RSS FeedUpcoming EventsColloquium: How Do Alien Kinds Become Family? The Literary Lives of the Yakshas in Classical Chinese Tales, March 19https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/238049-colloquium-how-do-alien-kinds-become-family-the

“The Yaksha Kingdom” (Yecha guo) in Liaozhai zhiyi聊齋誌異 (Liaozhai’s Records of the Strange) by Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640-1715) tells the story of a Chinese merchant who suffers a shipwreck, drifts to an island, and with no better options, establishes a family with a female islander whom he identifies as a yakshini (mu yecha母夜叉). This tale, intertwining fear, despair, reconciliation and humor, is a rewriting of earlier Chinese yaksha narratives, which emerged with the spread of Buddhism into China during the medieval period. Placing the tale within the context of cross-cultural encounters, this talk will examine the yakshas’ transition from Indian to Chinese culture and their various depictions in the Tang dynasty tales. It will also consider the recurring theme of the perils faced by shipwrecked merchant as portrayed in Yijian zhi 夷堅志 (Records of Yijian) from the Southern Song period. These two veins of investigation will enable us to further analyze how Pu Songling transforms the traditional horrific yaksha encounters into a nuanced story of separation and reunion, and to gain insight into the literary and cultural significance of this fantastic tale, which blends irony, ambivalence and shades of hope.

Chiung-yun Evelyn Liu is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She specializes in premodern Chinese literature, circa 1500-1800, with particular interests in literature of the fantastic, historical memory, book culture and knowledge production. She is completing a book manuscript tentatively titled Remembering the 1402 Usurpation: Media, Historical Sentiment and the Ethics of Memory. Her other research projects include “Form and Meaning: Rethinking the Interpretations of The Journey to the Westthrough Early Modern Chinese Book Culture”, and “Negotiating Boundaries: Records of Encounters with the Alien Kind in Early Modern China.”





https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/238049-colloquium-how-do-alien-kinds-become-family-the
Choirs, Collectives, Collaboration: Polyphony and Parallax Memory as a Form of Activism in the Work of Three Japanese Artists, March 20https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/243027-choirs-collectives-collaboration-polyphony-and

*Note: Room changed from 370 Dwinelle*

Activism, in its collective form, has become a ubiquitous practice for those members in Japanese opposition or minority groups, using different methods and approaches to make their voice heard. Using theoretical tools that read into the choir and polyphony in Mikhail Bakhtin and Jacques Rancière’s writings, I argue that the choir is the immediate embodiment of polyphony, but also transformation of the silenced into the arena of activism and voicing of minorities who were silenced and left behind, in the name of Japanese homogeneity. In my presentation, I shall look into three video art/ photography projects that make innovative use of the medium of the chorus to express the multivocality and the parallax memory of the community, especially in relation to the silenced memories of the Asia-Pacific War.

First, I look into Koizumi Meirō’s project The Angels of Testimony (2019), in which he amplifies the confessional text of former Japanese imperial soldier Kondō Hajime, using a group of young actors who rehearse and recite the gruesome descriptions coming from Kondō’s testimony, while these voices are positioned in the public space; Then, Yamashiro Chikako’s project Chorus of Melodies (2011) uses multiple voices of the young and the elderly, to make their past story heard, after long years of silence; Lastly, Ishikawa Mao, has been working with the community for the past decade to create The Great Photographic Scroll of the Ryūkyū (2014-2023), a project that consists of Ishikawa’s direct engagement with her community on all levels: from thoughts and ideas, scripts, acting out and reenacting, as well as the preparation of display – celebrating the power of the community as a multivocal choir, vis-à-vis Japanese politics and US policies that have determined the fate of Ryūkyū islands.

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Modernity and the Rediscovery of Buddhist Women in Korea, March 21https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/242516-modernity-and-the-rediscovery-of-buddhist-women-in

Hybrid Event | RSVP / Registration Required

RSVP for In Person Attendance at Bottom of Page

Register for Virtual Attendance Here: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nRiCvznFTRO7zB7gzqzBmQ

 

Talk Summary:

When we study modern Buddhist history, we often use “modernity” as a frame of reference. But in the case of women, how well-balanced is the picture of the period that the term “modernity” provides? There is a certain level of contradiction in evaluating modern women’s lives, especially those of Buddhist women, through the lens of modernity that urges us to revisit the very concept of modernity and its criteria. My argument is that assessing modernity through the creation of institutions and reforms does not tell the whole story of women’s history and their lives. To illustrate, I will briefly introduce a collection of oral interviews on the history of Korean Buddhist women. The interviews reveal that while these women lived on the margins of history, there is still a sense of direction to their lives, and with the changes of the modern period they too contributed to the exponential growth of Korean Buddhism in the 1970s.

Speaker Bio:

Eunsu Cho (Ph.D., Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley) is professor emeritus of Buddhist philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Seoul National University, South Korea.

/live/events/242516-modernity-and-the-rediscovery-of-buddhist-women-in
Polyglot Networks: Overseas Chinese Returnees and the Establishment of Indonesian Language Programs in China, 1945-1965, March 21https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/242527-polyglot-networks-overseas-chinese-returnees-and

About the talk: Language and language education are two central topics in the studies of Chinese diasporic culture. However, existing scholarship has overwhelmingly focused on how overseas Chinese populations deal with language politics in their hosting societies. This research adopts a different perspective by examining how overseas Chinese played central roles in establishing Indonesian language programs in mainland China between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s. Specifically, overseas Chinese “returnees” were indispensable in establishing the National College of Oriental Studies (NCOS) during World War II under the nationalist Guomindang government and several Indonesian language programs in the early years of the People’s Republic (PRC). While such programs served drastically different political purposes across time, they also reflect crucial yet often ignored aspects of, and surprising continuities in, China-Indonesia cultural exchange during the tumultuous period of decolonization, domestic conflicts, and the Cold War. On the one hand, such continuities reflect the persistent demands of top decision-makers in handling geopolitical issues concerning the neighboring region; on the other hand, they are also closely associated with the changing contexts of diaspora politics in the mid-20th century. Moreover, although such language programs’ primary objective was to fulfill the operational needs of various government agencies, they also actively promoted Indonesian cultures and stimulated Chinese people’s sustained interest in understanding the country in the long run.

About the Speaker: Kankan XIE (Ph.D., UC-Berkeley, 2018) is an assistant professor of Southeast Asian studies at Peking University, China. His research and teaching deal with various historical and contemporary issues of the broadly defined “Nusantara” (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore), particularly the region’s leftwing movements, the intersection of colonialism, nationalism & decolonization, as well as China’s knowledge production about Southeast Asia throughout the 20th century. His current research, funded by China’s National Social Science Foundation and the Institute of Overseas Chinese History Studies, focuses on the history of Indonesian leftism and the Chinese diaspora. Kankan’s work has appeared in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (BKI), Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities, Dongnanya Yanjiu, and Nanyang Wenti Yanjiu.



If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Alexandra Dalferro at adalferro@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days before the event

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Haunting Loyalties: The Making and Unmaking of an Early Qing Family, March 21https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/237158-haunting-loyalties-the-making-and-unmaking-of-an

This talk will examine writings by and about the men and women of one Huzhou literati family to explore its fraught process of reinvention in the wake of personal and political disarray during the Qing conquest. The complex interplay of familial and political meanings of loyalty and disloyalty is a central theme of this story. Two brothers of the Fei family fought with Ming loyalist forces to defend their hometown against the Qing invaders, one dying valiantly, while a second went on to write a secret account of the region’s notorious literary inquisition in the 1660s that implicated thousands of people in a seditious history of the fallen Ming Dynasty. Their younger brother and his son worked assiduously to build political and economic foundations for success as officials loyal to the new dynasty. Yet the family’s traumas continued to haunt them, shaping personalities and priorities in gendered ways, complicating aspirations for family cohesion, and presaging the betrayals that would destroy the family in the mid-eighteenth century.

Janet Theiss is Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah. She is the author of Disgraceful Matters: The Politics of Chastity in Eighteenth-Century Chinaand co-author ofGender in Modern East Asia, China, Korea, Japan: An Integrated History.This talk comes from her current book project, Scandal and the Limits of Self-Invention in Qing China,which charts the rise to prominence of Zhejiang literati family in the wake of the Qing conquest and its destruction amidst a notorious sex and corruption scandal in the early years of the Qianlong reign.




https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/237158-haunting-loyalties-the-making-and-unmaking-of-an
Workshop on Tannishō Commentarial Materials, March 22https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/240522-workshop-on-tannish-commentarial-materials

The Centers for Japanese Studies and Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, together with Ōtani University and Ryūkoku University in Kyoto announce a workshop under the supervision of Mark Blum that will focus on critically examining premodern and modern hermeneutics of the Tannishō, a core text of the Shin sect of Buddhism, and arguably the most well-read religious text in postwar Japan. We plan to meet twice this year as before: in Berkeley from March 22 to 24, and in Kyoto at Ōtani University from June 28 to 30. Organized around close readings of the most influential materials produced in early modern, modern, and postmodern Japan, the workshop aims at producing a critical, annotated translation detailing the salient ways in which this text has been both inspirational and controversial, as well as a series of essays analyzing a wide spectrum of voices in Japanese scholarship and preaching that have spoken on this work. For the early modern or Edo period, the commentaries by Enchi (1662), Jukoku (1740), Jinrei (1808), and Ryōshō (1841) will be examined. Papers will also be given on receptivity of the text in the modern period. Note that there are travel funds available to assist graduate students attend either or both of these workshops.

Format: The language of instruction will be primarily English with only minimal Japanese spoken as needed, and while the texts will be primarily in Classical Japanese and Modern Japanese, with some outside materials in kanbun and English. Participants will be expected to prepare the assigned readings, and on occasion make relevant presentations in English about content.

Dates: For 2024, the seminar in Berkeley at the Jōdo Shinshū Center will take place from March 22 to 24, and the seminar at Ōtani University will take place in Kyoto from June 28 to 30. We anticipate the 2025 meetings to take place in Berkeley in March and in Kyoto in June; exact dates to be announced later. Note that participation in one meeting does not require participation in another.

Cost: There is no participation fee, but in recognition of the distance some will have to travel to attend, a limited number of travel fellowships will be provided to qualified graduate students, based on preparedness, need, and commitment to the project.

Participation Requirements: Although any qualified applicant will be welcome to register, graduate students will be particularly welcome and the only recipients of financial assistance in the form of travel fellowships. Affiliation with one of the three hosting universities is not required. We welcome the participation of graduate students outside of Japan with some reading ability in Modern and Classical Japanese and familiarity with Buddhist thought and culture as well as native-speaking Japanese graduate students with a scholarly interest in Buddhism. Although we welcome students attending both meetings each year, participation in only one is acceptable.

Application Procedure: Applications must be sent for each year that one wants to participate. To apply for the 2024 workshop in Berkeley, send C.V. and a short letter explaining your qualifications, motivations, and objectives to Kumi Hadler at cjs@berkeley.edu by February 29, 2024. Applications are by email only. Graduate students who apply for travel stipends should include the request in this letter with specifics of where you will be traveling from. Questions about the content of the workshop may be sent to Professor Blum at mblum@berkeley.edu. Communication regarding the Kyoto meeting may be sent to Professor Michael Conway at conway@res.otani.ac.jp.

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Foundations of Buddhist Chaplaincy: A Japan-US Dialogue, March 27https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/240728-foundations-of-buddhist-chaplaincy-a-japan-us

The Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Center for Japanese Studies at U.C Berkeley are excited to announce this bilingual workshop, which brings together chaplaincy educators and working chaplains in Japan and the United States to reflect on how we connect Buddhist teachings with effective service. We will discuss the current state of chaplaincy in our respective countries, the practice of Buddhist chaplaincy on the ground, the training and education of Buddhist chaplains, as well as the role of chaplains in our changing world. Through a dialogical session format we intend to exchange ideas, create and strengthen relationships, and share resources that will equip and enrich Buddhist chaplaincy practice and education.

The event is co-sponsored by the Institute of Buddhist Studies; the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; the Numata Foundation; and the Buddhist Ministry Working Group.

 

Translation will be provided into Japanese and English.

This in-person event is free and open to the public.

Register for the workshop here.

 

Speakers and Moderators:

  • Ram Appalaraju, Buddhist Eco Chaplain and faculty, Sati Center for Buddhist Studies
  • Dr. Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley
  • Dr. Lilu Chen, Field Education Director, Institute of Buddhist Studies
  • Dr. Gil Fronsdal, senior guiding teacher, Insight Meditation Center
  • Dr. Jitsujo T. Gauthier, CoChair, Buddhist Chaplaincy Department, University of the West
  • Rev. HIRANO Shunkō, former abbot of Chūgenji Temple; death row chaplain at Tokyo Jail
  • Dr. KASAI Kenta, Psychologist, Professor at the Graduate School for Applied Religious Studies, Sophia University
  • Dr. KAWAMOTO Kanae, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
  • Prof. KIGOSHI Yasushi, Professor, Shin Buddhist Studies, Otani University
  • Jamie Kimmel, BCC, Staff Chaplain, UCSF Health
  • Rev. Dr. Daijaku Kinst, Professor Emerita, IBS; guiding co-teacher, Ocean Gate Zen Center; Kokusaifukyoshi (International Teacher), Soto Shu
  • Dr. Nancy G. Lin, Professor of Buddhist Chaplaincy, Tibetan and South Asian Studies, Institute of Buddhist Studies
  • Dr. Adam Lyons, Assistant Professor, Institute of Religious Studies, Université de Montréal
  • Dr. Leigh Miller, Director of the MDiv Degree and Chaplaincy Program, Maitripa College
  • Dr. Scott Mitchell, Dean of Students and Faculty Affairs, Institute of Buddhist Studies
  • Mary Remington, Director, Spiritual Care Department, Good Samaritan Hospital, Suffern, NY; Director, Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program, Upaya Institute and Zen Center
  • Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford, Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry, Harvard Divinity School
  • Rev. TAKAHASHI Eigo, Abbot, Koryūzan Kichijōji Temple
  • Dr. TANIYAMA Yōzō, Professor, Practical Religious Studies, Tohoku University
  • Trent Thornley, Executive Director & CPE Educator, San Francisco Night Ministry
  • Dr. UCHIMOTO Koyu, Associate Professor, Ryukoku University
  • Jonathan Watts, Coordinator, International Buddhist Psychotherapy and Chaplaincy working group; Senior Research Fellow, Rinbutsuken Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program, Tokyo, Japan
  • Evan Wong, BCC, Pediatric Palliative Care Chaplain, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland Medical Center
  • Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde, pastoral counselor and author, Marabella Storycraft; world traveler; spiritual care “crier”
  • Dr. Elaine Yuen, contemplative educator and chaplain; professor emerita, Naropa University

 

Workshop Schedule

Wednesday, March 27th

3:00 PM Welcoming remarks

  • Dr. Scott Mitchell, Dean of Students and Faculty Affairs, Institute of Buddhist Studies
  • Dr. Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley

3:15–5:15 Key Topics for Chaplaincy in the US and Japan

What developments in the field of chaplaincy are worth naming and/or celebrating? How is the work of chaplains evolving alongside the changing nature of our world? What are the key issues and challenges faced by chaplains and chaplaincy educators today? In this workshop, what do we hope to learn from each other in our respective approaches to chaplaincy?

  • Rev. HIRANO Shunkō, former abbot of Chūgenji Temple; death row chaplain at Tokyo Jail
  • Dr. Daijaku Kinst, Professor Emerita, IBS; guiding co-teacher, Ocean Gate Zen Center; Kokusaifukyoshi (International Teacher), Soto Shu
  • Prof. KIGOSHI Yasushi, Professor, Shin Buddhist Studies, Otani University
  • Rev. Mary Remington, Director, Spiritual Care Department, Good Samaritan Hospital, Suffern, NY; Director, Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program, Upaya Institute and Zen Center

Moderator: Dr. Nancy G. Lin, Professor of Buddhist Chaplaincy, Tibetan and South Asian Studies, Institute of Buddhist Studies

5:15-6:15 Reception

 

Thursday, March 28th

10:00 AM–12:00 PM Education, Training, and Formation of Buddhist Chaplains

How are chaplains trained in Japan or the US? What goes into the formation process of future chaplains on the personal and institutional level? How is chaplaincy grounded in Buddhist teachings? How do we draw upon the Buddhist tradition to serve people of diverse backgrounds and situations? What challenges do chaplaincy educators face today? What kinds of training might better equip or enrich our work as chaplains?

  • Dr. TANIYAMA Yōzō, Professor, Practical Religious Studies, Tohoku University
  • Dr. Jitsujo T. Gauthier, CoChair, Buddhist Chaplaincy Department, University of the West
  • Dr. Leigh Miller, Director of the MDiv Degree and Chaplaincy Program, Maitripa College
  • Rev. Prof. Gil Fronsdal, senior guiding teacher, Insight Meditation Center

Moderator: Dr. Lilu Chen, Field Education Director, Institute of Buddhist Studies

1:30–3:30 Collective Crisis

Chaplains respond to natural disasters, pandemics, and tragedies that affect large groups of people. What challenges or issues arise for chaplains when responding to a collective crisis? How do chaplains draw upon the study and practice of the Dharma to shape their relationship to tragedy? How do chaplains interact with individuals and communities to facilitate healing and recovery? We will discuss some specific case studies.

  • Dr. Elaine Yuen, contemplative educator and chaplain; professor emerita, Naropa University
  • Rev. TAKAHASHI Eigo, Abbot, Koryūzan Kichijōji Temple
  • Ram Appalaraju, Buddhist Eco Chaplain and faculty, Sati Center for Buddhist Studies
  • Jamie Kimmel, BCC, Staff Chaplain, UCSF Health

Moderator: Dr. Scott Mitchell, Dean of Students and Faculty Affairs, Institute of Buddhist Studies

3:30-4:00 Tea and Snacks

4:00–6:00 Personal Crisis

Individuals often encounter personal crises when facing death, physical illness, addiction, and/or mental health challenges for themselves or their family members. What issues arise for chaplains when working closely with those experiencing a personal crisis? How do chaplains draw upon the study and practice of the Dharma to respond to the suffering of others? In what ways do chaplains interact with individuals and families to facilitate healing and recovery? We will discuss some specific case studies.

  • Dr. UCHIMOTO Koyu, Associate Professor, Ryukoku University
  • Trent Thornley, Executive Director & CPE Educator, San Francisco Night Ministry
  • Dr. KAWAMOTO Kanae, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
  • Evan Wong, BCC, Pediatric Palliative Care Chaplain, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland Medical Center

Moderator: Dr. Adam Lyons, Assistant Professor, Institute of Religious Studies, Université de Montréal

 

Friday, March 29th

10:00-12:00 The Future of Chaplaincy

What is the role of the chaplain in our changing world? With shifting religious demographics, how do we imagine chaplains adapting to the unique needs of their communities? What new forms of chaplaincy are becoming relevant in both Japan and the U.S.?

  • Rev. Dr. Monica Sanford, Assistant Dean for Multireligious Ministry, Harvard Divinity School
  • Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde, pastoral counselor and author, Marabella Storycraft; world traveler; spiritual care “crier”
  • Dr. KASAI Kenta, Psychologist, Professor at the Graduate School for Applied Religious Studies, Sophia University
  • Jonathan Watts, Coordinator, International Buddhist Psychotherapy and Chaplaincy working group; Senior Research Fellow, Rinbutsuken Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program, Tokyo, Japan

Moderator: Dr. Mark Blum, Professor and Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair in Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley

12:00 PM–12:30 PM Closing discussion

Moderator: Dr. Nancy G. Lin, Professor of Buddhist Chaplaincy, Tibetan and South Asian Studies, Institute of Buddhist Studies

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Getting to Know You: Korean Orphanhood and Christian Benevolence in One to One, April 4https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/229867-getting-to-know-you-korean-orphanhood-and

One to Onewas a televised musical special that first aired on network television on December 15, 1975. It starred Julie Andrews, the World Vision Korean Children’s Choir, and Jim Henson’s The Muppets. The special functioned as a telethon for World Vision, and promoted its international child sponsorship and the practice of adoption. In this talk, I offer a critical reading of key scenes in One to One. I consider these scenes in relation to representations of orphanhood, Christian benevolence, and faith-based humanitarianism in the musical performances by the Korean Children’s Choir (formerly known as the World Vision Korean Orphan Choir) and by Julie Andrews. I focus on the ways in which the telethon highlighted the World Vision’s charitable aims while also creating a sense of intimacy through the children’s racialized performances. I argue that this strategy—consistently used in World Vision child sponsorship campaigns of the past—gained new traction in the medium of a televised broadcast during the mid-1970s. Whereas images of impoverished and suffering Korean children from the Korean War were frequently used by World Vision in earlier campaigns, the performances of music by smiling Korean children helped to complete an idealized model of an eminently adoptable child. By amplifying the coded musical messaging in One to One, I contribute a different perspective to an area of critical adoption studies that has previously paid more attention to the visual image of the orphan figure.

 

Dr. Katherine In-Young Lee is Founder of Rise with Clarity, a coaching and consulting business for women of color faculty in higher education. She hosts the Rise with Clarity Podcast.

Her book, Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form (Wesleyan University Press 2018), explores how a percussion genre from South Korea (samul nori) became a global music genre. Dynamic Korea and Rhythmic Form was recognized with the 2019 BélaBartók Award for Outstanding Ethnomusicology from the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards. Past research topics have included the politicized drumming of dissent and the audible dimensions of a nation branding campaign. Her research on the role of music as scenes of protest during South Korea’s democratization movement was awarded the Charles Seeger Prize by the Society for Ethnomusicology and the Martin Hatch Award by the Society for Asian Music. Lee’s latest research project explores the World Vision Korean Orphan Choir through the lenses of critical adoption studies, Cold War history, evangelical Christianity, and sound studies. She received a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2012 and served as Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at UC Davis and (2012-17) and at UCLA (2017-23), respectively.

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Colloquium: Western Categories, Knowledge Building, and the Scientific Value of Sinological Discourse, April 4https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/230007-colloquium-western-categories-knowledge-building

How do European-language scholars with a Western cultural background perceive, understand and describe the human phenomena they observe in East Asia? How does their mind process written or spoken information conveyed in foreign script and languages? This lecture will discuss the cognitive and epistemological relationship existing between Sinology and source-language data from several complementary perspectives, including the role of metalanguage and culturally predetermined categories in the generation of learned discourse, the formation of terminologies, the coinage of neologisms, the epistemic value of the information produced, and the conditions of its reception by neighbouring disciplines in the humanities and by the educated public.


Grégoire Espesset is associate member of the Groupe Sociétés Religions Laïcités (GSRL) in Paris, France, and a research partner of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (IKGF) in Erlangen, Germany. A historian and a philologist, he has conducted research at the Academia Sinica and the Centre for Chinese Studies in Taiwan; the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, Japan; German federally-sponsored international centres hosted by the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Ruhr University Bochum; the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Université de Paris in France. He has taught the history of Taoism and Chinese religions at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) in Paris (2008-2010). His current research focuses on intellectual and literary production in imperial China from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, with a special focus on remnants of the “Weft” or “Confucian Apocrypha”; the comparative epistemology of premodern China and the modern West; and contemporary scholarly discourse in European languages on history, knowledge and religion in East Asia.

https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/230007-colloquium-western-categories-knowledge-building
Spatial Dunhuang: Experiencing the Mogao Caves, April 5https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/229342-spatial-dunhuang-experiencing-the-mogao-caves

This lecture retells the story of Dunhuang art through the perspective of space. This is necessary because although there are countless overviews of the art of Dunhuang, the framework is generally temporal. Guided by the ­­dynasties of China’s past, these overviews present a linear history of the Mogao Caves, supplanting the actual place with an abstract temporal sequence. This lecture presents an alternative narrative based on visitors’ experience and discusses some representative caves to demonstrate a new methodology in studying Dunhuang art Mogao.

Wu Hung is Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor of Art History and the College, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, Adjunct Curator at the Smart Museum of Art, and Special Advisor to the Provost for the Arts in Asia at the University of Chicago. He is the author of fifteen books and anthologies, including A Story of Ruins: Presence and Absence in Chinese Art and Visual Culture and Contemporary Chinese Art: A History, 1970s–2000s. As a scholar, he has published widely on both traditional and contemporary Chinese art and has experimented with different ways to integrate these conventionally separate phases into new kinds of art historical narratives. He is also a renowned international curator and has curated more than 50 exhibitions in the United States, China, and other countries.

https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/229342-spatial-dunhuang-experiencing-the-mogao-caves
Okaiko: Performance Silkworm, April 10https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/241964-okaiko-performance-silkworm
Through poetic exploration of voice, body, and costume, performer Aine Nakamura (Ph.D. student, Music) will present a new performance, Okaiko. Okaiko are silkworms, a starting point for contemplating both the delicate image of silk textiles and the dense complexities of the silk industry and global trade. Until her exploration, silk for Nakamura was simply a part of her maternal family history in the city of mulberries, Hachiouji. Raw silk exported from Asia to Europe and the U.S. were used to make influential products. So many hands, many of them women’s hands, have been involved in the global manufacture of silk products: laboring hands in factories that seemed separated from politics have produced luxuries, weapons, and status symbols. Silk was one of the main products through which Japan gained economic profits and strengthened its military prior to World War II. For Nakamura, silk-related industrial labor and domestic reproductive labor overlap through the figures of hard-working silkworms and social norms imposed upon women. Former silk workers later commented that they were just thankful to have been able to work for their parents.

What is a cocoon, nest, safe space? How can a silkworm molt out of a cocoon and become a moth without being boiled? How can a new language be reimagined without being confined? If silkworms, diligent industrial and domestic labor, or export and import are linked in the chains of complicity with violence, what kinds of small acts can become catalysts for coexistence? Through these questions of gender, trade, labor, and Okaiko, Nakamura will study her familial and personal ethnography.

A talk and Q&A will follow the performance, moderated by Professors Marié Abe (Music) and Andrew Leong (English).



Singer, performer and composer Aine Nakamura creates an art of voice and body, weaving stories.

Her recent works include her solo performance Under an Unnamed Flower at the 2022 Venice Biennale, performance project Circle hasu We plant seeds in the spring of mountains presented at the 2022 Theatertreffen at Berliner Festspiele, an outdoor audiovisual performance CICADA premiered at CNMAT at UC Berkeley (2023) in collaboration with visual artist Olivia Ting and sound technologist Luke Dzwonczyk. She has presented her other performances and mixed music and artworks at The LAB is SF, Berlin University of the Arts, HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin, Errant Sound in collaboration with Brandon LaBelle, A Concert of Electronic Music in honor of Mario Davidovsky, Dias de Música Electroacústica, the SEAMUS Conference, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival performed with cellist Madeleine Shapiro, October New Music Festival performed with Mikro Ensemblen, and Abrons Arts Center with International Contemporary Ensemble. Awardee of the Fulbright Fellowship (2021-22, Berlin), The Leo Bronstein Homage Award, and The Honorable Mention Award for the 2020 Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize.
www.evaaine.com
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Conceptualising the Silk Roads: Some Suggestions, April 18https://events.berkeley.edu/live/events/222900-conceptualising-the-silk-roads-some-suggestions

2024 ANNUAL TANG LECTURE

 

In this talk, Peter Frankopan will talk about the past, present and future of the Silk Roads, and set out some ideas of the benefits and challenges of focusing of joining up geographies, cultures, disciplines and periods that link Asia, Africa and Europe.

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History, Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College. He specializes in the history of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th Century, and in the history of Asia Minor, Russia and the Balkans. He works on medieval Greek literature and rhetoric, and on diplomatic and cultural exchange between Constantinople and the Islamic world, western Europe and the principalities of southern Russia.

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Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Of Color & Ink: Chang Dai-chien After 1949, April 25https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/239128-film-screening-and-panel-discussion-of-color-amp

Widely acclaimed as China’s foremost 20 th century painter, Chang Dai-chien (1899-1983) spent his last three decades living in self-imposed exile from his beloved homeland. This film unravels the mystery and controversy of his creative and spiritual quest abroad and his journey East to West to become an artist of global significance.

“Of Color and Ink” is a feature-length documentary that follows the journey of the Chinese artist Chang Dai-chien as he embarks on a quest from the East to the West in search of the Peach Blossom Spring, a utopian place of life and the ultimate truth of art. The film delves into Chang’s extraordinary exile journey and sheds light on his mission in the global art world.

From CINEQUEST:

Winner Best International Feature Documentary Film Award at The 47th Sao Paulo International Film Festival

Winner Best Feature Documentary Film Award at The China (Guangzhou) International Documentary Film Festival

The wonderful Of Color and Ink uncovers the creative, political, and spiritual journeys of China’s foremost 20th-century painter Chang Dai-chien (1899-1983). The film follows his unusual life journey from pre-Communist China to Argentina, the jungles of Brazil; his much acclaimed exhibits in Paris and Germany in the 1960s; as well as his final years in California and Taiwan, in a thirty-year exile in the West that has been shrouded in mystery.

Director Zhang Weimin’s captivating film explores Chang Dai-chien’s pursuit of a vision of Peach Blossom Spring, a utopian ideal of harmony and tolerance, in a world far removed from the traditional China he left behind, as he moved from East to West to become the first Chinese artist to achieve international renown, whose works today command the highest auction prices of any of any post World War II painter.

Through innovative techniques and visual styles, “Of Color and Ink” spectacularly offers an illuminating, refreshing, artistic, and entertaining exploration of an emblematic influential figure in 20th century art.

Panelists:

Weimin Zhang is an award-winning filmmaker, cinematographer, and professor at San Francisco State University. As one of China’s Sixth Generation filmmakers, she worked on numerous award-winning films, documentaries, and TV drama series in both China and the U.S. as a director, cinematographer, and editor. Her film, The House of Spirit (2000) won the Women in Film Award; She also produced, wrote, and directed the feature documentary Missing Home: The Last Days of Beijing Hutongs (2013) which was presented at more than a dozen international film festivals. In 2007, the Library of Congress acquired her interactive multimedia DVD-ROM, Nushu: The Women’s Secret Writing for its permanent collection.

Mark Dean Johnson is a professor of art. He was educated at Yale University, where he was a personal assistant to Josef Albers, and received his M.F.A. from UC Berkeley. He previously was a professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, and associate dean of Academic Affairs at the San Francisco Art Institute. His publications include Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 (2008: Stanford University Press), and AT WORK: The Art of California Labor (2003: California Historical Society Press).

Carl Nagin has worked as an editor, teacher, and independent journalist in print and documentaries for four decades. His features have appeared in The New Yorker, Art and Antiques, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC World, and New York magazine. He wrote and reported documentaries for the PBS series FRONTLINE, the BBC, and ABC News. At Harvard University, he taught writing, rhetoric, and journalism, and served as a speechwriter, editor, and researcher for Joseph Nye, dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. A three-time recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his work on Chang Dai-ch’ien, he is completing the artist’s first English-language biography and produced the 1993 documentary Abode of Illusion: The Art and Life of Chang Dai-ch’ien. For the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, he served as chief editor for the award-winning catalogue, Tales from the Land of Dragons: 1000 Years of Chinese Painting and for Masterpieces of Chinese Painting: Tang, Sung, and Yuan Dynasties published by Otsuka Kogeisha. He currently serves as a Professor of Humanities and Sciences at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jun Hu is an assistant professor; Mr. & Mrs. Pai Ruchu Presidential Professor in Arts & Humanities at UC Berkeley. He specializes in Chinese art and architecture, with an emphasis on how the material process of art-making intersects with other modes of knowledge production. His research and teaching engage with the history of Chinese architecture and its connections to other scholarly traditions, print culture and painting theory in the early modern period, and interregional interactions between China, Japan, and Korea.

Winnie Wong is an associate professor in the Department of Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. Her research is concerned with the history and present of artistic authorship, with a focus on interactions between China and the West. Her theoretical interests revolve around the critical distinctions of high and low, true and fake, art and commodity, originality and imitation, and, conceptual and manual labor, and thus her work focuses on objects and practices at the boundary of these categories. 

https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/239128-film-screening-and-panel-discussion-of-color-amp
Colloquium: Lang Shining as Daemon: Giuseppe Castiglione and the Language of European Sinology, May 2https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/235610-colloquium-lang-shining-as-daemon-giuseppe

In the eighteenth century, what we generally define as chinoiserie comprehended different forms, from painting to furniture, created in Europe in dialogue with real Chinese productions. These items displayed elements recognized as Chinese but created along the lines of European poetics. The world of chinoiserie thus became one of the loci of a language of appropriation which structured descriptions of pretended exchanges between Europe and China. Here, I discuss such a context from the perspective of European artists and missionaries living in China, especially through the lenses of a Jesuit lay-brother and painter, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who worked in the imperial painting workshops in Beijing. By discussing the evidence related to his experiences, we have the chance to shed light on significant European views on China, and in turn, to explore some of the colonial concepts concealed into sinological and art-historical narratives.

Marco Musillo is an independent scholar working on early modern China-Europe artistic dialogues. He has published on the eighteenth-century pictorial encounters at the Qing court, and on the historiography of transcultural art forms, from the Renaissance to the modern period. In 2016 he published The Shining Inheritance: Italian Artists at the Qing Court, 1699-1812(Getty Research Institute Publications); he is author of Tangible Whispers, Neglected Encounters: Histories of East-West Artistic Dialogues, 1350-1904(Mimesis International, 2018); and co-editor of Art, Mobility, and Exchange in Early Modern Tuscany and Eurasia (Routledge, 2020).

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Art History, UC Berkeley.

https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/235610-colloquium-lang-shining-as-daemon-giuseppe