Archives & Recordings – Sigur Center for Asian Studies

November 21, 2025December 9, 2025

[12/9/2025] Oasis Life in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Eastern Turkestan Through Swedish Archival Materials

A graphic with the time, date, location of the event

Tuesday, December 9th, 2025

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

Chung-wen Shih Asian Studies Conference Room, Suite 503

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

RSVP

In this lecture Dr. Hällzon will provide a brief overview of the diverse source materials kept in Swedish archives and museums dealing with Eastern Turkestan. These materials consist of thousands of photographs (many in color), samples of material culture, missionary reports and correspondence (written in Swedish), Eastern Turki manuscript sources and more. These rich and varied collections provide ample possibilities for engaging in historical research on matters related to Uyghur language and culture. While Dr. Hällzon will provide an overall description of what materials one can find in the Swedish archives (and how they came there), the focus in this lecture will be on the role of visual sources and how these can be used for research on oasis life in Eastern Turkestan.

Speaker:

Image of Patrick Hallzon looking at the camera

Dr. Patrick Hällzon (Uppsala University, Sweden) is currently a visiting scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies with his ongoing postdoctoral research project entitled Oasis Life in Eastern Turkestan: The Matrix of Culture, Language and Landscape in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries.

November 17, 2025December 9, 2025

[12/8/2025] Navigating Taiwan’s AI Future: Policy, Innovation, and Governance

Monday, December 8th, 2025

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

RSVP

Taiwan stands at a pivotal juncture in the global artificial intelligence landscape, leveraging its robust semiconductor ecosystem, advanced information and communication technology infrastructure, and dynamic civic technology communities to strengthen its position as a global hub for technology development. Responding to current technological trends and demands, Taiwan is increasingly placing AI as a prominent piece in its domestic economic innovation, governance, and social resilience agendas. Guided by policy frameworks such as the AI Action Plan 2.0 and President William Lai’s recently announced 10 AI Infrastructure Initiatives, Taiwan is integrating AI across industries—from smart applications and infrastructure foundations to key technologies such as silicon photonics, quantum computing, and robotics—while also trying to bolster national security and sovereign AI capabilities and foster equitable economic growth. The Taiwanese government is investing substantially in this endeavor, as it is allocating billions of U.S. dollars in capital to support AI startups, enterprises, and research labs.

How is Taiwan’s AI strategy being implemented across government agencies and integrated into national development priorities? What are the implications of AI adoption for Taiwan’s economic and technological development? How are AI regulatory frameworks, ethical guidelines, and data governance standards, being designed in Taiwan to ensure that technological progress aligns with democratic values?

To address these pressing questions, the Sigur Center is convening a panel of experts and practitioners to unpack Taiwan’s current AI policy priorities, assess the opportunities and challenges in AI adoption across government agencies, and the effects of AI on democratic governance and public trust. Please note that doors will open no sooner than 15 minutes prior to the start of the program.

“AI Governance—Opportunities for Partnership between US and Taiwan,” Susan Aaronson, Research Professor and Director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, The George Washington University

“Application and Limitations of AI in Taiwan: Research and Observations from the Taiwan E-Governance Research Center,” Hsin-Chung Liao, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University

“Strategy and Status on AI and Digital Government in Taiwan.” Cheng-Ming Wang, Director-General of the Department of Digital Government, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Taiwan

Speakers:

Dr. Susan Ariel Aaronson is Research Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University (GWU). Aaronson is also co-principal investigator with the NSF -NIST (National Science Foundation and (National Institute of Standards and Technology Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society, TRAILS, where she leads research on data and AI governance. Aaronson is also named one of GWU’s Public Interest Technology Scholars, where she works to encourage interdisciplinary research on technology in the public interest.

Aaronson is a Senior Fellow at the think tank CIGI in Canada and a Balsilie Scholar in Canada.

Susan is also director of the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub at GWU. The Hub was founded in 2019 and educates policy makers, the press and the public about data governance and data-driven change through conferences, webinars, study groups, primers and scholarly papers. It is the only organization in the world that maps the governance of public, proprietary and personal data at the domestic and international levels. The Hub is currently updating its metric to reflect the changes to data governance wrought by AI. The Hub’s research has been funded by foundations such as Ford and Minderoo. Susan currently directs projects on responsible AI; national security and the free flow of data; participatory AI; AI and trade and AI protectionism. Ahe regularly writes op-eds for Barron’s and Fortune, and was a commentator on economics for NPR’s Marketplace, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and for NBC, CNN, the BBC and PBS.

Image of Hsin Chung Liao looking forwards at the camera in front of a patterned background

Dr. Hsin Chung Liao is a Professor in the Department of Public Administration at National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Studies and Public Affairs from Cleveland State University in 2011 and is currently a Research Fellow at the Digital Governance Research Center of NCCU, as well as the vice executive director of the Transparency International Taiwan chapter.

His main research areas include Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications, spatial analysis, integrity governance, and digital governance. In recent years, his research has focused on the impact of corruption control and digital governance.

Dr. Liao has served as a member of the Central Integrity Committee of the Executive Yuan, a review committee member for the Transparency Crystal Award, and as a research and evaluation as well as integrity committee member for the Taipei City Government. He has also served on integrity committees in various central and local government agencies.

His research has been published in Government Information Quarterly, Journal of Public Administration, Political Science Review, Taiwan Political Science Review, and Journal of Administration and Policy. His recent studies explore topics such as the impact of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on corruption control, the effect of whistleblower protection mechanisms on corruption control, and the influence of AI
development on corruption control.

Mr. Wang Cheng-Ming currently serves as the Director General of the Department of Digital Government under the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA). Prior to joining MODA, he held positions across various public and private sector institutions, including the National Development Council (NDC), the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) under the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the Taiwan Business Bank (TBB).

Mr. Wang holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Yuan Ze University (YZU) and a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Management from the National University of Singapore (NUS). His expertise spans information management, algorithms, cybersecurity, project management, and public administration.

Throughout his career, he has overseen Taiwan’s fourth and fifth phases of e-Government (Digital Government) service implementation, as well as the review of central government ICT programs. He is currently responsible for advancing initiatives related to Smart Government development.

October 13, 2025October 21, 2025

[10/16/2025] Status Update: Human Rights in Xinjiang

A graphic with the time, date, and location of the event plus a picture of the speakers

Thursday, October 16th, 2025

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET

Chung-Wen Shih Asian Studies Conference Room

Suite 503, Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

On October 1, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a new statement expressing concern over continued human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China. OHCHR specifically cited cultural oppression and imprisonment of scholars. Yet Xinjiang has dropped out of the Western news cycle—so what’s actually going on? This just-in-time-talk offers expert perspectives on the OHCHR statement and an update on the Uyghur region of Xinjiang or East Turkestan.

Speaker:

Dr. Elise Anderson is a practitioner and scholar whose work focuses on Uyghur communities in the People’s Republic of China and across global diaspora communities. Dr. Anderson is widely recognized as an expert on Uyghur issues, having spent nearly the past two decades in close engagement on the topic, including a long stint living and conducting research in the Uyghur Region from 2012 to 2016. She has wide-ranging professional experience working in human rights and rule of law research, human rights advocacy, international development programming, academic and nonprofit grant-writing, university teaching, and editing. She is based in Washington, DC, where she works in a variety of consulting capacities and holds affiliations as a Professorial Lecturer in the Elliott School and Nonresident Visiting Scholar in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University; Nonresident Senior Fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy; and Developmental Editor for Stray Cats Ink.

Dr. Anderson is an experienced speaker who has given dozens of talks and lectures at universities and other institutions, testified before the Canadian House of Commons and Uyghur Tribunal, and interpreted between Uyghur and English before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Her commentary on the Uyghur crisis has appeared in a number of major media outlets, and her research has been published in both scholarly and public-facing journals. She is also a trained vocalist, musician, and dancer who has formally studied classic Uyghur music (among other idioms). She earned dual Ph.D. degrees in Central Eurasian Studies and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University-Bloomington. She is an alumna of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and Fulbright-Hays and was a National Finalist for the White House Fellowship in 2022.

