The Center for Asian Studies (CAS) held its first annual Asia Day on March 16th. Cultural activities included music and dance from Bali, China, Korea and India; make your own sushi and paper demonstrations; origami workshops; martial arts demonstrations; tea ceremony; informative talks about Dushanbe, China, Tibet, Nepal, and Japan; and documentaries from around Asia. Children and adults enjoyed a sampling of samosas, pecoras, Chinese dumplings and eggrolls, and Japanese ichigo daifuku. With the goal of introducing Asia and Asian Studies to CU students, high school students, and members of the community, the event was a big success and a lot of fun! Funding was provided by Freeman and DOE grants. The Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ), based in EALC, is a national professional organization with close to one thousand members across North America and in other parts of the world. With support from the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, ATJ promotes study abroad in Japan by U.S. undergraduates and administers a scholarship program that has awarded nearly 200 scholarships over the past three years. Funding for the Bridging Scholarships comes from U.S. corporations and private foundations via the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. In June Bridging Scholarships will be awarded to 70 students for study abroad in Japan beginning in Fall 2002. Recipients have included University of Colorado students studying abroad at CU exchange programs with Kansai Gaidai and Tsukuba Universities in Japan. The Chinese club meets about every week in the fall and every other week in the spring. Students chatted in Chinese, watched Chinese movies, had Chinese food and learned how to make Chinese dumplings at the meetings in the fall semester. Students also watched Chinese movies, had authentic Chinese food at Chinese retaruants and learned how to paly Chiense chess in the spring semester. The Chinese club is currently run by Eno Compton and Tara Bardeen. It provides students with opportunities to understand China as well as to entertain themselves in Chinese cultural settings. Four short documentaries by Chinese filmmakers were shown on November 8―"Root," "Weihui Road," "Romantic Lake," and "A New Life"―followed by discussion with CU Chinese studies faculty. The Third Annual EALC Language Contest, coordinated by Fang-yi Chao and Kyoko Saegusa, sponsored by EALC and CAS, was held on April 25, with the assistance of Faye Kleeman (judge), Pori Park, Hideko Shimizu, a number of Chinese and Japanese TAs, and two guests to help out with Level II competition: Interpreting. About fifty students of Chinese, Japanese and Korean participated. Two winners were selected for each level. A T-shirt was designed for the event and given to each participant and assistant. New this year was a skit presentation by students of Korean 1020. EALC celebrated the Chinese New Year by sponsoring a party on February 18. Activities included students performing skits and reciting Chinese poems, Chinese Kong Fu and Chinese Fengshui demonstrations. The food was great and student demonstrations and activities organized by the Chinese Club made this event highly successful. More than sixty people attended the party and all enjoyed the celebration very much. On November 16-17, EALC hosted an international conference titled "Re-Presenting Chinese Religion." The focus was on determining how best to present the current state of scholarship on a variety of topics within Chinese religions to a Western audience. The presenters came from as far away as Japan and included primarily established mid-career scholars who had made significant contributions to the study of Chinese religions. Topics ranged from Taoist meditation and Pure Land Buddhism to alchemy, geomancy and ecstatic religion in the modern People's Republic. The conference drew a large crowd, including many scholars from around the country who were in town for the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, which followed immediately after the conclusion of this conference. The conference was supported by grants from EALC, Religious Studies, the Center for Asian Studies, the Center for Humanities and the Arts, and the Graduate Council on Arts and the Humanities. The Fourth Annual CUEAGA Conference, "Creating Culture," held October 27-28, was a great success. Scholars at the graduate level from England and the United States participated in the conference events. Keynote speaker this year was Stephen R. Bokenkamp from Indiana University. Naoko Asada - M.A., Japanese * * * Chad A. Cecere - Lamont Scholarship for Japanese EALC, CAS, and the Japan America Society of Colorado sponsored the debut of the film "Uncommon Courage: Patriotism and Civil Liberties" on November 9 at the Boulder Public Library. The film deals with Japanese Americans who served in the Military Intelligence Service in World War II. Filmmaker gayle yamada was present and participated in a community panel discussion after the showing. The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and the Center for Asian Studies is the recipient of a five-year grant of about $500,000 per year to enhance undergraduate East Asian studies. The grant supports the initial hires of three new faculty members in East Asian area studies. It also provides support for Asian Studies faculty to develop new courses; provides scholarships for undergraduate students in Japanese, Chinese and Asian Studies; and provides funding for additional purchases for the East Asian library collections. It subsidizes one new summer course to be taught in East Asia each year. The first of the Freeman-supported summer courses in East Asia will be taught in Japan this summer by Laurel Rasplica Rodd. Students in "Journey to the Interior: Basho's Travels in the Far North" will trace the route taken by Japanese poet Matsuo Basho when he set off on a five-month "poetic pilgrimage" in 1689. The class will read Basho's haibun diary "Oku no hosomichi" (in Japanese or English, depending on language skills) and compare Basho's world with contemporary Japan. Students will explore haikai, haibun, and haiku composition, while visiting sites Basho visited and exploring the connections to Japanese