danteschulz – Page 4 – Sigur Center for Asian Studies

11/11/2018: Film Screening: The Tale of Samurai Cooking – A True Love Story

November 6, 2018May 18, 2021Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Sunday, November 11, 2018 3:00pm – 5:10pm

Amphitheater, Marvin Center
800 21st Street NW
Washington, DC 20052

japanese katana sword below a set of japanese food

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies and GW’s Japanese Program cordially invite you to a film screening of The Tale of Samurai Cooking – A True Love Story.

This event is public and open to the media.

About the Event:

This event is part of the community outreach project of J.LIVE Talk 2018 presentation competition at the George Washington University. Doors will open at 2:50pm and close promptly at 3pm.

J.LIVE 2018 poster with sponsors logos on bottom

11/11/2018: National College Level Japanese Language Presentation Contest: Communication in the Global Age in Japanese

October 30, 2018May 18, 2021Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

collage of various logos of sponsors of the JLIVE event

Sunday, November 11, 2018 9:00am – 3:00pm

800 21st St NW, Washington DC 20052
Marvin Center 3F
Amphitheater

Flyer of the JLIVE event with logos

This event is public and open to the media.

About the Event:

The George Washington University will host the fourth annual J.LIVE (Japanese Learning Inspired Vision and Engagement) Talk contest on November 11, 2018. The competition is open to students enrolled in Japanese language courses in colleges and universities across the nation, and the nine contestants who are coming to Washington, DC for the final round are selected through a preliminary round of video presentations. Prizes for the winners include airfare to Japan and tuition for summer language programs in Tokyo and Nagoya. The contest aims to promote the study of Japanese at the college and graduate school level in the US, and in doing so, help cultivate the next generation of leaders in US-Japan relations. Unlike a traditional speech contest, J.LIVE is a presentation contest geared for today’s global world. It emphasizes not just linguistic competence but also 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communication, and information/media/technology literacy. Contestants are thus evaluated for the effective use of data and the quality of their messages, as well as the dynamism and originality of their presentations which can include audio-visual materials, audience interaction, and other innovations.

The event will also provide networking opportunities for the Japan-related business, policy, academic, and creative communities in the Washington DC area. Student volunteers from the Japanese program at GW will staff the event. While students’ presentations will be in Japanese, contest proceedings will be MC’ed in both English and Japanese. Space is limited, but persons interested in attending, or in learning more about J.LIVE, are encouraged to contact info@jlivetalk.com

About J.LIVE Talk:

J.LIVE Talk is a national-scale, college and graduate-school level Japanese presentation contest. It is a nonprofit event administered by the Japanese program at The George Washington University on a voluntary basis. The event is supported by the Embassy of Japan, Japan-US Friendship Commission, All Nippon Airways, and other organizations and individuals who are committed to the goals of J.LIVE Talk. For more information, please visit www.jlivetalk.com.

11/27/18 The Tondu Question: Understanding Taiwanese Preferences on Determining National Future

October 23, 2018July 9, 2021Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, November 27, 2018 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Chung-wen Shih Conference Room – Suite 503
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

collage of Trump, Tsai Ing-wen, and Xi Jinping

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies cordially invites you to a discussion with Mr. Fang Yu Chen – a Non-Resident Scholar affiliated with the Sigur Center – to discuss Taiwanese views regarding national future and to explore government responses to these views.

Light refreshments will be available. This event is public and open to the media.

About the Event:

With the dynamic shifts and changes in the U.S.-China relationship, Taiwan has been thrust in the spotlight of international politics. On the one hand, China is increasingly mounting pressure on governments and private corporations to adhere to its “One China Principle.” On the other hand, preserving Taiwan’s democracy and freedom have been identified as important elements to U.S. policy and values, as outlined in U.S. National Security Strategy and echoed by recent remarks made by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

However, how do the Taiwanese view China’s One China Principle and, conversely, the “One China policy” of the United States? What are citizen preferences on determining national future, whether it be independence, unification, or maintenance of the status quo? Although Taiwanese identity has been a growing force within Taiwan politics, support for “Taiwan independence” may seem to be waning. What does “maintaining status quo” fully mean and imply, given that this selection is a popular recurring option in surveys on the subject?

In fact, there are various interpretations of “status quo” and even multiple meanings of Taiwan independence. Using a recently collected dataset based on a new approach of measurements, this talk aims to disentangle the varieties of Tondu (統獨, unification/independence) – illustrating the propositions of different types of pro-independence, pro-unification, and status quo; and estimate the proportions of each category in public opinion. The talk will also discuss how the tondu preferences influence the results of the local elections in Taiwan, especially the rise (and fall?) of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-Je.

About the Speaker:

Picture of Fang Yu Chen in professional attire Mr. Fang Yu Chen is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Michigan State University. His research interests include authoritarian politics, political behaviors, inequality, and nationalism. Mr. Chen’s dissertation topic is “Ruling Party Institutionalization in East Asian Authoritarian Regimes,” in which he will compare former dictators’ ruling parties in Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Since 2014, he became the co-founder and co-editor of the website “Who Governs TW,” which aims to become a Mandarin version of the Monkey Cage. Currently, he lives in the DC area.

orange book cover with Mughal painting; text: Mughal Occidentalism by Mika Natif

11/29/18 Book Launch: Mughal Occidentalism

October 18, 2018May 14, 2021Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Thursday, November 29, 2018 5:00 PM

Chung-wen Shih Conference Room
Suite 503 | 1957 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052

book cover of Mughal Occidentalism

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Institute for Middle East Studies cordially invite you to a book launch of Mughal Occidentalism and a discussion with the author.

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Book:

In Mughal Occidentalism, Mika Natif elucidates the meaningful and complex ways in which Mughal artists engaged with European art and techniques from the 1580s-1630s. Using visual and textual sources, this book argues that artists repurposed Christian and Renaissance visual idioms to embody themes from classical Persian literature and represent Mughal policy, ideology and dynastic history. A reevaluation of illustrated manuscripts and album paintings incorporating landscape scenery, portraiture, and European objects demonstrates that the appropriation of European elements was highly motivated by Mughal concerns. This book aims to establish a better understanding of cross-cultural exchange from the Mughal perspective by emphasizing the agency of local artists active in the workshops of Emperors Akbar and Jahangir.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Mika Natif (Ph.D., New York University – Institute of Fine Arts, 2006) is a historian of Medieval art focusing on the intercultural exchanges and global connections that Muslim societies forged with the European sphere in the pre-Modern era. Her primary field of research is Islamic painting, with special interest in Central Asia, Iran, India, and the Mediterranean. She had held teaching positions at Princeton University and at the College of the Holy Cross (MA), and curatorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and most recently at the Harvard Art Museums (as Assistant Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art). She has conducted research in archives, galleries and museums all over Europe, as well as Turkey, Israel, and India.

poster for film screening; text: Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn Film Screening & Discussions with Directors

11/19/18 Film Screening & Discussion: Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn

October 18, 2018July 13, 2021Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Monday, November 19, 2018 6:00 PM – 8:40 PM

Lindner Family Commons Suite 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

flyer for Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn event

The American University School of Communications Departments of Literature, of Anthropology, and of Sociology, the George Washington University Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Departments of East Asian Languages and Literatures, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies cordially invite you to a film screening and discussion of Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn, with featuring panelists Jingru Wu and Teri Silvio who worked on the production of the film as well as Assistant Professors Li (Lily) Wong of American University and Assistant Professor Liana Chen of the George Washington University.

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Event:

The documentary couplet Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn shot by migrant worker activists in Taiwan, follows a group of Filipina migrant worker organizers and their tumultuous same-sex love relationships. The films bring together migrant labor activism with queer love to unpack the multi-layered texture of our globalized moment.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the directors of the movie, Jingru Wu and Teri Silvio.

About the Speakers:

Jingru Wu is a long-time labor activist and a researcher at the Taiwan International Workers’ Association. Together with Susan Chen she has shot the two documentaries.

Teri Silvio is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She has served as interviewer, translator, and member of the production team for the documentary films, Lesbian Factory and Rainbow Popcorn.

black and white photo of Lily Wong

Li (Lily) Wong received her PhD in Comparative Literature at University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the politics of affect/emotion, gender/sexuality, comparative race, as well as media formations of transpacific Chinese, Sinophone, and Asian American communities. Her work can be found in journals including American Quarterly, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Asian Cinema, Asian American Literary Review, Pacific Affairs and China Review International, among others. She has published book chapters in World Cinema and the Visual Arts (Anthem Press, 2012), Queer Sinophone Cultures (Routledge, 2013), and Divided Lenses: War and Film Memory in Asia (University of Hawai’i Press, 2016). She is the author of the book “Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work, Media Networks, and Affective Histories of Chineseness” (Columbia University Press, 2018).

headshot of Liana Chen with a flower

Liana Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and director of the Chinese Program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she is affiliated with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and teaches courses on traditional and modern Chinese fiction and drama, film, and women writers.

book cover with a Chinese government building and guards standing outside; text: Foreign Relations of the PRC by Robert G. Sutter

11/14/18 Xi Jinping’s Foreign Policy Vision—Powerful Image versus Restricted Reality

October 18, 2018July 13, 2021Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Wednesday, November 14, 2018 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM

Lindner Family Commons Suite 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

Book cover of Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and the Elliott School Book Launch Series cordially invite you to a book launch and discussion of Professor Robert Sutter’s book Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China International Politics since 1949, Second Edition.

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Event:

The United States is carrying out the most substantial reevaluation of policy toward China in 50 years, anticipating intensive competition and challenges in the period ahead. Against that background, realistic assessments of China’s power and influence and their implications for the United States provide the basis for sound judgments as Americans and others assess China’s rise. Based on work in his newly published, Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China International Politics since 1949, Second Edition, Sutter will offer a balanced assessment of the strengths and limitations of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy achievements and ambitions in his second term. The findings show that despite enormous publicity in China hailing the confidence and foreign policy successes of its authoritarian leader, serious constraints confound Beijing’s ambitions, with broad ranging, unexpected pushback from the Trump administration heading the list of major impediments for which China has no easy answer.

About the Speaker:

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University beginning in 2011. He also serves as the school’s Director, Program of Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs.

A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter taught full time for ten years at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and part-time for thirty years at Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins Universities, or the University of Virginia. He has published 21 books, over 200 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent books are: Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China’s International Politics since 1949 (Rowman & Littlefield 2018); US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present (Rowman & Littlefield 2018); Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy Since the Cold War (Rowman & Littlefield 2016); The United States and Asia; Regional Dynamics and 21st Century Relations (Rowman & Littlefield 2015).

Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) focused on Asian and Pacific affairs and US foreign policy. He was the Director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia at the US National Intelligence Council, the China Division Director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

poster for Mother, Daughter, Sister movie screening

10/25/18 Film Screening & Discussion: Mother, Daughter, Sister

October 4, 2018May 18, 2021Archives & RecordingsLeave a Comment

Thursday, October 25, 2018 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Lindner Family Commons Suite 602
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

promotional image of movie called mother daughter sister

The Elliott School Gender Equality Initiative, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, International Development Studies and Kirana Productions cordially invite you to a film screening and discussion of Amae, Thamee, Ama (Mother, Daughter, Sister). Providing opening remarks will be the film’s director, Jeanne Marie Hallacy.

About the Film:

Mother, Daughter, Sister exposes the Burmese military’s practice of using rape as a weapon of war and gives voice to Kachin and Rohingya women activists calling for justice for these crimes. The film revolves around the stories of four women: Shamima, a volunteer counselor working with survivors of military rape in the Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, Dil Kayas, a teenage survivor and San Lung and Lu Ra, the sister and mother of two Kachin school teachers brutally raped and killed in 2015, allegedly by the Burmese military. Powerful testimonies from survivors, witnesses and activists explore the far-reaching impact of sexual violence upon women and communities, woven with stories of courageous women calling for justice and a unified stand for an end to impunity.

About the Speakers:

Myo Win, Director of Smile Education and Development Foundation

Seng Raw, Deputy General Security of the Kachin Alliance

Jeanne Marie Hallacy’s films are used for human rights education and advocacy. Hallacy develops relationships with her subjects to open their worlds through her lens; she can interview government ministers and slum dwellers and get a story. Her cross-cultural communications skills are an asset to covering issues from refugees to labor rights to people living with HIV. Based in Southeast Asia for decades, she worked with AsiaWorks Television, a regional production company to produce feature news for global broadcasters and advocacy videos for United Nations agencies and international NGOs. She is based in San Francisco and Bangkok and is available to travel worldwide.

headshot of Christina Fink with blue balckground

Dr. Christna Fink joined the Elliott School in 2011. She is a cultural anthropologist who has combined teaching, research, and development work throughout her career. Her areas of expertise include Burma/Myanmar in particular and Southeast Asia more broadly, equitable development, gender and development, and civil society in ethnically diverse states.

book cover with big x in the middle and white background; text: Mr. X and the Pacific by Paul Heer

10/17/18: Book Launch: Mr. X and the Pacific: George F. Kennan and American Policy in East Asia

October 2, 2018May 14, 2021Archives & Recordings, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Wednesday, October 17, 2018 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Room 505
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052

book cover of Mr. X and the Pacific

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Elliott School Book Launch Series cordially invite you to a book launch discussion with Professor Paul Heer about his latest publication, “Mr. X and the Pacific.”

About the Book:

George F. Kennan is well known for articulating the strategic concept of containment, which would be the centerpiece of what became the Truman Doctrine. During his influential Cold War career he was the preeminent American expert on the Soviet Union. In Mr. X and the Pacific, Paul J. Heer explores Kennan’s equally important impact on East Asia.

Heer chronicles and assesses Kennan’s work in affecting U.S. policy toward East Asia. By tracing the origins, development, and bearing of Kennan’s strategic perspective on the Far East during and after his time as director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff from 1947 to 1950, Heer shows how Kennan moved from being an ardent and hawkish Cold Warrior to, by the 1960s, a prominent critic of American participation in the Vietnam War.

Mr. X and the Pacific provides close examinations of Kennan’s engagement with China (both the People’s Republic and Taiwan), Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Country-by-country analysis paired with considerations of the ebb and flow of Kennan’s global strategic thinking result in a significant extension of our estimation of Kennan’s influence and a deepening of our understanding of this key figure in the early years of the Cold War. In Mr. X and the Pacific Heer offers readers a new view of Kennan, revealing his importance and the totality of his role in East Asia policy, his struggle with American foreign policy in the region, and the ways in which Kennan’s legacy still has implications for how the United States approaches the region in the twenty-first century.

About the Speakers:

Headshot of Paul Heer in black suit Paul Heer is an adjunct professor at The George Washington University, where he received his Ph. D. in diplomatic history in 1995. During 2007-15 he served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia—the senior analyst of East Asian affairs in the US Intelligence Community—in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. A career officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, he began that career in 1983 as a political and foreign policy analyst on Southeast Asia before specializing on China as an analyst and analytic manager. He served on the staff of the President’s Daily Brief, and as a member of the CIA’s Senior Analytic Service and the Senior Intelligence Service. He is a recipient of the CIA’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal and the DNI’s National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. Dr. Heer was a Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 2015-16. He was the Visiting Intelligence Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations during 1999-2000 and was subsequently elected a Life Member of the Council. He holds a B.A. degree in history from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa; and an M.A. in history from the University of Iowa. He is the author of Mr. X and the Pacific: George F. Kennan and American Policy in East Asia (Cornell University Press, 2018).