Discussant:

Sean Roberts, pictured in professional attire

Sean R. Roberts is a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs and Dean of Undergraduate Studies at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He received his MA in Visual Anthropology (2001) and his PhD in Cultural Anthropology (2003) from the University of Southern California. Both during the completion of his PhD and following graduation, he worked for a total of 7 years for the United States Agency for International Development in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, managing democracy, governance, and human rights programs in the five Central Asian Republics. He also taught for two years as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Europe, Eurasian, and Russian Studies before coming to the Elliott School in 2008. Academically, he has written extensively on the Uyghur people of China and Central Asia about whom he wrote his dissertation, and his 2020 book The War on the Uyghurs (Princeton University Press) was recognized by the journal Foreign Affairs as one of their “best of books” for 2021. He also continues to do analytical work for development organizations, particularly in the former Soviet Union. He is frequently consulted by development organizations on issues related to governance, democratization, human rights, and the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, and he comments on current events in the media related both to the situation of the Uyghur people in China and to political developments in Central Asia. Dr. Roberts teaches core classes in the IDS program as well as two seminars open to all students: “Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Minorities, and Development” and “The Belt and Road Initiative: China’s Approach to International Development.”

October 10, 2025November 14, 2025

[11/13/2025] NBAS: “Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures”

A graphic with the event title, location, date, and speaker photos

Thursday, November 13th, 2025

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Online Via Zoom

RSVP

Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures attempts to discern the future trajectory and endpoint of Sino-Middle Eastern relations – are we on the precipice of a post-American Chinese hegemony in the region? Or are we reaching the outer limits of what is feasible within what are essentially transactional ties? Drawing on a wide range of multilingual sources from 2010 to 2023, and based on a framework of thin constructivism, the book – which will be introduced in this talk – delves into the Chinese, Saudi and Assadist Syrian elite narratives regarding the Middle Eastern regional order and China’s envisaged place within it. By centering local perspectives, it offers insights into how these actors –with diverse positionalities in the region (vis-à-vis the United States) and different national capabilities– are debating the future of China in the Middle East (and against the dominant vision of Sino-American rivalry over the region), and what the juxtaposition of their multiple narratives mean for where things are headed.

Speakers:

Dr. Andrea Ghiselli is a Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Exeter, as well as the Head of Research of the ChinaMed Project. He is also the author of Protecting China’s Interests Overseas: Securitization and Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-author of Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures: In the Eye of the Beholder. (Cambridge University Press, 2025).

Mohammed Alsudairi is Lecturer in Politics and International Relations of the Arabic Speaking World at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University. He is the Head of the Asian Studies Program at the King Faisal Centre for Research Studies and a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship. His publications have appeared in The Middle East Journal, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Oxford University’s Journal of Islamic Studies. His most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Andrea Ghiselli, Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures, is out with Cambridge University Press (2025).

October 6, 2025October 23, 2025

[10/22/2025] Film Screening – Thabyay: Creative Resistance in Myanmar

Graphic displaying the basic information about the event along with images of the two speakers

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025

5:15 PM – 6:45 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

What happens when non-violent leaders are pushed to support armed struggle against a brutal regime in a forgotten war?

Myanmar is one of the deadliest conflict areas in the world, yet there is little international attention paid to the ongoing brutal oppression there, and to the courageous resistance to it. Thabyay: Creative Resistance in Myanmar follows four democracy revolutionaries who are finding creative means to fight against the military junta. Some take up arms while struggling to stay true to their commitment to non-violence, while others engage in “artivism,” using music, poetry and art to bring about a peaceful, free, democratic and truly inclusive future for all people in Myanmar.

THE ARTIST

Susanna Hla Hla Soe

An elected minister in the shadow government, Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe is a painter and advocate for women and children affected by conflict.

THE POET

Maung Saungkha

Beloved poet and renowned free speech activist, Maung Saungkha now leads the first Bamar ethnic army from the jungles of Myanmar.

THE MUSICIAN

Phoe San

Musician and composer, Phoe San harnesses the expressive power of music to support the revolution and heal trauma for those impacted by war.

THE ORGANIZER

Thet Swe Win

Human rights activist Thet Swe Win is an “artivist” organizing events for painters, poets and musicians to share the soft power of creativity in the revolution.

About the Speakers

Myra Dahgaypaw is the Senior Partnership Officer for International Justice and Accountability at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and a member of the US Campaign for Burma’s board of directors. For over 20 years, she has advanced U.S. Burma policy, promoted human rights and inclusive democracy, and supported the Burmese diaspora in the U.S.

