News

Japanese Politics One Year After the Deluge
Ethan Scheiner, UC Davis; Robert Weiner, Naval Postgraduate School; T.J. Pempel, UC Berkeley
Moderator: Steve Vogel, UC Berkeley
September 8, 2010
Center for Japanese Studies

Colloquia in the Musicologies
Ian Condry
January 21, 2010
Center for Japanese Studies, Department of Music

"New Directions in Japanese Hip-Hop: Rethinking the Cultural Politics of Popular Music in the 21st Century"
Ian Condry, Associate Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization

China's Labor Policies: In Transition
January 20, 2010
Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education

Tracing Japanese Buddhism: An International Conference
September 25–27, 2009
Center for Japanese Studies, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai/Numata Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Shinnyo-en Foundation

The Pacific War Revisited: Scholars' View on "Letters from Iwo Jima"
January 23, 2009
Center for Japanese Studies, Department of History

The Center for Japanese Studies presents this program on the "Pacific War Revisited" with a panel of distinguished scholars of Japanese film studies and Japanese history who will comment on this critically acclaimed film. This panel will be followed by a screening of Letters from Iwo Jima, with post-screening comments by the film's director, Clint Eastwood.

China's Environmental Crisis & Solutions: On Pandas, Carbon Trade, and Tibetan Sacred Lands
January 15, 2009
Center for Chinese Studies, BCI, School of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health

Dr. Lü Zhi, Professor of Conservation Biology, Director of Center for Nature and Society of Peking University

Japan's Multicultural Multiethnic Future: Problems and Solutions for the 21st Century
Arudou Debito, Hokkaido Information University
August 27, 2008
Center for Japanese Studies

In posters, the propagandistic function of art under Mao is most clearly revealed. Widely distributed and cheaply available, the posters produced during the Cultural Revolution era address (or elide) problems and goals, instruct viewers on everything from army conduct to birth control, and celebrate the revolutionary spirit in the lives of the people and in the person of Chairman Mao. The posters on view offer a sampling of this revolutionary vision from 1969 to 1978, with one final poster from 1985 illustrating the change in the post-Cultural Revolution era.

China is the epicenter of rapid urbanization, provoking responses from artists, photographers, and filmmakers whose focus ranges from optimistic expansiveness to radical dislocation. In this two-day international symposium, leading curators, critics and scholars will look at artists working in different mediums as they react to the new Chinese megacity.

As part of the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Center for Japanese Studies, Harumi Murakami will present a reading and lecture in Japanese and English, to be followed by a conversation with Roland Kelts. The presentation will take place on Saturday, October 11, 2008, at Zellerbach Hall on the Berkeley campus.

IEAS is pleased to announce a three-year Cross-Straits research project will culminate in a major scholarly publication intended to fill a critical gap in existing English-language scholarly understanding of the relationships across the Taiwan Strait. Cross-Straits relationships between the Mainland and Taiwan are among the most critical issues in today's East Asia. Despite much journalistic coverage and editorial commentary, in-depth scholarly examinations of the many facets of related issues are yet to be undertaken in North American academia.

Disturbing Difference: Translation, Naturalization, and the Global Publication of Japanese Fiction
Stephen Snyder, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Japanese Studies, Middelbury College
January 25, 2008
Center for Japanese Studies

Mission Statement

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library - the first freestanding structure at a United States university erected solely for East Asian collections — opened its doors to the public on Monday, March 17. Housing nearly one million volumes, the facility occupies a prominent, central-campus location next to Memorial Glade and Doe Library, reflecting Berkeley's role as a worldwide Pacific Rim hub for scholars of East Asian studies. The building brings together under one roof the vast collections that have been stored at several locations on and off campus.

Thai painting (19th century) depicting the Buddha flanked by his two chief disciples, Sāriputta and Moggallāna

The 2008 Numata Lecture in Buddhist Studies will be given at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 20th by Dr. Rupert Gethin. Gethin is the Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at U.C. Berkeley for Spring 2008. He is a Reader in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, and co-director of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, at the University of Bristol, and (since 2003) President of the Pali Text Society.

A recent article in the UC Berkeley NewsCenter notes that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was the featured guest on "Eastern Horizon: Top Talk," a Chinese talk show featuring face-to-face interviews with foreign dignitaries, heads of state, industry leaders, and other prominent figures. During the program, which aired on China's largest national TV network, China Central Television (CCTV), producer and host Shui Junyi interviewed Birgeneau about the campus's mission as a public university, his career, and former UC Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien.