CEAS Colloquium Series
Japan’s monastic warriors have fared poorly in comparison to the samurai, both in terms of historical reputation and representations in popular culture. Often maligned and criticized for their involvement in politics and other secular matters, they have been seen as a coherent group of fighters known as sōhei (monk-warriors) separate from the larger military class. However, a closer examination of late Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) sources reveals that these groups have a common ancestry, identical social and political origins, and were equally skilled in the warfare techniques of...
The presentation will discuss various ways that the French literary critic Gerard Genette’s concept of the “paratext” can be productively used to analyze the evolution of this late 16th c. compendium of illustrated instructional tales. Professor Murray will examine selected examples, from the initial submission of a manuscript edition to the Wanli emperor in 1573 to recent mass-produced photo-offset editions for contemporary audiences, in order to demonstrate the ways that modifications in elements such as prefaces, size, picture design, quality of printing, and other elements provide...
Among prehistoric archaeologists, the Jomon culture (ca. 14,000 -500 BC) of the Japanese archipelago has been cited as an example of so-called “affluent” or “complex” hunter-gatherer cultures. In particular, the Middle Jomon culture (ca. 3000-2000 BC) in Eastern Japan is known for the presence of large settlements, large shell-middens, sophistication of material culture and long-distance trade. Focusing on archaeological data from the Sannai Maruyama site (the Early-Middle Jomon periods), this presentation demonstrates how the rich Jomon data can contribute to our understanding of the...
Compared to the popular and business U.S. press, the Japanese popular press tends to be more pessimistic about the Chinese economy. This Japanese attitude and perception about the Chinese economy can be observed in recent Japanese Manga (comic strip). In the talk, Professor Deckle will briefly trace the recent history of the Japanese economy as observed in the Japanese Manga. He will also assess the realism of this pessimistic Japanese popular perception of the Chinese economy.
“The Designer of the Garden of Total Vision” is an illustrated lecture examining a hitherto overlooked textual source for the design of the garden which forms the allegorical heart of The Story of the Stone (a.k.a. The Dream of the Red Chamber). This presentation will also include new visual material on the design of the garden.
Scholars and policy makers often focus on the more formal and mechanical trappings of democracy to measure a country’s political pluralization. In the case of China, this leads to a discussion over whether democratization in China is a top-down, elite-driven process or whether it is best explained by the growth in village-level elections over the past decade. Professor Mertha’s research suggests that by focusing on this dichotomy, we may be missing out on an extremely important aspect of political liberalization unfolding before our eyes. He draws on recent changes in hydropower policy...
During the sixth century Buddhists in Shandong province carved massive transcriptions of sutras and names of deities on the slopes of mountains. This lecture explores the significance of these carvings and seeks to argue that the vast scale of the writing embodied concepts central to Buddhist thought.
This paper examines major Japanese lesbian critical writing of the 1980s and 1990s, with particular emphasis on the work of Kakefuda Hiroko, the most significant lesbian writer in Japan. It focuses on three recurring themes in this body of writing ”the lesbian image in heterosexual Japanese pornography, the exclusions of straight feminism, and the non-possibility of alliance with gay men. It then takes up the question of sexual and social autonomy (shutaisei) and the role of privacy in lesbian narratives of resistance. It concludes with a discussion of recent developments in Japanese lesbian...
Japan has experienced a prolonged period of slow growth, deflation, and other economic ills since the early 1990s. Economists agree on the basics of what has happened, but substantial disputes continue over the fundamental causes. Are Japan’s troubles just a series of macroeconomic policy blunders, or have structural problems in the economy played a role?Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Edward Lincoln will explore these and other topics concerning Japan’s economic performance.
Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977), noted social critic and China scholar of postwar Japan, set forth a notion of thought in his writings that was based on an opening onto alterity. Professor Calichman’ s presentation will focus on these passages so as to lay the ground for a critique of subjective interiority.
Edo supported one of the most robust publishing industries in the early modern world, and among the most popular genres of woodblock printed materials was the map. In this talk, Karen Wigen will display and discuss printed maps from the Beans collection in Vancouver, asking what they can tell us about how early modern Japanese viewed their mountainous landscape.
This talk will focus on a chariot complex unearthed in Baode county in Shanxi province in China. It argues that the Baode finding can shed new light on many bronze objects excavated in Anyang and collected by the major museums in the United States, Europe and Japan. Some of them reveal a clear Eastern Eurasian origin; some manifest the adaptation of steppe artifacts in the agricultural zone; others exhibit the unmistakable Chinese insignia. Together, these objects illustrate the exciting intercultural relationship between the Eastern Eurasian steppe and China in the late 2nd millennium BCE.
Abstract: (1) The usefulness of philology (the close study of texts) will be urged, and (2) its restoration to full partnership with historical investigation in general will be recommended. (3) Methodologically speaking, it will be noted that the existence of growth texts (such as the Chinese “Spring and Autumn” chronicle and Horace’s Carmina) requires adjustment in how philology operates, and in how history makes use of philology’s results. There will be two extended examples, from the period during which a text is forming, and before it has entered the phase of dissemination by copying,...
The opening passage of The Love suicides at Sonezaki (1703), Chikamatsu first “contemporary-life play” for the puppet theater, describes the heroine, Ohatsu, making a pilgrimage to 33 temples of Kannon in Osaka. In this lecture, Prof. Brownstein discusses the pilgrimage itself, how the passage from the play was originally performed, and its importance for understanding the play as a whole.
Previous studies of China’s modernization have focused on the modern half of the story–the development of factory production and urban culture. Profesor Ko’s current research project seeks to illuminate the “traditional” half of the story, with an emphasis on the resilience of female labor in the domestic economy and artistic innovations in the handicraft industries from the seventeenth to the early twentienth centuries. This talk focuses on the global presentations and domestic reception of Shen Shou, one of the most innovative embroiderers from Suzhou, the center of the silk industry in...
禊祓於文學風景中 ── 看胡蘭成的《中國文學史話》Hu Lancheng, renowned not only as a collaborator during the Sino-Japanese War, but also as the ex-husband of the immortal Eileen Chang, wrote an interesting book on Chinese literary history in 1977. His idiosyncrasy is shown by his prose style as well as his unique observations and interpretations on some major events and their driving forces in the course of the Chinese literary history. It appears that with the writing of Remarks on Chinese Literary History, Hu was in effect trying to cleanse himself of all the sins and guilt of his life journey. Please note this...
The Chinese Buddhist canon, edited in the form of various tripitakas such as the Taisho shinshu daizokyo or the Zhonghua dazang jing, contains hundreds of didactic narratives known as avadana or jataka tales. These stories about the karmic consequences of acts great and small were a fundamental means of propagating Buddhism throughout its development in China. Unfortunately, over time any traces of how these narratives were actually enacted have been effaced by editors. Indeed, given the hundreds of stories compiled, we still know little if nothing about the characteristics, format, and...
In 2008, the Olympic Games will be hosted by the least Westernized nation in the world to yet host them. It will be only the third time the Olympic Summer Games have been held outside the Western hemisphere, and it will be the greatest-ever meeting of East and West in peacetime. Surely this should be a moment to celebrate the interconnected global culture of the 21st century, but there has been a consistently negative reaction in the West centered around criticism of China’s human rights record. When Beijing won the bid and it was shown live on Chinese television, tens of thousands of...
Using the graphic writing of Izumi Kyoka as a starting point, Professor Bialock’s lecture will explore some of the connections between music, ritual, and geomorphic space in medieval Japan. If Heike can be viewed on one level as historical narrative, its musico-ritual basis may also disclose proto-ecological concerns that were tied to the real and perceived effects of human and natural calamities in a time of protracted war.
Hong Kong film production has a history of over 90 years, as long as that in Mainland China. It shared a lot of similarities with Chinese cinema in the early days in its diverse trends in political commitment as well as in entertainment, in addition to a local interest in producing films in the Cantonese dialect and adaptations from the popular Cantonese opera. But since 1949, after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, a great number of people, which amounted to a million within a few years, moved from the mainland to Hong Kong. Among the immigrants were a number of film...
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