Naw Lar Say Waa is a journalist, researcher, and storyteller from Burma/Myanmar’s borderlands. Her work spans journalism, research, and advocacy; amplifying voices from conflict-affected communities.

About the Moderator

Christina Fink oversees the MA in International Development Studies Program and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses on international development.

She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

She has combined research, teaching, and international development work throughout her career. Primarily based in mainland Southeast Asia from 1995-2010, her full-time positions and program evaluation consultancies addressed civil society capacity building in Myanmar with particular attention to gender and social inclusion, and political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, she also wrote Living Silence in Burma: Surviving Under Military Rule (Zed Books: 1st edition 2001, 2nd edition 2009) and served as a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand.

In recent years she has contributed to the development of the GenderPro capacity-building and credentialing program run by GW’s Global Women’s Institute in partnership with UNICEF. She also served on the United States Institute of Peace senior study group on Myanmar which produced two reports: China’s Role in Burma’s Internal Conflicts (2018) and Anatomy of the Military Coup and Recommendations for the US Response (2022). Her latest publications have addressed the position of religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, anti-Muslim violence and the role of Facebook, and the many facets of civil society engagement in development in Myanmar.

September 23, 2025October 21, 2025

[10/07/2025] Buddhism and Healing in the Modern World

Tuesday, October 7th, 2025

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

This talk concerns a contemporary Asian American Buddhist healing community. Cheung Seng Kan (b. 1955) is a Chinese American religious healer who employs an eclectic mix of qigong, Reiki, and Buddhist spells. He shares these practices and exchanges healing with an immigrant community in the New York City area. This talk presents the Sinophone resources he uses to teach himself and others religious healing arts as an example of the transnational network of Chinese American Buddhist information.

About the Speaker

A picture of Rosalie Chen, smiling and looking at the camera

Dr. Kin Cheung is an associate professor of East and South Asian Religions at Moravian University, and chair of the Global Religions and Philosophy Departments. He researches how contemporary agents use Buddhist doctrine and ritual practices in Chinese and American contexts as well as transnational networks. He has published on such subjects as Buddhists engaging with healing, meditation, ethical dilemmas, economics, capitalism, secularism, science, and technology. His work appears in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Religion, State and Society; The Journal of Buddhist Ethics; Miracles: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion; Teaching About Asia in a Time of Pandemic; Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources; Studies in Chinese Religions; and Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness.

September 22, 2025October 21, 2025

[10/04/2025] The Dalai Lama at 90: Human Ethics, Global Culture and Changing International Norms on the World Stage

An image with the title, date, and location of the event

Saturday, October 4th, 2025

12:00 PM – 5:30 PM ET

Harry Harding Auditorium

Room 213

Lindner Family Commons

and Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

As the 14th Dalai Lama turns 90, seventy-five years have passed since he assumed the position of head of the Tibetan state and government. Emerging on the world stage following the fall of Tibet in 1959, he became a prominent global figure during the era when newly independent states were reshaping international relations after the Cold War’s end. How did the Dalai Lama’s unique position as both spiritual and political leader influence the development of global norms around human ethics, freedom, and non-violent resistance? How did his advocacy for universal values and ecumenicism fit into the evolving discourse of international governance in the post-Cold War period? What will be the trajectory of his normative influence as the world confronts new geopolitical challenges and shifting power dynamics?

12:00 Welcome

12:20 Keynote

1:00 Lunch

2:00 Panel on Shaping Global Ethics

3:30 Coffee Break

4:00 Roundtable Discussion, Voice for the Voiceless, new memoir by the Dalai Lama

5:30 Open Plenary

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Kunchok Dorjee, Johns Hopkins University

Nicole Willock, Old Dominion University

An image of Elsie Walker smiling and looking at the camera

Elsie Walker, Founder, Peak Enterprise

An image of Amina Tirana smiling and looking at the camera

Amina Tirana, New York University.

Convener: Dr. Tashi Rabgey

September 19, 2025October 21, 2025

[10/6/2025] Teaching Asia During a Resurgence of Anti-Asian Racism

Monday, October 6th, 2025

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET

Room 505

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

How do we teach Asia when Asians in America are so often exoticized, peripheralized, and radically othered? This talk aims to help educators counter naïve cultural relativism through case studies of teaching about Chinese physicians who may withhold diagnosis from patients; Indian Ayurvedic healers’ prescription of mercury; and Japanese Buddhist priests bar owners who serve alcohol to patrons. It explores teaching strategies and a pedagogical framework to move students to more fully engage with human difference and to learn from Asian religious contexts and cultural values. This event is co-sponsored by the GW Department of English and the Asian American Studies Minor.

About the Speakers

September 10, 2025October 21, 2025

[9/26/2025] World War II at 80: War Generations, Society, and Memory in the Asia Pacific

A graphic with the date, time, location, and title of the event

Friday, September 26th, 2025

1:00 PM – 5:30 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

As eighty years have passed since World War II came to an end in the Asia Pacific, the implications of the passing of the war generations for the war memories became more urgent. How did war generations fit into the domestic politics of memory in the postwar period? How did war generations fit into the transnational politics of memory in the postwar period? What will be the shapes of war memories without the presence of the war generations?

1:00 Welcome

1:10 Keynote Speech

2:25 Coffee Break

2:30 Panel One

3:40 Coffee Break

3:50 Panel Two

5:00 Plenary Discussion

5:30 End

“The Passing Past: Generations and the Future of War Memory,” Carol Gluck, George Samson Professor Emerita of History, Columbia University

“Two Faces of Memory: Japan-China Perspectives on the War Orphans Left Behind in China,” Irene Hyangseon Ahn, Assistant Professor of Justice, Law, & Criminology, American University

“The Loss Boys: Displaced and Disabled Japanese Veterans of the Second World War,” Lee K. Pennington is an Associate Professor of History, U.S. Naval Academy

“Japanese Mediascapes and Historical Memories of the Asia-Pacific War,” Erik Ropers, Director, Asian Studies Program and International Studies Program

“China’s ‘Date Debate’-How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II,” Emily Matson, Professorial Lecturer, the George Washington University

Moderators: Mike Mochizuki, Japan-U.S. Relations Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, the George Washington University, and Daqing Yang, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, the George Washington University

About the Keynote Speaker

Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History. She specializes in modern Japan, from the late nineteenth century to the present; international relations; World War II, and history-writing and public memory in Asia and the West. She received her B.A. from Wellesley (1962) and her Ph.D. from Columbia (1977). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society; former President of the Association for Asian Studies; currently co-chair of the Trustees Emeriti of Asia Society and member of the Board of Directors of Japan Society. She is a founding member and now chair of Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought.

About the Speakers

Dr. Irene Hyangseon Ahn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, & Criminology at American University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2024, and was formerly a Predoctoral Fellow at Academia Sinica from 2022 to 2023. Her research focuses on the experiences of marginalized individuals and groups affected by state violence. She is particularly interested in Law and Society, Legal Mobilizations, Global Justice, and Transitional Justice in East Asia and beyond. Trained in comparative-historical and ethnographic methods, she seeks to understand how communities aggrieved by state violence engage with state authorities to address past injustices through a sociological lens.

A picture of Lee Pennington, smiling and looking at the camera

Lee K. Pennington is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

Erik Ropers is a historian of modern Japan. His first book, Voices of the Korean Minority in Postwar Japan, examines the ways in which Japanese-language scholars have understood and represented colonial Koreans subject to enforced labor and enforced military prostitution, as well as Korean victims of the atomic bombings in Japanese postwar historical writing. Current projects include a book manuscript looking at visual representations of wartime Japan in Japanese comic culture, partly drawing on past research, and a second book manuscript examining the legal history of the Hanaoka Incident, its appearance at the Yokohama War Crimes Tribunal, and concomitant local memories of the Chinese uprising in rural Akita Prefecture.

Dr. Ropers serves on the executive board for the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies.

Emily Matson is a professorial lecturer of International Affairs at GWU’s Elliott School. She is also a fellow in the third cohort of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations (2025), a Stephen M. Kellen term member on the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research affiliate at the University of Virginia’s East Asia Center. She is a passionate historian and educator and has designed and taught a variety of courses in modern East Asian History at Georgetown University, American University, the College of William and Mary, and Randolph College.

Emily’s first manuscript, “China’s Date Debate: How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II,” is under contract with the University of Michigan Press, China Understandings Today Series, to be published in June 2026: https://press.umich.edu/Books/C/China-s-Date-Debate3.

Her research interests include Manchuria (东北), historical memory, museums, and World War II. Emily speaks/reads/writes fluent Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, professional Japanese, and intermediate Russian.

About the Moderators

A picture of Mike Mochizuki, smiling and looking at the camera

Professor Mike Mochizuki holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs in George Washington University. He co-directs the “Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific” project of the Sigur Center. Professor Mochizuki was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the Elliott School from 2010 to 2014 and Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies from 2001 to 2005. Previously he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was also Co-Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy at RAND and has taught at the University of Southern California and Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. His recent books include Memory, Identity, and Commemorations of World War II: Anniversary Politics in Asia Pacific (co-editor and co-author, 2018); Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (co-editor and co-author, 2017); Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (co-editor and author, 2016); and The Okinawa Question: Futenma, the US-Japan Alliance, and Regional Security (co-editor and author, 2013). He has published articles in such journals as The American Interest, Asia Pacific Review, Foreign Affairs, International Security, Japan Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Nonproliferation Review, Survival, and Washington Quarterly. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Allies and Rivals: the U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Rise of China.

A historian of modern Japan, Daqing Yang has research interests in the following three areas: the technological construction of the Japanese empire; the history and memory of World War II; and Japan’s relationship with Asia in the postwar period. In 2004, Dr. Yang was appointed a Historical Consultant to The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group at the U.S. National Archives. He has served as the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and also taught at University of Tokyo, Waseda University (Japan) and Yonsei University (Korea). The founding co-director of the Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia Pacific program based at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, he is currently working on historians and reconciliation in postwar Europe and East Asia as well as energy resources in the Japanese empire. Dr. Yang is the author of Technology of Empire: Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion, 1883-1945, and has co-edited several books.

September 8, 2025October 21, 2025

[9/22/2025] Screening of Sinophone Independent Films: “All Static & Noise”

A poster that says the dates of the film screening and the title "Screening of Sinophone Independent Films"

Monday, September 22nd, 2025

7:00 PM – 9:30 PM ET

Room 113

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

China’s independent film scene, once vibrant, now lies in ruins—shattered bricks and scattered debris. Yet survivors and newcomers continue to gather these fragments, seeking to rebuild hope through the power of cinema. Co-hosted by Non-profit JF Books and the Sinovisual Culture and Art Institute and CIFA, in collaboration with George Washington University, Georgetown University, USCET, and CAF, the inaugural 2025 Screening of Sinophone Independent Films opens a raw and authentic window onto China’s grassroots realities. At the same time, it interlaces Taiwanese documentaries with voices from Hong Kong, Uyghurs, the Philippines, and Africa—together sketching the silhouette of independent cinema’s resilient soul amid the ruins.

Theme of the festival: “Real Edges: Identity, Struggle, and Memory in a Shifting World”

What drives a Uyghur father and daughter to defy China’s censorship in Xinjiang? How do they preserve their bond amid cultural erasure? All Static & Noise unveils their fight for truth with haunting visuals and raw testimonies, stirring curiosity about resilience in a silenced land.

About the Guest of Honor

Jewher Ilham is Associate Producer of All Static & Noise, an author, and advocate for the Uyghur community and for her imprisoned father, Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti. In addition to appearing in the film, she hosted production in Washington, DC and Bloomington, IN. She was hugely instrumental in facilitating community engagement during production and post-production and advised the team on important aspects of the Uyghur experience. She provided expert advice, contributed archival footage, and connected the team with experts, witnesses, and translators. She also brought in many of the film’s participants. Ilham has testified before the U.S. Congress and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, published op-eds in The New York Times, CNN and the Guardian, and received numerous international awards on behalf of her father including the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize. In 2015, she recounted her experiences in her book, Jewher Ilham: A Uyghur’s Fight to Free Her Father. Her second book, Because I Have To: The Path to Survival, the Uyghur Struggle was released in 2022. Ilham currently works at the Worker Rights Consortium as Forced Labor Project Coordinator and serves as a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour.