Oregon-Vietnam-Japan Exchange and Collaboration Project

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Oregon-Vietnam-Japan Exchange and Collaboration Project
Funded by the Japan Foundation
2017-2021

 

The Oregon-Vietnam-Japan Exchange and Collaboration (OVJEC) Project aims to initiate collaboration and exchange to promote Japanese Studies through the partnership of institutions in the United States, Japan, and Vietnam. Partner universities include the University of Oregon (UO), Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), Hanoi University (HANU), and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (HCMC). Highlights of the program have included faculty exchanges and visits, a kick-off conference in Ho Chi Minh City, a language pedagogy symposium in Hanoi, presentations at the APU Asia Pacific annual conference, curriculum sharing and development, professional development activities, translations into Vietnamese of important works on Japanese Studies, and the development of a network of scholars who share their ideas and experiences on researching and teaching Japanese Studies.

Year 1 Accomplishments

During the first year of the project, participants from partner institutions met at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education for a kick-off conference entitled “What is Japanese Studies.” Presenters discussed their research in the wider lens of defining and expanding the notion of Japanese Studies, while also discussing ways to collaborate and promote Japanese Studies to a wider audience. Three HCMC and two UO faculty members traveled to APU to attend the 15th Asia Pacific Conference and meet with APU project members, as well as meet students and administrators to discuss the projects and ways of internationalizing Japanese Studies. Three HCMC then traveled to UO for an eight-week academic residency where they were paired with UO mentor faculty to discuss their research and sit in on UO classes to compare pedagogy methods. They were also provided with professional development sessions in academic writing, research development and methodology. Along with the project directors, they traveled to Portland to visit the world-famous Portland Japanese Garden and meet with members of the Oregon East Asia Network. Throughout the year, project members discussed curriculum improvements and possible course reader and translation projects.

Year 2 Accomplishments

The second year of the project continued the agenda of exchanges, with three HANU faculty meeting UO faculty at the 16th APU Asia Pacific Conference. Visiting faculty met with APU faculty to discuss the progress of the project and met with students and administrators. Three HANU faculty then traveled to UO for an eight-week academic residency with UO faculty mentors. They sat in on classes, discussed curriculum and pedagogy, and one HANU faculty member taught a demonstration class on Japanese haiku. HANU faculty sat in on UO classes and were provided with professional development workshops on English, academic writing, and research planning and methodology. HANU faculty also participated in a half-day workshop on Flipped Learning in the Language Classroom in the UO’s Yamada Language Center. Year 1 UO mentors traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to meet with their mentees, observe classes, and hold guest lectures. These mentors also visited APU to meet faculty and students and give talks on Japanese Studies. Hanoi University hosted a symposium on Japanese Language Pedagogy, attended by faculty from UO and APU, and followed by meetings on project projects. This year also saw the beginning of an ambitious translation and publication agenda, with six books in translation and scheduled for publication.

Year 3 Accomplishments

The project’s third and final year has been affected by the global pandemic, as international travel has proved too risky for our partners. Nonetheless, we have continued to make strides towards our project goals. Prior to the outbreak, two UO mentors visits HANU to meet mentees and observe classes, as well as meet with administrators and observe a Japanese speech contest. The project’s Capstone Conference, which was to take place at UO in spring 2020 was moved to a smaller symposium on Internationalizing Japanese Studies in Hanoi in January 2021. Vietnamese faculty met and shared their research and thoughts on the promote of Japanese Studies, and teaching Japanese topics to a variety of audiences, both domestic and international. Many international scholars attended via Zoom as well. UO faculty participated in the form of prerecorded conversations with Japan Studies experts to be viewed at the symposium by in-person attendees. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education hosted a well-attended seminar series on Japanese cinema, literature and culture in the 2020-21 academic year with esteemed experts at a community organization called The Ladder. Three additional Vietnamese translations are slated for publication at the beginning of 2021. Project members will continue to discuss ways to internationalize Japanese Studies and to sustain the network we’ve built after the project ends.

             

Videos Celebrating the OVJEC Project’s Accomplishments

Above video from Hanoi University

Above video from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education

China-in-Asia Lecture Series

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China-in-Asia: Historical Connections and Contemporary Engagement

Fridays, Fall term at 10:00 am

All talks will be free to the public and take place on Zoom
Zoom Meeting ID: 940 7063 0564
Zoom Passcode: 202020

Friday, October 9, 2020 @ 10 am
David R. Meyer, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
“China’s ‘Belt & Road’ Options in a Trade War with the United States”
China’s “One belt, one road” (Belt & Road) initiative is transforming global supply chains, especially across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, and also extending to Africa. The supply chain linkages are embodied in the Silk Road Economic Belt and New Maritime Silk Road. One key part of the initiative aims to propel economic development within Asia. China’s initiative now includes economies that, in aggregate, along with China, comprise a total economy that surpasses the United States. Trade of China with “Belt & Road” economies now exceeds that with the United States. Regional groupings of countries in the “Belt & Road” initiative diverge significantly in relative importance to China. This suggests China’s trade relationships with these countries will take on diverse approaches. Southeast Asia emerges as a critical economic region for China’s future economic growth and trade, implying that countries of that region will play a major role in the “Belt & Road” initiative. The paradox of the “trade war” between China and the U.S. points to a realignment of the global economy—the U.S. raises the stakes in the “trade war” even as its importance to China is in long-term relative decline.

Tao Hu, Lakestone Institute for Sustainable Development, USA and China
“How Could China Promote Sustainable Development Goals along Belt and Road Countries? A Renewable Energy Example”

Friday, October 23, 2020 @ 10 am
Juliet Lu, Cornell University, USA
“From Peripheral to Pivotal: Province Level Powers in China’s Global Expansion”
China’s global expansion is often portrayed as directed from Beijing through central state political agreements and initiatives. In reality, particularly in engaging Asian countries that neighbor China, province level powers play a pivotal role in facilitating the flows of capital, goods, people and ideas. This is exemplified by the case of Chinese economic and political interactions with Laos, most of which are channeled through actors and institutions in Yunnan Province. This talk will describe three channels through which China’s engagement with Laos is shaped by actors in Yunnan: through Yunnan provincial government authorities and the policies and cross-border cooperation initiatives they have established; through vibrant social and business networks, many built on cultural, ethnic, and linguistic ties that predate the establishment of the P.R.C.; and through the unique logics of spatial control and resource management which defined Yunnan’s path to development and are now being transplanted into the Lao context. The talk aims to reframe the spatial lens through which we approach Chinese contemporary engagements in Asia, centering the province and more specifically the borderlands, and tracing political, personal, and ecological structures that are more clearly active in these places. It also explores the implications of China’s global expansion for certain actors and interests in border provinces. It suggests that Yunnan provincial leadership use China’s increasing openness to assert independence from Beijing, and that China’s central-state resources can be more easily captured by business and political interests at the province level as they flow toward and beyond the borderland regions.

Kean Fan Lim, Newcastle University, UK
“The Geoeconomics and Geopolitics of Sino-Singaporean Relations”
This talk explores China-Singapore relations from two seemingly contradictory trajectories – deepening geo-economic integration and differing geopolitical orientations.  Once denigrated as a symbol of imperialist ‘running dogs’, Singapore became a governance ‘model’ for Chinese policymakers in the post-Mao era. Economic ties soon deepened. Since 2013, China became Singapore’s largest trading partner, and Singapore became the largest source of FDI in China. Following the launch of China’s ‘Go Abroad’ strategy in the early 2000s, Chinese FDI in Singapore grew exponentially. Singapore’s geo-economic importance became more pronounced following US policy to remove Hong Kong’s unique geopolitical status in 2020. There is every sign that Chinese foreign trade policy will leverage on Singapore’s global interconnections to circumvent hostile trading policies. Sino-Singaporean relations are inherently fragile, however, because of different geopolitical orientations. The Singapore government has forged a close relationship with the US and is a frequent port-of-call for the US navy. It maintains military links with Taiwan, a polity that China regards as its domestic province. Singapore’s position on China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea is also aligned to those of ASEAN, within which contains much opposition to those claims. This talk therefore presents Sino-Singaporean relations as primarily economistic, with China tapping on Singapore’s existential need to attract foreign investments and sidestepping fundamental geopolitical differences.

Eileen Otis, University of Oregon, USA
“Walmart’s New Road into China”
Walmart ascended to the pinnacle of the global economy in the 1990’s by deploying sophisticated logistics technology to direct massive imports from China onto its U.S. retail shelves.  Currently, while there is growing attention to China’s outward state investment focusing on the “Belt and Road Initiative,” another dimension of China’s adjustment to its growth into a superpower economy has been an attempt to shift away from dependence on export manufacturing, especially its reliance on the U.S. as a major consumer of its products. The recent “trade war” has only exacerbated this trend. In the nation’s attempt to shift from producer to consumer, one of the key global actors, Walmart, is expanding its role from buyer to investor, as it builds stores and distribution warehouses across China. This investment is emblematic of the rise of global retail brands, an historically unprecedented phenomenon. My main purpose in this talk is to place the rise of Walmart as a retailer in China, within the larger context of global economic dynamics, focusing on China and the U.S. I treat the firm as an example of merchant capital, in which economic actors who control demand dominate producers. The presentation will discuss the adaptions required by the firm as it settles into the Chinese consumer market and its impact on retail workers in China.

Friday, October 30, 2020 @ 10 am
Oyuna Baldakova, Freije University Berlin, Germany
“China’s Solution for the Global South: Study of Belt and Road Investments in Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan”
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted heightened international attention and inspired polarizing interpretations. Critics believe that the initiative could be a ‘debt trap’ used to extract geostrategic concessions from debtors. Proponents, on the other hand, contend that China, replicating its own success story, can help countries in the Global South overcome their structural bottlenecks and enable them to repeat the trajectory of China’s rapid economic growth. This paper presents an analysis of the BRI from the perspective of international development studies. Comparing China’s BRI investments in two Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan – it argues that proposed BRI projects often reflect China’s internal logic of development, but that the extent and quality of implementation varies largely across the BRI countries. The paper addresses the financial set up of projects, which play an important role and are frequently overlooked in BRI analyses.

Jessica diCarlo
University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
“Behind the Spectacle of the BRI: Grounding Global China in Laos”
In this talk, I examine China’s rise in global development through three inter-related projects in Laos—the country’s first railroad, Boten special economic zone, and the Laos-China Economic Corridor, all of which have been subsumed under the banner of the Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI, unprecedented in scope and scale, suggests a new era of Chinese development through infrastructure. Yet, considerations of the social, political, and material dynamics at play in host countries, particularly with longer legacies of Chinese investment and engagement, tend to be surface level. Academic inquiry has focused on the BRI’s geopolitical implications as well as the economic dimensions of export infrastructure as a ‘spatial fix’ for China’s chronic overproduction crisis. Yet, Tsing (2005, 74) reminds: “For the aspirations of international investors and national elites to emerge as more than a moment’s daydream…they must be made tangible on a regional landscape. They must engage people, places, and environments”. To understand investments are ‘made tangible’, I zoom out and begin by outlining the BRI in Laos and unpacking the legacies and relations that have produced the current moment of China’s investment in the Lao context. In doing so, I challenge sweeping statements of imperialism and situate megaprojects more contextually and historically. I then focus on the railway and the additional investments and plans for special economic zones and corridors that it motivated. I argue that these transnational infrastructure projects produce new development imaginaries, act as (geo)political and state-making tools for both the Lao and Chinese states, and reconfigure local land politics and law. In doing so, I demonstrate that rather than a single global force with local impacts, ‘China’ and the ‘Chinese’ projects I study are co-produced with Lao state and non-state actors and through multiple, sometimes incongruous forces.

