The Asian Studies Center Global Speaker Program aims to stimulate and increase academic and scholarly interest about Asia at MSU starting in Fall 2020. Below is an archive of all past GSP events hosted by the Asian Studies Center affiliated faculty.
Fall 2023
From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean: Locations of Leisure in Genre Histories of the Spy Caper
The Overripe Imagination: Why Melons (Gua ⽠) Make People Think of Sex, in China and Elsewhere
In the erotic Ming novel Jin Ping Mei, Pan Jinlian's promiscuity is revealed through her habit of cracking melon seeds. In the earliest surviving full Chinese film, Laborer's Love (1922), a watermelon is used as a symbol of desire. Melons have a rich history in Chinese culture, symbolizing sensuality. The unique linguistic associations with "gua" add depth to this symbolism.
Dreams and Nightmares of the Super-Express in 1960s Japan
The Tōkaidō Shinkansen, Japan's first bullet train, opened in 1964 and symbolized the nation's post-war transformation. It represented both bold aspirations and the challenges of rapid economic growth. This talk explores how the bullet train went beyond transportation, serving cultural and sociological roles, and how it reshaped Japan's identity at various levels.
Palestinian Cinema Gets Divorced: The Queer Decolonial Turn Away from Masculine Nationalism
The emergent themes outlined in this talk speak to a queer, decolonial, and feminist turn away from masculine nationalist tropes within contemporary Palestinian cinema.
Spring 2024
Fall 2022
Femicide in Colonial and Post-Colonial India: A Study of Varanasi
The Comedy of Mis-translation in Postwar Japanese White-Collar Cinema
Democratization is arguably Taiwan’s most significant achievement since 1945. Yet most studies have failed to devote sufficient attention to the cultural dimensions of the process, which I term ‘cultural democratization.’ This talk addresses the impact of democratization from the perspective of culture by using the development of Taiwan cinema as a case study. I take three approaches—historical, structural, and agency-focused—to examine how culture in Taiwan has democratized since the 1980s.
Spring 2023
Critical Understanding of Digital Platforms in the AI Era: From a Platform Imperialism Perspective
In the 2020s, people have lived in a world where digital platforms influence cultural production and people’s daily activities. What is different from a decade or so is that the major tools of the transformation in cultural production are now based on AI that is connected to digital platforms, including over-the-top (OTT) services like Netflix, Disney +, and Amazon Prime, as well as traditional cultural industries. By addressing the complexity of cultural production in this particular juncture in tandem with platform imperialism theory, this lecture attempts to offer new insights into the East Asian cultural industries that closely work with digital platforms and AI. It analyzes power relations between global digital platforms and local digital platforms equipped with AI, and it explains the ways in which global digital platforms have dominated the East Asian cultural markets.
Fall 2021
Graven Images: Missionary Visual Practices and Cross-Cultural Imaginations of Religion in China
Taiwan's Cultural Democratization--Using Cinema as a Case Study
Democratization is arguably Taiwan’s most significant achievement since 1945. Yet most studies have failed to devote sufficient attention to the cultural dimensions of the process, which I term ‘cultural democratization.’ This talk addresses the impact of democratization from the perspective of culture by using the development of Taiwan cinema as a case study. I take three approaches—historical, structural, and agency-focused—to examine how culture in Taiwan has democratized since the 1980s.
'Opportunity of the Century': India and the Liberation of Bangladesh
This year commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh. The year 1971's geostrategic significance for the Indian subcontinent rivals that of 1947 when British India was divided into India and Pakistan. While the roots of Bangladesh's secession from Pakistan lay firmly within the Pakistani polity, India's political support for the Bangladesh freedom movement and its military intervention were crucial for the liberation of Bangladesh. Although humanitarian considerations, especially the influx of close to ten million refugees into India, played a role in India's decision, the major factors determining the decision to intervene militarily in the Bangladesh crisis were political and strategic in character. This presentation by a close observer of the events of 1971 will analyze these factors as well as the decision-making process that led to India midwifing the birth of Bangladesh.
Politics of the Everyday: Taiwanese-language Cinema of the 1950s and 1960s
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.
Screening Taiwan Soft Power: Film Festivals in Taiwan and Taiwan Film Festivals
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.
The Rise of Asian Heavy Metal
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.
The Syncretic Significance of Indian Spirituality: Reflections on Working with Seekers in the West
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.
Coding Culture: Japanese Video Games and Japan in Video Games
What does it mean when we identify a video game as a “Japanese video game?” Do we base this designation on where the game was made, produced, funded, or co-developed? Do we consider who made the game and how they identify? Are we perhaps more inclined to think of Japanese video games as titles that feature Japanese characters who speak Japanese? Are we swayed by the influence of vocal and physical actors? Is the setting or depiction of identifiable cultural and aesthetic tropes more important? Or is there something in the underlying ideological subtexts woven into narratives or integrated into gameplay that inform our impressions? In this presentation, Dr. Laird considers the role and representation of Japan in video games as transnational media, sometimes smooth and sometimes abrasive, to both embrace these questions and question our assumptions as we interact with seemingly fluid and accessible imaginations of place and peoples. This presentation invites attendees to both consider the examples offered and to draw on their own experiences with games to participate in a conversation about a dynamic and emerging field of critical inquiry.
Revenge-Killing in Tokugawa Japan: The Story of the Ishii Brothers’ 1701 Katakiuchi
Katakiuchi under the Edo Shogunate was a rare but permitted form of revenge-killing that elicited widespread fascination for much of the Tokugawa period (1603-1686). Come learn about katakiuchi in Tokugawa Japan through the story of the Ishii Brothers' decades-long quest to avenge their father and eldest brother in the late 1600s. Hear about a letter the brothers left behind at the scene of the attack and the report they gave authorities in Edo to clear their names, as well as how their story spread through word of mouth, fiction, drama, and autobiography.
Spring 2022
A Brief History of Kappa (& Other Yokai)
Re-Appropriating Culture: Japonisme in Contemporary Japan and the U.S.
This talk examines the divergent ways that Claude Monet’s painting La Japonaise (1876) was presented to the viewing public in Japan and the United States. When it traveled to major Japanese cities in 2014, the painting was enthusiastically received as an Impressionist masterpiece that demonstrated the impact of Japanese art on modern Western painting; however, when it returned to its home at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the museum’s program allowing visitors to try on a replica of Monet’s painted kimono—a gift from Japan—was decried as perpetuating Orientalist cultural appropriation.
What is Chinese Internet Literature
What is “Chinese Internet Literature?” Why is it so unique? What role does it play in the current Chinese entertainment industry and cultural environment? In this lecture, I will briefly introduce the definition and the history of Chinese internet literature, which emerged soon after the internet entered the Chinese mainland in the 1990s. I will identify some key moments and signature works of Chinese internet literature to illustrate how online fictional creation in China grew into a new literary category. Up to now, Chinese internet literature has grown into a unique and vibrant cultural phenomenon that attracts both domestic and oversea readers. It has further been incorporated into the entertainment industry as the node of multimedia storytelling franchises.
Furthering research in water-sector in South Asia: Current Progress and Opportunities in Nepal
This talk will focus on water availability assessment (and its spatio-temporal variability) in large and medium river basins in the South Asian context and particularly in Nepal. The topics include: water sufficiency assessment; flood and drought risk assessments; multi-hazard risk assessment in a landscape/watershed; groundwater resources assessment; springs assessment and spring-shed management; future climate projection and climate change impact assessment in water availability; current and future hydro-climatic extremes; and assessing climate risk in the hydropower sector. The goal is to further research in the areas of multi-hazard risk assessment; continuing water sufficiency assessment in current and future contexts; developing water and climate information system; drought and flood forecasting and early warning systems; developing tools/methods for utilizing global datasets for various local applications; hydro-climatic extremes; and climate-risk assessment and management in hydropower sector, among others.
Furthering research in water-sector in South Asia: Current Progress and Opportunities in Nepal
This talk will focus on water availability assessment (and its spatio-temporal variability) in large and medium river basins in the South Asian context and particularly in Nepal. The topics include: water sufficiency assessment; flood and drought risk assessments; multi-hazard risk assessment in a landscape/watershed; groundwater resources assessment; springs assessment and spring-shed management; future climate projection and climate change impact assessment in water availability; current and future hydro-climatic extremes; and assessing climate risk in the hydropower sector. The goal is to further research in the areas of multi-hazard risk assessment; continuing water sufficiency assessment in current and future contexts; developing water and climate information system; drought and flood forecasting and early warning systems; developing tools/methods for utilizing global datasets for various local applications; hydro-climatic extremes; and climate-risk assessment and management in hydropower sector, among others.
Fall 2020
Examining Chinese Model Opera: Redefining Genre and Gender, Subverting Ideology in Revolutionary Ballet
Growing Empires in the Age of the Nation-State
"The interwar years saw extraordinary outbursts of political foment from Berlin to Shanghai, mixing together in a toxic brew the rise of mass culture and calls for socialist revolution. In furious backlash, rightwing movements around the world promised a restoration of national glory and agrarian idyll. Yet, beneath the polarization of the political discourse, both left and right leaning governments and non-governmental agencies like the Rockefeller Foundation promoted agricultural science as a solution to rural problems.
South America Bound: The Origins of Settler-Colonist Fiction in Meiji Japan
This talk investigates the origins of settler-colonist fiction that began in Meiji-era Japan (1868-1912), and constituted one of the most tangible forms by which modern literature participated in the Empire of Japan’s broader expansionist aims. Contrary to the conventional wisdom which takes for granted that this genre was exclusively set in Japan’s burgeoning empire in Asia, from 1908 until the onset of World War II, settler-colonist fiction expressly promoted emigration overseas to sovereign nations in South America, notably Peru and Brazil, as an essential part of its diversified strategy to alleviate the burdens of overpopulation in the home islands.
Chinese Cities and City People during and after World War II
The effects of World War II on Chinese cities were transformative. In addition to horrendous devastation, the war years were marked by significant cultural exchange, the reconfiguration of social hierarchies, and experiments in governance. All of these phenomena shaped the subsequent establishment of the new Communist regime in Chinese cities beginning in 1949. Drawing on a novel set in a wartime provincial capital, Li Jieren’s Dance of the Heavenly Devils, this talk explores the transformation of Chinese cities as a result of the war, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the built environment and human social relations.
Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion
Ingrained Habits: The ‘Kitchen Cars’ and the Transformation of Postwar Japanese Diet and Identity
This talk explores the history and politics of American-funded food demonstration buses (“kitchen cars”) in postwar Japan. Their express mission was to transform the Japanese national diet. At least in the short to medium term, the kitchen cars were a win-win for the US and Japan. Japan benefited because women learned how to cook cheap, nutritious, mostly easy dishes to improve the health of their families and the nation.
Mediatized Taiwanese Mandarin: Popular Culture, Masculinity and Social Perceptions
This talk explores how language ideologies have emerged for gangtaiqiang (港台腔) through a combination of indexical and ideological processes in televised media. Gangtaiqiang (Hong Kong-Taiwan accent), a socially recognizable form of mediatized Taiwanese Mandarin, has become a stereotype for many Chinese mainlanders who have little real-life interaction with Taiwanese people.
A Pandemic of Hate” Panel Discussion
The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has generated a surge of hateful speech and physical violence directed against Asians and Asian, Pacific Island, Desi American (APIDA) people. But intentionally hurtful speech or action is nothing new in the United States. Asian immigrants, including students and scholars in universities, as well as ordinary working people of Asian heritage, have faced more than a century of misguided belief that they are especially prone to illness and likely to spread disease. Two APIDA Studies scholars will navigate us through this difficult history, by exploring both the racist rhetoric of the past and today’s revival of hatred.
Chivalrous Psychogeography: Martial Arts, Avant-Garde, Sinophone Imagination
Ang Lee once famously confessed that every Chinese-language director has a dream to make a martial arts (wuxia) film. Literary historian Chen Pingyuan also noted that, over a thousand years, Chinese literati have shared a dream of becoming a knight-errant. Indeed, from the 1960s to the present, a number of major Chinese-language filmmakers sought to create a martial arts work at the crucial stage of their careers. This talk seeks to chart a cultural and emotional geography of martial arts narratives constructed by avant-garde cinematic aesthetics from the Cold War to the post-Cold War eras in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and beyond.
Why are farmers in India protesting? Farm Acts and Rural Development in India
Speaker Bio: Prof R. Ramakumar is the NABARD Chair Professor at the School of Development Studies of Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He also serves as a non-ministerial member of the State Planning Board for the Government of Kerala. His research interests include agriculture and agrarian change in rural India, agricultural credit, and economic reforms and changes in rural livelihoods. His recent work explores the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the agriculture sector in India, with a focus on food shortages and disruptions in food supply chains.
Spring 2021
J-Pop Translation & Adaptation Workshop Series
The Japanese Studies Program is pleased to offer a series of four workshops in SS21 on the J-Pop Translation & Adaptation. Each workshop focuses on a key aspect of translation & adaptation in the field of Japanese popular culture, in particular that of manga. While this workshop series presents Japanese materials, many of the takeaways will be relevant to anyone aspiring to work professionally as a translator. The language of instruction will be English, and everyone is welcome, even those who do not have Japanese language backgrounds. Each workshop will include hands-on activities focusing on strategies and methodologies for translation & adaptation. Those who attend all four workshops will receive a certificate of participation.
Bangladesh Civil Society and Story of Human Development
Year 2020 has challenged us physically, mentally, and financially. Some groan and moan; some rage and roar. Yet, we still have to strive and live.A retreat to ancient philosophy may help to resume courage and empower you with inspiration and motivation to move on. Confucianism is centrally concerned with questions about how we ought to live: what goes into a worthwhile life; how we weigh duties toward family; what kinds of qualities a person should have or avoid having; how we should treat other people (and ourselves); and what makes us happy.
Succeeding with Confucianism
Year 2020 has challenged us physically, mentally, and financially. Some groan and moan; some rage and roar. Yet, we still have to strive and live.A retreat to ancient philosophy may help to resume courage and empower you with inspiration and motivation to move on. Confucianism is centrally concerned with questions about how we ought to live: what goes into a worthwhile life; how we weigh duties toward family; what kinds of qualities a person should have or avoid having; how we should treat other people (and ourselves); and what makes us happy.
Remembering China's “Last War ”
On October 23, 2020, Chinese President Xí Jinping held a state ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of China’s entrance to the Korean War. In the same month, three documentary film series were aired on CCTV, a war movie (featuring action star Wu Jing) opened in theaters across the country, and China also reopened two national Korean War memorials after years of renovation. The flurry of remembrances across films, museums, and political spectacles leaves one wondering why the war has had such a hold on Chinese historical imagination? How has the memory of war shifted from the communist era to the post-socialist present? How does China remember its “last war” in the shadow of a new US-China Cold War?
One Left : A Discussion with Literary Translators on Fiction, Trauma, and Healing
A Discussion with Literary Translators on Fiction, Trauma, and Healing Translators Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton will discuss One Left, their translation of the first Korean novel to focus on the Korean “comfort women” of World War II. They will focus on the question of why it has taken 75 years for such a novel to be written, on the way in which author Kim Soom has interwoven the testimony of the surviving women with a fictional narrative taking place in present-day Seoul, and on broader issues of social justice, truth and reconciliation, and trauma and healing.
Chinese Writing in Historical and Modern Perspectives
In linguistic studies and Chinese character teaching, it is common to consider properties of old and modern Chinese scripts together as within a synchronic system. Such a treatment has several consequences. This talk will select the following issues to address: 1) The pictographic and ideographic myths of Chinese characters; 2) Character teaching methods based on the ideographic understanding; 3) Development of writing tools and the properties of Chinese characters; and 4) Traditional vs. simplified characters. Implications for Chinese character teaching and learning will also be discussed.
Ecology of Sacred Landscapes: Akha Traditional Management System of Natural Resources
The ecology of sacred landscapes for Akha* communities has consisted of natural resource management through religious representation. Akha divide the whole world into two domains, the Inside (lavqkhoer) and the Outside (lavqnyir), both in space and in time. A traditional Akha management system of natural resources is elaborated through a case study of Mengsong Community, Jinghong City, Yunnan Province of China. Akha natural resource management, regulated by the Akha customary law Ghanrsanrkhovq, is an adaptive management (following Holling 1986, Lee 1993, Gunderson et al. 1995, and Berkes 1999), that acknowledges that environmental conditions will always change, thus requiring management institutions to respond to feedback by adjusting and evolving. Prof. Wang asserts that the animist belief and the community-of-beings worldview were well developed when the Akha ancestors were hunter-gatherers. As they became agriculturalists, the binary worldview was developed as the Akha society adapted to new way of life, agriculture and more or less permanent residency, etc, which made them separate from nature (spirits), their past hunting-gathering life, and/or other hunters-gatherers. However, separation does not mean to sever here, but rather implies to share. Therefore, the new form of binary worldview still conforms to their old animist belief and the community-of-beings worldview.
The 1971 India-Pakistan War: Background, Course and Lasting Implications
India and Pakistan fought a brief full-scale war in December 1971 that ended with the independence of the former East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. Preceded by months of vicious internal conflict within East Pakistan, the war was a watershed moment in South Asia’s history, not only because it ushered in a new nation but because its genesis, course and outcomes created a prism through which the participants have viewed themselves, each other and the outside world ever since. Though it was fought fifty years ago, the war’s legacy, bitter, triumphant or ambiguous, remains relevant to our understanding of the region today. This short presentation will sketch the background to the conflict, review its military dimensions and outline some of its ramifications to set the stage for a discussion with faculty and students.
The 1880 Anti-Chinese Riot in Denver & Chinese-Americans' Contribution to the Centennial State
The 1880 anti-Chinese riot in Denver, Colorado is the darkest page of American history -- the Chinese immigrants were singled out as the hate targets. As the result, once booming Denver Chinatown disappeared, followed soon by the Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the U. S. Congress in 1882. Chinese-Americans, however, did not give up. They made great contributions to the state of Colorado despite of discrimination. The presentation will introduce a few examples.
Health Systems Response to COVID–19 in Rural India
In Search of a Chinese School of Animation: National Style, Landscape Painting, and Ink-and-Wash
What makes Chinese animation special? What are the major stakes of forging a Chinese style of animation? This talk traces the concept of the “Chinese school of animation” to a series of groundbreaking fine art (meishu) animated films produced by Shanghai Animation Film Studio during the socialist era (1950s-1960s), with a focus on the ink-and-wash genre. By comparing Feeling from Mountain and Water (shanshui qing, 1988) and Fog Hill of Five Elements (wushan wuxing, 2020), this talk aims to not only demonstrate how traditional landscape painting informs our reading of ink-and-wash animated films, but also historicize the stylistic and technical innovations of the ink-and-wash animation from the socialist to the post-socialist period.
Effect of COVID on Mental Health in Rural India
Impact of COVID on Children and Rural Health Systems
Challenges of Tropical Disease Management During COVID-19 in India
Innovation in Rural Maternal & Child Health in India
FLAS Fellowships
Global Speaker Program
Asian Studies Center Newsletter
AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies
