Thursday, January 23
Yuen Ren Chao (1892-1982), “founding father of modern Chinese linguistics,” conducted ground-breaking research in China. In the U.S., he served as president of the Linguistic Society of America and the American Oriental Society, and taught in the Department of Oriental Languages at UC Berkeley between 1947 and 1960, where he held the Agassiz chair till his retirement.
On January 23, 2025, the Center for Chinese Studies and the C. V. Starr East Asian Library will celebrate the recent publication of Chao’s diaries with a look at his academic achievements and impact on scholarship on both sides of the Pacific. Participants will include Berkeley scholars, former students of Chao’s, and members of his family.
In the dynamic early stages of the transition from military authoritarian rule to globally contingent neoliberal governance, the whole technological apparatus through which communication occurred—marked by the ascendancy of television and the reorientation of the media ecology around it—was undergoing radical transformation. Sovereign power could only be exercised through the exploitation of the discursive grammar and technological affordances of the new media. This talk traces that uneven and unstable process, explores how it reflects on the media themselves, and then considers how these logistics of conversion resulted in excesses and fissures that are reflected in today’s media crises.
Friday, January 24
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan promptly switched to a Latin alphabet modeled on the Turkish one. In the three decades since, other countries have followed suit or are planning to do so (e.g. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan), or are considering a return to a pre-Soviet indigenous script (Mongolia). In several instances, the war on Ukraine (2022—) has acted as an accelerant of this trend, potentially signaling a broader shift in political allegiances away from Russia. The growing influence of China in the region is further complicating the situation. Taking in the full breadth of the Eurasian continent, presentations at this conference will focus on the intimate relationship between script/language policies, modernity, and geopolitical orientations.
Tuesday, January 28
Wednesday, January 29
Reframing self-authored minoritarian histories as living narratives.
Thursday, January 30
South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s Burning (2018) is ostensibly a film adaptation of Murakami Haruki’s short story, “Barn Burning” (1983), which was in turn ‘inspired’ by William Faulkner’s work with the same title, originally published in 1939. There is an interesting triangular relationship between the three works that defies the conventional meaning of adaptation.
Friday, January 31
Featuring Dr. Fareed Ben-Youssef (Texas Tech University) in conversation with Dr. Miryam Sas, this moderated screening of the genre-crossing Tokyo Sonata will consider how international filmmakers like Kurosawa cannily negotiate and question a geopolitical terrain shaped by American visions of power.
Thursday, February 6
In this talk, Victoria Reyes, Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at University of California, Riverside, speaks about her book, Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope, which explores how the academy fails so many of those who seek to enter institutions of higher education to do good, especially if they are considered “outsiders,” drawing in part from her own experiences.
In his posthumously published 1917 story “The Great Wall of China,” Franz Kafka posited that the Great Wall might be constructed to provide the foundation for a new Tower of Babel. Just over a century later, two contemporary authors, R. F. Kuang and Regina Wang, similarly invoke the figure of Babel to reflect on imbricated concerns with translation, power, and surplus value. In this way, both of the latter works reflect indirectly—and perhaps inadvertently—on some of the implications of the contemporary revolution in large language model AI.
Carlos Rojas is professor of Chinese Cultural Studies, and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies at Duke University. He is the author, editor, and translator of numerous books, including Homesickness: Culture, Contagion, and National Transformation in Modern China.
Friday, February 7
The Center for Korean Studies at UC Berkeley is honored to introduce the 2024 winner of the UC Berkeley Hong Yung Lee Book Award in Korean Studies, Boundless Winds of Empire: Rhetoric and Ritual in Early Choson Diplomacy with Ming China (Columbia University Press, 2023), by Professor Sixiang Wang (University of California, Los Angeles).
The Institute of East Asian Studies invites you to join Cal Alum Hua Hsu and Cal faculty Andrew F. Jones for the launch of our Spotlight on Asia series.
The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Hua Hsu won the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir in 2023. A heart-wrenching exploration of connection, community, music, memory and loss in 1990s Berkeley, Stay True is both love song and elegy.
Join us for an evening of celebration and commemoration in Staying True: A Conversation with Hua Hsu: a discussion of the power of words, the legacies of migration, and the gift of friendship.
In person and live streamed: 5pm, February 7, 2025, International House Chevron Auditorium.
RSVP is required.
Live-streaming link will be sent out two days before the event.
Hua Hsu graduated from UC Berkeley with a Political Science degree and received his PhD from Harvard. He is currently a staff writer at The New Yorker, and a professor of Literature at Bard College.
Thursday, February 13
2025 Khyentse Lecture
Kevin Vose, Walter G. Mason Associate Professor of Religious Studies, William and Mary
Friday, February 14
Chinese and Tibetan scribes produced over 10,000 copies of the Sutra of Limitless Life (Sanskrit title: Aparimitāyuḥ-sūtra) in the 820s in Dunhuang as an offering for the ailing Tibetan emperor. These sutra copies were then distributed all across his realm for protection, sanctification, and to extend the emperor’s life. Drawing on a decade of archival research documenting approximately 1,500 Tibetan copies of the sutra kept in the British Library’s Stein Collection, I was able to reconstruct the processes by which these sutras were produced, deposited in temples, stored in the Library Cave, and then conserved and documented in London. This presentation highlights codicological features of these sutras, their colophons, later curators’ notes, and the ‘discovery’ of a Tibetan version of this sutra that appears to be otherwise unknown.
Saturday, February 15
“Both Eyes Open recasts the incarceration of Japanese Americans to show us disturbing truths about America then and America now. In this exciting, experimental opera we mash up the lyrical with the raucous; an ambitious aesthetic with vaudevillian low brow humor. We hope you enjoy the ride: a fresh, new work that reframes the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to resonate with the timely issue of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant hatred.” – Philip Kan Gotanda
Sunday, February 16
“Both Eyes Open recasts the incarceration of Japanese Americans to show us disturbing truths about America then and America now. In this exciting, experimental opera we mash up the lyrical with the raucous; an ambitious aesthetic with vaudevillian low brow humor. We hope you enjoy the ride: a fresh, new work that reframes the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to resonate with the timely issue of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant hatred.” – Philip Kan Gotanda
Thursday, February 20
Ecological States examines ecological policies in the People’s Republic of China to show how campaigns of scientifically based environmental protection transform nature and society. While many point to China’s ecological civilization programs as a new paradigm for global environmental governance, Jesse Rodenbiker argues that ecological redlining extends the reach of the authoritarian state.
Although Chinese urban sustainability initiatives have driven millions of citizens from their land and housing, Rodenbiker shows that these migrants are not passive subjects of state policy. Instead, they creatively navigate resettlement processes in pursuit of their own benefit. However, their resistance is limited by varied forms of state-backed infrastructural violence.
Through extensive fieldwork with scientists, urban planners, and everyday citizens in southwestern China, Ecological States exposes the ways in which the scientific logics and practices fundamental to China’s green urbanization have solidified state power and contributed to dispossession and social inequality.
In this presentation, Dr. Fusako Innami (Durham University) focuses on the concept of “dancing trace”—a manner of dance notation through footsteps developed by modern dancer Eguchi Takaya with his partner Miya Misako.
Tuesday, February 25
A talk by Priya Maholay-Jaradi, Convenor for Art History, a collaboration between National University of Singapore (NUS), the National Gallery Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum, based on her new book, Transcultural Imaginations: Revisiting the 1959 Donation from the Government of India to Malaya, a publication that examines a first-of-its kind donation of fifty-five artefacts and hundred photographs made by the Government of India to the University of Malaya Art Museum in 1959. It considers the donation from a variety of perspectives that supersede its apparent diplomatic and geo-political connotations.
Event moderated by Sugata Ray, Associate Professor, South and Southeast Asian Art, History of Art Department at UC Berkeley.
Thursday, February 27
This talk will locate Korea within the early era of eastern Asia’s decolonization, spanning the late wartime era to 1949. The narrative explores efforts and initiatives by anti-colonial leaders across eastern Asia to lay the political groundwork for a number of independent states after the defeat of Japan.
This is moderated, audience-driven discussion with Pita Limjaroenrat, former leader of the now-disbanded Move Forward Party of Thailand. Pita will discuss pertinent topics in Thai politics and society and take audience questions on themes such as Thailand’s economy, inequality, and democratic movements; Thailand’s relationships with ASEAN, BRICS, and the world’s superpowers; and regional (ASEAN) issues and the global state of democracy.
Friday, February 28
This symposium will host interdisciplinary discussions on the traditions and innovations of Japanese material culture, with a focus on mingu (traditional everyday tools), porcelain, and lacquerware.
RSVP is required.
Tuesday, March 4
Based on her book, Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, Christina Gerhardt (Clark University) will present the impacts of sea level rise on island nations around the world and the solutions to them. Low-lying islands are least responsible for global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. Weaving together essays, maps, art, and poetry, Sea Change reorients our vantage point to place islands at the center of the story.
4:30 - Doors will open
5:00 - Film screening in Barbro Osher Theater
6:50 - Interview with Director Pawo Choyning Dorji
Wednesday, March 5
Lidar technology has revolutionized archaeology by providing unprecedented insights into landscapes and structures that remain hidden to the naked eye but at Tugunbulak, Uzbekistan, specifically, this technology has revealed the vast scale of highland urbanism, challenging scholars to rethink the traditional division between settled agricultural societies and mobile pastoralist cultures.
More broadly, archaeological work in the mountains and grasslands of Central Asia is essential for understanding the complexity of historical exchange networks, commonly referred to as the Silk Roads. These perceived “remote” areas, often associated with “less-developed” mobile pastoral groups, offer rich yet underexplored evidence of dynamic trade routes. We have the opportunity to piece together how these networks operated across diverse landscapes, revealing that populations beyond the sedentary oases—typically the focus of Silk Road studies—played a central role in facilitating regional and even broader connections. At Tugunbulak, early excavation results suggest that access to rich metal ores may have contributed significantly to the development of a vibrant economy, one that was well-integrated into these networks.
Special thanks to novelist Yu Miri, our 2022 Berkeley Japan Prize winner, who agreed to return to our campus on March 5 for a conversation about her newly translated novel, The End of August. In our conversation with Yu Miri and Morgan Giles (the translator of The End of August), we will explore how Yu’s work invites us to rethink the novel as a site of multilingualism, a site in which the scenes of speaking and writing continue to participate in the shaping of race and class in contemporary Japan.
Thursday, March 6
This lecture examines the formation of a gendered socialist lifestyle in North Korea by focusing on the localized processes of socioeconomic and cultural change as part of postwar reconstruction.
Friday, March 7
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.
Buddhism and Its Interlocutors in Song Dynasty China (960–1279 CE)
2025 Shengyen Conference on Chinese Buddhism
Scholars of Chinese religion now recognize that, contrary to earlier narratives of decline, Buddhism flourished during the Song Dynasty—that the Song was a time of tremendous literary, artistic, and doctrinal innovation and growth. But that leaves open the question as to the impact of Buddhist thought and culture beyond the Buddhist fold. Scholars remain hampered by the Confucian biases of many of our “secular” sources, especially the dynastic histories authored by court historians; such sources leave the misleading impression, for example, that Buddhism held little sway at court. Be that as it may, scholars are working to overcome such biases, showing that Buddhists—both monastic and lay—broadly engaged with, and left their influence upon, interlocutors from other traditions (Daoist and Confucian), as well as imperial actors. To support such efforts, this conference will bring together specialists in Chinese religion, history, and literature to reassess the nature and impact of Buddhism in the Song.
Saturday, March 8
Buddhism and Its Interlocutors in Song Dynasty China (960–1279 CE)
2025 Shengyen Conference on Chinese Buddhism
Scholars of Chinese religion now recognize that, contrary to earlier narratives of decline, Buddhism flourished during the Song Dynasty—that the Song was a time of tremendous literary, artistic, and doctrinal innovation and growth. But that leaves open the question as to the impact of Buddhist thought and culture beyond the Buddhist fold. Scholars remain hampered by the Confucian biases of many of our “secular” sources, especially the dynastic histories authored by court historians; such sources leave the misleading impression, for example, that Buddhism held little sway at court. Be that as it may, scholars are working to overcome such biases, showing that Buddhists—both monastic and lay—broadly engaged with, and left their influence upon, interlocutors from other traditions (Daoist and Confucian), as well as imperial actors. To support such efforts, this conference will bring together specialists in Chinese religion, history, and literature to reassess the nature and impact of Buddhism in the Song.
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.
Sunday, March 9
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.
Buddhism and Its Interlocutors in Song Dynasty China (960–1279 CE)
2025 Shengyen Conference on Chinese Buddhism
Scholars of Chinese religion now recognize that, contrary to earlier narratives of decline, Buddhism flourished during the Song Dynasty—that the Song was a time of tremendous literary, artistic, and doctrinal innovation and growth. But that leaves open the question as to the impact of Buddhist thought and culture beyond the Buddhist fold. Scholars remain hampered by the Confucian biases of many of our “secular” sources, especially the dynastic histories authored by court historians; such sources leave the misleading impression, for example, that Buddhism held little sway at court. Be that as it may, scholars are working to overcome such biases, showing that Buddhists—both monastic and lay—broadly engaged with, and left their influence upon, interlocutors from other traditions (Daoist and Confucian), as well as imperial actors. To support such efforts, this conference will bring together specialists in Chinese religion, history, and literature to reassess the nature and impact of Buddhism in the Song.
Tuesday, March 11
This talk explores how creative practices enacted in Thailand provide alternative avenues for engagement alongside activism and policymakers—offering tools for reflection, conversation, and collective visioning.
Historically, Japan has not made great strides in queer rights, and queer people have long been underrepresented even in literary works. However, in the past decade, LGBTQ+ has gained more visibility in Japanese society, and many literary works depicting queer subjects have appeared on the scene. Emerging as an important proponent of Japanese queer literature, the novelist Li Kotomi, since her debut, has been actively creating a tapestry of stories featuring various queer people, including lesbians. For the talk, Li Kotomi will explore the past, present, and future of Japan’s LGBTQ+ community and queer literature.
Wednesday, March 12
The North Korea nuclear quagmire has been getting worse. Facing this existential security challenge, South Korea has traditionally relied on the American nuclear umbrella. However, a growing number of pundits and ordinary citizens in South Korea have been calling for an independent nuclear path by questioning the credibility of American security commitments including extended nuclear deterrence. My lecture will look into the nature of domestic debates on the rationales, feasibility, and consequences of the pursuit of an independent nuclear path in South Korea.
About the speaker:
Chung-in Moon is James Laney Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University and Vice Chairman of APLN (Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation). He is also editor-in-chief of Global Asia, a quarterly journal in English. He was a special advisor to the ROK president for foreign affairs and national security (2017-2021). He was Chairman of the Sejong Institute (2021-2023) and dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei Univ. and served as Ambassador for International Security Affairs of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative, a cabinet-level post. Dr. Moon was a special delegate to the first (2000), second (2007), third Korean summit (2018) held in Pyongyang. He has published over 60 books and 300 articles in edited volumes and scholarly journals.
Thursday, March 13
2025 Annual Numata Lecture in Buddhist Philosophy,
Christian Coseru, Spring 2025 Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhist Philosophy, UC Berkeley
In this workshop, Dr.Vang will work with attendees to engage in the power of storytelling as a method necessary to center the refugee as a subject of knowledge. Attendees will be able to hear and share stories to practice how these different forms of cultural practice can center Southeast communities ancestral and contemporary knowledge in educational settings. (Dinner will be provided)
Friday, March 14
Paj Ntaub (Hmong Embroidery) is an ancestral Hmong art form that involves needlework, embroidery, and other techniques to create patterns and techniques to tell stories that are shared across generations. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Vang will discuss how it is a form of ancestral knowledge and attendees will have the opportunity to learn introductory Paj Ntaub while also engaging in discussion on Southeast Asian experiences. Through participating in this activity, attendees will also be able to create a space for community to connect and reflect their stories through conversation. (Limited capacity for this workshop. Lunch will be provided)
Tuesday, March 18
Yoshitaka Yamamoto will showcase Japanese manuscripts, previously owned by the Mitsui family and now held by the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at UC Berkeley, that contain Sinitic poems composed and handwritten by nineteenth-century Japanese intellectuals.
Thursday, March 20
Caroline S. Hau, Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, considers the ubiquity of José Rizal, a national hero, in Philippine popular culture. Despite being mandatory reading in Philippine schools, Rizal and his writings retain an ineluctable “foreignness,” separated as contemporary Filipino readers are from Rizal in terms of language, time, space, sensibility, and intellectual grounding. She argues that the importance of Rizal’s writings reside not so much on the impact these novels have had on those who have read them as on the (often unintended) effects they have had on those who could not and did not read them.
In 1595, Matteo Ricci introduced the Memory Palace to Chinese scholars in Xiguo Jifa (The Mnemonic Method from the West), emphasizing spatial memory and visual association for organizing knowledge. However, Chinese scholars relied more on rhyming than spatial visualization, limiting its impact. This talk examines not the failure of the European Memory Palace in China but the shift in visual thinking from Ricci’s era to the 18th-century High Qing Court, where spatial archiving and visualization became essential tools for reality management. It explores how images gained epistemological and political power, shaping knowledge and governance in Qing China.
Monday, March 31
This film is part of a trio of interconnected films (Hot Stuff, Sexy Killers, and Bloody Nickel) that delve into energy policies in Indonesia, corporate ties to those policies, and their detrimental effects on local populations.
Wednesday, April 2
This talk examines the Tamil realist novel within the historical context of World War II and its immediate aftermath in South and Southeast Asia. With analysis of two seminal works from the Tamil modernist canon, P. Ciṅkāram’s Puyalilē Oru Tōṇi (translated as A Boat in the Storm) and Kaṭalukku Appāl (translated as Beyond the Sea), Kailasam investigates the deployment of narrative realism and its adaptive textures from a comparative perspective within the Tamil novel.
Thursday, April 3
Professor Ming-sho Ho will deliver a presentation on his latest book, which explores Hong Kong’s 2019–2020 pro-democracy movement, widely known as the Be Water Revolution. In the book, Ho proposes an agency-based explanation to understand how this unexpectedly prolonged and disruptive protest movement operated without centralized leadership. Triggered by a series of moral shocks, perceived threats, and reflections on past failures, collective improvisation emerged as a key mechanism. This process, driven by widespread peer production, enabled tactical innovation. He also explores how decentralized participation fostered creative cultural expressions, energized overseas diaspora communities, and sustained resistance against the police state enforced under the national security law.
Mapping the Path, Mapping the Fruits: Meditation, Attainments, Legitimization, Subjectivity and Neuroscience: From Early Buddhism via Theravada to Postmodern Practitioners - A Case Study on “Fruition” and “Cessation.”
Speaker: Venerable Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā
Discussant: Clifford Saron, (PhD), Research Scientist, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis.
Moderator: Alexander von Rospatt, Professor for Buddhist and South Asian Studies, and Director of the Group in Buddhist Studies.
A close reading of the evolving accounts of the four stages of awakening, as outlined in early Buddhist and Theravāda meditation theory and practice, provides a text-historically informed foundation for investigating the legitimation strategies and claims to meditative attainments presented in postmodern narratives of contemporary American meditators. Case studies on so-called ‘fruition attainments’ and ‘cessation experiences’ illustrate the composite authority discourse characteristic of these new hermeneutics, which draw on rhetorics of experiential subjectivity as well as neuroscientific discourse, among other influences.
Monday, April 7
Scholars from across the UC system will gather to discuss their research related to the theme of “intellectual crosscurrents in Southeast Asia,” including a featured public panel.
Wednesday, April 9
Archaeological data from the prehistoric Jomon period (ca. 16000-2500 ca. BP) in Japan provides excellent opportunities to examine continuity and change in subsistence-settlement practices. Of particular interest is the relationship between site location, subsistence/food diversity and the importance of environmental management. In this presentation, we attempt to interpret changes in Jomon settlement distribution patterns in two geographic areas in northern Japan in the context of the discussion of the resilience of human-environmental interaction in historical ecology.
Drawing from my fieldwork in Japan as well as textual and visual materials, in this talk I will present my preliminary findings on daiaragyō, focusing on the mechanisms, main practices, and goals of this treacherous training.
Elizabeth Ai embarks on a journey to capture the vibrant spirit of a musical phenomenon that electrified Vietnamese American teens in the 1980s: New Wave.
Thursday, April 10
The Cultural Revolution is infamous for its violent destruction of religious icons, yet the subsequent surge in demand for Buddhist images in China’s post-Mao Buddhist revival has received scant attention. This study explores the encounters between Chinese workshop owners and Burmese Buddhist artisans in the trade of marble Buddhist images (Ch. miandian yufo) across the Myanmar-China border. By examining this transnational trade network, which emerged in response to the burgeoning market for Buddhist images in China and the regional economic integration between China and Southeast Asia, it illuminates the often-neglected material and transnational dimensions of the post-Mao Buddhist resurgence.
This talk examines what it means to listen in spaces where multiple ideologies vie for attention. In such pluralistic contexts, it is possible for sonic utterances that appear perfectly well-formed by the standards of one community to sound illegible or outrageous to other ears. One striking example of this sort of rupture is found in the reception of Sinitic opera (戲曲) within Anglophone audiences. As Nancy Rao (2022) documents, English-language media outlets have long employed a vocabulary of the chaotic, the mechanical, or the animal in describing the sounds of Sinitic opera. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sinophone authors draw upon entirely different vocabulary when describing these same sonorities, imagining them to be “清脆 crisp and clean” (Zhou 1996), “甜美圓潤 sweet and mellow,” (Chun 1989) and “明亮 clear and bright” (Sun 2017). What accounts for such stark divergences across perceptions of the same sounds? What prevents listeners from hearing the musicality inscribed in sounds from unfamiliar cultural spaces? And what are the aesthetic, epistemic, and political implications that diverse musicalities present for music scholars? This paper seeks to address these questions via a self-reflexive analysis of the author’s journey in learning to hear the musicality behind Huangmei opera (黃梅戲) and Taiwanese opera (歌仔戲).
Friday, April 11
Conference dedicated to the late Professor Guitty Azarpay, renowned scholar of Iranian and Central Asian art at the University of California, Berkeley. Organized by the Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World - NYU, and the Collège de France .
The conference explores the rich tapestry of ancient Sogdiana, a pivotal crossroads of culture, trade, and artistic expression. It will delve into the significance of Sogdiana’s material and visual culture, highlighting recent research that uncovers the intricate connections between local practices and broader international influences. An international group of scholars will present innovative perspectives on the region’s artifacts, architecture, and artistic styles, emphasizing a holistic approach to understanding Sogdiana’s history. Through interdisciplinary dialogues, we aim to illuminate the region’s role in shaping cultural exchanges along the Silk Road and beyond.
The Chinese government’s management of its financial institutions and industries has been referred to as a controlled burn, allowing its private sector enough freedom to be innovative, competitive and capitalistic, yet still maintaining just enough control to steer the course.
This panel will highlight recent research by Chung-min TSAI and Chih-shian LIOU of the National Chengchi University of Taiwan as they examine the financial and high-tech sectors in China today.
This talk focuses on the cultural and intellectual history of Thailand during the cold war. Within Thailand, the impact of the deluge of American “support” on Thailand’s cultural and intellectual history remains relatively unexamined. Moreover, existing
scholarship on US-Thailand relations in the cold war also largely treats Thailand as a passive recipient of US assistance rather than as an active partner in dictating, beyond US intentions, how that aid reshaped Thai society. The talk delineates how Southeast Asian elites strategically and sometimes eagerly partnered with American collaborators in anticommunist efforts.
Saturday, April 12
Conference dedicated to the late Professor Guitty Azarpay, renowned scholar of Iranian and Central Asian art at the University of California, Berkeley. Organized by the Tang Center for Silk Road Studies, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World - NYU, and the Collège de France .
The conference explores the rich tapestry of ancient Sogdiana, a pivotal crossroads of culture, trade, and artistic expression. It will delve into the significance of Sogdiana’s material and visual culture, highlighting recent research that uncovers the intricate connections between local practices and broader international influences. An international group of scholars will present innovative perspectives on the region’s artifacts, architecture, and artistic styles, emphasizing a holistic approach to understanding Sogdiana’s history. Through interdisciplinary dialogues, we aim to illuminate the region’s role in shaping cultural exchanges along the Silk Road and beyond.
Sunday, April 13
Experience the renowned tradition of Javanese shadow puppetry, featuring a rare visit by rising young star Ki Hanggoro Murti as he brings the Ramayana epic to life with dance scenes, comic interludes, and wild battles. Musical accompaniment by master musicians Midiyanto (director) and Heni Savitri (vocalist), and UC Berkeley’s Gamelan Sari Raras ensemble.
Midiyanto, director
Wednesday, April 16
The Daijōsai is an ancient form of harvest festival observed in modern times, as it was in the past, in the first autumn after the accession of a new Emperor of Japan. This illustrated presentation focuses on the landscape screens, poems, and songs created for and presented in the Daijōe banquets that were held during the Daijōsai of the current Emperor Reiwa, in 2019. Daijōe screens, poems, and songs celebrate both regional locales and cultures as well as the continuous tradition of imperial rule. The scenes depicted in both image and word evoke plenitude, vitality, endurance, and, of course, the cycle of the seasons. This presentation emphasizes how this “edition” adhered to precedent but also introduced some innovative gestures that subtly marked it as an event very much of the present.
Thursday, April 17
The end of Japanese colonial rule in Korea gave rise to a pressing question: Who would assume ownership of Japanese assets (state-owned and private), estimated to comprise 80-85% of the former colony’s wealth? Questions (and court cases) surrounding the distribution and possession of what became popularly known as chǒksan (enemy property) would, in fact, last for decades. This talk follows the property trail in South Korean literature published from the mid-1940s through the mid-1950s.
A recently unrolled Gandharan scroll has proven to contain an unprecedented type of sūtra in which the Buddha reveals that the Kushana king Vema Takhuma (late first/early second centuries CE) was in his past life a yakṣa general, and is moreover destined in a future life to himself become a Buddha. This patently apocryphal text must have been composed as a political instrument to win the king’s favor and patronage, and is consistent with other recent discoveries of Gandharan manuscripts documenting the patronage of Buddhist establishments by other Kushana kings (Vema Kadphises and Huviṣka). The discovery of this unique document coincides with the recent discovery in Tajikistan of inscriptions mentioning Vema Takhuma, all combining to suddenly bring to life this once shadowy historical figure, once known as “the lost Kushana king.
Friday, April 18
The innovation, use and experience, and exchange of new and emerging technologies today are influenced by the role that China plays in global politics and economy. This panel brings together experts of the Chinese political economy and law and society in a conversation to discuss the political, economic, security, and social dimensions and complexities of technology in China’s internationalization during times of global tensions. Topics covered will include the institutional foundations of China’s technological development, technology governance and industrial policy, global technology competition, and legal technology and societal impacts in today’s China.
This panel will feature Mark Dallas, Professor of Political Science and Science, Technology, and Society at Union College; Roselyn Hsueh, Professor of Political Science at Temple University and Visiting Scholar at the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative; and Rachel E. Stern, Professor of Law and Political Science at U.C. Berkeley. AnnaLee Saxenian, Professor in the School of Information, will chair and moderate.
Monday, April 21
“Paradise” revisits South Korea’s era of authoritarian development (1970s-1980s) through the lens of queer livelihood.
Tuesday, April 22
Screening of a documentary by Dipesh Kharel that explores the experiences of Nepali students in Japan. Screening followed by a Q&A session with the director.
Screening includes a conversation between the director and Keiko Yamanaka, Lecturer, Departments of Ethnic Studies and International and Area Studies, UC Berkeley.
Event moderated by Alexander von Rospatt, Professor for Buddhist and South Asian Studies, and Director of the Group in Buddhist Studies.
Thursday, April 24
This presentation examines the implementation of government projects aimed at youth migration and local regeneration, highlighting how they obscure or reproduce the structural suffering that shapes both categories amid South Korea’s compressed development, rather than addressing it.
Friday, April 25
This Late Breaking News panel invites experts to discuss what the March 28 earthquake - and other ruptures and fissures in the domestic, regional and global political landscape - mean for the people of Myanmar.
In the last hundred years, China has witnessed an unprecedented number of archeological and unprovenanced artifacts from the last millennium BCE. These documents offer unique a window into the production of writing media, scribal habits, and material cultures. The texts inscribed on these artifacts broaden our understanding of the ancient Chinese intellectual world out of which the canonical tradition was produced.
Reconsidering the History of the Analects and other “Confucius said” Texts in light of Recent Discoveries of Unearthed Manuscripts was organized by Prof. Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Prof. Sarah Allan, and Maddalena Poli (PhD) with the aim of promoting scholarly engagement with this new, exciting evidence.
This conference brings together scholars from Asia, Europe, and the US to discuss the new Warring States manuscripts collecting Confucius’ sayings, their archeological context of recovery, as well as how these new discoveries impact prevailing narratives on the formation of the Analects.
Monday, April 28
In the last hundred years, China has witnessed an unprecedented number of archeological and unprovenanced artifacts from the last millennium BCE. These documents offer unique a window into the production of writing media, scribal habits, and material cultures. The texts inscribed on these artifacts broaden our understanding of the ancient Chinese intellectual world out of which the canonical tradition was produced.
Reconsidering the History of the Analects and other “Confucius said” Texts in light of Recent Discoveries of Unearthed Manuscripts was organized by Prof. Mark Csikszentmihalyi, Prof. Sarah Allan, and Maddalena Poli (PhD) with the aim of promoting scholarly engagement with this new, exciting evidence.
This conference brings together scholars from Asia, Europe, and the US to discuss the new Warring States manuscripts collecting Confucius’ sayings, their archeological context of recovery, as well as how these new discoveries impact prevailing narratives on the formation of the Analects.
Tuesday, April 29
This lecture-recital features Korean aristocratic and folk Music through a p’iri (double-reed aerophone) performance. The p’iri (觱篥) has played a significant role in Korean classical musical ensembles across various genres. In the context of Pungnyu (風流), a space for appreciating Korean classical music, Sunhong Kim invites the audiences to engage in an aural experience that stimulates a deeper appreciation of Korean classical music.
Wu Ming-Yi is a writer, artist, designer, photographer, literary professor, and environmental activist. His works have been translated into over twenty languages.
His novel The Man with the Compound Eyes won the Prix du Livre Insulaire for Best Work of Fiction in French and was featured in the Berlin International Film Festival’s “Books at Berlinale.” The Magician on the Skywalk was shortlisted for the Prix Émile Guimet de Littérature Asiattique, while The Stolen Bicycle was long-listed for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize.
Wednesday, April 30
The Folklore Program presents the 2025 Alan Dundes Lecture. Michael Dylan Foster will explore the recent Amabie phenomenon in Japan, during which memes of a nineteenth-century legendary creature went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aftermath of the world wars led to a reevaluation of bodily experiences, with artists and activists focusing on individual lived experiences and the limitations of verbal expression. In post-war Japan, the concept of “performing stillness,” particularly through tableaux vivants, allowed bodies to transcend their physical constraints, challenging social and gender norms while contributing to the development of a new postwar cityscape.
The talk explores how organizations outside schools have created an invisible infrastructure not only to affect local school districts but also to shape US education. Using the case of school dropout prediction systems, it provides a behind-the-scenes look at how local organizations in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City have transformed data and dropping out. More broadly, it shows that changes in a decentralized system happen less through top-down or bottom-up processes, and more through “outside-in” initiatives of networked organizations. A panel discussion will follow the talk.
Thursday, May 1
This talk explores the early Tibetan interactions with Chinese Chan Buddhism as documented in several Dunhuang manuscripts and the works of the late ninth century Tibetan scholar Nubchen Sangye Yeshe. These sources reveal a complex interplay between how Chan was received, rejected, and adapted in Tibet, as locals engaged with Chan Buddhism with both admiration and skepticism. While early Tibetan practitioners demonstrated curiosity and made efforts to integrate Chan principles into their pre-established Buddhist frameworks, they also criticized these teachings due to their concerns about doctrinal compatibility. Indeed, Chan’s teachings were, in many ways, at odds with Tibetan religious and ethical conventions. At the time, Tibet was consolidating its Buddhist identity and reassessing foreign influences. Thus, socio-political dynamics further fueled the rejection of certain Chan elements. However, despite all the suspicion and criticism, some aspects of Chan stayed in Tibet through cultural negotiation and adaptation. Eventually, these teachings were transformed to align with local contexts. This phenomenon of intercultural exchange underscores the adaptive nature of Buddhist traditions, as well as their ability to evolve while core teachings remain unaltered. By examining these early cross-cultural engagements, my research uncovers the complexities of religious entanglement and their lasting impact on Tibetan Buddhism and broader spiritual dialogues.
On April 30th, 1977, 14 mothers sent a letter asking the military dictator Jorge Rafael Videla for the whereabouts of their disappeared children and began to gather in silent protest in the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires. Known as the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, this spurred a mass movement that continues today. Around the same time, on May 18th, 1980, citizens of Gwangju, South Korea, launched a mass resistance movement against the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. The South Korean military retaliated in full force resulting in the massacre and disappearance of thousands of Gwangju citizens. The connections and intimacies between the overlapping histories of these two cities demonstrate the ways in which Global South countries were violently conscripted into dirty wars against communism.
Friday, May 2
“The Origin and Evolution of Avalokiteśvara Images in the Light of New Discoveries from Gandhāra”
This talk revisits the question of the origin and evolution of images of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in Gandhāra and their diffusion to India, Tibet and China along the trade routes. In Gandhāran art, the iconography of the bodhisattva Maitreya is often recognisable through his characteristic attribute—the flask (kuṇḍikā).Thursday, May 8
As the Trump administration cuts research support for US universities, targets international students, and questions the fundamental value of scientific exchange of ideas, three experts meet to reflect on the knowledge cost, livelihoods lost and lessons to be learned through the infamous China Initiative.
When I think about the imaginaries of the Indian Ocean and the place of Southeast Asia within this expansive body of water, the image of this colorful Buraq from Aceh is one I often return to. Drawn with pencil and jewel-tone markers, the drawing’s iconography and title in Dutch “Tekening van het mythische rijdier (Boeraq)” would lead viewers to identify it as the mythical steed of the half-human and half-quadruped animal that accompanies the Prophet Muhammad in his miraculous night journey. My exploration of this drawing by an Acehnese commander named Tengku Teungoh made at the end of the Aceh War, first fueled my preoccupation with looking at and rethinking modernities in Southeast Asia within the Indian Ocean framework. This lens has shaped the way I approach Islam and modern art – it provides ways to challenge the boundedness, linearity, and fixity of center and periphery narratives in both areas.
Friday, May 9
This event includes three main presentations (Korean Diaspora and Independence Movement in the U.S.; The Activities and Significance of the ‘Korean Women’s Patriotic League’ in the History of Korean Women in the Diaspora; Korean Independence through the Lens of Diaspora Literature: The Grass Roof, Beasts of a Little Land and Other Works) followed by a discussion
Friday, June 13
What happens when ancient wisdom, cutting-edge neuroscience, and educational innovation meet in the classroom?
Join UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center (GGSC) for this timely conversation with meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson, educator Dr. Justin Kelley, and mindfulness educator and author Susan Kaiser Greenland on the future of education—and the role of contemplative practice in helping young people flourish. GGSC Science Director Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas will moderate the discussion.