Zoom Registration Link: msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t2o0CuDEQcSVz6veB7W-jw

Speaker: Dr. Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS, University of London.

As Dina Iordanova (2010: 18–19) has noted, 'There is disparity in the behaviour of countries when it comes to festivals organised with the mandate to promote national cinemas. This disparity is often linked to the availability of resources directed to culture. A country like Taiwan which seeks state recognition, uses film festivals as an important tool in international relations.' This talk surveys film festivals in and about Taiwan to provide the above statement with a clearer context and investigate how Taiwan uses film festivals as a tool of cultural diplomacy to screen the island's soft power.

Co-Sponsored by the Asian Studies Center Global Virtual Speaker Program through the Joseph Lee Endowment and Office of China Programs

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

Indian and South Asian language & cultures brings you Chai & Chat. Join them for evenings of festivities, fun, food, and all things Indian and South Asian.
• Chai & Chat | October 19, 2021
• Diwali Celebration | November 4, 2021
• Chai & Chat | November 16, 2021
• Film Screening | November 30, 2021
Sponsored by the Hindi-Urdu Language Program and Asian Studies Center

At the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire, the Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai) decides to abdicate and divide his domain amongst his three sons. Taro (Akira Terao), the eldest, will rule. Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), his second son, and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu) will take command of the Second and Third Castles but are expected to obey and support their elder brother. Saburo defies the pledge of obedience and is banished.

The screening is organized by Dr. Ethan Segal from the History Department.
 

Workshop on Uzbek Literary Politics in the Context of American scholars: Analyse, Interpretation, and Discourse.

Dr. Zulkhumor Inomovna Mirzaeva, Toshkent Alisher Navoi Uzbek Language and Literature University
FEP Visiting Scholar at University of Arkansas

Moderator: Prof. Norman Graham

Twentieth century Uzbek literature exhibits both a national revival by the Jadid (Reformist) writers and the ideological struggle's discourse of the Soviet government in the 1920's and 1930's. After the elimination of the Jadid writers in the second half of 1930, when the Soviet literary policy started to dominate Uzbek literary activities, it forced the writers to produce more allusive and metaphorical literature in order to escape the state censorship. The literary works which articulated such ideas have been studied not only by Uzbek but by foreign, including American scholars.
How did they approach Uzbek Literary Politics? Were American researchers' objective in their findings? Why did Uzbek scholars call them "ideological enemies"? What has changed in American scholars' research after the post-colonial period? What is modern Uzbek criticism saying about foreign scholars research concerning National Literary Politics now? These and other questions will be discussed in the workshop.

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

Part of Southeast Asian in Transition Series: Plastic Runs Through It 2021 Webinar

This series is made possible through funding from the Henry Luce Foundation and is co-organized by Michigan State University-James Madison College and Asian Studies Center, the East-West Center, University of Hawai'i-Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa-Center for Chinese Studies, and Chiang Mai University-Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development.

Zoom Registration Link: https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t2o0CuDEQcSVz6veB7W-jw

Speaker: Dr. Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS, University of London.

This talk addresses the social and cultural values of Taiwanese-language cinema (or Hoklo topolect films, taiyupian) of the 1950s and the 1960s. Although this cinema was composed primarily of commercial films that were produced cheaply to make a quick profit, it clearly struck a chord with local audiences to be able to reign supreme in the domestic film market for over a decade. As the rise of taiyupian coincided with the island's transition from a rural to urban economy, it can be argued that these films articulated and mediated a Taiwanese experience of approaching modernization -- politics of the everyday -- at the time. This paper makes use of the recently digitalized taiyupian to analyze the cinema's representation of, and perceived challenges to, modernity, such as the breakdown of kinship systems, the threat of moral corruption, and the pursuit of materialism. Through plot design and onscreen solutions to family crises, the films reveal the struggle of their makers and their intended audiences to reconcile different sets of conflicting values in a changing society.

Co-Sponsored by the Asian Studies Center Global Virtual Speaker Program through the Joseph Lee Endowment and Office of China Programs

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.