Friday, November 6, 2020 @ 10 am
Nianshen Song
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
“Border, Modern, and East Asia: The Tumen River Demarcation 1881-1919”
Until the late nineteenth century, the Chinese-Korean Tumen River border was one of the oldest, and perhaps most stable, state boundaries in the world. Spurred by severe food scarcity following a succession of natural disasters, from the 1860s, countless Korean refugees crossed the Tumen River border into Qing-China’s Manchuria, triggering a decades-long territorial dispute between China, Korea, and Japan. This major new study of a multilateral and multiethnic frontier highlights the competing state- and nation-building projects in the fraught period that witnessed the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the First World War. The power-plays over land and people simultaneously promoted China’s frontier-building endeavours, motivated Korea’s nationalist imagination, and stimulated Japan’s colonialist enterprise, setting East Asia on an intricate trajectory from the late-imperial to a situation we call modern.

Soren Urbansky
German Historical Institute, Germany
“Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino-Russian Border”
The Sino-Russian border, once the world’s longest land border, was special in many ways. It not only divided the two largest Eurasian empires, it was also the place where European and Asian civilizations met, where nomads and sedentary people mingled, where the imperial interests of Russia and later the Soviet Union clashed with those of Qing and Republican China and Japan, and where the world’s two largest Communist regimes hailed their friendship and staged their enmity. In this talk, Sören Urbansky will discuss his recent book, Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino-Russian border, which examines the demarcation’s remarkable transformation—from a vaguely marked frontier in the seventeenth century to its twentieth-century incarnation as a tightly patrolled barrier girded by watchtowers, barbed wire, and border guards.

Friday, November 13, 2020 @ 10 am
Tyler Harlan
Loyola Marymount University, USA
“A Green Belt and Road? Environmental Discourse and Energy Realities in Laos & Myanmar”

Alexander C. Diener
University of Kansas, USA
“Mongolia’s Transportation Infrastructure: Building a Transit Corridor between China and Russia”
Mongolia’s axial development strategy provides an opportunity to consider the intended and unintended effects of introducing paved roads into regions where none exist. This project analyzes data from a 125-person survey, 128 semi-structured interviews, and participant observation in sites proximate to and distant from new paved roads in six counties within three Mongolian provinces. We consider how roads engender connectivity and distantiation simultaneously in re-shaping Mongolia’s socio-economic geographies and rearranging of mundane spaces of everyday life. These roads also have the capacity to alter patterns of connectivity in Northeast Asia. By creating north-south arterial roads across its territory, Mongolia positions itself as a transit corridor and bridge between China and Russia. Such linkages speak to a range of geo-economic and geopolitical contingencies at the juncture of BRI and the Eurasian Economic Union.

 

This lecture series is sponsored by the InterAsia Program, Social Science Research Council; the Center for Asia and Pacific Studies, University of Oregon; Dean’s Office, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon; and Department of Geography, University of Oregon.

Fall 2020 Course Offerings

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ANTH 345 Archaeology of East Asia
This course is designed as an introduction to the prehistoric and early historic societies in East Asia, mainly China, Korea, and Japan. Students will gain knowledge of the cultures and histories of each region under study, as well as broad-ranging subjects, including technological development, cultural exchange, state formation, and issues of identity in archaeology.

ARH 208 History of Chinese Art
This course offers a broad consideration of Chinese visual culture, ranging from ancient jades, ritual bronzes, and early tombs to Buddhist art, landscape painting and gardens, and contemporary responses to tradition.

ARH 481/581 Chinese Landscapes and Gardens
Landscape and garden imagery, ranging from early decorative patterns and monumental paintings to so-called “scholar’s gardens,” plays an important role in the visual culture of China. This course will offer a broad overview of the historical development of landscape and garden themes in Chinese culture and will examine attempts to recover the shifting socio-political contexts within which such motifs evolved.

ARH 485/585 Japan, Architecture, Empire
In this course students will learn about the rise, expansion, demise and memory of the Japanese Empire as it was expressed through architecture. We will consider how architecture was used as a physical form and cultural concept to propagate empire at home and throughout Asia, and how the legacy of this empire has influenced Japanese architectural production from 1945 to the contemporary. The assignments may include some coordinated synchronous activities such as, group discussions or projects.

ASIA 111 Great Books on Asia
Students learn about Asia and how knowledge about Asia is produced by reading and discussing four great books written by different authors in various writing genres and perspectives.

CHN 101 First Year Chinese
Provides thorough grounding in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Emphasis on aural-oral skills. For students with no background in Mandarin Chinese.

CHN 152 Intro to Chinese Popular Culture
Introduction to popular Chinese cultures in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. Discussion focuses on religion, literature, art, and media.

CHN 201 Second Year Chinese
Training in aural-oral skills designed to build listening comprehension and fluency. Development of proficiency in written Chinese.

CHN 204 Accelerated Second Year Chinese
Provides proficiency-based language-learning using American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Language benchmarks as standards for teaching and assessment of grounding in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Sequence with CHN 205, CHN 206.

CHN 301 Third Year Chinese
Continued training in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

CHN 305 History of Chinese Literature
Survey ranging from early Confucian and Daoist classics through Tang and Song poetry, short fiction and novels, the 1919 May Fourth Movement writers, and into the contemporary period. Readings in English.

CHN 308 Literature of Modern Taiwan
Surveys the literature of Taiwan from the postwar era to the present. Discussion focuses on national identity, gender, class, modernization, and globalization. Taught in English.

CHN 420/520 Intermediate Language Strategies
Focuses on topics in one of these areas: social sciences, sciences, and humanities. Sequence with CHN 421, 422. Prereq: CHN 303 or third-year Chinese language proficiency.

CHN 436/536 Literary Chinese
Readings in various styles and genres of classical Chinese literature; stress on major works of different periods. Preparation for research.

CHN 445/545 Cultural Geography
Focuses on group and individual language study on the topic of the cultural geography of China. Prereq: CHN 411, 412, 413, 421 or fourth-year Chinese language proficiency.

CHN 480/580 Chinese Linguistics
Introduces students to various linguistic levels of Chinese; covers basic concepts and methodologies of linguistic analysis, including the relationship between language structure, culture, and cognition.

CHN 607 Seminar: Chinese Literature
Advanced graduate seminar on Chinese literature.

CINE 362M/KRN 362M Contemporary Korean Film
The course is interdisciplinary in nature as it aims to help students acquire vocabularies to address and inquire into some of the key issues across multiple disciplines such as cultural studies, media studies, and regional/global studies. The content of the course covers recent South Korean political, economic, and cultural histories and the impact of economic modernization as well as South Korea’s entry into the global marketplace on the production of local cultures.

CINE 490/590 Films of Ang Lee
This course will examine the films of Ang Lee whose influence go beyond national, industrial and cultural boundaries. Due to his work’s global appeal and the incongruity across his films, Ang Lee is often labeled as a “transcendent,” “transnational” or “postmodern” filmmaker whose work raises new critical questions for many theories of film studies. In this class we will inquire into Ang Lee’s films with the theoretical framework of film authorship.

COLT 380 Asian Horror
By investigating the styles, techniques, and conventions associated with Asian horror cinema, this seminar endeavors to help students become more critical viewers of the genre as opposed to merely passive consumers of popular culture.

EALL 209 Language and Society in East Asia
Introduction to language and society in East Asia. Topics include: the structure of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean; politeness; intercultural communication; writing; minority and immigrant communities.

EALL 410/510 East Asian Phonetics
Articulatory and acoustic analyses of the sound systems of East Asian languages.

EALL 560 Teaching East Asian Languages and Literature
Training in East Asian language instruction through lectures, observations, and teaching practica.

EALL 608 Colloquium
This graduate course involves studying works in translation and the translation process.

EALL 611 Critical Approaches
Introduces recent research and methodologies in the fields of Chinese, Japanese and Korean traditional and modern literary, cultural, film, and linguistic studies.

ES 452/552 Japanese Internment
This course discusses the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two.

GLBL 448/548 Bollywood’s Lens
This course explores Indian society through film, focusing on critical social issues; depicted vs. the historical reality; and ongoing transformations of social orientations and values.

HC101H: Drama in Ancient Greece and Medieval Japan
This seminar will explore the relationship between drama in comic and tragic modes in two different cultures: 5th-and 4th-century B.C. Athens and 14th-century Japan. Our main goal is to understand why the separation of drama into a serious and a lighthearted genre occurred in the first place, why playwrights in both cultures settled on one or the other, and why they did not mix both genres to create a hybrid form, such as tragicomedy, which is of later historical origin.

HC 221H The Difference China Makes
This course will explore the relationship between China and the construction of cultural difference. By tracing forms of Chinese “difference” in both the West and China, we will examine the various ways in which the construction of difference plays a prominent role in any culture’s process of self-definition, evolution, and exclusion, and consider its significant consequences on individuals and groups deemed as “other”. We will consider literary texts and cinema in conjunction with contemporary cultural topics, including representations of cuisine and disease.

HC 441H: Geology and Biology of the Tibetan Plateau
In this class, we will study the geologic origins of Central Asia’s unusual geologic structures, and the implications of its unique geologic properties for ongoing geologic and biological processes. We’ll take a look at why this area is so different from everywhere else on earth, and what we can learn about natural processes from the study of this extreme geology and biology. We’ll also tie the geological and biological features of this region to some of the sociopolitical implications of this dynamic area.

HIST 190 East Asian Civilization
An introduction to aspects of the traditional cultures of China and Japan through the early 1600s. No prior knowledge of East Asia is assumed or required. The course will combine lectures, visual material, and weekly discussion sessions. We will approach the East Asian macro-culture by focusing on three broad periods (approximate dates): 500 B.C.E. – 100 C.E.; 600 – 1100; and 1200 – 1660.

HIST 396 Samurai in Film
This course looks at aspect of the samurai during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, an age of civil war and eventual reunification. This is the one period of Japanese history when samurai were most likely to be habitually engaged in warfare, and had to deal with existential situations that raised questions of self-identity, place in society, acceptable behavior, and the issue of life and death.

HIST 399 The Pacific War
This course discusses World War Two in the Pacific.

HIST 407/507 Japanese Zen Culture
This course discusses the history of Zen Culture in Japan.

HIST 498/598 Medieval Japan
Japan’s early medieval period (roughly 1150s-1460s) is distinguished by social and political fluidity, and the rise of the warrior class. The era witnessed such significant developments as the emergence of Zen culture, new religious understandings for the commoner population, enhanced knowledge of healing and medicine, marginalization of some social groups, warfare as a new phenomenon, extensive overseas contacts, and increasing commercialization. This course melds a chronological and topical approach, and utilizes lectures, films, and visual sources (scroll paintings of hells, illnesses, Mongal invasions, portraits of lay and religious figures, and Zen gardens), in conjunction with readings.

HIST 608 Japan in the Pacific
This course examines the long history of Japan from the perspective of its interconnectedness to the world beyond the archipelago.

J 467/567 Digital Asia
This course covers topics related to the digital world in Asia.

JPN 101 First Year Japanese
Provides thorough grounding in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Japanese. Special stress on aural-oral skills. For beginners or by placement.

JPN 201 Second Year Japanese
Additional training in oral-aural skills designed to build listening comprehension and fluency. Development of basic proficiency in reading and writing Japanese.

JPN 250 Manga Millennium
Surveys the 1,000-year history of visual-verbal narratives – comics – in Japan, ranging from medieval picture to modern manga.

JPN 301 Third Year Japanese
Provides a solid foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Prepares students for advanced study.

JPN 315 Intro to Japanese Linguistics
Survey of general characteristics of the Japanese language in the aspects of sound structure, vocabulary, writing system, meaning, and sentence constructions.

JPN 410/510 Women in Modern Japan
This course discusses the role of women in Modern Japan.

JPN 411 Fourth Year Spoken Japanese
Development of speaking and listening skills related to concrete and abstract topics. Emphasis on sociolinguistic skills.

JPN 414 Fourth Year Reading and Writing in Japanese
Development of reading skills, vocabulary, and knowledge of kanji. Writing exercises include message writing, letter writing, and short essays.

JPN 434/534 Advanced Readings in Japanese Literature
Reading modern Japanese literature in Japanese. Students acquire proficiency in reading, writing, and translation as well as knowledge of literature.

JPN 607 Inventing Edo
Graduate-level course on the literature and culture of the Edo period of Japan.

KRN 101 First Year Korean
Provides thorough grounding in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Korean. Special stress on aural-oral skills. For beginners or by placement.

KRN 201 Second Year Korean
Continuation of KRN 101, 102, 103. Additional training in oral-aural skills designed to build listening comprehension and fluency. Development of basic proficiency in reading and writing Korean.

KRN 301 Third Year Korean
Provides a solid foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Prepares students for advanced study.

REL 101 World Religions: Asian Traditions
This course examines key concepts and practices from such Asian religions as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. It provides a balance of some broad coverage with in-depth examination of primary scriptures, scholarly analysis, and contemporary issues. The focus of our examination will be on the philosophical understanding of religious ideas supported by a critical examination of historical context. We will study key ideas within the critical context of various cultural and historical issues such as gender, class, and ritual practices.

REL 199 Special Studies Buddhism
This course looks at the religion of Buddhism.

REL 440/540 Buddhist Scriptures
This course examines the sacred scriptural traditions of East Asian Buddhism with a focus on Chinese and Japanese Zen, Pure Land Buddhism, and associated developments. It will closely examine the definition of “scripture” which in East Asian came to mean not only sutra, the teachings of the Buddha, but also commentaries by various masters and other genres. This examination will cover a wide range of themes against the backdrop of social and historical developments, including the development of sectarian traditions, cultural and national identity, gender and race.

2019-2020 Events

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Fall Term

Friday, November 1st, 2019 12:00 pm

OHC Conference Room, 159 PLC

Coalition as Possession: Gender, Ecology, and the Indian New Wave Cinema

Presented by Sangita Gopal, 2019-20 faculty research fellow in cinema studies.

 

 

Thursday, October 24, 2019  6:00pm
Tykeson Rehearsal Hall, School of Music

Kathakali Dance Drama

Kathakali is a classical Indian dance-drama from southwestern Kerala state. Known for its make-up and costuming highly emotive acting style, and large, imposing movements, this visually impressive art form narrates stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. The art has been widely celebrated both inside and outside of India, and its acting techniques have been incorporated into modern theater training all over the world. Come experience the world of Kathakali!

 

Monday, October 21, 2019  4:00pm
Lillis Hall 175

Colour, Mobility, and Cinematic Cartography: Exploring India in the 1960s

Kathakali is a classical Indian dance-drama from southwestern Kerala state. Known for its make-up and costuming highly emotive acting style, and large, imposing movements, this visually impressive art form narrates stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. The art has been widely celebrated both inside and outside of India, and its acting techniques have been incorporated into modern theater training all over the world. Come experience the world of Kathakali!

Monday & Tuesday, October 14-15, 2019
Redwood Auditorium

Studying Republican Vietnam: Issues, Challenges, and Prospects

Interest in Republican Vietnam, a broad period that extends through the 20th century and beyond, is recently expanding due to a combination of newly available sources and the emergence of a younger generation of scholars less shackled by previous political biases. In this new scholarship, the conflicts between and within North and South Vietnam were at the core civil wars whose origins can be traced back to the 1920s’ clashes in colonial Vietnam among republican, communist, monarchist and other ideas. This conference explores issues related to the study of Republican Vietnam, from the spread of republican ideas to French Indochina at the turn of the century to the memories of the RVN among the diaspora and the resurgence of Republican values in Vietnam today, and everything in between.

2018-2019 Events

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Spring Term

Monday, June 3, 2019  4:30 pm
Knight Library Browsing Hall
How Daoism Became American: A Tale of Translation, Conservation, Immigration, Appropriation, and Impersonation

Elijah Siegler talks about American Daoism, its history and difference from Chinese Daoism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 16, 2019  4:30 pm
Jaqua Center Auditorium J101

Freedom of Speech and the Press in Asia: Human Rights Balanced with Cultural Values

Kyo Ho Youm discusses freedom of expression in Asian contexts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019  4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Erb Memorial Union

The Transformative Power of Boys Love (BL) Media in Asia

James Welker speaks to the power of BL media and its potential for changing attitudes towards romance and sexuality in India and the Philippines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, May 23, 2019  4:00 pm
229 McKenzie Hall

Identify Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Saijiao Generation

Dr. Yueh discusses her recent book, a complete and thorough analysis to date of the “culture of cute” in Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 19, 2019  1:00 pm
206 Condon Hall

The Globalization of Chinese Cities from 1757 Onwards

A lecture by Desheng Xue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 19, 2019, 4:30 pm
Knight Library Browsing Hall

The Rise of “Brave New China”

Xiao Qiang speaks to the new generation fo digital technology and how it is being used to collect information and limit freedom of expression in China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 25, 2019, 4:30 pm
Gerlinger Lounge

KakaoTalk Rumor Effect: The influence of social media rumors on participation and knowledge in the 2017 South Korean Presidential campaign

Dr. Nojin Kwak talks about how the growing evidence that political rumors shared and discussed on social media may fuel misperceptions and negatively impact political systems around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 5:30 pm
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art – Ford Lecture Hall

Yao Religion and Daoism in the Southwest China and Southeast Asia Borderlands

Eli Alberts talks about the spread of Daoism to Yao peoples living in South China and across national borders all the way to northern Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, February 7, 2019  4:00 pm
Knight Library Browsing Hall

Living with the Mekong: Archeological Perspectives and Alternative Futures

Miriam Stark discusses how “seeing like a state” produced disastrous consequences that in some respects still resonate with life in the contemporary Lower Mekong basin.

 

 

 

 

 

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Winter Term

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rethinking Free Speech in East Asia

A Lecture Series

This lecture series is presented by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures. It is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Oregon Humanities Center, the UO Law School, the Asian Studies Program, and the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair Endowment. For more information, please call (541) 346 – 5068

 

 

Tuesday, January 22, 2019  3:30 pm
Knight Library Browsing Hall
Majoritarian Oscillations and Judicial Serendipities: Free Speech in Korea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, January 31, 2019, 3:00 pm
Knight Library Browsing Hall
Free Speech in Japan: Forms of Speech, Forms of Suppression

Lawrence Repeta searches for the answer to questions about common forms of political speech and specific cases of police surveillance and suppression of speech deemed undesirable by the authorities.

 

 

 

 

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Fall Term

Taiwanese Women’s First-Person Documentaries

Thursday, November 1, 2018

4:00 pm @ Knight Library Browsing Room

The contemporary documentary scene in Taiwan has benefited from women documentary filmmakers’ remarkable creative energy. In this presentation, Professor Sang argues that documentaries by Wuna Wu, Mei ling Hsiao, Zero Chou, and Hui-chen Huang are preeminent examples of the striking foregrounding of subjectivity in Taiwanese women’s documentaries.

Cool Edo: Artisanship in Early Modern Japan and Beyond

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

4:00 pm @ Knight Library Browsing Room

Kyozaburo Tsuge, President of Tsuge Pipe Co., Ltd. of Japan, member of the Japan Netsuke Association, author of The tale of Asakusa, shitamachi craftsmen, and connoisseur of pipes for an antique arts television show, will be discussing traditional Edo period craftwork and the collecting of Japanese art and artifacts.

Tokyo to New York: A survey of music from Tokyo and NYC-based composers for clarinet, hichiriki, and piano. 

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

7:00 pm @ Tykeson Recital Hall

“Tokyo to New York” features a variety of different musical styles and new works composed for both Western and traditional Japanese instruments.

Du Shiniang’s Jewelbox and the Problem of Interiority

Friday, November 9, 2018

4:00 pm @ Lillis Complex 111

This lecture series is presented by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies. It is co-sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries, the Asian Studies program, the Department of East Asian Languages and Linguistics, and the Department of History.

Farmer’s Battlefield: How post-conflict migrants adapt to UXO-contaminated land near the Cambodia Vietnam border

Friday, November 16, 2018

12:00 pm @ Maple Room (239) in the Erb Memorial Union

Why do post-conflict communities vary substantially in the speed and consistency with which they re-establish order and growth following war? The amount of unexploded ordnance left on farmlands can have a long-term impact on production, migration patterns, and local institutions. This talk discusses the role of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on the agricultural activities of Cambodian rice farmers.

2017-18 Events

Posted on by loholl

Summer Term

 

Building Osaka: Urban Dynamics Across Fifteen Centuries

大阪の歴史の再発見と新知見：千五百年の都市変遷を甦る

June 26-28, 2018  Gerlinger Lounge and Knight Library
For full schedule and details, please follow this link.

Spring Term

Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Vital Voices: Languages and Cultures from Around the World
Engage with linguists and community members about endangered languages
Frybread taco sale & silent auction benefit NILI Summer Institute scholarship fund
Many Nations Longhouse
6:30 pm

 

 

 

Thursday, May 3, 2018
Film Screening: “Comrade Kim Goes Flying”
2012 North Korean comedy
Discussion panel following screening
Part of “Behind the Headlines”
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Ford Hall
5:00 pm

 

 

 

Friday, May 4, 2018
Behind the Headlines: North Korea’s Politics, Society, and Culture
One-day workshop featuring keynote and several panels
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Ford Hall
8:45 am – 5:30 pm
See link for full schedule

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 14th and Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Tibetan Buddhism in the World
May 14th at 7:00 pm in Lillis 182
May 15th at 12:00 pm in PLC 159

 

Winter Term

 

Thursday, March 1, 2018
Vertical Living: A Catalyst for Women’s Liberation in Postwar Japan
Barbara Sato, Professor Emerita of History, Seikei University
Lillis 185, 12:00 pm

 

 

 

 

Friday, March 16, 2018 – RESCHEDULED for MAY 3, 2018
Engaging Adversaries: Peacemaking and Diplomacy in the Human Interest
Mel Gurtov, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Portland State University
Knight Library Browsing Room, 7:00 pm

 

 

Thursday, April 5, 2018
Law, Politics, and Impeachment in South Korea: President Park Geun-Hye’s Case in Comparative Perspective
The Honorable Tae Sup Keum
Congressman of the 20th National Assembly, Republic of Korea
Knight Library Browsing Room
4:00 pm

 

 

 

 

Friday, April 6, 2018
China and the West before the ‘Silk Routes’: Cultural Contacts, 2000-100 BCE
Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History, University of California Los Angeles
Knight Library Browsing Room
4:00 pm

 

 

 

Fall Term

 

 

Putting China in the World:
From Universal Theory to Contextual Theorizing
John Agnew, Department of Geography
University of California Los Angeles
106 Condon Hall
September 28, 2017
4:00 pm

 

 

 

Repackaging Early-Modern Play for the Modern (Wartime) Day
Matthew Shores, Visiting Professor of Japanese
University of Colorado Boulder
145 Straub Hall
October 20, 2017
5:00 pm

 

 

 

The Politics of Concern: Global Maoism and Asian Studies in the Long Sixties
Fabio Lanza, Associate Professor of History
University of Arizona
166 Lawrence Hall
November 9, 2017
3:30 pm

 

 

 

Flowers of Performance: Workshops on Japanese Noh Traditional Theatre

Posted on by lakey

 

The Center for Asian and Pacific Studies is pleased to present four days of events on Traditional Japanese Noh Theatre, to be held at the University of Oregon, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Portland Art Museum. The events, which will include performances and workshops, are to be led by TAKEDA Tomoyuki, an active performer from one of the most prestigious schools of Noh, the Kanze School. Established in the fourteenth century, Noh is characterized by austere simplicity of performance and profoundly poetic plots. In a series of four workshops (two of which will be accompanied by costumed performance), Takeda-sensei and his troupe will cover a range of topics from history, dance and chanting to costumes and masks. Audiences will have the opportunity to take part in a dance and chanting sequence, and to learn about costumes through dressing demonstrations.

All workshops are free and open to the public.* You are invited to participate in any and all of them.

*Seating is limited for the Portland workshops. Be sure to reserve your ticket today!

PORTLAND EVENTS:

Saturday, September 29: Experiential workshop on Noh dance and chanting

3:30-5:30 pm @ Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
(doors open at 3:00)

  • Tickets required (number of participant limited). Please follow this link to register for tickets. Please print out the registration and bring it with you to the event.
  • Participants will learn the basic movements of Noh and a simplified version of the Oimatsu (“Old Pine”) dance sequence.

Sunday, September 30: Introduction to Noh with a performance from the play, Hanjo (“Lady Ban”)

 6-8 pm @ Portland Art Museum, Fields Sunken Ballroom
(doors opens at 5:30)

  • Tickets required. Please follow this link to register for tickets. Please print out the registration and bring it with you to the event.
  • Introduction to Noh staging and performance, including demonstrations of chanting and costuming. The workshop will culminate in a performance of excerpts from Lady Ban (a tale of true love between a courtesan and courtier).

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON EVENTS:

Monday, October 1: Haseltine Lecture on Noh costume (sponsored by the Department of the History of Art and Architecture)

  • 5-6:30 pm @ Redwood Auditorium, EMU
  • Presentation on Noh costumes, culminating in a costuming demonstration (kitsuke). We will discuss history, materials and designs of a Noh costume.

Tuesday, October 2: Introduction to Noh with performance from the plays, Hanjo (“Lady Ban”) and Sesshohseki (“Death Stone”)

 5-7 pm @ Redwood Auditorium, EMU

  • Introduction to Noh history and performance, culminating in a performance of excerpts from the plays Lady Ban—a tale of true love between a courtesan and courtier—and Death Stone, a tale of a possessed stone that ends life.

This series of workshops is made possible through generous support from the following: Takashi Takeda Memorial Nohgaku Foundation; the Asian Studies Program; the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies; the College of Arts & Sciences; the Oregon Humanities Center’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities; the Sally Claire Haseltine Endowed Fund in Art History; the Yoko McClain Fund at the University of Oregon; a Mini Grant for Japanese Arts & Culture from the Los Angeles Office of the Japan Foundation; and the Portland Art Museum.

Videos of the Noh experience can be found at http://nohgaku-experience.com/flower.

Building Osaka Conference Abstracts

Posted on by lakey

This packet contains abstracts for all presentations at the “Building Osaka: Urban Dynamics Across Fifteen Centuries” conference at the UO on June 26-28, 2018. The main conference page can be found here, and additional related readings on Osaka are here.

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Building-Osaka-Abstracts-1hztt9a.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Building Osaka Conference Related Readings

Posted on by lakey

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Botsman-Recovering-Urban-Society-2012-1dgliek.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Goble-Development-of-Urban-Medical-Culture-2017-1mhuh85.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Hanes-Progressivism-Urban-Policy-2012-20jgy69.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Kana-Senba-Art-Culture-2012-2hzyje6.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Kanda-Osaka-Performers-2012-zzhm3p.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Kishimoto-Dual-Kingship-2013-2iv19uy.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Morishita-Stevedores-2012-2d26imx.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Niki-Medieval-Osaka-2012-2i96bvc.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Niki-Nobunagas-Free-Market-Decrees-2012-vmum59.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Porter-Poverty-Disease-Slums-2012-1g754a0.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Saga-From-Traditional-City-to-Modern-City-2012-1sq5a6e.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Saga-Urban-Lower-Class-2012-24ulusl.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/SturtzSreetharan-Language-and-masculinity-2017-19rkc35.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Taketani-Construction-Workers-2012-1mto3yp.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Tani-Carpenters-2012-xdv911.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Tsukada-Hinin-2012-1u5qzsn.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Tsukada-Urban-History-Osaka-2012-24uorrj.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Tsukada-Yado-and-Kuchiire-2010-1v7jdjt.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Walley-Tamamushi-Shrine-2012-10i6lr6.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

[embeddoc url=”https://caps.uoregon.edu/files/2018/06/Yagi-Vegetable-Markets-2012-1ahmguf.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]

Building Osaka: Urban Dynamics Across Fifteen Centuries

Posted on by lakey

大阪の歴史の再発見と新知見：

千五百年の都市変遷を甦る

 

 

Please join us at our international conference on June 26-28, 2018.

Conference Schedule:

June 26, 2018 – Gerlinger Lounge

8:30 am: Welcome Remarks

9:00 am – 11:30 am: Panel I: Naniwa and Ancient Periods

“5世紀に始まる難波の都市的発展 Naniwa’s Development as an Urban Center from the 5th Century.” Naofumi Kishimoto, Osaka City University

“日本古代の国家形成と大阪湾岸 State Formation in Ancient Japan and the Ōsaka Bay Coast.” Akira Furuichi, Kobe University

“Relic-texts, Sages and Vows: Shitennōji in Ancient and Medieval Japan.” Michael Como, Columbia University

“Through Time and Space: Symbolic Function of Minituarization in Ōda Haiji Reliquary Set 時空を超えて：太田廃寺出土舎利容器にみられるミニチュア化の象徴性.” Akiko Walley, University of Oregon

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Panel II: Late Medieval and Early Modern Transition Era

“大阪地域の流通‧都市の変容と宗教、武家” The Impact on Religion and Warriors of the Transformations in Trade and Cities in the Ōsaka Region.” Hiroshi Niki, Osaka City University

“中世天王寺の空間構造と寺院社会 Spatial Structure and Social Dynamics of Medieval Tennōji Temple and Its Surrounds.” Ken’ichi Osawa, Osaka Museum of History

“Becoming an Urban Doctor: Medicines, Patients, and Social Networks in the Ōsaka Tenma Honganji jinai Temple District, 1586-1587 町医になる：大阪天満本願寺寺内に於ける薬剤、患者、と社会ネットワーク、天正14-15年間を中心に.” Andrew Edmund Goble, University of Oregon

“Rennyo and Osaka: Beyond ‘Elite’ versus ‘Common’.” Mark Unno, University of Oregon

 

June 27, 2018 – Gerlinger Lounge

8: 30 am – 11:30 am: Panel III: Early Modern Period

“近世大阪の薬種流通 The Trade in Medicines in Early Modern Ōsaka.” Watanabe Sachiko, Independent Scholar

“In Osaka they do not understand it but they enjoy it anyway: Kyokutei Bakin, Edo popular fiction, and the Osaka publishing world.” Glynne Walley, University of Oregon

“近世日本の都市と農村－大阪と和泉 Early Modern Japanese Cities and Villages – a Look at Ōsaka and Izumi.” Takashi Tsukada, Osaka City University

“Rulings on Tokugawa Status Infringements and Local Governing Practices in Early Meiji Ōsaka Court Records.” Timothy Amos, National University of Singapore

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Panel IV: Meiji Period to the Present

‘近代大阪の民衆世界と都市社会構造 The Commoner World of Modern Ōsaka and the Structure of Urban Society.” Ashita Saga, Osaka City University

“’Who Owns Ōsaka?’ The Production of Space and Architecture in the Modern City.” Jeffrey Hanes, University of Oregon

“Adapting Ōsaka: The Makioka Sisters on Film.” Michael Cronin, College of William and Mary

“Ōsaka dialect as a semiotic clue: Affective fathers speak (fake) Ōsaka dialect! 大阪弁と父親像.” Cindi SturtzSreetharan, Arizona State University and Kaori Idemaru, University of Oregon

 

June 28, 2018 – Knight Library 267B

9:00- 10:30 am: Panel V: Osaka Connections: Past and Present

“Commerce and Collector Communities: Nōsatsu Networks in Greater Taisho Osaka, 1910 to 1930商人社会の趣味人コミュニティー：大正大大阪時代の納札ネットワーク(1910 ～ 1930年頃).” Kevin McDowell, University of Oregon and Kumiko McDowell, University of Oregon

“Osaka, Second Cities, and the New Urban History 大阪、 いわゆる第二都市の研究、と新たな都市史の最前観点. Louise Young, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

For readings related to urban dynamics in Osaka, please follow this link. For a collection of conference abstracts, please follow this link.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Executive Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, Department of History, Jeremiah Lecture Series, Asian Studies Program, Yoko McClain Lecture Series for Japanese Studies, Oregon Humanities Center, Department of Religious Studies, Global Studies Institute, College of Arts and Sciences, the Northeast Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission.