some varieties of the Ryukyuan language may be maintained. He first reported on new speakers – young or middle-aged individuals who are learning a Ryukyuan language through what we call ‘language reclamation’. Language reclamation differs from second-language learning in two important ways. It involves a very emotional experience and a sense of language ownership from the very start. He reported here mainly on interviews he has conducted with new speakers. He then turned his attention to a recent development in endangered language studies, that is, the study of the relation between language and well-being. Speakers of Ryukyuan languages report much higher rates of life satisfaction than passive speakers or non-speakers of Ryukyuan. Based on quantitative research he has conducted with two Ryukyuan communities, he argued that speaking Ryukyuan itself contributes to Ryukyuan well-being and that speaking Ryukyuan enhances the experiences of belonging to a local community and in that way to life quality.
Speakers
Patrick Heinrich, Professor of Japanese Studies and Sociolinguistics at the Department of Asian and Mediterranean African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
Kanako Uzawa, Assistant Professor for the Global Station for Indigenous Studies and Cultural Diversity at Hokkaido University in Japan.
Duty and Emotion:
Polarities of Filial Identity in Contemporary Sinophone Culture
One of the great themes of modern Chinese and Sinophone culture is the emergence of new forms of individual identity that break free of the confines of what May Fourth intellectuals such as Lu Xun, Wu Yu, Chen Duxiu, Ba Jin, and others have imputed to filiality 孝, one of the cornerstones of traditional Chinese thought, ethics, and subject-formation. But filiality has not retired from the scene of intellectual discourse as quickly and easily as some had thought it would. The modern era is in one sense a battle between the time-honored obeisance to one’s elders on the one hand and individualism on the other.
In this presentation, Professor Lupke uses his refreshed attention on affect to explore the emotional terrain of filial relationships in contemporary Sinophone works. He will examine works by Huang Chunming, Bai Xianyong, Wang Wenxing, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and the contemporary US-based poet Zhang Er. At issue is the crucial role that overwrought emotions play in the filial dynamic in intergenerational relations that we see so much of in the Sinosphere and in Sinophone cultural production.
Speaker
Christopher Lupke, Professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, The University of Alberta.
Reading The Three-Body Problem as Utopian International Thought
Liu Cixin’s Three-Body trilogy can be profitably interpreted from the standpoint of international relations theory, in particular the offensive realism that is prominent in contemporary IR practice, the logic of which parallels several key developments in the story. Such, indeed, was my initial impulse upon being introduced to Liu’s work (Dyson, 2019). In this talk I would like to supplement and in some degree challenge that original interpretation with a counter-reading, one motivated not by the security focus of international relations theory but by the humanistic focus of science-fiction studies – the academic discipline directed towards the interpretation of science fiction texts.
Speaker
Stephen Benedict Dyson, Professor of Political Science, The University of Connecticut.
The Great Exodus from China: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Modern Taiwan
The Great Exodus examines one of the least understood forced migrations in modern East Asia—the human exodus from China to Taiwan following the Nationalist collapse and Chinese Communist victory in 1949. Peeling back layers of Cold War ideological constructs on the subject, the book tells a very different story from conventional historiographies the Chinese civil war and Cold War Taiwan. Underscoring the displaced population’s trauma of living in exile and their poignant “homecomings” four decades later, Yang presents a multiple-event trajectory of repeated traumatization with the recurring search for home, belonging, and identity. By portraying the Chinese civil war exiles in Taiwan both as traumatized subjects of displacement and overbearing colonizers to the host populations, this thought-provoking work challenges the established notions of trauma, memory, diaspora, and reconciliation. It speaks to the importance of subject position, boundary-crossing empathic unsettlements, and ethical responsibility of researching, narrating, and representing historical trauma.
Speaker
Dominic Meng-Hsuan Yang, Associate Professor of History, The University of Missouri
Moderator
Liana Chen, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature; Director, The Taiwan Education and Research Program (TERP), GW
Book Talk: Speak, Okinawa featuring Elizabeth Miki Brina
A searing, deeply candid memoir about a young woman’s journey to understanding her complicated parents—her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran—and her own, fraught cultural heritage.
Elizabeth’s mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother’s distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers.
Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, Speak, Okinawa is a startling accomplishment—a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American.
Speaker
Elizabeth Miki Brina, author, Speak, Okinawa
Discussant
Steve Rabson, Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies, Brown University
Moderator
Kuniko Ashizawa, Adjunct Professorial Lecturer, American University, George Washington University
New Paths for U.S.-Taiwan Ties: A Conversation with NextGen Scholars
Speakers
- Sara Newland, Assistant Professor of Government, Smith College
- Brandon Lee, President and CEO, Anacostia Consulting Group
- James Lee, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation
- Richard J. Haddock, Program Manager, GW
Moderator
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Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, GW
East Asian Diaspora in Latin America
Transnational migration between East Asia and Latin America has been occurring for centuries, particularly since the trade of slave and indentured labor across the Atlantic and Caribbean. The oftentimes unsung history of East Asian diasporic communities in Latin America is one marked by geopolitical and geoeconomic pressures, discrimination and confusion, adaptation and resilience, and citizenship and nation-building. This event brings together a panel of experts to call attention to the transnational histories of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean communities in the Spanish Caribbean, Central America, and South America.
This event was co-sponsored by the George Washington Institute for Korean Studies, the East Asia National Resource Center, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute, and the Department of Sociology at the George Washington University.
Speakers
- Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History, Ethnic Studies, and American Studies, Brown University: “Chinese Migration to the Americas and Empires, 16th century to Present”
- Taku Suzuki, Professor in International Studies, Denison University: “Transpacific Alienation: Nikkei Communities in Latin America and Japan”
- Rachel Lim, Visiting Assistant Professor, Texas A&M: “The Multiple Trajectories of Korean Migrants to and from Mexico”
Moderator
- Hiromi Ishizawa, Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology, GW
Challenges of the Past, Present, and Future: Addressing Asian and Asian American Inclusivity in Academia, Policy, and the Media
Speakers
- Ben de Guzman, Director, DC Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (opening remarks)
- Dr. Patricia Chu, Professor of English; Deputy Chair of the Department of English, The George Washington University
- Dr. Pawan Dhingra, Professor of American Studies; Faculty Equity and Inclusion Officer, Amherst College
- Audrey Pan, Community Organizer and Programs Associate, OCA-GH; Programs Chair, Chinatown Youth Initiatives
- Rui Zhong, Program Associate, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Center
- Hye Jun Seo, MA Asian Studies student, The George Washington University
- Daphne Lee, Journalist (CBS, VICE, Nikkei Asia, Goldthread and others)
Moderator
- Dr. Jisoo Kim, Co-Director, East Asia NRC; Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies; Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures, George Washington University
Korea Policy Forum – How Institutions Matter in Pandemic Responses: The South Korean Case
A forthcoming book, Coronavirus Politics (Greer et al. 2021, Michigan University Press) identifies key threads in the global comparative discussion that continue to shed light on COVID-19 and shape debates about what it means for scholarship in health and comparative politics. Contributing a chapter to the book on the South Korean pandemic governance on COVID-19 encompassing South Korea’s public health (3Ts: Testing, Tracing, Treatment) and social policies, Dr. June Park argues that functioning institutions matter in pandemic governance and determines the level of their effectiveness by scrutinizing the case of South Korea under COVID-19. She focuses on public health bureaucracy and policy coordination supported by public participation, which are vital to effective policy response. Dr. Park highlights the technocracy at the core in public health and the significant role it has come to play as the “control tower.” The book brings together over 30 authors versed in politics and the health issues in order to understand the health policy decisions, the public health interventions, the social policy decisions, their interactions, and their reasons – analyses which will serve as a record of country responses to COVID-19 and as a case reference for future pandemics.system, after fostering a strong sense of elitism in them, withdrew its ideological endorsement and material support. As a result, they turned to Decadent rebellion to reclaim their spiritual superiority yet in vain because of its internal and external paradoxes.
This event was co-sponsored by the George Washington Institute for Korean Studies and the East Asia National Resource Center at the George Washington University.
Speaker
- June Park, East Asia Voices Initiative (EAVI) Fellow, East Asia National Resource Center, George Washington University
Discussant
- Celeste Arrington, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
Moderator
- Yonho Kim, Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies, George Washington University
Shakespeare and East Asia
The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs Book Launch Series, National Resource Center, Institute for Korean Studies and Sigur Center for Asian Studies are proud to present a lecture by Dr. Alexa Alice Joubin on her latest book, Shakespeare and East Asia (Oxford University Press). The talk was followed by a live Q&A with the audience moderated by NRC Program Associate, Richard J. Haddock.
How did Kurosawa influence George Lucas’ Star Wars? Why do critics repeatedly use the adjective Shakespearean to describe Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2019)? How do East Asian cinema and theatre portray vocal disability and transgender figures?
Shakespeare and East Asia identifies four themes that distinguish post-1950s East Asian cinemas and theatres from works in other parts of the world: Japanese formalistic innovations in sound and spectacle; reparative adaptations from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; the politics of gender and reception of films and touring productions in South Korea and the UK; and multilingual, diaspora works in Singapore and the UK. These adaptations are reshaping debates about the relationship between East Asia and Europe, and this book reveals deep connections among Asian and Anglophone performances. The book is part of Oxford Shakespeare Topics, a series of 50 volumes on the playwright.
Author
- Alexa Alice Joubin, Professor and founding co-director of the Digital Humanities Institute, George Washington University
Moderator
- Richard J. Haddock, Program Associate, East Asia National Resource Center (EANRC)
African Samurai: The True Story of a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan
Presented in partnership with the Howard University Ralph J Bunche International Affairs Center.
When Yasuke arrived in Japan in the late 1500s, he had already traveled much of the known world. Kidnapped as a child, he had ended up a servant and bodyguard to the head of the Jesuits in Asia, with whom he traversed India and China learning multiple languages as he went. His arrival in Kyoto, however, drew tremendous attention. Most Japanese people had never seen an African man before, and many of them saw him as the embodiment of the black-skinned (in local tradition) Buddha. Among those who were drawn to his presence was Lord Nobunaga, head of the most powerful clan in Japan, who made Yasuke a samurai in his court. Soon, he was learning the traditions of Japan’s martial arts and ascending the upper echelons of Japanese society.
In the four hundred years since, Yasuke has been known in Japan largely as a legendary, perhaps mythical figure. Now African Samurai presents the never-before-told biography of this unique figure of the sixteenth century, one whose travels between countries, cultures and classes offers a new perspective on race in world history and a vivid portrait of life in medieval Japan.
Author
- Thomas Lockley, Associate Professor, Nihon University College of Law
Moderator
- Jisoo Kim, Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies; Co-Director, East Asia NRC
Prospects for International Education in the COVID-19 Era
Presented in partnership with the Organization for Asian Studies.
Opening Remarks: Jisoo Kim, Co-Director, East Asia National Resource Center
Speakers:
- Scott Osdras, Program Officer, American Councils for International Education
- Alexis Snyder, MA Asian Studies Graduate Student; GW Staff Member
- Luz Ding, Freelance Journalist, GW Alumna
Moderator
Laura Engel, Associate Professor, International Education and International Affairs
The Korean War, Remembrance, and the Making of Modern Puerto Rico
Presented in partnership with the Elliott School of International Affairs Security Policy Studies, the Institute for Korean Studies, and the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute.
No conflict has been as impactful and transformative for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans as the Korean War. In slightly over three years of fighting some 61,000 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. Armed Forces. The Puerto Rican involvement in the Korean War was as large as in World War II, a war of a global scale, and larger than in Vietnam, the longest American conflict to that point. The Korean War was also the first time Puerto Rican troops were thrown into combat in large numbers, as Puerto Rican units, and for a prolonged period of time since they started serving in the Unites States Armed Forces in 1899. Most of the Puerto Ricans who served in this war were members of the 65th United States Army Infantry Regiment. During the war, this regiment (known as “el sesenta y cinco”), and its men (the Borinqueneers), became a national icon representing the hopes of a people willing to sacrifice their youth for a better future, acceptance and respectability, equality, a path towards decolonization, and a democracy that had and has proven elusive to them. The significance of the Puerto Rican participation in the Forgotten War had been lost and it was not until recently that these histories started to be uncovered, eventually leading to Congress awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the 65th in recognition of their service. The award also recognizes that when the 65th fought under the flags of Puerto Rico, the United States, and the United Nations, they did so carrying an undue burden.
Speakers
- Harry Franqui-Rivera Associate Professor of History, Bloomfield College
- Jisoo Kim Director, GW Institute for Korean Studies; Co-Director, East Asia NRC
Hiroshima to Fukushima and Covid-19: A History of Japan’s Healthcare
Like many countries, Japan has a universal health care system, and yet, it is also one of the most unique systems of healthcare and R&D due to the complex history of medicine in Japan. The first system of healthcare was established in Japan when traditional Chinese medicine was imported from China in the 7th century. It was followed by European systems of healthcare brought by missionaries toward the end of Edo Period (1603-1858). Japan’s active RD policy for public health and health care reform occurred toward the end of the 1800s through the early 1900s. However, the Japanese health care system took a dark turn during WWII with the development of bioweapons and the human experiments. At the end of the war, the atomic bombs and the Allied occupation period (1945-51) brought yet another shift with the influence of the US that lasted until the sudden economic growth period (高度成長期) in the 1970s which brought pollution sicknesses and lawsuits. Since the 1980s, Japanese leadership has been following European health care and R&D systems which include opportunities for women professionals. The Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident in the Fukushima Prefecture brought forth many questions regarding Japanese government’s healthcare and disaster management systems. In this short 40 min presentation, I will summarize how the complexities of Japanese health care and R&D systems were established. Using this opportunity, I will also share with the audience how Japanese local and federal governments are managing the current Covid19 pandemic.
Speaker
- Tomoko Steen, PhD Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology,Georgetown University Medical Center
Moderator
- Benjamin Hopkins Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies; Co-Director, East Asia NRC
Landlocked Cosmopolitan Locks-Down: Mongolia’s COVID-19 Response
Presented in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, Institute of East Asian Studies, and the University of California, Berkley, Mongolia Initiative
Mongolia has been hailed for its COVID-19 response. Though the country lies between Russia and China, its first recorded case was that of a French national employed by France’s state uranium and nuclear company Orano. At the same time, given continuing border closures and stoppages of international flights, Mongolians abroad have had great difficulty repatriating into the summer. Campaign platforms for parliamentary elections campaigns in June heavily focused on increasing trade, logistics, tourism, and other forms of cross-border movement. This talk will address questions around the implications of Mongolia’s COVID-19 response and its position in international economy, politics, and society.
Speaker:
- Marissa Smith, Anthropologist, Central Asia Working Group, UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies
Moderator:
- Benjamin Hopkins, Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies; Co-Director, East Asia National Resource Center
Pandemic Politics in Southeast Asia
Part of the East Asia NRC’s Current Issues in East Asia series; co-sponsored with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and ESIA Research.
The global pandemic and governments’ ensuing public health and other policy responses have shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of pre-existing leadership, socio-economic infrastructure, and public policy within all regions. In Southeast Asia, the media spotlight has variously shone on how Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia’s current governments have dealt with the health, economic, political, and social fallout of COVID-19’s unrelenting spread. Each country has taken a slightly different approach to the crisis, with uneven results. In some cases, unforeseen repercussions spreading far beyond the public health domain are now causing citizens to question their leadership or demonstrate their opposition to certain policy decisions in interesting or unprecedented ways.
Speaker:
- Julia Lau, Non-resident Scholar, Sigur Center for Asian Studies
COVID-19 & Taiwan’s International Space Reimagined
Presented in partnership with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.
In this time of world-wide pandemic, Taiwan’s continued exclusion from the World Health Organization is being hotly debated. Ahead of the upcoming World Health Assembly meetings on May 18-23, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the East Asia National Resource Center are hosting a webinar with leading experts to discuss the politics and diplomacy over China’s blocking of Taiwan from the World Health Organization, and how the unprecedented global health crisis may be changing Taiwan’s future.
 
Opening Remarks:
Benjamin D. Hopkins, Co-Director, East Asia National Resource Center
 
Expert Panel:
- The World Health Organization and New Pandemic Politics in Play: Jacques deLisle, Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
- Seeing Taiwan’s International Status Today in Historical Perspective: James M. Lin, Assistant Professor, University of Washington
- Taiwan’s Health Diplomacy and New International Soft Power: I-Chung Lai, President, Prospect Foundation
- Discussant: Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs
- Moderator: Deepa M. Ollapally, Associate Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies
Global Views of COVID 19: Responses and Perspectives in China, Taiwan and Italy
EAST ASIA NATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER
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