religious, literary, and cultural history that made them meaningful to Basho. For the fifth year, the Program for Teaching East Asia: Japan offered "It's Elementary: A Japanese Language-Culture Service Project." Four EALC undergraduates spent spring semester in this service project, sharing their expertise in Japanese language and culture with first-grade students in the Boulder Valley School District. The interns this year were Shannon McKay, Jessica Rodd, Sayuri Murrain, and Minsun Kim. They began their internship in January with several training and lesson development sessions with TEA staff. Between February and April, they made a total of seventy visits to twenty first-grade classrooms throughout Boulder Valley; they worked with approximately five hundred elementary students, earning CU credit for spending many hours preparing and presenting lessons. All of the interns responded to teachers' requests that they teach the first graders how to say and write their names in Japanese. Shannon prepared a lesson in which students considered how various animals sound in Japanese. Jessica presented a day in the life of a Japanese student, using large photographs and artifacts from TEA's Japan resource center. Sayuri had first graders explore the Japanese language through fruits and foods. Minsun taught about the tradition of obento, the Japanese box lunch, and had students design an artistic obento. The interns also presented kamishibai, Japanese storyboard tales. The Boulder community is fortunate to have CU students who are interested in sharing their expertise on Japan while learning firsthand about the realities of an elementary classroom. The Japanese Speech Contest was held on November 20, sponsored by the Japan Foundation and organized by Minori Murata. Its objective is to provide contestants with an opportunity to develop communication skills vital to students studying the language. Twenty-five students from one area middle school, one high school, and six colleges and universities participated and competed, with presentations in several skill levels. Among the judges was Vice Consul Koichi Tsuchida of the Consulate General of Japan at Denver. The middle school skits were especially enjoyed by the audience, and teachers appreciated the opportunity to be a part of the event. There was fabulous food and cultural entertainment, with performances on the traditional Japanese koto. EALC held a party on October 1 to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn. More than seventy people attended the party: EALC faculty, staff, students, and some CU faculty from the Taiwanese Professors Association. Lots of students performed at the party and those attending enjoyed the great Chinese food and the demonstrations, including students performing skits, Chinese minority dance, Chinese Kong Fu and Chinese songs. This exciting event was organized by Fang-yi Chao and several of the Teaching Assistants in the Chinese program. This academic year EALC offered for the first time Beginning Korean (KREN 1010, 1020), Introduction to Korean Civilization (KREN 1011), and Korean Religion and Culture (KREN 3441). Students can fulfill the university language requirement by taking three consecutive Korean Language classes (1010, 1020, and 2010). In addition, Introduction to Korean Civilization and Korean Religion and Culture were awarded core curriculum status for Cultural and Gender Diversity. The classes were well attended. The Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA), a sponsored program of EALC, began its second year of activities in January of 2002. During the 2001-2002 academic year, TEA offered seven workshops on East Asia for Colorado elementary and secondary school teachers. This year's workshop series included a one-day program on China in world history and a workshop on Postwar Japan. In addition, TEA collaborated with CU's University-in-Residence Program to offer workshops for teachers in Sterling, Buena Vista, and Montrose. Teaching East Asia will continue to offer professional development programs to K-12 teachers from around the nation this summer with teacher study tours to China and Japan and summer institutes on Chinese and Japanese history to be held on the CU campus. Approximately eighty teachers will study East Asian culture through these summer programs. For the first time this spring, students presenting outstanding projects in Asian history and culture at the Colorado History Day competition were eligible for special recognition through an award sponsored by Teaching East Asia and EALC. Winners of this special recognition were: Paula Lee, Baker Middle School, Denver, for her Individual Media project entitled "Peaceful Revolutionary: Mahatma Gandhi" and Hannah Montgomery, Boulder High School, for her paper titled "The Tiananmen Square Democracy Movement: Revolution, Reaction, or Reform?" Matthew F. CARTER (M.A., Chinese, 1993) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, writing his Ph.D. dissertation on early eighth-century Chinese court poetry. Tim Wai-keung CHAN (Ph.D., Chinese, 1999) is Assistant Professor of Chinese at the University of Sydney (Australia). He has published an article on the "Ganyu" poems of Chen Zi'ang (659-700) in the most recent issue of the journal T'oung Pao. Timothy M. DAVIS (M.A., Chinese, 1999) is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University, focusing on medieval Chinese literature. He will take his comprehensive examinations later this year and then begin work on his dissertation, probably on a topic dealing with the third or early fourth century. Donni Gye CORROW-SANCHEZ (B.A., Japanese, 1995) taught English in Tokyo for nine years and has worked since 1997 with the SpectraLink Global Accounts team, a company that manufactures in-building wireless telephone systems for the U.S. and global marketplace. She has become fluent in Spanish as well as Japanese, thanks to her Mexican husband and his three daughters. Suzanne HARRIS (B.A., Japanese, 1995) has lived in San Francisco for the past four years and expects to stay in the Bay Area long-term. She is currently running business development for a small U.S.-Japan business and technology consulting firm, and she travels to Japan several times a year.
sue_chan99@hotmail.com. HONG Yue will receive her M.A. in Chinese literature this summer, with a thesis on the emperor and poet Cao Pi (187-226). She will begin Ph.D. study this fall at the University of Wisconsin, where she will focus on medieval Chinese literature. JIA Jinhua (Ph.D., Chinese, 1999) is Assistant Professor of Chinese at the City University of Hong Kong. She has recently published a book on the poetry collections arising from various assemblages of poets at the Tang-dynasty (618-907) court, Tangdai jihui zongji yu shirenqun yanjiu (Beijing daxue chubanshe). Melanie KING (B.A., Japanese and Art History, 1999) has joined the staff of the Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA) at CU as a project assistant. Melanie contributes to TEA's China and Japan workshops and will be assisting in coordinating the summer institute for high school teachers on Japan's occupation years. Andy KNIGHT (M.A., Chinese, 2000) is a Ph.D. student at Yale University, focusing on medieval Chinese literature. He will take his comprehensive examinations later this year and then begin work on his dissertation, probably on a topic dealing with the seventh or eighth century. Stephan N. KORY (M.A., Chinese, 1998) will begin Ph.D. study in Chinese literature and religion this fall at Indiana University, after spending the past few years living in Japan and Taiwan. Brigitta A. LEE (M.A., Chinese, 1998) is a Ph.D. student at Princeton University, focusing on ancient and medieval Chinese literature. She has one more year of coursework before she will begin dissertation research. Heng-hsing LIU will receive the Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature-Chinese track this year; his dissertation is entitled "From Nativism to Nationalism: Taiwanese Fiction of the Japanese Occupation." He is returning to Taiwan to take up a teaching position. Michelle LOW served as lead graduate teacher for the Chinese teaching assistants, and has completed her qualifying exams to become a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature-Chinese Track. She will be taking a position as Instructor of Chinese at the University of Colorado at Denver this fall. Coline McCONNEL (M.A., Japanese, 1995) received her M.A. from the
Department of Social & Personality Psychology at the University of
California, Berkeley. She worked for a dot.com for a year, creating virtual
expert salespeople. She is
currently doing health policy research at the University of California, San
Francisco, working on the question, "How cost-effective are different
HIV prevention programs in the developing world (Mexico, Uganda, South
Africa, Russia, India)?" She also became a National Ski Patroller at Heavenly
Resort in South Lake Tahoe, California, last year, and has been lucky
enough to backpack in Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Japan, China, and Tibet in
recent years.
Brandi PUMMELL (B.A., 1996, Japanese/International Affairs) is working as a judicial assistant/ law clerk for Jthe Colorado Supreme Court until the end of the summer. She then hopes to practice civil litigation in Denver. She took the Foreign Service written exam in April and will hopefully take the written exam in August. Michelle SANS (M.A., Chinese, 2001) is currently the on-site director of UC-Denver's study-abroad program in Beijing. She has published an article on the Tang poet Li Bai (701-762) in the most recent issue of T'ang Studies. Caroline SHELTON (B.A., Japanese, 1995) worked in Japan for two years as a Coordinator for International Relations on the JET program, returning to Seattle to work at the Consulate General of Japan. She then got a Master's degree in Social Work and currently works as a case manager at a non-profit job training program in the culinary arts that serves homeless and disadvantaged adults, providing resources, counseling, and other support. She has also worked with a variety of immigrant refugee populations in Seattle on issues of health, cultural adaptation, domestic violence prevention, and other social justice issues. carolinemshelton@yahoo.com.
Franc SHELTON (M.A., Chinese, 1998) will begin his final year of law school at UCLA in August. He is currently interning at a Chinese law firm in Beijing. He is also the co-editor-in-chief of the Pacific Basin Law Journal, a UCLA student publication focusing of legal issues of the Pacific Rim. franc_shao@yahoo.com.
Naoki SHIKIMACHI (M.A., Japanese, 2000) is currently living in Saga, Japan and teaching at Saga Yobiko.
Shannon SORENSEN (B.A., Japanese, 2001) has been working for Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center in Breckinridge, Colorado, as a conference coordinator/event planner. She plans to go back to Japan some time in the future. Carla STANSIFER (M.A., Chinese, 2000) is working as Curatorial Assistant at the Denver Art Museum. Among the Museum's activities are a Curator's Circle lecture series, with speakers from all over the world, and an exhibit of Tang dynasty objects in May. The Powers Collection of Japanese art will be housed in one of the special exhibition galleries in the new building, scheduled for completition around 2005. The Museum hopes to work with a student from the EALC next year through the Freeman Undergraduate Initiative in Asian Studies. WANG Ping (M.A., Chinese, 2000) is a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, focusing on medieval Chinese literature. She will take her comprehensive examinations later this year and then begin work on her dissertation, probably on a topic dealing with the fifth or sixth century. Solomon WEIL (M.A., Chinese, 2001) is a first-year Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, focusing on Chinese and Central Asian relations. Campus lectures and workshops sponsored or co-sponsored by EALC included: Wang Anyi, one of China's most prominent novelists, author of Song of Everlasting Regret and Baotown. A Novel, spoke to a standing-room-only audience of CU faculty and students on October 30 on her views of the current literary scene in her country in a lecture entitled "Dreams of an Age." The talk was interpreted by EALC graduate student Zhang Huicong. Prof. Ik-Doo Kim from the Korean Studies Department at Chonbuk University, with which EALC has established a working relationship, was a visiting scholar in 2001. A celebrated poet and an expert on Korean folklore and traditional performing arts, he gave a multimedia presentation on October 19 on "Traditional Korean Culture" which attracted not only CU students and faculty but also participants from the Korean community in the Denver area. Chonbuk University has provided the department with The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and Korean dictionaries, and they plan to send more reference works in the future.
ATJ Scholarship Program
Chinese Club
Chinese Documentary Film Festival
Chinese/Japanese Language Contest
Chinese New Year's Celebration
Conference on Chinese Religion
CUEAGA conference
Degrees & Awards 2001-2002
Nathan V. Bak - M.A., Japanese
Ainslie T. Canning - B.A., Chinese
Cindy Chang - B.A., Chinese
Theodore J. Chastain - B.A., Chinese
Richard D. Conlon - B.A., Japanese
Newman L. Dalton - B.A., Japanese
Collin C. Dawson - B.A., Japanese
Sarah A. Dvorak - M.A., Japanese
Caleb Ekblad - B.A., Japanese
Colin T. Flahive - B.A., Asian Studies
Stephen J. Freeman - B.A., Japanese
David M. Gotsill - B.A., Japanese
Yue Hong - M.A., Chinese
Ya-Po Hsieh - B.A., Chinese
Katrina D. Johnson - B.A., Chinese
Mandi M. Lewis - B.A., Japanese
Robert Z. Little - B.A., Japanese
Heng-hsing Liu - Ph.D., Comparative Literature-Chinese Track
Carina Mei-Yin Kwong - B.A., Chinese
Justin Maki - B.A., Japanese, with distinction
Marc J. Musteric - M.A., Japanese
Claire E. Nelson - B.A., Chinese
Kum-hoon Ng - M.A., Chinese
Saeko Ogihara - M.A., Japanese
Tracy A. Pollard - M.A., Japanese
Christian O. Reyns - M.A., Japanese
Ryan K. Sakamaki - B.A., Japanese
Jarrett B. Schmidt - B.A., Japanese
Eric A. Sherrill - M.A., Japanese
Naoki Shikimachi - M.A., Japanese
Lori A. Tompkins - B.A., Asian Studies
Arlene M. Treat - B.A., Asian Studies
Hilary A. Wade - B.A., Japanese
Charles R. Wallis, II - B.A./M.A., Japanese
Sol Weil - M.A., Chinese
Shelley D. Wick - B.A., Japanese
Masayuki Yamanaka - B.A., Asian Studies
Brent A. Zionic - M.A., Japanese
Eno Compton, IV - Lamont Scholarship for Chinese
Min Sun Kim - Steven Berry Memorial Scholarship
Film Debut
Five-year Grant Received
Japanese Language-Culture Service Project
Japanese Speech Contest
Mid-Autumn Festival
New to Ealc: Korean
Program for Teaching East Asia
Student and Alumni News
Visitors and Lectures