Spotlight April 2021
CAS in the Spotlight highlights news about what we have been working on and upcoming events. Look for a new volume two or three times each semester!
Three Kinds of Courage and the Importance of Telling the Xinjiang Story Over and Over
By Darren Byler
Over the past several years discussions of the “” system that targets hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other peoples in Northwest China in the has slowly gathered mainstream media attention. I remember giving a talk to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China in Beijing almost exactly three years ago and explaining how the unfolding mass internment campaign was attacking Muslim social life. Based on their questions, the dozens of international journalists in the audience appeared to be learning about the situation for the first time. I was surprised, because important stories from and had already been published months before, laying out much of the systems that were being implemented. But back then, even in Beijing, the Uyghur region of Xinjiang felt far away.
I remember telling the journalists who had gathered in the extraterritorial space of the embassy where the event was held that it was really up to them to bear witness to what was happening in Xinjiang. If they didn’t tell the story, no one would.
Asian Reflections on Trauma and Healing
The Center for Asian Studies has developed this forum for recognizing and learning from the ways peoples in different parts of Asia have responded to traumatic events and crises. We are thinking, in particular, of events relating to racial and ethnic violence, discrimination, and prejudice within Asian societies. We are especially interested in learning more about how Asian societies heal, reconcile, and cultivate resilience as they move beyond such events. How are events remembered or memorialized in public? In private? In literature, poetry, music, song, and other cultural expressions? How are victims celebrated and mourned?
We are primarily interested in sharing examples of translations, images, recordings, or narrative accounts, rather than scholarly analyses of these things. We will continue to update this ongoing blog featuring these submissions as they come in and will eventually feature them in an upcoming e-newsletter. We are also interested in the possibility of holding an event that features readings, viewings, and/or reflections by faculty on these materials.
We view these posts as our particular contribution – as Asianists – to recognizing the trauma that our community has suffered and providing what we hope might be helpful perspectives from Asia.
A Decade of Fukushima: Scholars discuss the implications of the Fukushima disaster for how we live in the nuclear age
By Tim Oakes
On March 18th and 19th, the Center for Asian Studies hosted an international group of scholars for the workshop A Decade of Fukushima: Socio-Technical Perspectives on Surviving the Nuclear Age in Japan. Professor Hirokazu Miyazaki of Northwestern University launched the workshop on Thursday evening with his keynote address “Nuclear Compensation: Hope, Responsibility, and Collaboration around Fukushima.” On Friday, workshop presentations were delivered by Professors Ryo Morimoto (Princeton University), Hiroko Kumaki (Dartmouth College), Noriko Manabe (Temple University), and Sulfikar Amir (Nanyang Technology University). Discussion comments were provided by faculty Kate Goldfarb, Tim Oakes, Donna Goldstein, Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, and CAS postdoctoral fellow Darren Byler. A recording of the workshop can be found here.
The Political Crisis in Myanmar: Panel Discussion with Emerging Myanmar Scholars
On February 24th, CAS partnered with Aruna Global South to co-host the panel discussion “The Political Crisis in Myanmar: Nuanced Perspectives on the Nation’s Past, Present, and Future.” The panel featured four emerging scholars with with indigenous and heritage ties to Myanmar: Than Toe Aung (MA student, Central European University), Ashley Aye Aye Dun (PhD student, Brown University), Jangai Jap (PhD student, George Washington University), and Htet Thiha Zaw (PhD student, University of Michigan). The panel was organized by PhD student Chu May Pang, and co-moderated with CAS Director Tim Oakes.
The Ends of Kinship: Connecting Himalayan Lives between Nepal and New York
Professor Sienna Craig, Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Professor Carole McGranahan
On Thursday, February 18, THI/CAS hosted a book event for Professor Sienna Craig (Dartmouth College, anthropology)'s new book The Ends of Kinship: Connecting Himalayan Lives between Nepal and New York (University of Washington Press, 2020). Approximately 60-70 people attended this online event with Professor Craig, Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, and CU Professor Carole McGranahan.
We want to congratulate this year's graduating class! They finished their degrees under difficulty circumstances, and we want to celebrate their achievements!
Here is a sample of the theses from this year's graduates:
Ann Feller: Painting Identity on the Peninsula: A Century-Long Search for ‘Korean’ Art
Makinna Miller: How do money laundering practices in Chinese state-owned banks compare to money laundering in privately owned banks in Europe and North America?
Amy Yuka Vogenthaler: Atomic Bomb Nationalism: The Construction of the Japanese Postwar Identity Through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum