ABSTRACTS - oia - Portland State University

ASPAC Conference 2010 

June 18 – 20, 2010 | Portland, OR 

ABSTRACTS 

Tsuneo Akaha 

Locating Russia in East Asia: Implications for Regional Integration 

Geographically, Russia is very much a part of East Asia. In other dimensions, Russia’s position in this region 

today is not as definite. Politically, Russia has more or less normal relations with all East Asian countries, 

both small and large, both developed and developing, although the depth, the scope, and the nature of those 

relations vary widely, ranging from the “strategic partnership” with China and rather nominal ties with many 

of the Southeast Asian countries. Russia’s bilateral trade and economic relations in the region also vary from 

somewhat significant, as with China and Japan, to virtually negligible, as with most Southeast Asian countries. 

Russia’s impact on the international relations of the region has long been based largely on its ideological and 

military interests vis-à-vis the other major contenders for a sphere of influence in Northeast Asia, i.e., Japan in 

the first half of the 20 th century and the United States and China during the second half of the 20th century. 

However, with the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union came the end of the majorpower 

ideological and military rivalries in the region. As a consequence, post-Soviet Russia virtually 

disappeared from the U.S. strategic radar in East Asia. Today, none of the big powers in the region considers 

Russia a major security factor, positively or negatively, Moscow’s wishes to the contrary notwithstanding. 

One area where Russia is an important and growing factor is the energy sector. The nation can translate its 

energy resources – namely oil and natural gas – into economic power and political influence. The energy 

sector is no longer simply an economic asset of the nation but holds important implications for its strategic 

position in the world. With some of the world’s largest oil and natural gas reserves within its territory, Russia 

has developed an active energy diplomacy wooing foreign partners into energy trade and foreign investment 

in the exploration and exploitation of those rich reserves. Elsewhere Moscow has also used its energy 

supplies and foreign partners’ dependence on them as an instrument of foreign policy. Today, one cannot 

describe Russia’s role in international relations without reference to the energy dimension. One may go even 

further to suggest that energy has become an essential part of Russia’s self-definition and identity. 

This brief analysis will locate Russia in East Asia in terms of the main elements of its relations with 

the region’s major powers in political, economic, and military-defense fields. The paper’s objective is to 

provide an overview, raise some questions to consider, and posit some speculations as to Russia’s role in 

regional integration in East Asia. 

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Anatoliy Anshin 

Saving Edo in the Boshin War, 1868/3-4 

The diversity of attitudes to the means and goals of martial training among pre-Tokugawa bushi has been 

concealed under the seemingly endless chain of descriptions of wars and other violent events in historical 

records, traditional storytelling, and popular fiction. These produce a monotonous image of stern and violent 

warriors who resorted to arms whenever the chance arose. In this image, the essence of their attitudes 

towards peace and the sanctity of human life often seem to be nothing but disdain. This would suggest that, 

for many bushi, training in military arts was a mere process of acquiring skills in the art of killing, and also that 

the more skillful a warrior was in handling arms, the more he strove to put his skill into practice. Thus, the 

stereotypes of the “bellicose samurai” have been recycled in popular culture in Japan and the West for more 

than a century. Furthermore, they often have only been strengthened by contemporary scholarship. 

A study of the role of a Bakufu retainer, Yamaoka Tesshu (1836-1888), in the bloodless surrender of 

Edo Castle during the Boshin civil war of 1868-1869 reveals the existence of a strong humanistic bent in 

Japanese warrior culture. Despite the fact that the bloodless surrender predetermined the outcome of the 

Mejii Restoration, this event has not received due attention in Western or Japanese historiography. In studies 

of the Restoration or the Boshin War, the tendency is to mention this event only in passing and 

conventionally emphasize the role of senior individuals, such as the commandment of the Bakufu army, 

Katsu Kaishu, Princess Kazunomiya, or the British envoy to Japan, Harry Parkes. In contrast to existing 

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scholarship, I suggest that swordsman Yamaoka Tesshu, driven primarily by the philosophy of the “life-giving 

sword,” played the key role during the most important stages of the negotiation and that underestimating his 

role distorts our entire understanding of this seminal event. 

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Cody Bahir 

Daoist Ethical Hedonism: Revisiting the Yang Zhu Chapter of the Liezi 

The Yang Zhu chapter of the Daoist work the Liezi has been portrayed as advocating hedonism as the best 

method to achieve happiness. Considered such an anomaly and entirely philosophically and thematically 

unrelated to the rest of the Liezi, some scholars have omitted the Yang Zhu chapter entirely when compiling 

a critical translation. Others have viewed it as a complete contradiction to the Laozi and Zhuangzi and 

characterized it as a degeneration of classical Daoist Philosophy. Due to this trend, only a few modern studies 

have been conducted on this chapter. Those that have, merely compared its contents with the various 

references to the teaching of the historical Yang Zhu found in the writings of his critics and opponents. 

Though the philosophy of this chapter is highly individualistic, when closely and unbiasedly examined it 

presents an extremely realistic, practical and even ethical code of conduct to live by while pursuing an 

extremely pleasurable life. Such a philosophy is highly relevant to contemporary American culture which 

emphasizes individuality and materialism as well as modern China whose relatively newfound economic 

power is transforming it into an ever increasingly individualistic and materialistic society. This study takes a 

closer look at the Yang Zhu chapter of the Liezi in an attempt to explicate its clearly articulated philosophical 

paradigm and what values it prescribes. This is done in order to illuminate its historical influence over 

Chinese thought and explore its applicability to contemporary American and Chinese culture. 

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Brittain Barber 

Moving Past Security: New Directions in the Japan – Middle East Economic Relationship 

Most of the extant literature on the Japan-Middle East relationship maintains a systemic paradigm. It places 

Japan in a difficult position, balanced precariously between energy needs and the stern demands of the United 

States. This perspective is easily justified. Japan imports more than 80% of its oil from the Middle East, while 

the Middle East countries have, at best, checkered relationships with Japan's staunch defender. Recent 

unconnected, but parallel, developments in both Japan and the Middle East, however, are adding new 

dynamics to this relationship. 

All roads in the Middle East do eventually lead to oil, but the economic relationship with Japan is 

now about much more. Domestic issues in both have allowed Japan and the Middle East countries to at least 

partly escape the instabilities inherent in the relationship of oil producers and consumers. Circumstances are 

emerging that are not immediately related to oil, but drawing Japan and the Gulf together – things like 

banking, railroad building, and bond markets. 

The central question posed by this study is the nature of the relationship between Japan and the 

countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and the United 

Arab Emirates). For answers, this study examines issues of infrastructure development, foreign direct 

investment and Islamic finance. The answer that emerges is somewhat surprising. Though oil remains a 

powerful determinant, actors in both Japan and the Middle East are finding other common interests, 

deepening the relationship between the two into other, sometimes unexpected sectors. 

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Allan Barr 

New Perspectives on the Ming History Inquisition of 1663 

The Ming History Inquisition of 1663, precipitated by the publication by the Zhuang family of Huzhou of a 

history of the Ming dynasty offensive to the Manchus, has often been seen as the first major literary 

inquisition of the Qing period, and it is commonly understood within a broad historical framework stretching 

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back to earlier inquisitions and forward to similar episodes in the Yongzheng and Qianlong eras. As seen by 

contemporary observers in the Kangzi period, however, it was understood more as the culmination of trends 

that afflicted Huzhou prefecture during the Shunzhi and early Kangxi eras, sharing a number of features with 

other traumatic events that affected elite families in Huzhou during the Ming-Qing transition. This paper, 

drawing on rare archival materials such as Fei Zhichi’s Wuxing dashi ji, an invaluable account by a 

contemporary observer in the late seventeenth century, reassesses the Ming History Inquisition in light of the 

specific historical situation shaping social dynamics in Huzhou in the early 1660s. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Shane Barter 

Strong State, Smothered Society: Explaining Violence in Thailand’s Deep South 

Why have militants in the Patani region utilized anonymous and at times indiscriminate terrorist violence? 

This paper tests three hypotheses: resource wealth and opportunistic rebellions, weak states and lawlessness, 

and strong states and weak rebels. The chaotic form of violence in Patani is explained primarily by the 

considerable institutional strength of the Thai state, which reaches into education, religion, and village life, as 

well as presenting a vast array of security actors. This helps sustain the conflict, providing an additional 

grievance, and it also structures the form of violence, forcing militants underground, giving locals nowhere to 

turn for help, and leading to a crisis of information. The major implication is to weaken the state, namely at 

its front lines. 

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Kathryn Barton 

Disclosed Mysteries: Investigating Women's Social Critiques in Kirino Natsuo and Japanese Detective Fiction 

Even though women in contemporary Japanese society are assuming greater degrees of agency and 

autonomy, the mass media continues to depict women in traditional roles as mothers, wives and homemakers. 

Insofar as the mass media depicts women as engaged in life outside of the home, women are cast as 

consumers, rather than producers, of culture and goods. Successful female writers of detective fiction such as 

Kirino Natsuo, have begun a critical engagement with a variety of social issues and concerns: the role of 

identity in the creation of self, sexual harassment, discrimination, issues of gender, the family institution and 

its attendant roles, sexual violence and the corrosive effects of consumerism. In Kirino's ground shaking 

novel 'Out' nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe award, she addresses many of these issues through her 

characters’ lives, actions, and reactions, which drew international attention. I will also look at the formal 

features of detective fiction, a genre historically dominated by male writers and marketed as mass 

entertainment, or popular literature, to explain why this group of writers has appropriated it as a vehicle for 

social criticism. I believe it is due to the general disregard of popular fiction, and the further marginalization 

that occurs when written by a woman, that makes this genre particularly attractive for a feminist critic. It frees 

these authors to create a social space for women to critic society. More importantly it provides a vehicle of 

self-assertion and a platform for moral pontification that is not afforded in traditional society. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jason Blazevic 

The Strait Dynamic: China, Japan and the Taiwan Security Dilemma 

Strategically astride the East and South China Seas lies the island of Taiwan, which sits upon significant 

conduits considered vital by China and Japan for national security. For China, this quandary concerns 

outstanding issues emanating from the Chinese Civil War and resources, such as oil, as well as, the long term 

objective of power projection for and within a growing and developing “security boundary.” In Japan, leaders 

fear the loss of Taiwan’s “long-standing defacto independence” may lead to a sea lane blockade, loss of 

energy resources and loss of territory, which would devastate economic and thereby, national security. As 

such, both China’s and Japan’s governments have looked to strategies to ensure clear sea lanes of 

transportation, continued energy supplies and other particular aims of national security. 

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According to realism, this dilemma is characterized by the belief in threats of force, which may 

compel certain behavior thereby securing national survival. A tenet of realism, known as defensive realism, 

stipulates the only way to counteract vulnerability to threats of force is to pursue ambitious military and 

diplomatic strategies to increase security. In attempting to solve this dilemma, the Chinese and Japanese 

governments have expanded the scope of their nations’ interests through declaration, treaty, harassment, and 

military modernization. However, by utilizing such actions both nations believe each other to be engaging in 

power maximization strategies which inevitably threaten national security. A security dilemma may then 

ensue in which a series of reactive security strategies dangerously destabilize relations possibly leading to a 

“war in the strait, which would be a disaster” for both nations and the entire region. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

W. Puck Brecher 

On De-disciplining Edo Japan: In Favor of Imprudent Experiments in Interdisciplinarity 

Though the disciplinary (exclusionary) nature of scholarly training has long imposed theoretical and 

methodological boundaries on Asian Studies, recently the field has experienced a disciplinary loosening. As 

social theory and historiographical rubrics lose their clutch hold on scholarly inquiry, they are superseded by 

innovative projects that transcend both disciplinary and geopolitical boundaries. And although this gravitation 

toward interdisciplinarity is being widely embraced and a worthy body of scholarship being produced, ample 

room remains for further experimentation. 

The proposed paper will use three radically interdisciplinary research projects on early modern Japan 

(1600-1868) to consider the potentials and pitfalls of further de-disciplining historical research. The first uses 

the neighborhood of Negishi (near Edo) to connect urban planning, status, and aesthetics; the second uses 

the obsolete notion of historical cycles to reinterpret the life and art of Hon’ami Kôetsu (1558-1637); the final 

example views haikai poetry through the lens of industry to illustrate processes of collective identity 

formation in the saké brewing town of Itami. All three examples demonstrate potential benefits and 

drawbacks of attempting to connect fields traditionally divided by disciplinary or theoretical boundaries. In 

the process of de-disciplining their respective subjects, each yields unexpected (and perhaps controversial) 

conclusions about self-making and space-making in early modern Japan. 

Patrick Buckley 

Delphi Evaluation of a US-Japan Sister City Relationship 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Across the Pacific sister cities and urban twinning continue to grow in number, importance, and complexity, 

yet the scholastic record of their study remains sparse. Further, most studies focus on economic benefits 

through trade, association, and development. Fewer have investigated areas of emerging commonality of 

thought or social behavior, especially absent appears to be a one to one comparisons of small sized cities, 

where impacts are expected to be greatest. This study seeks to address this with a detailed investigation of a 

long running exchange of city hall staffers between a pair of mid-sized twinned cities, Bellingham, WA and 

Tateyama, Japan, utilizing a semi-structured yet open ended Delphi methodology. The process starts by 

independently asking participants from each city, Bellingham and Tateyama, to draw upon their exchange 

experience to evaluate and reflect on indicators of Quality of Life in their city and their sister city, thus 

forming a benchmark for comparison. Second, participants, still working independently by city, are given the 

opportunity to make suggestions for improving the QOL in each city and then rank order all suggestions. In 

a final round the group as a whole, both Bellingham and Tateyama participants, are provided with a 

combination of top suggestions developed by participants from their home city and sister city to investigate 

commonality and differences of outcomes. Statistical analysis is then performed to evaluate areas of 

convergence and divergence of thought and exploration for latent structure underlying the responses. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

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Setsuko Buckley 

Cooperation and Group Harmony vs. Individualism in Japanese Education 

Today, Japanese schools are facing a challenge due to Japan's socio-economic and demographic shifts plus 

advanced information technology. Thus, Japanese education need to meet the needs of these drastic changes. 

However, current education practice in Japan still is rigid or mind only, as represented by the entrance 

examination system, so called, "examination hell." The essence of Japanese culture is cooperation and harmony 

in a group. However, today groupism is being lost in schools in Japan due to students' high competition for 

academic achievement and growing diversification of values in a rapidly changing world. Consequently, the 

form of Japanese cultural tradition represented by "intimacy" is being lost and students tend to become more 

elite-oriented and isolated. This trend might be greatly influenced by the United States which highly values 

individualism and competition. The difference is that Japanese students still need to live in a tight grouporiented 

society; they do not posses "integrity." Japanese culture as software is changing, yet the structure of 

the Japanese education system as hardware remains unchanged. There is a great gap between the two 

components. This paper will investigate how groupism (intimacy) and individualism (integrity) could be 

integrated in Japanese education. In other words, how could we reshape both the rigid education structure 

and our mindset as individuals and part of a group in pursuing a global perspective in modern Japan. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Kristina Buhrman 

Questioning the Stars: Competition, Expertise, and Doubt in Late Heian Astrology 

Many factors contributed to the increased circulation of astrological knowledge in mid- and late Heian Japan 

(11 th -12 th centuries). New bureaucratic procedures eased the restrictions on who could present astrological 

reports to the throne, and increased the number of non-astrologers who came in contact with such reports. 

Once astrology was no longer the exclusive domain of the official Doctors and Students of Astrology, 

competition between practitioners brought debates about the correct identification and meaning of signs into 

the public sphere. The growing importance of personal retainer links between the high nobility and those of 

lower rank meant that astrological expertise, like legal or martial, would now be leveraged for sponsorship or 

promotions at court. Furthermore, although astrology, like other esoteric knowledge, was considered the 

special property of certain lineages, popular tales show that astrology was also considered a skill/knowledge 

set that could be taught, and learned by anyone. 

This new marketplace of ideas about the natural world, omens and their meaning, forms the 

backdrop for debate and uncertainty concerning the true implications of astrological events during the late 

Heian period. This paper explores the influence the competition between astrologers exerted on how much 

the high nobility knew about the night sky, and how readily this elite accepted the pronouncements of 

diviners. Authority, expertise and power all interacted in this space between proto-scientific observation and 

political magic; the crème of Heian society are shown to be not blind followers of “superstition,” as they have 

previously depicted as being. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Orianna Cacchione 

Lin Fengmian and the Chinese Avant-Garde 

To introduce Western art; To reform tradition; To reconcile Chinese and Western art; To create contemporary art. – 

Lin Fengmian 

Lin Fengmian had a profound effect on Modem art in China. Upon his return to China from studying in 

Europe in 1925, Lin advocated a progressive style of contemporary art, which "reconciled" Chinese and 

Western styles. His views were placed in the center of a debate on the current state of Chinese art. No longer 

was the debate solely between Western art and traditional Chinese art, but rather which type of Western art 

should be used to best represent the new Chinese society. At a time when Western Realism was gaining 

government sponsorship, Lin's work negated this opposition. He insisted that works of art needed to 

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embrace and utilize both cultures; he advocated, however, for the use of the styles of the European avantgarde, 

not Realism. He founded the Hangzhou Academy of Art in 1928. At the Hangzhou Academy, Lin was 

able to institutionalize his theory by merging the departments of traditional and modem painting. The 

Hangzhou Academy became one of the most progressive art schools in China before the Communist 

Revolution. This paper will analyze Lin's role in the short-lived establishment of a Chinese avant-garde 

through his own work and his position at the Hangzhou Academy. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Elena Caprioni 

Uyghur women in Xinjiang: The Delicate Balance Between Islamic Culture and Chinese Social Modernization 

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the northwestern region of the People’s Republic of China 

(PRC), is historically, culturally, religiously, and ethnically the eastern part of Central Asia. XUAR is also the 

region in which- before the “peaceful liberation” of Xinjiang- the Uyghur Islamic society believed in the 

differences in gender roles and duties between men and women. The man’s responsibility was to earn money, 

while the woman’s responsibility was to manage the household. It is well recognized that the PRC, after 

having annexed Xinjiang as an integral and inalienable part of the country, committed itself to promote and 

extend to this peripheral area the concept of equality between men and women, based on the total equality of 

roles and responsibilities. Uyghur women are faced with a dilemma: preserving local traditions directly 

implicated to the Islamic culture or accepting the social modernization promoted by China to “liberate 

women.” I explore how/if the current status or women is directly influenced by local values, Islamic culture 

and/or by Han reforms. Using the ethnographic and linguistic approach, I aim to identify the theories and 

practices regarding women and gender, accompanied by an overview on the material conditions of women 

throughout the twentieth century. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Chanda L. Carey 

After Po’mo: Zhang Daqian's Splashed Ink Paintings and American Art 

"As far as I can see, there is no rigid line of demarcation between Chinese painting and Western painting, 

whether in the initial approach or in the highest ultimate attainment. Whatever difference there is in the form 

of representation, it is a mere result of the regional divergence in custom and usage and in the media and 

materials of the painter." 

The larger than life story of painter Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) is marked by many episodes that 

invite attention and consideration. In the past decades, Zhang's global legacy has been revisited repeatedly. 

This paper will reconsider Zhang's po'mo (splashed ink) works of the 1960s and 70s, and recontextualize the 

work's transcultural aesthetic within the operations of abstract painting. While relationships to Abstract 

Expressionist painters are well established, this paper draws on Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss' 

reformulation of Modernism as informe (formless) to re-examine the historical position of Zhang Daqian's 

practice --with particular attention to works of the period by Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, and Andy 

Warhol's Oxidation paintings of 1977-78. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Chia-ning Chang 

Yamaguchi Yoshiko: Negotiating Transnational Identity in Wartime Manchurian Films 

The aim of my paper is to elucidate the dialectic and to explore the anxieties inherent within the claims of 

nationalism and transnationality in connection with the professional career and private life of Yamaguchi 

Yoshiko (1920- ), the most acclaimed actress to emerge from Japan-occupied Manchuria from 1937-45 and 

the brightest star to blossom transnationally under the auspices of the Manchurian Film Association (Manshū 

eiga kyōkai, or Man’ei). Widely known in Manchuria, Japan, and many other parts of China particularly in 

Shanghai and Hong Kong by her stage name of Li Xianglan (Ri Kōran in Japanese), Yamaguchi carefully 

masqueraded her Japanese identity in both her public and private life by allowing herself to be reinvented as a 

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Manchurian-born Chinese woman with the explicit or implicit purpose to legitimize and promote Japan’s 

imperialist enterprise in occupied territories in China. Narrowly escaping treason charges and possible 

execution by Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) after Japan’s surrender by finally revealing 

her Japanese identity, Yamaguchi proceeded to rehabilitate her cinematic career after 1945 by first appearing 

as Shirley Yamaguchi in Hollywood and Broadway productions in the 1950s. Upon returning to Japan, she 

emerged as a popular Japanese television host in 1967 and served as a three-term representative in the Upper 

House of the Japanese Diet from 1974-92. This was followed by her stint as a vice-president of the Asian 

Women’s Fund to assist former comfort women in Asia. While publicly expressing shame, guilt, and remorse 

as she contemplated her wartime role as a theatrical puppet in the puppet state of Manchukuo, it is also 

undeniable that Yamaguchi had at the same time been a convenient pawn and a willing accomplice of Japan’s 

colonial ideology and its pan-Asian rhetoric. By studying Yamaguchi’s Man’ei career and her postwar writings 

including her well-known autobiography Ri Kōran: My Early Life (Ri Kōran: Watashi no hansei, Tokyo: 

Shinchōsha, 1987), my paper seeks to illuminate the boundaries and ambivalence between colonizing 

hierarchies and transracial cinema in the politics of imperialism, between national identity and transnational 

performance, as well as between the intricate roles of the colonial victimizer and the colonized victim. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Zhongping Chen 

The Reformist Wave Across the Pacific: Kang Youwei and the Empire Reform Society in Canada, 1899-1911 

This paper examines how the well-known Chinese exile, Kang Youwei, first founded the Empire Reform 

Society (Baohuang hui) in Canada in 1899 and then used it to promote sociopolitical changes in Canadian 

Chinatowns and late Qing China. Because Kang’s organization later spawned more than one hundred 

branches in the Americas, Asia and Australia, its early leaders and activities in Canada were especially 

influential in the transpacific Chinese politics. While previous scholarship has often stressed how Kang and 

his organization used overseas Chinese support to promote constitutional reform in China, this study will 

further investigate how such political struggle inspired sociopolitical changes in Canadian Chinatowns, 

including the development of new community associations, educational institutions, and social movements 

such as an anti-opium campaign. It will also reveal how Kang’s organization helped the Chinese in Canada 

fight racism and push for new relations with the Canadian government and society. In particular, this paper 

will go beyond previous studies of competition between reformers and revolutionaries in the Chinese 

diaspora, and intead will highlight how Kang’s organization linked up Chinatowns throughout the entire 

Pacific area, especially Western Canada. Based on previously unknown archives and other primary sources, 

this paper will provide fresh food for theoretical reflections on modern Chinese history and the Chinese 

diaspora. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Gaye Christoffersen 

Chinese Approaches to East Asian Maritime and Energy Cooperation: China's Evolving Identity in Multilateral Regimes 

China's participation in East Asian multilateral regimes has been explained using the concept of the 

"Harmonious World," a "Harmonious East Asia," and "Harmonious Seas." Chinese scholars have offered 

various theoretical explanations for the existence of the "Harmonious World," offerings that range from 

Realist to Social Constructivist to Neo-Liberal Institutionalist. Additionally, these scholars attempt to create 

a more Chinese theory of international relations within a Chinese framework. This scholarly work seeps into 

Chinese policy thinking because Chinese academics also serve as policy advisors to the government. This 

interaction of scholars and policy practitioners facilitates a redefinition of China's identity and role in the 

world and enables Chinese participation in regional multilateral regimes by redefining Chinese national 

interests within these regimes. This paper will examine contemporary Chinese scholarly theoretical work and 

assess to what extent it is used as a framework for China's evolving role in energy multilateral regimes and 

maritime cooperation projects. 

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Ha Mie Chung 

A Study on the Matumae Han’s castaway policy and the Arrival of Perry 

Hakodate is widely known as one of the first city Ports with Shimoda, opened following the Kanagawa Treaty 

in 1854. It is possible to analyze specifically the historical data on the opening process of the Port through 

the digitalized sources available. This study mainly focuses on the information exchanges under the remote 

control of the main government: Bakufu over the local feudal clan: Han, before the beginning of the Meiji 

Period: considering the situation at the time of and after the Perry’s arrival. The Matsumae feudal clan had 

not received only 1 among seven suggestions that Perry demanded over his stay in Hakodate. I could find 

what problem had been the most important at the time of opening the port by examining it concretely. The 

interchange between Perry’s party and the Hakodate inhabitants is of interest, too. What would have been 

the reaction of the Matsumae feudal clan facing the information of Perry’s visit to Hakodate? 

Since the Matsumae feudal clan was in charge of cases of Western castaways till then, how was the policy 

towards conventional castaways affected by the landing of Perry? 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Millie Creighton 

Transnational (or Transformational) Encounters of the Popular Culture Kind: Japanese Fandom, the Korean Wave, 

Shifting Inter-Asian and Global Dynamics 

This presentation looks at Japanese fandom of Korean popular culture (known as the Korean Wave), along 

with the Korean Wave’s impact elsewhere in Asia, and among Asian diaspora groups. It explores how, for 

Japanese women, the ethnic erotic economy shifted from White to Korean men and the backlash against this. 

It explores the intensive fandom of so-called middle-aged women over young male Korean stars, Japanese 

tourism to Korea, recent Japanese engagement in Korean language learning, and the impact of Japan’s 

resident Koreans as a minority group. In doing so, it addresses larger issues concerning the relative impact of 

stated political policies versus popular culture in changing international relations or attitudes towards 

minorities. Rather than accepting Japanese women’s espoused devotion to Korean drama and music stars as 

simple fandom, it reveals women’s attempts to invert gender hierarchies that constrain them by challenging 

ethnic and age hierarchies. It addresses how a popular culture boom links to historic tensions surrounding 

pre-war and war issues still overwhelming in regional Asian relations. Through the vehicle of the Korean 

Wave’s impact on Japan particularly, as well as on other areas of Asia and among Asian diaspora groups in 

North America or elsewhere, the paper bridges study of various countries and regions of Asia, along with the 

persisting- though problematic – concept of an East-West divide. It also attempts to bring together issues of 

various disciplinary interest, through a focus on anthropological research into popular culture that addresses 

concerns which involve economics, political science, sociology, geography, the arts and humanities. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Andysheh Dadsetan 

A New Silk Road? Sino-Tajik Relations n the 21 st Century 

The Central Asian states have been politically adrift since the fall of the Soviet Union. While these states 

traditionally fell under the Russian sphere of influence, China has emerged as one of the region’s most 

prominent partners. However, European and Russian interests are also heavily invested in the area, vying for 

oil and natural gas access, which greatly offsets China’s influences. Nonetheless, Beijing has been effectively 

courting its Central Asian neighbors, potentially tipping the scales in its favor. This is best exemplified on 

China’s Western-most border in Tajikistan, as it is most likely to move, albeit gradually, from Russia’s sphere 

of influence to China’s. This paper will examine the factors that will forge this stronger Sino-Tajik 

relationship in the future. 

China has actively contributed to Tajik development in the hopes of avoiding political and social 

destabilization there, which could have domestic consequences in China’s bordering Muslim province of 

Xinjiang, consequently slowing Chinese economic growth. China’s active involvement in Tajikistan has been 

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received well form the government and general population as “aid without conditions,” while at the same 

time, Dushanbe has been gradually distancing itself from Moscow, as illustrated by the Tajik Language Law of 

October 2009. 

China’s increased presence in Central Asia will lead to stronger infrastructure, borders, and economic 

access, Tajikistan will again fulfill its role as a transit area and economic passage into the Middle East, 

reinforcing Central Asia’s historical role on the Silk Road. This strategy would facilitate the regional transition 

from fractured states under Russian dominance into stable, new markets for Chinese products. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jeffer Daykin 

The Reception of Eiichi Shibuawa’s Trade Mission to the United States 

In 1909, the Japanese industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa brought a group of over fifty Japanese men and women 

to undertake a cross-country tour of the United States at the invitation of the Associated Chambers of 

Commerce of the Pacific Coast. The mission was comprised of a wide range of leaders in business, finance, 

education, and journalism who were interested in establishing professional contacts and observing the 

functioning of various industries and enterprises. Though technically a private sector undertaking, the 

mission was conceived by Eiichi Shibusawa had an important diplomatic goal in that he hoped to improve 

relations between the two nations that had been marred by the eruption of anti-Japanese immigration along 

the Western United States in 1907. 

This paper will present information about this little known example of non-governmental diplomacy 

and the context of transpacific relations in which it occurred. Far from being an isolated event, the 1909 

mission was one in a series of exchanges between United States and Japanese businessmen that included a 

joint tour of China and was also tied to the international exposition held in Seattle that same year. A study of 

these events and the American reception of the mission in the cities and towns visited – including several 

stops in California, the epicenter of anti-Japanese agitation – helps illuminate the surprising good will that 

existed and reveals that perhaps another course of history between the United States and Japan was possible. 

Mahesh Ranjan Debata 

International Response to Uyghur Separatism in Xinjiang 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

China's Xinjiang region has been witness to separatism, religious extremism and international terrorism. There 

were a couple of major revolts in Xinjiang by the Uyghur separatists (one in August 2008 and the other in July 

2009). However, the Chinese government has been too strong for the minuscule Uyghur separatists. The PLA 

has so far been able to quell any sort of rebellion in its northwest, may it be Xinjiang or Tibet. The Uyghur 

separatists don't have the support of major powers. The USA does not support Uyghurs as it remains 

engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now China and USA have common concern for international terrorism. 

The separatist cadres of East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) have been labeled as 'terrorists' both by 

the USA and the UN. The Uyghurs living in Turkey, Germany and other parts of Europe have failed in their 

efforts to internationalise the issue. After 9111, the Uyghur separatists are facing greater difficulty. Pakistan is 

cautioned by China to stay away from Uyghur separatists. The Central Asian Republics have been endorsing 

China's position in Xinjiang. India having its own problems of separatism and terrorism in the State of 

Jammu and Kashmir, has been cultivating a friendly relationship with China. There is no support from 

domestic neighbours like Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Against this background, this paper will discuss the 

problem of separatism and terrorism in Xinjiang and China's response in this regard. This paper will analyse 

the international response to separatism, religious extremism and terrorism in Xinjiang. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

9



Lisa Donnelly 

Cold Blooded Murder or Cool Leadership: Reassessing the Death of Begter in The Secret History of the Mongols 

The Secret History of the Mongols has been accepted by scholars as both a valid historical account of the founding 

of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century and a record of Mongol cultural values at that time. It is also 

a history of one man, Temujin, the boy who would become Chinggis Khan. Western scholars in particular 

have puzzled over the inclusion of a number of seemingly negative portrayals of the character of Chinggis 

Khan, including the incident where a 10-year-old Temujin kills his half-brother, Begter. 

In the Secret History, the reader who is unfamiliar with steppe culture and social organizations is 

presented with a bewildering world where loyalties to any particular group appear to have been arbitrarily 

given and revoked. While some attention is given to possible steppe cultural paradigms, these fluid and 

shifting political and kinship relationships are usually interpreted by both Western and Asian historians within 

a markedly sedentary cultural paradigm. Individual Mongol loyalties and familial relations are also interpreted – 

or outright reinterpreted – according to the same. 

Ratchnevshy calls the death of Begter in the Secret History of the Mongols “cold-blooded murder,” de 

Rachewiltz blames Temujin’s actions on the struggle for succession but also calls it “callous.” Yet if the Secret 

History is a repository of true Mongolian values, why should we assume that this and other similar events are 

meant to cast Chinggis in a negative light? Was it truly cold-blooded murder, or the first example of the 

leadership skills of the young man who would grow up to rule the largest land-based empire the world has yet 

seen? 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Connie Earnshaw 

Romance and Social Ideal in Ming Painting of Bai Juyi’s Pipa Xing (Lute Song) 

Bai Juyi’s Tang poetic narrative about meeting a female musician during his exile to the Jiangnian region for 

critiquing the court became a popular subject for professional and literati Ming painters in Nanjing and 

Suzhou. The pipa player has lost her former career in the capital, like the poet, and plays poignant music that 

moves him to tears. Ming depictions of the theme evolved from figure paintings to figures set in landscape. 

The earliest examples are free standing figures by Wu Wei and Guo Xu. Pip axing was illustrated in a 

landscape setting in Wen Zhengming’s circle, initially by Tang Yin and Qui Ying. All of these paintings 

include the woman with her instrument, and center on her meeting with the poet. This theme of moonlit 

encounter on the river may suggest social ideals as well as romance through portraying a bond of sympathetic 

resonance between the man and woman strengthened by music, a model of interpersonal harmony in the face 

of adversity. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Stephen Epstein 

Kisses From Outer Space: South Korean Images of Central Asia 

Over the course of the last decade, South Korea has come into increasing contact with the Central Asian 

republics of the former Soviet Union. Recent labor migration has seen numerous Uzbekistani citizens arrive 

in Korea, for example, and there is now within Seoul a neighborhood known as the Central Asian village 

(chungashia ch’on). Nonetheless, if Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen’s putative Kazakhstani, suggests the depth of the 

Western ignorance about Central Asia, South Korea has fared little better in developing nuanced 

representations of the region. In this paper I explore contemporary Korean images of Central Asia with a 

particular focus on Hwang Byeong-guk’s 2005 comedy-drama film My Wedding Campaign (Naui kyorhon 

wonjonggi), which follows the journey of two rural Korean men to Uzbekistan to find brides with the help of a 

brokerage agency. The characters’ initial lack of familiarity with Uzbekistan, its location and even its actual 

name, which is humorously conflated with the Korean words for “outer space” and “kiss” suggests an exotic 

fantasy land. I will argue that in contrast to Vietnam, which functions as a quintessential “Asian” nation for 

South Korea, the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, placed ambiguously in the Korean imagination between 

10



East and West, Asia and Europe, development and backwardness, and social freedom and repression off a 

fruitful site in which to examine Korean conceptions of “Asia” and to discern where the boundaries of such 

constructions lie. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Robert Fisher 

The 1860 Japanese Mission to the United States 

The 1860 Japanese Mission to the U.S. was a momentous, and now largely forgotten, moment in American 

history. The samurai and attendants were the objects of immense public interest and at every stop on their 

brief tour were greeted by public throngs hoping to catch a glimpse of the strange “exotic” visitors. Part of 

the reason for this intense popular interest was because the Japanese were the first real foreign mission of its 

kind to visit the U.S. and was therefore symbolically very important to America’s changing popular image of 

itself as an emerging world power. On the other hand this mission, despite its obvious import to the national 

self-image, was extremely problematic due to the little issue of the Japanese not being “white.” Race has 

always been something of a bugbear in the American psyche, and perhaps at no greater time in American 

history that 1860, just five years before the outbreak of the Civil War. This presentation will look at how 

these competing and often contradictory views of the Japanese were depicted in the popular imagination at 

that time and the impact this visit had on U.S.- Japanese relations. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Miho Fujiwara 

Japanese language learners' use of event anaphora in written discourse 

Unlike "hard rules" at morphological and syntactic levels, many discourse phenomena are usually governed 

by "principles" and "preferences," hence are hard to provide explicit instruction in a systematic way. It is, 

thus, undeniable that focus on sentence-level form tends to be prioritized in many foreign language teaching 

contexts, but discourse-level research and practice has also been attracting attention (cf. McCarthy, 1991; 

Thornbury, 2005). 

While grammatical competence focuses mainly on sentence-level grammar in terms of the rules that 

govern the formation of acceptable sentence, discourse competence is concerned with intersentential 

relationships. Such relationships are often described as cohesion and are realized by lexical or grammatical 

devices (Halliday and Hasan, 1976). Among a variety of beyond-sentence phenomena, our main concern is 

on referential cohesion. Especially this study will investigate how Japanese native speakers ONSs) and 

Japanese language learners (JLs) use event anaphora (demonstratives with sentential antecedent) to maintain 

overall coherence of a discourse. 

We built a comparable corpus between Japanese university students (JNS) and American university 

students (JL). In collecting data, an episode of Pingu, a Swiss clay animation, is presented to students as a 

prompt in producing a written narrative (Le., synopsis writing). The Japanese and American students were 

asked to reproduce the same Pingu story in their L1 and L2. 

The result shows that JNSs used event anaphora in object position rather than in subject positions while 

JLs hardly used event anaphora in object positions. In the presentation, we will also discuss implications 

of the results for Japanese language teaching. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Michele Gamburd 

Demographics and Remittances: Labor Migration and Population Aging in Sri Lanka 

Sri Lanka stands at the conference of two major social trends: a demographic shift toward an aging 

population, and changing aspirations among migrant families. As time passes, the median age of Sri Lanka’s 

population increases. Cultural expectations dictate that daughters-in-law should care for elders in the home. 

Simultaneously, three decades of transnational labor migration of guest workers to the Gulf Cooperation 

Council (GCC) continues; in 2008, roughly 1.8 million Sri Lankans (over 23% of the country’s working-age 

11



population) worked abroad, more than half of them women. Young working-class adults also have migration 

aspirations, but unlike their migrant mothers, they do not wish to go to West Asia, where wages are low and 

immigration forbidden. They prefer better-paying jobs in countries such as Korea, Australia, or Italy. Unlike 

their sojourner parents, members of this generation hope to settle elsewhere with their nuclear families. 

Relocation of elders is unlikely, due to both family choice and host-country policy. Thus aging parents and 

grandparents are increasingly left in Sri Lankan villages, without family members to see to their everyday 

needs. Prospective migrants face a difficult choice: should they continue to migrate (and thus remit muchneeded 

financial support to their families) or stay home (and thus provide personal care and attention to 

elders)? Drawing on ethnographic analysis of the long-term impact of labor migration on intergenerational 

family obligations and relations. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Bruce Gilley, Mel Gurtov, Ron Tammen, David Bachman 

President Obama’s China Policy (Roundtable) 

This panel will consider the policy towards China of U.S. President Obama in his first year and a half in 

office. Participants will offer different aspects of this policy. Each of them will bring distinctive 

disciplinarian and methodological assumptions to bear on the issue. The questions to be considered will 

include: What has the policy been so far? To what extent does it represent a departure or continuation of 

past U.S. policies? What will determine the success of this policy? What has been China’s response so far? 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Noa Grass 

Who Left the State Out? The Salt-for-Grain Policy of the Early Ming 

The narrative of late Ming economic and commercial expansion largely excludes the state as an active 

economic agent. Consequently, work on economic policy of the Ming state regards it as either hostile, 

indifferent, or too weak to promote economic development. The Grain-for-Salt Policy (kaizhong fa) of the 

early Ming challenges these assumptions. This was a system of merchant grain transportation to border 

garrisons in return for monopoly salt licenses. Whereas traditionally, the Chinese imperial state depended on 

forced labor for the transportation of grain, through this system the government utilized its monopoly on salt 

to attract resourceful merchants through a favorable exchange rate. 

This paper treats the Grain-For-Salt Policy as a system of state finance and suggests that the early 

Ming state actively acknowledged the importance of private economic forces, consciously sought to create 

trading circuits that connected north and south and used this policy as a means of credit in a system which 

showed much financial acumen. 

The study of the relationship between the state and the economy in the late imperial period 

contributes to the discipline of Chinese economic history in the wake of Marxist historiography, which 

relegated the state to the realm of the superstructure. It also exposes the inadecuesy of Eurocentric 

assumptions regarding economic development which viewed the Ming state as a stifling force in the face of 

economic and commercial development. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Satomi Hayashi 

Introduction of "Focus on form" approach in Japanese teaching 

In the field of foreign language education, the effect of grammar instruction has been controversial: Krashen 

(1982) and others contend that grammar should be taught implicitly, while others have argued explicit 

grammar instruction has a positive impact on language learning. In recent years, Ellis (1994) proposed that 

explicit grammar instruction has a role in language learning, which has been followed by Van Pattan's (2004) 

notion of focus on form where he argues that learners need to pay attention to formal structure of the target 

language. 

12



According to Spada (1997), "focus on form" is any pedagogical effort which is used to draw the 

learner's attention to language form within a meaningful context in a course of a communicative activity. In 

the "focus on form" instruction, a certain linguistic form is made salient through the two major processes: 

input enhancement such as "input flood", "consciousness raising" and "textual enhancement", and output 

enhancement which is corrective feedback given to the learners after actual production. 

In this paper, I will present results of an analysis of communicative activities aimed at focus on form 

instruction presented in Benati (2009). Although Benati claims that the activities draw learner attention to 

grammatical forms and, at the same time, they promote communication, they lack contextualization, which is 

essential for communication, fail to build form-meaning connection, and disregard multiple-functions that 

one form bears, resulting in inefficient instruction. I will also discuss how context can be incorporated into 

focus on form instruction. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Wingshan Ho 

Cross-dressing and Queer Possibilities in Hong Kong Commercial Cinema in the 90s 

“New queer cinema 1” poses a global call to express oneself in terms of sexuality in the current of gay and 

lesbian movement around the world. How or do Chinese answer the global call? Informed by gay and lesbian 

movements in the “West,” a gay and lesbian or tongzhi (literally comrade) identity emerged in Hong Kong in 

the 1990s. Popular culture, of course, has responded to the more visible identities. Hong Kong commercial 

cinema is a globally and locally vibrant industry. My paper argues that Hong Kong commercial cinema 

responded to such fervent social change by creating sexually ambiguous characters. Exposed to “western” 

“new queer cinema” and resonant to Hong Kong local culture, commercial cinema in the 90s used crossdressing 

as a technique to offer queer possibilities in response to the call of global queer identity. 

My paper will first map out the reason and prominence of cross-dressing in the history of Hong 

Kong cinema. Cross-dressing was already there in the first Hong Kong narrative film in 1913 and later saw its 

heyday in Cantonese opera genre in the 1950s-60s. It waned dramatically since the 1970s, but interestingly 

came back in the 90s. If the Chinese opera convention and the supersession of film genres mainly account for 

the rise and fall of cross-dressing during the earlier period, 2 then the reoccurrence of cross-dressing is 

associated with the social awareness of homosexuality at fin de siècle. 

The next section will draw on Butler’s notion of gender performativity to analyze three mainstream 

films involving female to male cross-dressing—He’s a Woman, She’s a Man, Who’s the Woman, Who’s the Man 

(Jinzhi yuye1&2) and Swordsman 2 (Xiao’ao jianghu zhi Dongfang Bubai) to explore how cross-dressing 

simultaneously opens up and controls queer spaces for representing unconventional mappings of sex, gender 

and sexualities. I will demonstrate that cross-dressed cinematic characters transform their gender identity and 

subjectivity in the narrative level. Cross-dressing also affords possibilities of queer spectatorship. Movie-goers 

may occupy multilayered viewing positions and derive pleasure through identifying with various characters 

which are by no means of their gender and sexual identity. Even though female to male cross-dressed 

characters’ subversions of fixed and unitary sex, gender and sexuality mapping are contained in a generally 

homophobic cinematic culture dominated by economic concerns, such spectatorship offers queer 

possibilities. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jon Holt 

Teaching Manga as Literature 

Despite disagreement about the status of manga, or comic books, in the Japanese literary canon, as a tool to 

encourage students to think about storytelling as an art form, they are indispensible. Based on my experience 

1 Michele Aaron ed. New queer cinema: a critical reader (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004). 

2 Xianggang diantai dianshi bu: Xianggang Zhong wen da xue xiao wai jin xiu bu, Dian guang huan ying: dianying yanjiu wen ji 

[Light and Shadow: anthology on of film studies](Hong Kong: Xianggang diantai dianshi bu: Xianggang Zhong wen da xue 

xiao wai jin xiu bu, 1985), 46-7. 

13



utilizing manga in surveys of premodern, early modern, and modern Japanese literature at the University of 

Washington, I discuss techniques for making manga pertinent to the instruction of Japanese literature. I 

present my findings from the classroom about the pros and cons of using supplementary texts and 

approaches such as Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics, Adam Kern’s recent study of Edo-period kibyoshi 

(Manga from the Floating World), and Otsuka Eiji’s view of ladies’ comics (“discovery of interiority”). 

With their incorporation/exploitation of both the textual and pictorial registers, manga are a unique 

means for students to gain more immediate access to literature. At their best, manga shed light on how 

storytellers structure their narratives, while their popular appeal acts as a powerful incentive in exciting new 

students to the study of more traditional forms of literature. 

Thus, manga serve as nexus between the written word and the visual icon, providing fresh insight 

into what makes a narrative and playing an indispensible role in creating sustainable literary courses at colleges 

and universities. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jonathan Jimin Hong 

Kurosawa to Emmerich, Anime to Green Screen, and 1990 to 2010: The Trajectory of Apocalyptic and Post-apocalyptic 

Cinema in Japan, Korea, and Hollywood 

Whether the problem is a solar flare or decepticon and whether the setting is Mayan civilization or RG. Well's 

prophetic future, one thing is clear: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films have been painted onto the movie 

screen ever since the art and science of film have been able to match the technology and business of its 

industry. The 1990s and 2000s have especially marked twenty years of digital achievement in application and 

complexity, allowing filmmakers to use techniques to portray their visions of the world, whether it ends or 

not. 

Like Hollywood, the cinemas of Japan and Korea have been experiencing more opportunities and 

inspirations for creativity due to the progression of technology and rise in high-concept films from 1990 to 

2009. Just as the frequency of apocalyptic films increases in Hollywood as investors and technologyentrepreneurs 

discover new breakthroughs, the trajectory of apocalyptic films in East Asia is heading towards 

a newer standard to what constitutes "the bigger, stronger, louder, and quickly profiteerable" film. Hence, it is 

now crucial to investigate the relationship between Korea's and Japan's film industries through the apocalypse 

genre and to study its impact on their nations' economy as well. Will more high-concept films, such as 

Haeundae (2009), which is rendered nostalgically as a low-budget version of Roland Emmerich's The Day After 

Tomorrow (2004), continue to emulate Hollywood films and break South Korean box-office records? Will 

Japan's successful apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic anime industry (e.g. Akira, Appleseed) evolve into the 

increased production of high-concept non-anime films, unlike their less costly yet still apocalyptic 

counterparts (e.g. Karisuma)? And will the cinemas of the East and West experience a greater filmic crossing of 

transnational borders to ultimately communicate the spatially and temporally universal dream of humanity: 

The notion of an apocalypse? Whatever the relationships turn out to be, it is crucial to understand this postmodern 

phenomenon, for the history of cinema has existed since the history of man. And if the history of 

man is to end one day, then this historiography of apocalyptic genres has the right to be explained. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Lynne Horiuchi 

1746 Post Street, San Francisco: A Building Awash in Diasporic Tides 

We often think of buildings as fixed spaces, yet they may be linked to diasporic connections and flows. In this 

paper I will explore how buildings at 1746 Post Street in San Francisco in Japantown (Nihon-jin Machi) have 

harbored several different stages and types of Japanese diasporic settlement and movement. 

In 1923 the Japanese First Evangelical and Reform Church, one of the largest Christian churches in 

San Francisco, built an auxiliary Education Building to serve the Japan (Nihon-jin Machi) community. With 

the U.S. government's removal and incarceration of Japanese American communities, the building was 

14



converted in 1942 into a storage site and, at the end of World War II, into a hostel. With the church's 

diminished finances and fragmentation of their community, the Education Building was sold in 1956. 

Through redevelopment. the Hohl'bei Mainichi, a daily Japanese-English newspaper, converted the 

Education Building into their headquarters in 1976. The building became a community institution once again, 

witnessing the progression of printing technology from handset Japanese type to digital production serving 

the regional Japanese American community. The New People Center. a commercial center for manga or 

Japanese comic book culture, replaced the Education Building in 2009. 

What are and where the local, regional, national and internationa1 diasporic flows that link to this 

bui1ding site? How did Japanese diasporic connections flow in and out of these buildings when owned by 

Japanese and Japanese American entities? How did Japanese citizenship historically affect Japanese diasporic 

flows connected to this building site? 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Henry L. HU 

The Business of Governing ISPs in China: Perspectives of Net Neutrality 

Internet service providers (ISPs) have played an important role in China’s Internet regulation regime. In this 

article, I illustrate how the ISPs are governed to serve the government’s regulatory goals. Drawing the 

contours of ISPs’ daily operations is far from enough for us to fully understand the intent and logic of 

Internet regulation by means of ISPs. The task of explanation involves some of the most extraordinary and 

profound insights concerning Internet governance, that is, the theories of Layers Principle, the End-to-end 

Argument and the Generative Internet, which to a certain extent justify the regulations in favor of net 

neutrality. Although these theories have not been applied in any literature to Chinese Internet, I believe they 

will prove to be powerful tools and useful perspectives to analyze the status quo of Chinese Internet regulation. 

Chinese ISPs have been the dependent rather than neutral regulatory intermediaries of the government. Their 

political action and commercial behaviors can compromise the function of Internet as an open and innovative 

platform for culture production, free expression and creative industry. Moreover, in addition to 

telecommunications carriers, the radio and TV networks affiliated to the State Administration for Radio, Film 

and Television (SARFT) are to become a new type of ISP that is capable of choking the free spirit of Internet 

as recently demonstrated by the far-reaching policy of “networks convergence”. The latent effects of this 

policy remain ignored by the academia. This article argues that the policy has a great potential to drastically 

alter the structure and ecology of Internet in China. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Li Hua 

Representing Minorities and Social Change in Tuya’s Marriage 

This paper will focus on Chinese director Wang Quan’an’s third feature film, Tuya’s Hunshi/Tuya’s Marriage 

(Wang Quan’an, 2007). The film not only reveals a rapidly vanishing nomadic life, the glories of the 

Mongolian grasslands and the determined heroine’s journey to find a husband, but also exposes a range of 

issues the protagonist faces in a fast-changing society: the displacement of the roles of husband and wife, the 

tension between a woman’s allegiance to the patriarchal code of conduct and her personal desires, the impact 

of urbanization upon the traditional nomadic lifestyle and livelihood, and the fissure between the city and the 

countryside. I would argue that Tuya’s Marriage, on the one hand, remains within the cinematic tradition of 

the Chinese minority film in that the director Wang Quan’an conveniently uses the genre to explore some 

themes that would not be readily explored in ordinary Han-centered genres. On the other hand, the film can 

also be viewed as a rural film. It builds upon the sort of images of rural women found in earlier rural films, 

such as Li Shuangshuang, Xiang Ersao, Guilan and Ermo, thereby revealing how social change can affect 

women’s lives. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

15



Derek Huls 

Redrawing Agriculture-Pastoral Boundaries: The Effects of P.R.C. Water and Agriculture Development Policies in 

Xunhua County 

China’s Northwest has historically existed as a unique borderland where various ethnic groups have lived in a 

relative economic symbiosis engaging in trade, commerce, and cultural exchange. The nature of the economic 

interactions, to a large degree were shaped by the landscape of Qinghai province; it has produced two distinct 

patterns of subsistence in this particular region, that of agriculture and that of pastoralism. Over the course of 

the twentieth century, however, this region has undergone significant transformation as a result of the advent 

of an agriculturalism which has changed not only to topography of the Northwest, but has affected the 

relationships among traditionally herding and agricultural communities. Chinese policies have historically 

favored agriculture, though it is particularly aggressive policies toward increasing food supplies, grain yield, 

and land cultivation under the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) that has upset the balance between these 

two groups. This paper analyzes water development projects and the reclamation of degraded land in Xunhua 

county in eastern Qinghai, and their effects on the dramatic increase of water usage. This, in turn, has had 

profound effects on the economic and social relationships among the Salar and Tibetan minority populations 

living in this region. 

Water resource projects are, quite understandably, seen in a very positive light but the Chinese 

government as a physical demonstration of China’s increasing success in infrastructure development. 

Nonetheless, our research has revealed that this development has been accompanied by several important 

ethnic and environmental issues that merit attention at the national level. The encouragement of agriculture 

has decreased trading between Salar Muslims and Tibetans, furthering the economic divide between the two 

groups, and contributing to increased water use and detrimental agricultural practices. It is our contention 

that the construction of these water projects disregarded Qinghai’s environmental conditions and ecological 

limits and continues to negatively impact the balance between nomadic people and agriculturalists. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Zafreen Jaffery 

Literacy, Community and Sustainability: Insights from a rural NGO school in Pakistan. 

In Pakistan, less than one third of all children complete primary education, those who are left out mostly 

reside in the rural areas (Kronstadt, 2004, The World Bank, 2008). Considerable evidence exist about the work 

of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in education in the developing world (Miller- Grandvaux, 

Welmond, Wolf, 2002) however, the documentation of NGOs' work for education in Pakistan and especially 

in rural Pakistan is quite limited. In this paper, I will discuss the findings of a case study based on the work of 

a rural NGO school in providing access to education for children in rural areas in Pakistan. This study uses 

data which was collected through a critical field based approach involving interviews, participant-observations 

and focus groups with the NGO administrator, staff and school teachers. The researcher spent time on site 

collecting field notes about the procedures and structures involved in managing the schools. The study found 

that the NGO school had generated community support through community mobilization and involvement. 

The NGO had also created its own methodology for literacy instruction, which produced adult literate women 

who were then hired as primary teachers. The accessibility and quality of instruction ensured student 

enrollment and retention. The preliminary research findings suggest that an NGO school using community 

mobilization is comparatively more sustainable in situations when resource-bound funds are exhausted. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hye Kyong JEON 

A Study of the Clauses mae ni and made ni with Regard to time Limits in Modern Japanese 

The clauses mae ni and made ni are used to represent the time relation of two events in modern Japanese. The 

clause mae ni corresponds to 'before' and made ni to 'by' in English. Although the two clauses have some 

common useages, there also exist differences in the use of the two clauses. 

16



One representative common fact is that the two clauses are routinely utilized in the sense that the 

main clause occurs before the event of the subordinate clause is realized or completed. The notable difference 

may be explained by the possibility ofthe replacement of one clause the other. In other words, the clauses mae 

ni and made ni can replace each other in some cases and they should not replace each other in other cases. In 

this presentation the conditions for the permissible and impermissible replacement of the two clauses mae ni 

and made ni will be investigated with examples. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jordan Johnson 

Looking Forward Toward an Idealized Past: Modern Thai Buddhist Approaches to Sustainability 

This paper will seek to examine the ways in which prominent members of the modern Thai Buddhist tradition 

have sought to articulate a path toward sustainable living that is rooted in Buddhist thought. Buddhism has a 

great deal to say on the subject of avoiding over-consumption, and several recent Thai Buddhist thinkers have 

sought to employ Buddhism as a tool around which to envision a path forward for Thailand that involves 

both sustainable development and the creation of a just society. Recently, “socially engaged Buddhists” in 

Thailand have been active in constructing a picture of the “original” intent of the Buddhist tradition that is in 

keeping with progressive contemporary values such as sustainability and the establishment of social and 

economic justice. This is particularly interesting insofar as the global conversation concerning a “return” to 

the original intent of religious traditions tends to focus on the phenomenon of conservative religious 

“fundamentalists,” but here we have an example of a movement that construes the “foundations” of the 

Buddhist tradition to be in keeping with modern, progressive social values. By examining the writings of 

influential members of the Thai tradition of “socially engaged Buddhism,” this paper will critically examine 

the phenomenon of Thai Buddhists constructing an idealized notion of “true” Buddhism – and of Thailand as 

a Buddhist nation par excellence – that fits with contemporary notions of the importance of just, sustainable 

living. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ann Kaneko 

Expanding Asian Studies: Looking at Cross-Cultural Identity in Two Films 

As a Japanese American filmmaker, filmmaking has been a way to explore parallel experiences and expand our 

knowledge of the Asian diaspora. I have made two feature-length documentaries that explore cross-cultural 

identity in different but similar contexts than my own. Both films have been great platforms for discussing 

these issues and have successfully made these stories accessible to educators and students-perhaps an 

important direction in re-energizing and finding intersection between Asian and Asian American Studies. 

Overstay looks at foreign migrant workers in Japan during the late 1990s and was prompted by my 

interest in re-examining this country's role as a host. Japan, largely perceived as a homogenous society and the 

place my grandparents left behind, was experiencing growing pains, dealing with the complex cultural, 

economic and political implications, stirred up by these "new-comers." The film looks at six young people 

from Pakistan, Iran, the Philippines and Peru; and, especially, the Peruvian woman, who uses a Nikkei ("of 

Japanese descent") pseudonym, raises questions about Japan's reliance on blood relations. 

Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru looks at four political artists and resistance under expresident 

Alberto Fujimori. One of them is Japanese-Peruvian and struggles with language differences in his 

own family and the backlash associated with being of the same descent as a president who had fallen out of 

favor. Through this character, the film looks at the Peruvian Nikkei community and Fujimori's relationship to 

it, as I draw parallels to my own experiences as a Japanese-American artist. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Priya Kapoor 

Identity and Difference in Transnational Feminism: The South Asian Experience 

Transnational feminism is a paradigm that carefully acknowledges the contemporary free flowing movement of 

ideas, problematizing gender and sexuality at the intersection of nationhood, class, ethnicity and history. As 

17



other transnational movements, transnational feminism does not hold nation sacred, but works toward a logic 

that is more multifocal that nationality, which is a shared, just, humanity. My paper explores the transnational 

feminist work of two visible figures recognized and respected in the international circuit of activism, resistance, 

lectures and conference presentations. They represent the grassroots and the global South, while espousing a 

world consciousness and connectedness through their work of taking on governments and corporations alike 

to expose mass scale exploitation of communities in the name of progress. 

I examine the writings of Vandana Shiva, the founder of the Seed Save movement who has taken on 

genetic engineering and corporations such as Monsanto; and Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize winner for 

“God of Small Things,” who has taken on the Indian Government for its nuclear testing, and the World Bank 

for funding the multimillion dollar construction of the Narmada Dam (Narmada Bachao Andolan or “Save 

the Narmada River,” movement). Their life’s work, which is in no way complete, adheres deeply to the 

philosophy of cosmopolitanism, of shared economic, historical, and colonial context in a world with porous 

and changeable boundaries. I will examine the work of Gayatri Spivak, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Lisa 

Lowe, Caren Kaplan, Ella Shohat and Kumari Jayawardena to provide theoretical context to the analysis of 

their work and writing. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hiroko Katsuta 

Onomatopoeia as discourse modality: Viewer involvement in Japanese TV advertising 

This paper shows a link: between the usage of onomatopoeia and mimetic words in Japanese TV 

advertisements on the one hand and Maynard's (1993) argument that "language serves the primary purpose of 

expressing subjectivity and emotion" on the other. In particular, it attempts to show that the usage of 

onomatopoeia and mimetic words in Japanese represents Maynard's concept of Discourse Modality through 

the expression of perspective and emotionally, mentally, and psychologically expressive language. In order to 

analyze this, clips from Japanese TV advertisements were chosen, transcribed, and analyzed. TV 

advertisements were chosen because they have nearly universal and clearly defined goals (to gain the viewer's 

interest and highlight features or concepts related to the product) and a focus upon creating an emotional or 

psychological connection between the viewer and the product. The collected data indicate that onomatopoeia 

are used to create contextualized descriptions providing vivid sensory impact and promoting sensory recall. 

The use of contextualized, colorful, and interesting language, and particularly the promotion of sensory recall, 

have the general effect of increasing a viewer's involvement in an advertisement. From the perspective of 

Discourse Modality, this usage provides an interesting example of the manipulation of discourse for a 

particular emotional and psychological effect. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Christopher T. Keaveney 

Power to the People: Yamamoto Sanehiko and the Enpon Publishing Revolution in Prewar Japan 

Yamamoto Sanehiko (1885-1952), the president of the publishing house Kaizōsha, contributed to the cultural 

and intellectual life of interwar Japan (1919-1937) in a number of crucial ways. Yamamoto’s achievements 

include his roles in book and magazine publishing and as an interpreter of contemporary China to his 

Japanese readership. In 1923, Kaizōsha ushered in a publishing revolution with the release of the first of its 

series of its enbon books, each offered at the budget price of one yen. Coming as it did, just after the Kantō 

Great earthquake in which libraries had been devastated and entire collections had been lost, the release of 

these series of affordable books put a variety of contemporary and classic works back into the hands of 

thousands of Japanese readers and set in motion a revolution in the publishing industry that saw Iwanami and 

Shichōsha follow suit in the release of similarly priced, affordable books. This paper will explore some of the 

motivations for the enbon book series, examine the ways these books were advertised and distributed, and 

consider some of the results and long-term ramifications of this publishing revolution set in place by 

Yamamoto. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

18



Aekyoung KIM 

A Study of the Religious Features in Ukiyo-e: Focus on Hiroshige's Meisho Edo Hyakkei 

Customs are a part of a living culture which reflect the times including religion, life, politics, and ideas. Thus 

a genre painting whose material deals with customs is closely related to human life. Ukiyo-e is a genre of 

Japanese woodblock prints and paintings and are among the most widely known and admired arts of the Edo 

period. Hiroshige (1797-1858) was one of the last great masters of the Ukiyo-e and earned his reputation 

with a series of views featuring the well-known sights of Japan. Even as he got older, Hiroshige's artwork was 

very popular. In 1856 he "retired from the world" to become a Buddhist monk. That same year he began 

work on his masterpiece Meisho Edo Hyakkei (One Hundred Famous Views of Edo) just before his death. 

Meisho Edo Hyakkei, actually composed of 118 splendid woodblock landscape and genre scenes 

depicting mid 19 th 

century Edo, is one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art. It is a work that inspired a 

number of Western artists including Vincent Van Gogh, to experiment with imitations of Japanese methods. 

Meisho is usually translated "famous places," or "celebrated sites". Hiroshige portrayed many Buddhist temples 

and Shinto shrines and religious images from various angles. Religion harmonized with the lives of people in 

his works. The object of this study is to understand the role of religion at the end of the shogunate era 

through Hiroshige's artwork, and to discover why his work has been able to attract the attention of many 

different people over a long period of time. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Sung Lim Kim 

Ch’aekkori: Still Life Painting of 19 th Century Korea 

19 th century Choson dynasty, especially in Seoul, changed dramatically from a traditional Confucian society to 

a society of commerce and material consumption. Ch’aekkori painting is the depiction of objects (still life) 

including books, stationary implements, luxurious imports, and symbolic and auspicious fruits and accessories, 

which reflected the new materialism. Believed to have originated from Chinese treasure walls in Qing 

Forbidden Palace, ch’aekkori painting was favored and promoted by King Chongjo (1786-1800), who used it 

to deliver his message of scholarly pursuit and to direct his officials toward proper reading material. 

Ch’aekkori was first painted by court painters, but it soon became popular and widespread among the elite 

yangban as well as commoners. The paper explores how ch’aekkori painting reflected Korea’s active cultural 

interactions with China, its own internal social and cultural evolution, and Koreans’ changing perceptions of 

material objects. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Young-Cheol Kim 

The Green Sea of Dotonborigawa 

Born in Kobe in 1947, Miyamoto Teru won the 13 th Dazai Osamu Prize in 1977 for his story Doronogawar; in 

1978 he was awarded the 78 th Akutagawa Prize for Hotorugawa; and in 1981 he completed his Three Rivers 

trilogy with the publication of Dotonborigawa. These early works are based on the author’s experiences, but not 

to the extent that they would be called autobiographical. These stories depict the lives of people in the redlight 

district and feature two main characters; Takeuchi, a middle-aged man who runs a cafeteria in Dotonbori, 

and his part-time worker Kunihiko. Miyamoto describes the affair between the fortune teller Sugiyama and 

Takeuchi’s wife, Suzuko; he describes the relationship between Kunihiko and Hiromi who was his father’s 

mistress; and he shows us the lives of the dancer, Satomi and the profiligate, Kaoru. The sympathetic author 

wants his readers to share the joys sorrows as well as the dreams of these people living in the midst of the redlight 

district. A painting, “The Green Sea,” and a jade water pitcher, Giyaman, symbolize the dreams of these 

people struggling to survive in Dotonbori and hoping for a better future. 

Sugiyama’s painting, “The Green Sea,” reflects the hope that only be recognized by people who long 

for what is missing in reality. The fortuneteller Sugiyama can tell the future of others, but not his own as he 

19



causes the breakup of the Takeuchi family by his affair with Suzuko. So the question arises, why does he long 

so badly to paint The Green Sea, and what function does this painting have in the novel? 

Takeuchi could sense the feelings of his dead wife only after hearing the story of how Kayama 

dreamed of his hometown Shotojima while gazing at the jade gyaman pitcher. Just as Kayama could only 

reconstruct his hometown seashore by thinking of it from afar, so too, the people of Dotonburi can only see 

the illusions of light from their neighborhood from a distance. 

When Kunihiko and Machiko look at Dotonbori from Saiwai Bridge, it appears like splendidly 

decorated ship ablaze with lights, but devoid of human beings. The dazzling lights of Dotonbori reflect only 

the illusion of life. This is true for all the people within the boundary of Dotonbori. Just as Dotonbori is a 

stagnant waterway rather than a flowing river, the people there are also seen as dreamers of the green sea 

which glitters in the distance, but is devoid of meaning. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Stephen W. Kohl 

Dealing With Unruly Visitors: Korean and American Castaways in Japan 

The Lagoda castaways who where in Japan in 1848-49 complained loudly about their brutal mistreatment at 

the hands of Japanese authorities. The governments of Western nations raised an outcry saying that Japan 

should be forced to treat helpless castaways in a humane and compassionate manner. Commodore Perry’s 

chief objective in negotiating a treaty with Japan was to insure kind treatment for sailors shipwrecked on 

Japanese shores. 

That officials in Japan should assume the authority to treat foreigners in this way may seem surprising 

in view of the heavily centralized control maintained by the bakufu. This paper will examine an edict issued in 

1784 to all coastal domains regarding the treatment of foreign castaways. This edict was the result of 

complaints by several domains of the unlawful behavior of certain Korean castaways who were being escorted 

to Nagasaki and Tsushima for repatriation. This situation resulted in a three way discussion among Nagasaki, 

Tsushima, and Edo over how to handle foreign castaways. The result of this discussion was the edict of 1784 

which was to severe repercussions resulting in growing world opinion regarding the need to open Japan from 

its policy of seclusion. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Samuel T. Lederer 

Code and Success: The Shimbun Nishiki-e of Yoshitoshi and Yoshiiku 

Among the many changes in Japanese society brought about by The Meiji Restoration, the increased flow of 

information was surely one of the most important. Whereas the Tokugawa bakufu had sought to restrict and 

monopolize the circulation of information in Edo Japan, the nascent Meiji government supported the creation 

of newspapers under its program of Western-inspired enlightenment, bunmei kaika. By 1875, newspapers 

reached almost every corner of Japan through delivery services and reading rooms. Ukiyo-e experienced a 

similar explosion of information, as the ban on depicting contemporary events was lifted; in the 1870s, print 

artists made dramatic triptychs of the Imperial Army’s military campaigns. 

These two liberated media, newspapers and ukiyo-e, came together in the new format, shimbun nishiki-e. 

These single sheet prints, bearing a color scene, the name of a newspaper, and a short article excerpt, grew as 

vehicles for depicting sensational events in a familiar format to consumers hungry for contemporary news. 

Two of Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s pupils, Ochiai Yoshiiku and Taiso Yoshitoshi were the most talented and widely 

published of the many shimbun nishiki-e artists active in the 1870s. Yoshiiku was cofounder and illustrator of 

115 prints for the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, which commenced publication in 1872. Yoshitoshi was 

commissioned to make a series of 62 prints for the Yubin Hochi Shimbun in April 1875. 

After providing an introduction to Meiji newspapers and the two artists, I will use Roland Barthes’ 

theory of the coding of drawings as a framework to conduct a comparative analysis of both artists’ shimbun 

nishiki-e. Since Barthes touches on the interaction between text and image in his essay, “Rhetoric of the 

Image,” his theory of drawing is useful for an analysis of shimbun nishiki-e, a format in which differing visual 

20



arrangements of kanji characters had important effects. Barthes’ theory is most useful because the two artists 

made choices to code reality, to create the impression of viewing actual events in their shimbun nishiki-e. 

Indeed, this goal was explicitly stated in the frontispiece to both shimbun nishiki-e series. 

I will show that the visual arrangement of text and image, the use of figural motifs, and the 

incorporation of stylistic techniques from Kuniyoshi affected the success of Yoshiiku’s and Yoshitoshi’s 

shimbun nishiki-e. The intermingling of text and image constrained Yoshiiku’s coding of reality in his prints; as 

a result, he appropriated his master’s figural motifs and often omitted background elements. Yoshitoshi, by 

contrast, utilized a text-free space to create dramatic images endowed with visual depth that created the 

impression of witnessing actual events. This paper provides a fresh perspective on shimbun nishiki-e, by 

situating them within the context of both artists’ lineages and professional careers. This paper also raises 

important questions about the relationship between text and image in Japanese art works. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Eun Lye Lee 

Japanese Novels and the Consumption Culture in the 1920s: Based on the Works of Kaji Motojiro 

The 1920s in the United States was the era of consumption culture. The 1920s in Japan was the change of the 

era name from Taisho to Showa. It was the time when foreign literature trends flew into Japan with no time 

difference. In addition, it is called the era of establishing Japan’s modern city. As international events, there 

were World War I and the Great Depression, which had large and small effects within Japan. Moreover, in 

establishing cities, especially in the case of Tokyo, the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 has been the start of 

building a new and full-fledged modern city. 

Around this time, the United States consumption culture had sunken into 1920s Japanese society. 

The United States’ new consumption culture is described in Japanese novels at that time. For example, 

published in 1924, Tanizaki Junichiro’s “Chizinnoai” portrays an urban young adult who enjoys the US 

consumption culture. City dwellers who roam the modern city and are assimilated into the consumption 

culture often appear in Japanese novels published in the 1920s. From this point of view consumption culture 

as an important keyword in investigating modernity, this essay will look at how Kajii Motojiro’s stories 

“Lemon,” “Doudei,” “Rozyou.” “Kako,” and “Huyunohi,” published in the 1920s, depict the deluge of 

consumption culture in Japan’s society. A novel written at the time depicts a modern consumption city. The 

novel portrays modern consumption culture as (1) Purchasing merchandise (2) Stores with overflowing goods 

(3) Streetcars and more. Thus, the city and its residents have been infiltrated by modern capitalism and 

becomes reconstructed as a place with a completely strange and new experience. Of course, the background 

of a modern city is not the only aspect that is deployed. All the more, as modern city and tradition coexist, 

the new image of consumption culture is more arousing and vivid. I would like to add that with this new 

image, new feelings stand out. Nevertheless, how the consumer’s feelings are expressed should not be 

overlooked. In Kajii Motojiro’s work consumption culture is reflected in a single lemon. It can be seen as a 

lighting up the copious emotions, the new utopic world that is being captured in product and consumption. 

However, emotions are not abundant in a consumption culture, it is rather being isolated. The objective of 

this essay will be on the process of isolation found by reading novels of the 1920s. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Junghee Lee 

The Lineage of Apotropaic Monsters in the Tomb Paintings of Koguryo 

“I eat and eat but I am still hungry,” reads the cartouche of a monster-mask on the lantern-roof ceiling of a 

tomb in Jian, presumably showing the monster’s insatiable desire to swallow evil. Monster figures loom in 

dark burial chambers and create an atmosphere of fear in the tombs of Koguryo, which contain numerous 

wall painting exhibiting a rich variety of scenes, including mythical beasts, gods, material culture, and even 

everyday life in addition to the monsters. The majority of these scenes were influenced by Chinese funerary 

art, but some examples, such as the monsters depicted from the rear and seems to be shrieking on the four 

21



corners of the walls supporting the ceiling in the Tomb of Four Dieties in Jian, reflect a prototype not found 

in China, The poignant and provocative images are unique to Korea, with roots that recall Siberian culture in 

the Steppes. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Moosung Lee 

The Construction of Value Systems and Network Formations for the East Asian Community: The Roles of Local 

Governments and Multi-Level Governance 

The question of regional integration in Northeast Asia has been one of the key issues of regional politics. 

Notwithstanding the efforts to realize the regional integration, both its feasibility and the scope are very 

limited: the loosely integrated economic integration, such as a free trade zone, seems to be available option at 

the moment. Past historical grudges among, for example, Korea, Japan and China have been a big hurdle to 

jump for a greater initiative for the regional integration. Different economic interests have also discouraged 

them from serious talks. Thus intergovernmental negotiations to initiate the first move have not shown any 

substantial progress. Even so, any countries aspiring for integration may well recognize its positive economic 

and political implications. Under these circumstances, this paper aims to examine not only the limitation of 

the conventional scholarly wisdom, but the alternative view to the existing debates. If the top-down style of 

intergovernmental negotiations is not easy, the local level of initiatives may come first, which in turn acts as a 

bridgehead for further moves. To test this hypothesis, this paper will examine the roles of the local and 

regional governments in creating networks and value systems to strengthen the infrastructure of regional 

integration. To this aim, this paper will undertake its study with particular reference to the economic, political 

and cultural level of network formation process between China and South Korea. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Timothy Lim 

South Korea as an ‘Ordinary’ Country: A Comparative Inquiry into the Prospects for ‘Permanent’ Immigration to Korea 

Will South Korea become a country of immigration? That is, will it follow the same path as other ‘historical 

countries’ that also attempted to resist the permanent immigration of foreign migrant workers? My short 

answer to the last set of questions is yes. Briefly put, I argue that South Korea is quite ‘ordinary’. It is 

ordinary in the sense that it is similar, in a basic way, to other industrialized democracies. And it is the 

‘ordinary’ institutions, practices, and norms of democratic governance- combined with the imperatives of 

capitalist industrialization- that are key: they help create a common social and political context within which 

the process of international migration plays out. The result is a generally foreseeable sequence of events that 

leads from temporary migration to permanent immigration (including denizenship and citizenship). I support 

this conclusion through both an analysis of contemporary developments in South Korea and through a 

comparative examination focusing on Germany. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Meiru Liu 

Engaging the Community: The Non-Governmental Role of CI-PSU in Promoting Chinese Culture and Language 

Since signing the contract with Hanban back in January 2007, the Confucius Institute at Portland State 

University has been in operation for more than three years. Over the past several years, CIPSU has been 

playing the role of non-governmental ambassador in vigorously promoting Chinese language and culture 

through entering the community and establishing friendly and cooperative relations with different regional 

and local organizations. Through activities such as Chinese language programs, China and Chinese culturerelated 

lecture series and Experiencing Chinese Culture events, weekly Chinese Corner activities, international 

conferences, K-12 Chinese language teachers training program, Chinese Textbook Exhibition, Chinese-bridge 

summer camps, and Chinese Proficiency Tests, the Institute is rapidly becoming an important window for 

Portland State University and the local community and the general public in the region to learn about China 

22



and Chinese culture, thus broadening the network between the two countries and the peoples and building a 

bridge between the Chinese and Western cultures. 

This paper will discuss the positive non-governmental role the CIPSU has been playing in reaching 

and educating the community about China and Chinese culture. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Wenjia Liu 

Jiang Dehua and Her doubles: Girls’ Resistance to Marriage in the 1857 Flowers Growing from Writing Brushes 

The late-Qing tanci Flowers Growing from Writing Brushes (Bi sheng hua 笔生花; preface dated 1857), attributed to 

Qiu Xinru, is unusual for its intensive focus on girls’ resistance to marriage, highlighted by the characterization 

of Jiang Dehua and her two foils. The tanci gives scholars a unique opportunity to see how a gentry woman 

addressed the theme of arranged marriage in fictional writing. 

In the fantasized world of the tanci, the various means to resist marriage used by the female protagonists 

reveals a search for female agency by the author. The tanci narrates events in the life of the female character 

Jiang Dehua, including her cross-dressing and marriage to another woman, the ultimate disclosure of her 

gender when she assumes her new role as a wife in relationship to her husband’s concubines and her own 

previous “wife.” The cross-dressed Jiang Dehua, who serves as a high official, tries to avoid the disclosure of 

her sex under the name of filial piety as long as she can. Parallel to her, Hu Yuexian, a fox-spirit who is 

Dehua’s double, manages to outwit all the men around her and leave the mundane world. Xuexian, Dehua’s 

complement in terms of literary talent, pursues Daoist immortality and rejects the idea of marriage to a man 

sating it would pollute her. The three fictional women’s active resistance to arranged marriage endows them 

with autonomous agency within the system of traditional patriarchal power represented by their would-be 

husbands. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Yang Liu 

Read Her Mind Through Her Poetry: Reevaluation ofYu Xuanji's Social Poetry 

Yu Xuanji (844?-869) was a Tang dynasty Daoist nun famous for her poetry. Although she lived a short life, 

Yu Xuanji left us a number of valuable poetic works, many of which were criticized as decadent and depraved 

by Huang-fu Mei (dates unknown) and Sun Guangxian (900?-968). Both of these men made hostile references 

to Yu, significantly influencing how scholars of later periods perceived her. Yu thus became notorious for her 

allegedly "dissolute" life and "immoral" works. However, a careful investigation of her poetry reveals the need 

to reevaluate her works and her personality. To a certain extent, Yu Xuanji was relatively independent, as she 

lived in a Daoist convent that was a public social place, free from restrictions of family, which facilitated her 

active social life. In fact, of Yu's 49 poems preserved in Quan Tangshi, more than 24 

are addressed to her friends. This study will examine Yu Xuanji's social poetry, the controversial part among 

the corpus of her works, and will also take into account some of the praise and criticisms that have been 

expressed about her life and work. The purpose of this study is to obtain a more rounded and balanced view 

of Yu Xuanji and her works by focusing on close readings of her own literary output, rather than relying on 

the commentaries of others. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Lina Lu 

The Confucius Institute and Professional Development of Localized K-12 Chinese Language Teacher 

One of the main functions of the Confucius Institute is to promote Chinese language education and train 

Chinese language teachers. There are approximately 5000 people learning Chinese language in the great 

Portland wares. Along with an increasing demand for Chinese instruction, needs for qualified Chinese 

language teachers are getting greater and greater. The Confucius Institute at Portland State University 

successfully sponsored/organized two K-12 Chinese teacher training programs in summer 2008 and 2009 to 

meet the need for professional development of K-12 Chinese language teachers in the great Portland area and 

state of Oregon. 

23



The paper will introduce the summer K-12 Chinese language teacher training program, with a focus on: 

• How to assess the need for professional development of K-12 Chinese teachers in the greater Portland area; 

• How to cooperate and incorporate the academic requirements with those by the Graduate School of education 

at PSU in regard to creating an appropriate curriculum which helps the teachers with their pursuit for their 

Oregon teacher licensure; 

• How to invite experts from China to conduct workshops on specific topics that the local K-12 Chinese 

language are interested and needed; and 

• How to collaborate with the partner university in Suzhou, China for creating opportunities and potentials in 

developing a special master’s program in teaching Chinese as a foreign language for the interested participating 

teachers. 

The paper also discusses issues and challenges of the K-12 Chinese language training program. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hui Luo 

In Pursuit of Modem Sensibilities: Wang Zengqi's Rewriting of Liaozhai zhiyi 

From 1987 to 1991, the veteran writer Wang Zengqi rewrote thirteen tales from Pu Songling's Liaozhai zhiyi, 

the 17 th century collection of strange records and marvelous tales. Through editing, stylistic innovation, and 

recasting the classic tales in modern vernacular Chinese, Wang Zengqi seeks to inject what he called "modern 

sensibilities" into Pu Songling's much-contested literary classic. Wang in particular takes issue with Pu's 

cliched endings, calling them the compromised results of an "internal war" between Pu's artistic ideal and 

Chinese literary and social conventions. Wang believes that a latent modem sensibility, both ethical and 

aesthetic, is already present in Pu Songling's writing. Thus Wang sees his rewriting as a means to reveal the 

hidden vision in Liaozhai that has been obscured by Pu Songling's own limitations as well as by the 

"misinterpretation" of Liaozhai by critics and scholars. Upon closer reading, however, Wang's modem 

updating of the Liaozhai stories seems to mirror Pu Songling's "internal war": On the one hand, Wang's 

rewriting is guided by his own literary vision. On the other hand, he falls into a new set of cliches by 

succumbing to the pressures of prevailing ideology and popular taste. Wang's project to "rescue" Liaozhai 

from its muddled history of reception, though modest in scale, nevertheless brings out a plethora of issues 

related to literary tradition, modernism, and the question of the classical tale as an alternative to Western 

conceptions of fiction. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Lesley Ma 

The Chinese Women's Calligraphy and Painting Society and Multiple Female Modernities in 1930s Shanghai 

When established in Shanghai in 1934, the Chinese Women's Calligraphy and Painting Society (Zhongguo 

nuzi shuhua hui) was more than merely one of the many artists' societies to spring up during this era. The 

women artists involved in the society, though from disparate hometowns, backgrounds, and training, worked 

towards a unified goal of promoting and securing careers for its members in the fields of traditional painting 

and calligraphy. Their collective aspirations could perhaps categorize them as activists, as they carved out their 

own territory in the artistic and social world of the day. As one may see from the proliferation of pictorials 

and magazines featuring commodities and the ideal female physique, even the urban cultural milieu was still 

patriarchal. The women artists held salons and exhibitions and, with their art and activities, made their names 

as both individuals and as a group. The Society thus provided exhibition opportunities, publicity, support, and 

business assistance for fellow women artists. 

From various accounts in art history and film history, however, the way they performed and 

functioned in the public sphere was quite different from the positioning of other female public figures, such 

as film stars or anonymous models for commercial art. Interestingly, their treatment of their art and craft was 

also different from that of their male peers. In other words, the female artists' choices of activities and 

painting styles suggest that there are multiple "modernities," and to be precise, "female modernities," existing 

24



in 1930s Shanghai. The public expectation of what "modernity" means did not always align with how 

individuals understood or embodied it. This paper aims to examine the painting styles and society activities 

that the Chinese Women's Calligraphy and Painting Society put forward as they sought to construct various 

alternatives of modernity against the backdrop of the objectified, mass-and media produced "New Woman" 

of the time. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Sean H. McPherson 

Architecture, Cultural Identity and Religious Practice in Japanese America 

The social biography and architectural form of Buddhist churches established by Japanese immigrants and 

their descendants in the 20 th century suggest complex and changing relationships among religious beliefs, 

cultural identities and social contexts. These institutions functioned as social anchors of ethnic communities, 

as well as visual markers of Japanese-American cultural identity within a larger social context of indifference 

or outright hostility. Buddhist churches served as centers of socio-economic advancement, political activism, 

religious ritual and cultural performance. 

This exploratory study addresses the founding, funding, design and construction of the 1920 Fresno 

Buddhist Church and the 1965 Placer Buddhist Church in Penryn. as well as their maintenance amidst the 

climate of extreme hostility toward Asian immigrants in California; the shifting activities hosted and promoted 

by churches~ the inculcation and representation of cultural identity through church architecture, and the 

diverse ways in which cultural identity was communicated (or elided) through architectural form and spatial 

organization. A comparison of the architectural form, structural logic and spatial layout of these two buildings 

suggests generational differences in interpretations of Japanese cultural identity in built form. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Georgia A. Mickey 

State Legitimacy and the Rule of Law: Founding the Bank of China in 1912 

The Bank of China was founded in 1912 at a pivotal moment when radicals and moderates alike after the 

1911 Revolution fixed their hopes on a new and modern Chinese nation state. It was during this unsettled 

political environment that a group of Chinese elites, all private shareholders of the imperial Da Qing Bank, 

which had collapsed during the revolution, devised a plan to create a central bank for the fledgling republic 

out of the remaining tangible and intangible assets of the failed Da Qing Bank. I argue that these shareholders 

wanted to exchange their worthless Da Qing Bank shares for new Bank of China shares in order to recoup 

their personal investments in the failed imperial bank. They also planned as shareholders to structure the new 

bank for their own personal advantage. Although scholars typically treat the Bank of China within the 

framework of China’s financial modernization during the first half of the twentieth century, I am also 

proposing that the founding of the bank served political ends by helping to establish the new state’s 

legitimacy. Furthermore, in the conflict that ensued over the bank’s founding during 1912, successive 

ministers of finance in the new government affirmed two critical principles: (1) that it was the state and not 

private stakeholders who were responsible for governmental institutions such as the central bank, and (2) that 

rights under the imperial regime carried over into the new republic. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Barbara Mori 

Chinese College Women's Spousal Choice 

This paper will explore the attitudes of young women in China toward a future spouse. First it will discuss the 

traditional ways of selecting a husband and then it will discuss the responses of young university women to a 

list of characteristics desirable in a spouse. 

The Information is based on 416 surveys and interviews with freshmen, sophomores, juniors and 

seniors at thirteen universities throughout China conducted between January 1995 and April 1996. Additional 

25



interviews were conducted during the fall of 1998 and 2002 and spring of 2003. The women were surveyed at 

a variety of colleges and universities, including students from a two-year all women's college In Xian, a 

technical college in Wuhan, and a university specializing in science and technology In Kunming. Respondents 

also included students from teacher's colleges in Hanzhong, Xian, Changchun, Ningbo and Lhasa, a total of 

13 in all from all over China (See Table 1). Students' majors reflect the diversity of women's education. They 

included women in sciences as well as liberal arts but the greatest number were English majors as they were 

the students most readily available for me to survey. (see Tables II and III) 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Robert F. Mullen 

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Comparative Vedantic Thought with Emphasis on the Wisdom of Rarnanujachiirya 

Two birds, alike in every respect, sit on the same branch of a tree: "one of them eats the sweet pippala fruit, 

while the other shines in splendour without eating at all" Sri Rarniinuja references various Upanishads to 

establish his position anent the essential oneness of the individual self and the Supreme Self. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson's (1803-1882) equanimous, sagacious, and romantic essays and poems 

assimilate similar Indian religious thought, which helped establish the foundation for American 

transcendentalism. Early in his career Emerson espoused a personal viewpoint which simulated Vedantic 

concepts of pantheism, the soul's immortality, illusion, and a universal identity between God and all things. 

His later oeuvre of works affirmed a resonance with karma, causality and mindfulness. My presentation 

concentrates primarily on one aspect of comparison between Vedantic teachings and Emerson-those of 

Ramanuja, whose commentaries on the Katha, Mundaka, and Svesasvatara Upainshads, the Bhagavid-Gita, his 

own Sri Basha, and other works offer a vivid and beautiful analogy to the works of Emerson, especially 

evident in "Nature," The Over-Soul," and "Brahrna" to name only a few. While there is vast evidence for 

Emerson's affirmation of his beliefs in both Buddhist and broader Hindu writings, this presentation focuses 

primarily on the comparative findings between those of Emerson and Sri Rarniinuja. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Miki Murakami 

A study of face-threatening acts in service encounters in Japan and America 

This study examines how people compensate for their inability to accommodate the needs of others in service 

encounters. Not being able to meet others' needs violates the positive face of one of the participants in a 

discourse. Many previous studies on speech acts demonstrate how people control their utterances to avoid 

causing a face threatening act. However, language behavior following a face-threatening act has not yet 

received much focus. I collected two different kinds of data in Japan and the U.S. using two different 

approaches: observation and role-play. In the first phase, I acted as a customer in several convenience stores 

in Japan and asked for an item which they did not carry. In the U.S., I had a native English speaker interact 

with a store clerk as the customer. (No recording device was used.) All exchanges were immediately recorded 

by hand and later coded by semantic formulae. In the second phase, native speakers were asked to role-playa 

parallel situation in which they acted as a store clerk and had to react to not being able to satisfy customer 

requests. Although many previous studies on speech acts show differences in language behavior depending on 

culture, the sequence of utterances in this study were very similar. The results suggest a re-thinking of a 

simplistic view of speech acts and emphasize the importance of experimental design. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Taira Nakamura 

Beyond the Colonial Male’s Violence: Tsushima Yuko’s Much Too Brutal 

Tsushima Yuko’s Much Too Brutal (2008, Kodansya) is a work of Japanese literature that describes colonialism 

and gender as well as a family’s interwined relationship between Japan and Taiwan, and at the same time it 

questions the concept of male-centered national history. 

26



First it describes colonizer Japanese male and female’s self-fashioning as a middle class people in 

1930’s colonial Taiwan. Secondly, it describes communication with the dead, in other words bun-yuu (partage) 

of violent memories and death using the techniques of magical realism. The dead in this novel include both 

Japanese and indigenous Taiwanese people, the Sedrq in the “Musya” incident of 1930 and the Japanese 

female heroine Micha’s child as well as her niece, Lili’s child, and also Tsushima’s lost child. 

Third, this report considers how Tsushima’s perception of colonial Taiwan and the effect of the bunyuu 

of memory can be related to recent historical fruit. Nakamura Masau’s Captivity: Historical Anthropology on 

Subjective Nature and Social Power in Colonial Taiwan (2009, Ha-besuto) describes the colonial expansion of 

Japanese capital and the Emperor system of the modern state in relation to Japan and the indigenous 

Taiwanese peoples. The recent works of Tsushima (born in 1947) and Nakamura (born in 1944) who are of 

the same generation, overlap at the point of reflexive description of modern Japan’s behavior in relation to 

colonial Taiwan, especially its indigenous peoples. This report will investigate both memory and historical 

recognition from the point of how to take responsibility for colonial rule. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Pramila Neupane 

Globalization and Education in Asia: A Comparison between Success and Failure 

Link between education and globalization is one of the major subjects of interest in the contemporary 

discourse on international development. Increasing global interaction and interdependence has expanded 

opportunities for those countries in Asia with better levels of education but has made progress more difficult 

for countries with low levels of education. Thus, what are the relationships between globalization and 

education in the region and to how important is investment in human resources for gaining more benefits 

from the increasing trend of globalization and ultimately for the development of a country? To answer these 

questions, this paper compares the education, globalization, income and health indicators of successful and 

unsuccessful countries in terms of per capita income growth over the period of 1970 to 2006. The study finds 

that countries with high levels of education, savings and good socioeconomic policies have attracted foreign 

direct investment and advanced technology, and have achieved rapid export growth and other aspects of 

globalization. For example, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and China represent such success stories. On the 

other hand, countries with low levels of education, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New 

Guinea have found it more difficult to achieve progress. They have experienced very slow growth in per 

capita income and have not been able to effectively integrate with the global economy and society. Rather, 

globalization has made it more difficult to secure investment in education in these countries, because 

government expenditures in the social sector have been severely reduced to adjust to the negative 

consequences of globalization. Consequently, the development gap has been widening in the region. 

Successful countries have a good spread of education that leads to high growth and more resources for 

further educational development, whereas failing countries have poor human resources that lead to very low 

growth and limit their capacity to build up their educational systems. Thus, how to secure the necessary 

investment in the education sector in such countries is the urgent issue for further research. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jeffrey Newmark 

Confucian Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan and Korea: Amenomori Hōshū (1668–1755) 

In the narrative of Tokugawa era Confucianism, Amenomori Hōshū represents an aberration of sorts. Even 

after Ogyū Sorai’s (1666-1728) spearheaded the turn toward kogaku (ancient studies), Amenomori levied 

criticism on his contemporary by criticizing Sorai’s emphasis on philology over virtue. In contrast, 

Amenomori’s philosophy relied on the Song Confucian interpretation of the Confucian Classics and offered a 

series of didactic platitudes that at times inverted or simply restated the teachings of Han Yu (768-824) and 

Chu Hsi (1130-1200). Yet, Amenomori’s principal contribution to Edo Confucianism was not in the realm of 

thought, but rather in the diplomatic world. Amenomori Hōshū served as a quasi-diplomat for the Tokguawa 

Shogunate in the mid eighteenth century. While his predecessor in intellectual diplomacy, Arai Hakuseki 

27



(1657-1725), presented Japan to Korea as a divine realm, Amenomori represented his country with a more 

forthright disposition, maintaining a nearly unprecedented equality between the Korean and Japanese people. 

Amenomori garnered a reputation among his Japanese and Korean counterparts as a naïve ideologue that 

benefited neither country in a period when official ties between Japan and its neighbors had been severed. 

Yet, he played an instrumental role in masking the historically tense and adversarial relationship between the 

two lands until the end of the nineteenth century. Exploring Amenomori Hōshū’s reflections and unofficial 

proposals from his account, Kōrinteisei (Neighboring Proposals), I argue that Amenomori’s account directs a 

nostalgic gaze toward an idyllic past in a rather patent attempt to reconstruct relations between Japan and its 

neighbors. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ka-yi Ng 

Towards a Sustainable Mode of Truth Production: Opening up the Channel Between East-West Exchange With 

Différance -- Case Study of Zhenren’s Translations as an Explicatory Case 

Sustainability and boundary-traversing have become the leitmotifs of the times. In China studies, however, 

the East’s and the West’s modes of truth production stay under-communicated, resulting in their both being 

unsustainable: the Western paradigm held ancient China to be a fixed stock of researchable materials ever 

lessened by each of the one-off discoveries, thus concentrates, rather, on consuming the ever-emerging 

current issues; the East has been content with moving bones from one tomb to another, evincing a intellectual 

lethargy. 

This paper exemplifies how this academic unsustainability is surmountable with (1) methodological 

innovation and (2) transnational and cross-disciplinary research. 

Paradigmatically, by introducing Derrida’s différance into (a) the philosophical study and (b) the 

translation of classical Chinese thinking, it challenges the ego-centrism and truth monism the East, for the 

reasons of lingual and geo-cultural affinity, typically committed in China studies. 

Methodologically, this possibility is exemplified through a concrete case study of the Taoist classic 

Zhuangzi 莊子. Chased is how the Chinese ideal personality, zhenren 真人, got proteanly translated in the 

Anglo-American and the Eastern academias, the reasons behind, and the implications for how the concept has 

actually been received on different cultural and philosophical soils. 

This study thus serves strict illustrative purpose, showing how, by forsaking both a monistic view on 

truth and the obsession with some most faithful, “correct” translation, made realistically possible is a more 

flexible, self-reflective mode of truth production facilitating a facile bilateral flow of cultural resources 

between the East and the West. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Stephen Noakes 

Intellectuals and Authoritarian Resilience: The Development of Political Science in China 

What is the role of the social sciences in non-democratic regimes? In his 1987 Presidential address to the 

American Political Science Association, Samuel P. Huntington posited a close relationship exitsts between the 

development of political science and democratization. “Political science,” he writes, “is not just an intellectual 

discipline (but) also a moral one… the impetus to do good in the sense of promoting political reform is 

embedded in our profession.” By contrast, this article demonstrates the complicity of political research in 

upholding authoritarianism in China. Because of the historically close association of the discipline to state 

interests there, periodic changes in the logic of authoritarian survival. Under the current Hu-Wen 

administration, political science has become more nation-centered and service-oriented, concerned with 

solving China’s governance challenges while support for democratization, prominent in the late 1980’s, has 

largely been silenced. Now more focused on improving that replacing the communist regime, political science 

in China today provides the CCP with a means to re-legitimate itself, and thereby serves to strengthen and 

perpetuate authoritarian rule rather than end it. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

28



Nicole Nowlin 

Scanlations: Copyright Infringement for Literature and Art Fans Brought to You by the Internet 

In the US, Japanese film, anime, manga, food, fashion, cars, and music have a growing impact in pop culture. 

Now, with the addition of the internet to the equation, scanlations come into play. The paper is an 

examination of the pop culture phenomenon of Japanese manga comics in the United States and the world of 

illegal scanlations. Scanlating is the practice of scanning and translating Japanese manga from its native 

language into English. Scanlations, especially when viewed as a parallel to the current lawsuits for illegal 

music downloading, is inherently an unacceptable practice from a legal standpoint, yet is widely accepted and 

used in the anime/manga subculture in the United States. Explanations and analysis will be drawn from US 

Copyright laws, interviews conducted with publishers, authors, and fans, and a survey of user demographics. 

The paper concludes with a look at the likelihood of the trend changing in the near future, and the overall 

theme behind the movement to continue scanlations. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Takeshi Odaira 

Regional Environmental Cooperation in East Asia: From Track 1 ODA to Track 1.5 Business Arrangement 

Now the concept of East Asian Community is discussed in both the political and academic realms much more 

often than the past. Besides, the need of international environmental cooperation is claimed in the same 

realms. Therefore, it is meaningful to produce a paper on the study of regional environmental cooperation in 

East Asia, as global frameworks of the environmental cooperation such as UNFCCC have not developed to 

universally effective means of protecting the environment. This logic is equivalent to that of FTA researchers 

and policy makers who tend to deal more with regional economic arrangements when the development of 

universal trade arrangements such as negotiations at WTO are much less prospective in its speed of progress. 

How does the regional environmental cooperation develop in East Asia? To this research question, a few 

researchers have given their answers. Matsuoka, Matsumoto and Iwamoto (2008) assumed that the track 1 

official environmental cooperation leads to the track 1.5 cooperation as a part of the first stage of the 

development of the regional environmental regime. However, they did not examine how this process in the 

first stage proceeds in East Asia. Therefore, it is necessary for the following researchers to conduct case 

studies to examine the relevance of the aforementioned assumption. The proposed paper conducts a 

qualitative case analysis on verifiable official documents and press releases. This analysis illustrates that 

bilateral track 1 de jure environmental cooperation such as ODA is leading to the emergence of track 1.5 de 

facto cooperation involving the corporate sector in East Asia. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Sujin Oh 

Hazu da and Wake da as Logical Conclusion 

Hazu da and wake da are contemporary Japanese terms expressing the perceptions of a speaker as a logical 

conclusion. Hazu da refers to coming to a conclusion inevitably via the laws of nature or certain 

circumstances. It is also used when judging that the current circumstances can be the natural consequence 

based on your understanding of a certain fact about which you have doubted. This is an expression to let 

others know the circumstances from which your inferences are made are true based on your current 

knowledge while you may not be able to speak positively when you want to judge whether they are true or 

not. Wake da refers to coming to a conclusion inevitable such as a certain fact, circumstance, or 

reasonableness. Like hazu da, it is used when the current circumstances are natural consequences based on 

your understanding of the truth of a fact while you may still have doubts about it. It is the expression of a 

speaker to listeners indicating that it is a natural consequence of a certain thing. The expression shows that we 

reach a natural consequence through inferences from obvious facts in order to explain why a certain fact is as 

it is. As for the difference between the two, wake da is an expression used to make a decision by presenting 

29



logical conclusions based on a premise on a fact, while hazu da is used to infer a logical conclusion from a 

premise on an undecided fact. 

While both terms are based on the subjective judgments of the speaker, hazu da expresses the 

speaker's subjectivity more strongly. Hence, while hazu da is based on a certain amount of objective facts, 

there is an implication that it has come from the speaker's inferences and it tends to be accompanied with 

aspirations of expected realization, or wishes to win the agreement of the other party. In conclusion, hazu da is 

used to infer a logical conclusion based on undecided facts, and wake da is used to infer a logical conclusion 

based on established facts. Hence, in this presentation the parallels and differences between the two terms will 

be clarified based on the identification of their interchangeability from examples from Japanese novels. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Miwako Okigami 

Speaking Flowers in Utopia: Yoshiya Nobuko and Girls' World of esu in Shojo gaho during the Taisho Period 

Magazines for girls in the early 20th century played crucial roles to construct and disseminate ideologies of 

girlhood by mediating female voices to form girls' community. Shojo gaho (Girls' Pictorial 1912-1942) discovered 

a female writer, Yoshiya Nobuko, who charmed young female readers by depicting sisterhood of schoolgirls 

called esu with lyrical language. While descriptions of heterosexual relationships were considered inappropriate, 

intimacy of two young females grew to be a popular motif. However esu is not a mere substitute for 

heterosexual romance or simply a platonic lesbian relationship. Girls' desires, dreams, and ideals are projected 

through esu, but at the same time their fragility and powerlessness were exposed. Yoshiya's writings crystallized 

the girls' world of purity and spoke their yearnings to love and to be loved in the absence of male figures. 

Yoshiya and her works became a target of yearning for young girls; however, girls were also active participants 

in writing about esu by submitting letters to the magazines. My presentation will analyze how writing about esu 

was an important voice to express their girlhood identities in the Taisho era (191Os and 1920s). I will examine 

Yoshiya's works including Flower Tales and readers' writings about esu on Shojo gaho during this time. The girls 

treasured their own writings and recognized their identities through magazines outside of their family ties. 

Though under supervision of editors, girls imagined their ideal girlhood and began voicing their own desires 

in writings. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Bernard Ong 

The United States of Asia-Pacific? A Game Theory Approach 

Abstract: The paper aims to address the prospect of uniting the states of Asia-Pacific in tandem with recent 

overtures by United States, the world’s hegemon, in wooing the region. In a stinging response to calls for a 

new regional framework, President Barack Obama declared in November 2009 that “as an Asia-Pacific nation, 

the US expects to be involved in the discussions that shape the future [of the region] … and to participate 

fully in appropriate organizations as they are established and evolve.” Avoiding the main stream approaches in 

the study of regionalism, the paper will use game theory techniques to examine whether a Nash equilibrium, 

where all players’ expectations are met and their chosen strategies are optimal, may be realized in regional 

integration. 

While game theory has been heavily utilized in the discipline of security cooperation, its application to 

the understanding of regionalism from a political-economist’s lens is limited. 

The paper will discuss the rational considerations of the key rainmakers of Asia-Pacific cooperation (e.g., the 

US, China, Japan, ASEAN, and Australia) and examine how their gaming decisions will determine the 

outcome of Asia-Pacific regionalism. As a preliminary conclusion, the paper is likely to contend that a Nash 

equilibrium in Asia-Pacific regionalism with US participation is plausible through two strategies, namely, 

raising the expectations that each playing state will cooperate and adjusting the incentives for cooperation. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

30

Blair Orfall 

Resistance and Adaptation: The Bollywood Model 



India’s popular Hindi film industry’s, or Bollywood’s, ability to adapt to aesthetic and market demands 

demonstrates how Asian studies can not only be sustained, but reinvigorate academic disciplines. Formerly 

marginalized in academic film discourse and considered a parasitic industry, Bollywood has become a creative 

well for artists and scholars of multiple mediums. As Bollywood’s resistance to Hollywood formulas is being 

recognized, and ironically re-appropriated into the Hollywood model, Bollywood continues to reinvent itself. 

This paper takes two recent Indian-cross over films as case-studies of the influence of Bollywood on global 

film-making. Chandni Chowk to China (2009), Warner Brothers’ first Hindi film, illustrates one American 

company’s necessary foray into two of the most important foreign territories for future economic success: 

Indian and China. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) created an unexpected international sensation by re-working 

popular Hindi formulas into the classic Hollywood romance. Through an examination of these two films, this 

paper will argue that adaptation itself, as a discipline, with all its thorny issues of intellectual property, culture 

as commodity, and its ability to marginalize other mediums is one of the keys to understanding the future of 

Asian studies. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Syeda Naushin Parnini 

Institutionalization of Linkages between ASEAN and Bangladesh Name and Affiliation: 

Dynamic shift of ASEAN in its structure and relations enables neighboring countries like Bangladesh to seek 

institutionalization of linkages with ASEAN. Bangladesh’s moderate economic growth intertwined with 

economic liberalization and cultural affinity with ASEAN countries are expected to strengthen the ASEAN- 

Bangladesh Relations. Institutionalization of this relationship between ASEAN and Bangladesh fosters 

investment and trade flows, social and cultural exchanges as well as technical cooperation to cope with the 

challenges of 21 st century stemming from global economic recession and other transnational forces 

worldwide. This paper explores the recent trends and future prospect of ASEAN- Bangladesh relations taking 

into consideration the policy options within a trans-regional context evolving under the framework of 

economic realism. The study examines that the convergence and dissonance in ASEAN-Bangladesh relations 

and their concurrent ties would be determined by a mix of different factors on the basis of equal partnership. 

This work also demonstrates that ASEAN-Bangladesh relationship is expected to be further facilitated and 

strengthened by the future changes and streamlining of the ASEAN future directions. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Kristen Parris 

Intermediary Organizations and State Building in Contemporary China: Chambers of Commerce and Community Building 

in Zhejiang Province 

This paper will examine the question of intermediary organizations in Contemporary China. Of particular 

interest are the Chambers of Commerce and the Shequ committees that have emerged as a part of the 

marketization and other economic and social changes that have occurred in the past thirty years. Intermediary 

organizations here refers to that is those organizations that play a role in mediating the relationship between 

state and society, often helping to define and redefine citizenship, negotiate differences, orient individuals, and 

provide the basis for old and new identities and perhaps other functions. The paper will focus on the recent 

history of the Chambers of Commerce and the on-going Shequ Jianshe (Community building or Community 

Development) Program that is ongoing all over China. Zhejiang is of special interest because Hangzhou has 

been on the forefront of the community building program while Wenzhou has witnessed the emergence of 

some influential Chambers of Commerce. That the province itself has become known for its so called 

“Zhejiang model” of development itself suggests the importance of the region. 

While Chambers of Commerce and Shequ occupy different, but equally ambiguous positions in 

China’s political economy, they are both promoted as “minjian” organizations, or organizations that are “of 

the people” rather that state, government or party agencies. At the same time, they have very close 

31



relationship with the state and the CCP clearly see these organizations as taking on important responsibilities 

that might otherwise be done by the state. My interest is not in testing to see if these organizations fit some 

definition of “civil society” but rather to understand what role or potential role they do play in the 

transformation of the relationship between the state and society in China, in particular in the definition of a 

new, loyal post-communist citizen. Preliminary research suggests that although Chambers of Commerce in 

Wenzhou have had considerable influence, the Shequ development has lagged well behind the Hangzhou and 

the rest of the province. In Hangzhou, on the other hand, Chambers of Commerce seem to have captured 

little attention, while the Shequ building program has seen as both lively and crucial to China’s future, at least 

by the local press and leadership. Thus, I engage in an interpretive examination of these groups as 

intermediary organizations and then seek to explain the apparent differences in development between 

Wenzhou and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Research is based on documentary sources in Chinese and 

English as well as interviews in Zhejiang. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Gonzalo Paz 

China Goes Global: Reaching Latin America in the 21 st Century 

As China reaches new levels of economic development and political confidence, its presence and influence is 

increasing in most areas of the world. At the end of the first decade of the century, the relations between 

China and Latin America are now an established feature of international relations. Trade, the most visible 

aspect of the relations has skyrocketed during the decade. Three Free Trade Areas have been established or 

are being negotiated currently between China and Latin American countries (with Chile, Peru, and Costa 

Rica). The political relation has also been expanded: there are now regular and frequent high level visits, of 

head of state and government, political parties’ authorities, even military exchanges are today routinely 

conducted. Several “strategic partnerships” have also deepened the relations, particularly with Brazil, which is 

also a member of the so-called BRICs, and at the G20 (in which Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are also 

members). Now China has an institutional presence in both the organization of American States (OAS) since 

2004 and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) since 2009. The United States has also monitored 

these changes, and keeps following this emerging relationship on a day-to-day base, trying to some extent to 

influence them. 

The goals of the paper are threefold: first, to analyze how and why this relationship has emerged in its 

present form; Second, to take stock of the economic and political relations between China and Latin America 

& the Caribbean; Third, to try to chart probable trends in coming years. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Frank Phillips and Xia Yun 

Confucius Classrooms: Programs, Potential, and Possibilities 

In 2008, St. Mary’s school was awarded the first Confucius Classroom at a K-12 school in North or South 

America. St. Mary’s has extended its Confucius Classroom and Chinese language and culture programs far 

beyond the walls of the school. The Confucius Classroom at St. Mary’s School partnered with the Southern 

Oregon Educational Service District to win $600,000, three-year FLAP grant from the U.S. Department of 

Education to teach Mandarin from grades 3-8 via interactive video conferencing. Currently, 300+ students 

are taking Mandarin in three southern Oregon counties with the program expected to grow to 1500. The 

Confucius Classroom at St. Mary’s School is also working with two local public school districts to bring fulltime 

Hanban teachers into middle and high school classrooms. Added to these initiatives is an array of 

cultural outreach programs in the community including a hands-on China Exploratorium at Science Works 

museum in Ashland, Oregon as well as visits by Chinese musicians and kung fu troupes from China’s Shaolin 

Temple. The presenters will explain how to go about applying for Confucius Classroom status and the 

mechanisms for obtaining funding from Hanban to help execute them. The challenges and logistics of 

instituting programs, selecting texts and other learning materials, and hosting teachers from China will also be 

covered. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

32

David Pietz 

Water and History on the North China Plain 



This paper will explore how the government of the People’s Republic of China managed the Yellow River 

after 1949. Specifically, the paper will formulate conclusions about the environmental consequences of 

different hydraulic engineering projects as China pursued different developmental paradigms during the Mao 

and post-Mao periods. The state pursued Soviet-style central planning for much of the 1950s, Great Leap 

Forward decentralization and communalization between 1958-1961, a blend of state planning and mass 

mobilization during the 1960s and 1970s, and “market socialism” during the post-Mao era (1978-). The 

project will be organized around these four eras and it will examine the implications that each of these 

developmental approaches had on North China’s water resources. Comparative conclusions about the 

environmental consequences of these four developmental periods will be guided by several fundamental 

options that faced state and party leaders throughout the post-1949 period: 1) modern hydraulic engineering 

vs. traditional water conservancy and mass mobilization, 2) central vs. local planning, 3) international technical 

cooperation vs. self-reliance, and 4) economic development vs. environmental protection. 

As China migrated to and from different developmental paradigms, the fundamental goal of building 

“wealth and power” remained consistent. Central to all these differing modernizing approaches was the 

effective management of water. Flood control, transportation, irrigation, hydroelectric generation, and 

pollution control were water management issues that the state sought to address. The challenge of the 

Chinese state after 1949 has been to formulate effective institutional patterns and policies to effectively 

manage water to serve modernizing goals. At the same time, however, many of these institutions and policies 

have had unexpected consequences on the same resources they sought to maximize. 

The paper will suggest the potential environmental consequences of water policy choices that were 

made in China. Whether the issues in centralization versus decentralization, reliance on contemporary 

standards of hydraulic engineering versus traditional mass mobilization, or self-reliance versus international 

cooperation, an examination of the experience of water management in China since 1949 will point to the 

environmental consequences of hydraulic engineering choices. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

John Porter 

Cholera 1886: Poverty, Disease and Urban Governance in Meiji Osaka 

This paper examines the relationship between poverty, disease, and urban governance in Osaka’s largest late 

nineteenth-century slum, Nagomachi. Characterized throughout the nineteenth century as a principal source 

of urban crime and social instability, during the 1880s Nagomachi came to be identified in both popular and 

official discourse as a “den of squalor and disease.” Citing public health concerns, in 1886 the Osaka 

prefectural government unveiled a citywide slum clearance proposal, which sought the demolition of the city’s 

largest slums and the relocation of Osaka’s poor to a walled residential compound on the city’s periphery. 

Announced at the height of the deadliest cholera epidemic in Japanese history, the proposal’s primary target 

was Nagomachi’s built environment and the “paupers and thieves” that found shelter in its flophouses and 

back-alley tenements. 

Focusing on proposals, such as the one described above, much of the scholarship on poverty in 

modern Japan has characterized the relationship between the urban poor and local government primarily in 

terms of discrimination and social exclusion. While it is certain that efforts were undertaken during the late 

nineteenth century in a number of Japanese cities to segregate the poor from other parts of the urban 

population, this paper argues that such efforts were paralleled by a broader “civilizing” project, which aimed 

not to exclude the poor, but to transform them into healthy, productive and docile citizens capable of 

contributing to the growth and prosperity of the Japanese nation. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

33

E. Bruce Reynolds 

Julean Arnold: America’s Salesman, China’s Friend 



Although a largely forgotten figure, University of California-Berkeley graduate Julean Arnold compiled a 

unique and remarkable record in representing the United States in China for 38 consecutive years. A member 

of the State Department’s first class of student interpreters in 1902, he served in the consular service until 

1915 when he transferred to the Commerce Department. Named commercial attaché, he filled that role for 

25 years with astonishing energy and panache. 

As one would expect, Arnold was a relentless promoter of U.S.-China trade, but more interesting, and 

perhaps surprising, was his unshakeable faith in China’s potential and his sincere interest in encouraging that 

nation’s development. This sympathetic attitude facilitated his establishment of friendly relations with many 

leading Chinese public figures of his era. 

Arnold held a special interest in transportation issues, sharing Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s belief that an 

extended rail network was a key to China’s economic development. He also recognized in the early 1920’s 

that air transportation would shrink the world, predicting flights between China and the United States in less 

than 24 hours decades before they became a reality. 

Of particular interest to Asianists were Arnold’s efforts to promote Asian studies. He prodded 

American schools in China to educate their expatriate students about the country they were living in, and in 

countless speeches and articles promoted Chinese studies in the United States. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Richard Rice 

Image and Identity: Ainu Representations in Japanese Museums 

In the 2003 inaugural issue of Museum and Society, Sharon Macdonald argued that museums “…act as 

manifestations of identity or sites for the contestation of identities.” After establishing a theoretical 

framework that follows her argument, I look at how the Ainu of Japan are breaking away from their former 

proscribed identity at a number of museum and cultural sites, representations that reflect both recent 

scholarship and a growing political awareness. 

My evidence is based on a trip in the summer of 2008 to many sites in Hokkaido and Honshu, as well 

as discussions with scholars and museum staff and a survey of the current literature. I argue that museums 

are important expressions of political as well as cultural existence. Traditionally organized museums imply 

marginality by visual and spatial organization that regulates ethnic and racial groups to smaller and separate 

spaces that depict historical visions of the past without reference to the present. This tends to make 

minorities “invisible men” and privileges the culture of the dominant elite. In the case of Japan the dominant 

culture is that of the wajin. 

Edward Rothstein puts it well: “The identity museum is created by a group to recount its past trials 

and present achievements. It is also a community center and meeting place, meant to solidify the identity it 

celebrates…. We had to overcome many difficulties, some of which tempted us to forget who we were…. 

The museum is a monument to a reforged identity in which our past is a hyphenated part of our future.” In 

the case of the Ainu, this claims a self-identification rooted in the present. 

My paper will be augmented, and indeed requires, visualization of sites and displays, via PowerPoint 

presentation. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Clare Richardson-Barlow 

Green Security: Regional Cooperation & Energy in East Asia 

As an area of the world that is both heterogeneous and intraregional, East Asia offers a unique combination 

of both developed and developing nations with the potential to provide benefits for all countries involved in 

regional cooperation over energy security. Particularly in East Asia, regional cooperation has been a 

continuing goal of nation-states in an attempt to strengthen economic and military security. As energy 

34



security becomes more important to developing and developed countries new tactics must be taken to ensure 

the security of not just energy in a particular country, but also in regions that can benefit from mutual 

cooperation. Shared goals between wealthier nations and developing nations can only create stronger 

relations between governments, but also increased economic growth for all parties involved. 

In this thesis, the following questions will be addressed: What does current regional cooperation over 

energy security in East Asia look like? What areas can be improved upon? Does economic integration 

precede regional integration, visa versa, or are the two the same? Can energy security be addressed in a 

“green manner?” What do current regional climate change initiatives look like? How do they address energy 

security? Does the presence of international regimes make regional cooperation on energy security more or 

less likely? Should current international regimes be utilized for regional cooperation initiatives, or should new 

ones be created? And finally, what can be expected for regional cooperation on energy security in East Asia 

in the next 5 to 10 years. 

It is the unique combination of regional cooperation in East Asia and energy security that make this 

paper significant and will provide the greatest contribution to the field of security and development. First, 

the use of East Asian international regimes will play an integral role in outlining a strategy for cooperation 

that all parties can benefit from. Better use of current international regimes may be possible; as current 

evidence suggests new and different regimes may be needed in order to correct past weaknesses. Further, the 

author posits that East Asia can learn many lessons from past examples of regional integration but must adapt 

such examples to developed and developing countries in the region. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Gregory Rohlf 

Filipino Volunteers Overseas in Global Perspective 

International voluntary service (IVS) continues to grow in popularity all around the world. Japan, the United 

Kingdom, South Korea, Canada, Australia, the United States and Switzerland each send their citizens abroad 

to help people improve their lives. It is clear that sending volunteers overseas marks a significant milestone in 

a country’s development. In the same way, choosing to volunteer in a distant, ethnically alien and poorer 

country marks a milestone in the evolution of the Self in a global context. This paper explains and analyzes 

Filipinos’ participation in IVS as part of a global history of caring for distant Others. Given the history and 

ongoing pattern of overseas and diasporic labor migration, Filipino IVS is both poignant and illustrative of 

the global appeal of the ideas that underlay helping ethic others from home. 

This study examines the history of IVS and considers the Phillipines as a case study. IVS is examined 

in an interdisciplinary framework – drawing on geography, international politics, anthropology, ethics, 

economics and the history of modernity itself – that takes the human quest for meaning as its metric. 

Research suggests that IVS is at once a search for the true Self and the true Other, an existential struggle 

against nature and poverty that volunteers feel they lack at home, and a uniquely twentieth century fusion of 

narcissism and altruism made possible by revolutions in transportation and communication. Although these 

findings are preliminary, it is anticipated that field research in 2010 and 2011 will confirm that Filipino 

volunteers fit within these norms, and thus are active shapers of global civil society. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Nilanthi Samaranayake 

Are Sri Lanka-China Relations Growing Closer? An Overview of Bilateral Economic, Military, and Political Ties 

During the past few years, Sri Lanka and China appear to be forging closer economic, military, and political 

relations. While most observers would expect Sri Lanka’s ties to neighboring India to be stronger than those 

to distant China, Sri Lanka has welcomed Chinese investment in building a port in Hambantota, arms from 

China for use in its civil war, and “dialogue partner” status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Highprofile 

moves such as these have unnerved observers fearing the rise of Chinese influence in the Indian 

Ocean. Consequently, news reports addressing bilateral relations have been filled with fleeting references to 

these developments, based on anecdotal accounts and speculation instead of substantive data. The purpose of 

this paper is to undertake a first-time, systematic analysis of the patterns of economic, military, and political 

35



activities between China and Sri Lanka. Through this investigation, academics and policymakers will be 

introduced to comprehensive research depicting rising economic, military, and political ties between China 

and Sri Lanka in order to understand the implications of this relationship for the region. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Atsuko Sato 

Can Japan Achieve a Gender-Equal Society? A shift in Government Approaches 

The evolution of Japan’s gender-based equality reveals a shift in concepts and strategies: from “equal 

opportunity” to a “gender-equal society.” This paper analyzes the development of policy orientations in the 

1980’s and 1990’s to the present, and their outcomes and consequences in Japanese society. Using a 

methodology of frame analysis, the paper, first, analyzes, how gender equality and family policy were framed 

in the 1986 Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) and in related measures throughout the 1980’s. 

Second, my paper analyzes the period after the so-called “1.57 shock” in 1990 (the fertility rate his 1.57), 

when the government shifted significantly the framing of gender and family policy through a series of 

measures, including the 1999 Basic Law for a Gender-Equal Society. The paper reveals, however, that public 

policies based on the concept of “equal opportunity” were never intended to bring about equality. And 

further, that the introduction of a “gender-equal society” in politics as been essentially framed as a solution 

for the population and economic problem, namely low fertility rates. As with “equal opportunity,” genderequal 

policies are not intended to create gender equality in Japan. The question remains: Can Japan achieve a 

gender-equal society? I argue that, while this is possible, the recent framing of gender issues in Japan make 

this extremely unlikely. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jill Scantlan and Richard S. Lockwood 

Barriers to Community Participatory Development in North-Indian Urban Slums: An Ethnographic Study 

Community participatory development principles have been accepted as the de facto approach to “doing 

development” in resource-poor communities around the world. India has some of the largest income 

inequalities, health disparities and slum populations in the world and could greatly benefit from grassroots 

community participatory development. This pilot study reveals the limitations of utilizing community 

participatory principles in health-related development projects in urban Indian slums. In summer 2009 

qualitative research was conducted with three North-Indian NGOs who focus on maternal and child health 

development within seven different urban slums. Grounded theory was utilized as a methodological approach 

in order to allow for findings to emerge as research was conducted. The main data collection methods 

included open-ended interviewing of key stakeholders, participant observation (via field visits), and analysis of 

secondary data. Preliminary analysis centered on three findings: (1) that the current national healthcare 

policies implemented in urban slums follow the same vertical and hierarchical power structures that have 

traditionally made the incorporation of community participatory principles difficult or impossible; (2) the legal 

status of a slum community is the main determinant of the amount of community participation that is 

possible; (3) local politicians competing for votes and power within urban districts purposefully prevent 

community development and manipulate slum dwellers, which leads to their disengagement with the 

community participatory process. Recommendations: in order to bring more international and local attention 

to community participatory development in urban Indian slums, further research into these three obstacles is 

needed. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jae-ho Shin 

Translation of Xiao Jing in Conquest Dynasties: Cases of Touba Wei and Mongol Yüan 

In 1307 prince Khaishan came to power as a new Khaghan of the Yüan Ulus. Interestingly, the new 

Khaghan, who is known a one of the most steppe-oriented Khaghan in the Yüan dynasty, ordered to 

distribute the Mongolian version of Book of Filial Piety, or Xiao Jing, in ‘Phags-pa script only about three 

36



months after his enthronement. The translation of Xiao Jing and its distribution may be seen as an example of 

Confucianization in a conquest dynasty. However, it seems unreasonable to think that the Yüan court 

encouraged the spread the Confucian family ethics in the book among the Mongols; the controversies over 

widow remarriage and levirate in the Yüan society exemplify how much the Mongolian family ethics differed 

from those of Han Chinese people. 

The aim of this paper is to provide an explanation for the appearance of Xiao Jing in the history of the 

Mongol Empire. By comparing the multifaceted roles of Xiao Jing in the Han, Touba Wei and Mongol Yüan 

dynasties, I concluded that Khaishan’s decree to distribute the Mongolian version of Xiao Jing had been a 

political tactic to strengthen his emperorship. To distinguish himself from other Mongol princes, Khaishan 

introduced the Confucian emperorship by means of spreading Xiao Jing. However, unlike Touba Wei’s case, 

Khaishan’s Xiao Jing distribution policy did not mean an unconditional imitation of Chinese culture. Rather, 

the Mongol court efficiently and selectively exploited Confucian ethics as a political tool by translating the 

classic. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

John L. S. Simpkins 

Judicial Power in a Time of People Power: Indonesian and Philippine Experiences 

This paper examines the effect of modern constitutional reform and populist political movements on judicial 

empowerment in Indonesia and the Philippines. It focuses on the judicial resolution of contested elections to 

highlight the unique character of electoral disputes as a test of the degree of entrenchment of constitutional 

norms. Equally important, judicial decisions in contested elections have the potential to frustrate the popular 

will. 

The Indonesian and Philippine cases turn on the question of how judiciaries establish legitimacy and 

institutional security during a period of democratic consolidation. In both countries, popular discontent with 

post-authoritarian constitutional reform posed a significant threat to governmental stability. The political and 

legal skills employed by both courts provide valuable instruction on how courts gain public trust while 

simultaneously asserting themselves within a new governing structure. 

Indonesia and the Philippines are particularly instructive cases because of their recent experiences of 

judicial involvement in electoral politics and shared post-colonial traditions of populist-inspired protest 

politics. This paper examines the intersection between “people power” and judicial power as new 

constitutional regimes have taken root in each country. Specifically, the paper considers cases involving 

election results, candidate eligibility, and forms of government to assess judicial performance in the midst of 

popular protest movements against centralized executive authority in post-Soeharto and post-Marcos regimes. 

Kuldeep Singh 

Bhunda in Himachal Hills 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

This paper describes the various aspects of Bhunda Mahayajna, which is one of the age old traditions being 

celebrated in the hills of Shimla, Kullu and Mandi districts of Himachal Pradesh. According to the Sanskrit 

dictionary 'Nighanta' the word 'Bhund, means to support. According to another definition the word 'Bhunda' is 

related with the demon 'Bhundasur' which has been described in Brahmanda Purana. The word 'Bhanda' can be 

extracted from the commonly use word 'Bhandara'. Nowadays it is considered as the 'Narmedh Yajna' which 

seems to be true according to the clues which could be extracted from the Vedic literature. The study is based 

on the intensive field work which has been carried out in fifteen different places where it is being celebrated. 

Some work has been done by the scholars and writers on this topic, the few of them are, A.H.Diack (1887), 

J.F.Fleet (1888) H.W. Emerson (1921), O.C.Handa (1965), S.C.Rattan (1969), Sudarshan Vashishtha (1980, 

2006) etc. The primary data has been collected by various research methods including, participatory 

research; interview and by personal observation methods etc. The interviews are recorded in the videos then 

transcribed and translated. The documentary of the two festivals has been prepared. The festival is culturally 

very rich. It has the glimpse of rare customs and tradition of the hill people. This includes the symbolic 

37



human sacrifice and the animal sacrifice on the name of the local deities of the village. The festival is a 

collective venture of all the villagers which can be a good example of community participation. The villager of 

all castes participates in this big festival of faith. The preparation starts a year before the main festival is being 

held. The people have a reason behind the celebration of this festival; according to them it brings prosperity 

for the region in the form of snow, rain and favorable weather conditions. The villagers gather on the call of 

the head and decide the contribution in the from of money and other essential items required in this. On the 

first day of the festival all the invited deities are welcomed by the host deity according to the hierarchy based 

on the places. On the second day the Jal Pooja (water worship) and the Shikha Pher (Encircling around the 

village by sacrificing different types of animals like Goats, Sheep's, Pigs, Chicken and fish) so as to satisfy the 

bad spirits which may create hurdles during the main ceremony. Third day is the day of the main ceremony 

of the festival i.e. 'Rope Slide'. This is the main attraction of the festival. Thousands of people attend the 

festival on this day. The festival revolves around a person known as 'Beda' by the locals. In fact 'Beda' is a 

caste found in the hills of above stated districts those have the special right to perform the slide ceremony. 

No one else can perform this ritual accept the person from this caste which is otherwise treated as 

untouchable by the upper castes. Bedas are being used as lamb for sacrifices in this. One of the major 

objectives of this paper is to highlight the caste system related to such kind of festivals of these hills. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Lindsay A. Skog 

Sherpa Sacred Landscapes in Khumbu, Nepal 

Khumbu, part of Sagarmatba(Mt Everest) National Park in eastern Nepal, and an UNESCO World Heritage 

site, is home to the Sherpa people, ethnic Buddhist Tibetans who migrated to the region more than 500 years 

ago. Khumbu residents identify the landscape as a beyu, a large scale sacred place and hidden valley 

protecting Buddhist people and beliefs in times of turmoil and need, accentuated by sacred mountains, mainly 

associated with the BonP,9, and Tibetan yullhtt cults, and animated with localized water, tree, rock; and land 

spirits. These beliefs protect the natural environment through religious practices and taboos against 

environmentally harmfu1 behaviors and activities, while associated ritual practice, perceptions, and mythology 

encode Sherpa culture and beliefs in the landscape. This paper discusses study results documenting Sherpa 

residents' perceptions of Khumbu as a sacred landscape) examining the landscape at several scales, and 

discussing how varying belief systems operating at different scales reflect Sherpa cultural, economic, and 

political landscapes. Drawing on anthropological and geographical place making and landscape identity 

frameworks, this research explores both ontological and epistemological conceptions of Khumbu, Nepal as a 

sacred place. Interviews and participant observations reveal a more thorough understanding of Khumbti's 

sacred landscapes. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Teresa Sobieszczyk 

Gender, International Labor Migration, and Remittances in Northern Thailand 

Using data from ethnographic research and in-depth interviews with 104 returned international labor 

migrants, this paper examines the extent and impact of foreign labor migration and remittances in rural 

agrarian villages in Thailand, an industrializing country experiencing rapid economic, demographic, and social 

transformations. Findings indicate that while the vast majority of migrants send money back home, the 

amount and meaning of their remittances differ for male and female migrants. Community gender norms and 

gender differences in migration experiences influence remittance levels and the eventual use of remittances by 

migrants and their families. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Shirley Hsaio-Li Sun 

National Policies and Citizens’ Responses: Pronatalism in Singapore 

The total fertility rates in post-industrial nation states in Asia such as Japan, South Korea, and Singapore have 

been fallen below the replacement rates since 1970s, engendering the formulation and implementation of 

38



pronatalist policies. The policy effectiveness has been in question, however; for instance, the total fertility 

rate in Singapore was 1.28 in 2008. In this case study, drawing on data collected from 165 in-depth interviews 

with individuals and 39 focus group discussions in 2007 and 2008 in Singapore, I found that, among other 

things, citizens actively questioned the effectiveness of policies by comparing them with policies found in 

other national contexts. By highlighting the latter, they showed how the financial and work-life balance 

policies in Singapore were not encouraging. France and the Quebec Province in Canada were noted to 

proved generous cash benefits to larger families. China and Denmark were mentioned to suggest that three 

month maternity leave was too short by comparison; Germany and the United Kingdom were used as 

reference points that employers in Singapore were not as respectful of employees’ request for parental leave. 

Interviewees also characterized the Australian government as pro-family in providing stay-home mothers 

monthly allowance, and providing families with sustained education and health subsidies and facilitating 

reduced work hours. While such responses remained as neutral comparisons in individual interviews, they 

became more serious and intense during focus group discussions when interviewees talked about instances of 

migration to other countries among family and friends, as well as their own intention to migrate, for reasons 

related to lack of supportive pronatalist policies. 

This paper, therefore, highlights the importance of the state policy on paper and the context in which 

such policies are viewed by the citizens. Citizens are not passive recipients of top-down policies. Instead, 

they are acting agents in weighing up policies by drawing upon their awareness and perceptions of exemplary 

policies in other nation states. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ayumi Susai 

Health care migration and vocational language training in Japan 

In the context of demographic change --a rapidly aging and dwindling population -Japan is facing a 

particularly sensitive moment which will influence the country's future. In 2008, the country, which still views 

itself as a racially and culturally homogeneous country, decided to open its labor market (the health care 

industry) to foreign workers under a bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). The country 

succeeded in launching a new policy to import more foreign skilled workers into Japan; however, this 

acceptance also gives rise to ethical questions of integrating foreign workers into society. Japan born residents 

have high expectation of Japanese language ability from caregivers, and the language barrier and unfamiliar 

workplace environment pose daily challenges to foreign candidates for nursing and certified care jobs. The 

slow intake of foreign workers is believed to stem from concerns by hospitals and nursing care facilities about 

the obligations that they would take on in accepting foreign nurses and certified care workers from Indonesia 

and the Philippines-such as having to teach them Japanese, cover their living expenses and so forth. The six 

months of Japanese language training for foreign candidates under the scheme of EP As is not sufficient for 

many of the immigrants. This paper discusses Japan's demographic need for labor and the potential of 

integrating foreign workers in terms of language, and suggests the need for the inclusion of a language 

requirement in the immigration policy. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Willa Jane Tanabe 

Japanese Buddhist Temples of Hawai’i 

From the earliest temples built in the late nineteenth century to the present day, the architectural styles of 

Japanese Buddhist temples in Hawai’i reflect the Japanese immigrant's changing relationship to his ancestral 

country, to his American environment and to his understanding of Buddhism. This paper presents an 

overview of the five distinct styles of Japanese temple architecture and their possible significance. Temples 

undergo a transition and sometimes an abrupt disjuncture from a "plantation house style," to a more 

traditional Japanese design, followed by a simplification of traditional design, to a deliberate creation of an 

international style combining elements of India and the West, and finally to the contemporary, often 

mediocre, "house of worship" style. The interior of temples undergo less radical change. The altar area of 

39



the inner sanctuary, in particular, retains a conservative orthodoxy in furnishings and arrangement. However 

the outer sanctuary undergoes striking adaptations to fit into an American context. The changes in 

architectural styles can be linked to circumstances of the congregation, influence of the sectarian 

headquarters, and specific architects. They also reveal the impact of labor strikes and immigration policies, 

Americanization, internationalization, the decline of sugar and pineapple plantations and the migration of 

fourth and fifth generation young people away from their temple communities. The temples as text clearly 

reveal the growth and decline of Japanese Buddhism in Hawai’i. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Robban Toleno 

Tasteful Tropes: Sweet and Bitter in Pre-Qin Chinese Moral Thought 

Pierre Bourdieu famously argued that aesthetic preferences are products of social environment and not of 

universal rational ideals. His thesis has had a major impact on how modern scholars talk about aesthetic 

experience, but his separation of aesthetic experience from a universalizing discourse on morality leaves a 

haunting question: Are there no natural links between aesthetic and moral categories of experience? I argue 

that there are natural links, when we ground our definitions of aesthetics and morality in understandings of 

how the human body (including the mind) functions. Using a theory of ‘affordances’ from the ecological 

approach in psychology to help frame a notion of what in ‘natural’ in human experience, I investigate the 

vocabulary of taste in early Chinese moral philosophy. Noting an early emphasis in the Shi jing (Book of Odes) 

on gan (sweet) and ku (bitter) as tropes for pleasant and unpleasant experiences, respectively, I trace these two 

flavors in a selection of Warring States texts, and then focus attention on how taste factors in the moral 

philosophy of the Mengzi (Mencius), a text that came to have a profound impact on East Asian society 

following its emphasis within ZhuXi’s system of Neo-Confucian thought in the twelfth century. Results of 

this investigation suggest that early Chinese thinkers accepted the faculty of taste, and especially the flavors 

sweet and bitter, as relatively consistent across individuals, but that they also concurred that aesthetic pursuits 

can have a deleterious effect on the development of moral virtues. Although positing different images of 

virtue as exemplary and worthy of emulation, these thinkers exhibit a consistent understanding that aesthetic 

experiences connect with emotions in a powerful way, and that appropriate use of control of emotion is an 

important part of exemplary moral character. I conclude with a discussion of how these views can help us 

appreciate Bourdieu without dismissing aesthetic and moral discourses as entirely subjective or socially 

relative. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Kathleen Tomlonovic 

Fathers and Sons: Literary Inheritance in the Song Dynasty 

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), figures who achieved literary fame desired to transmit respect for 

learning to their sons. Emphasis on education, even on a family tradition, brought forth strong new 

contributors to the literary scene. The imperial examinations of the mid-eleventh century proved to be a 

catalyst for families that had not previously achieved political or economic status. Efforts to bring the next 

generation into the realm of prestige and power prompted some families to educate sons, while the desire to 

transmit a family style prompted others. 

The Su family of the southwest are of Shu exemplifies complex motivating factors in the education of 

sons. Su Xun, himself unsuccessful in the imperial exams, was able to instruct sons who achieved fame in the 

examinations of 1057 and who were thus launched into important political positions. Even though upheavals 

in the affairs of state proved to be an obstacle to the political rise of their children, both Su Shi (1037-1101) 

and his younger brother, Su Zhe (1039-1112) took a serious interest in the education of their sons and 

grandsons. 

A comparison between Su Shi’s education of his son Su Guo (1071-1123) and Su Zhe’s education of 

his grandsons reveals different motives. The education Su Guo received from his father came primarily when 

he accompanied his father into exile and gained individual instruction as personal cultivation. During the 

40



final years of his life, Su Zhe, once a prime-minister for the Zhao emperors of the Northern Song, chose 

retirement and the education of his grandsons as an alternative to personal struggles to regain political power. 

Nonetheless, he anticipated that success for his sons. 

The literary heritage of Su Xun, of his two sons and his grandsons, did not extend to the Su 

descendants of the Southern Song, but the Su Family style and the prominence they accorded literary features 

of writing had profound influence throughout the Song and subsequent dynasties. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Rebecca L. Twist-Schweitzer 

Patronage, Devotion and Politics: Royal Women Donors of the Patola Sahi Dynasty 

The concept of patronage, especially royal, is an important discourse in all visual arts because it bears a direct 

affect on the construct of the art itself. Buddhist art serves as a primary exemplar of this notion where a royal 

commission may convey a multitude of purposes such as worship, attaining merit, and political propaganda. 

When the patronage includes royal women, however, another discipline is added to the discourse – that of 

Women’s Studies. To illustrate this, I will focus on a number of Buddhist artworks that can be attributed 

through inscriptions to a donation by members of the royal Patola Sahi dynasty that ruled during the 6th-8th 

centuries over the country of Bolor, in what is today, Northern Pakistan. 

In this paper, I will explore how the royal donor women of this dynasty played an integral role in the 

iconography which constructed a coded visual language through which not only political aspirations of the 

dynasty were made manifest, but also suggest that the Patola Sahis were devout Buddhist practitioners, some 

of them adherents of early Vajrayana Buddhism. Specifically, by situating the depicted female donors into the 

Buddhist iconography and iconology of the images and understanding the specific titles chosen to relate to 

their level of spiritual practice and devotion, it is evident that many of these female royal donors were initiates 

into and practitioners of the esoteric teachings of the Vairocana Buddha. As such, when considered within a 

larger framework of discourses and methodology, the motives and impetus for these royal women donors can 

be gleaned, helping to fill in the lacuna in the field regarding royal female patronage of Buddhism. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Kiki Verico 

Does Intratrade Affect Investment Creation in Southeast Asia? Case Study of FTA’s effect on FDI flows in Indonesia, 

Malaysia and Thailand 

ASEAN implemented ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) that generates trade discrimination between 

its member and non member states. AFTA is supposed to increase intratrade among its members. According 

to the history of the Customs Union (CU) in Western Europe, trade discrimination will create trade diversion 

in which members will import goods from a less-efficient member rather than from an efficient non-member. 

If a non-member requires special treatment of FTA, she has to invest in member states as her product will be 

classified as a member’s product and received FTA facilities. FTA is less strict than CU. FTA does not 

regulate equal tariff between members and non-members. It may open trade leakages because non-member 

states still have a chance to make trade relations with members which have lower tariff barriers. In the case of 

AFTA, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines applied lower tariff barriers than other members such as 

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand (IMT). This study argues that trade and investment relations is the core of 

regional integration process which is significant to transform a regional cooperation from trade (free flow of 

goods) to investment cooperation (free flow of capital and people). Free trade and investment liberalization 

are necessary conditions in achieving financial integration with its ultimate objective: “single currency”. 

This study focuses on IMT because they still keep relatively high common tariff barriers for nonmembers. 

Questions to be addressed are: Does AFTA generate intratrade? Does intratrade affect FDI? AFTA has 

vulnerability in attracting FDI inflows from non-member states compared to CU. Currently ASEAN is facing 

a serious threat from the double-track agreement, i.e., AFTA and bilateral FTA with non-members. This 

double-track agreement creates a “spaghetti bowl effect” in ASEAN. AFTA is believed to have become 

weakened ever since bilateral FTA’s emerged. This study tries to see the recent role of AFTA at the sub- 

41



regional level (IMT) after those bilateral FTA’s. It is important to identify the most appropriate way for 

generating trade and investment through AFTA and bilateral FTA’s. This paper adopts some 

macroeconomic variables which affect FDI. All of them have been examined by previous scholars. This 

paper will use Asian Development Bank statistics, World Bank database, WTO database, ASEAN Secretariat 

information and data, etc. The methodology is econometric analysis of time series (OLS, Original TSLS, 

TSLS-IV, and Group SURE & SEM) and Pooled Data Analysis. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Brad Washington 

Role of Sino-American 1+2+1 Dual Degree Programs in the Globalization of Higher Education 

There is a lack of understanding regarding the development and effectiveness of Sino-American 1 +2+ 1 dual 

degree programs. These programs offer undergraduate students from the People's Republic of China (PRC) 

residency and degrees from both a Chinese and United States (U.S.) university. Juan-Aradl (1989) and Labi 

(2009) review the initial development of dual degree programs among nations and universities in Europe. 

Data exists regarding the successes and challenges of dual degree graduate programs developed for multiple 

disciplines within an American university (Dewey, 1985; Gupta, 2006). Cushner and Karim (2004) analyze 

how course credit from study abroad programs contributes to the granting of a degree awarded by a student's 

home institution. However, opportunities exist to expand on literature that addresses the development and 

expansion of Sino-American dual degree programs. 

In order to further explore dual degree programs between American and Chinese institutions, this 

study will utilize a collective case study research model. It is not the intent of the study to claim the 

complexity of Sino-American dual degree programs can be determined within the framework of one study. 

Yet, the research will contribute to discussions of political engagement and social mobility regarding the 

globalization of higher education. The study will attempt to address the origin of Sino-American 1+2+1 dual 

degree programs and how these programs impact the globalization of participating universities in the U.S. and 

PRC. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Suwako Watanabe 

Context as a guiding resource in teaching Japanese conversation 

In this presentation, I will demonstrate problematic consequences of unrestricted oral production by showing 

examples of constructed discourse by learners, and suggest instructional strategies to guide learners in how to 

carryon a conversation in a pragmatically appropriate way. The role of pragmatic competence is undeniably 

important in conducting everyday interaction (Thomas 1982). People rely on pragmatic knowledge and sociocultural 

norms to carry out conversation as they maintain amicable relationships. Such pragmatic knowledge 

serves as a resource for speakers of the target language to conduct day-to-day routine tasks that involve verbal 

communication. And members of the target culture draw on various factors that are available in the 

surrounding context to build pragmatic and socio-cultural competence. 

Context embraces an innumerable number of clues that guide communicators in making sense out of 

an interlocutor's utterances. Christensen and Warnick (2003:74) emphasize the importance of 

contextualization in presenting dialogues. Context includes such elements as identity, role, and social status of 

participants (and relationships among them), shared background information, setting (formal vs. informal), 

purpose and time of communication. 

How is context integrated in oral exercises in textbooks? An examination of oral exercises in three Japanese 

textbooks shows that they lack contextualization. An explanation of a situation is sometimes provided, but 

these typically fail to identify who the interlocutor is, why the conversation is initiated, and when it is taking 

place. As a result, a student may produce an unnecessarily voluminous amount of speech without knowing 

what course the conversation should take. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

42



Erin Watters 

The Global Citizen Workshop – US/Pakistan: A virtual exchange between American and Pakistani students 

The Study: In 2009, Minnehaha Elementary participated in a discovery of Pakistan with a group of students in 

Quetta. Even though due to regional armed conflicts in Pakistan it was impossible to complete the actual 

exchange with the group in Pakistan, the students in Vancouver, WA, were able to discover many things 

about Pakistani students that they had not heard on the news. The experience was a positive one for the 

students and we look forward to making more progress in exchanges with Pakistani students and other 

regions of the world. 

The Context: The Global Citizen Workshop is a month-long series of ½ hour lessons that include a 

virtual exchange between groups of youth from different regions of the globe. This exchange gives each 

youth an opportunity to build relationships and learn about a new culture. Participants develop a better 

understanding about their exchange partners and learn more than they could know of each other through the 

media or books. This workshop is developed with the intent to expand a culture of peace encouraging a 

continued exchange between participants, respect and hopefully lifelong friendships. This project also 

provided opportunities for college students to participate as mentors or facilitators for the youth, providing 

practice in facilitation, peace education and educational methods related to technology and linguistics. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Peipei Wei 

Finding Her "Mi" Hiding behind Fans and Screens--Through Textual Study of Kagero Nikki by Michitsuna's Mother 

In retrospect of literary history in Japan there are scattered periods where women's voices came to the 

forefront. Aristocratic women's nikki or diary writing practices in the tenth century of Heian Japan are among 

one of these periods. Heian nikki writers were already in a well-off social position or mi. However, the 

examination of the diary form reveals that high social status does not guarantee feelings of social and 

emotional security. This diary genre provides a legitimate medium for us to explore their hidden concerns and 

insecurities in a time when social norms prevented them from expressing these concerns publicly. By citing 

textual evidences from Kagero nikki written by Michitsuna's mother from three perspectives: self-awareness of 

her unsecure mi as well as aspiration to security; vulnerability of her mi; and the attempt of securing her mi 

through securing her position in marriage, I conclude that her mi concealed underneath layers of clothing, 

covering of fans and screens is actually an insecure one. Although the diary was full of her turmoil and her 

insecurities, voicing these concerns actually provided her with some validation and possibility of augmented 

her sense of security. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Albert Welter 

Chan Yulu (Zen Goroku) as a Means of Integration Across Culture: Reflections on the Fictional Background to 

Chan/Zen’s Encounter Dialogues 

Yulu/goroku (Dialogue Records or Records of Sayings), constitute one of Chan/Zen Buddhism’s original 

contributions to East Asian literature. The rise of Chan from an obscure movement to an officially 

recognized and dominant form of Buddhism in China provided the foundation for the dispersion of Chan 

throughout East Asia, Sŏn in Korea, Thiên in Vietnam, and Zen in Japan. As a result, the yulu literary style 

became an integrating component of East Asian Buddhist literature, and it became a normative practice to 

compile yulu collections of Chan masters in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The present study is 

concerned with exploring the origins of the yulu genre, particularly as it relates to the employment of fictional 

and fictionalized elements in the creation of Chan identity. Important in this regard was the formation of 

encounter dialogues, the records of dharma-battles between and among Chan masters and monks over the 

true nature of spiritual awakening. Presented as eye witness accounts of the existential revelations of the 

mind-nature, these encounters were actually highly contrived and structured literary artifices parading as 

actual historical events, filtered through the skilful interpretation of sympathetic literati. Compilers of yulu did 

43



not work from a vacuum, but called upon numerous literary techniques and conventions common to the 

Chinese literati tradition. In doing so, they raised significant questions regarding the nature of literature and 

the role fiction and literary device has, not only in the pursuit of creating a compelling story, but also in 

divulging incipient truths embedded in a literary framework. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Ann Wetherell 

Best Wishes for an Elegant Gathering: An auspicious Presentation Painting from the Ming Dynasty 

A monumental 16th century hanging scroll, now in the collection of the Portland Art Museum, depicts a 

gathering of nine scholars on large secluded estate in the full flower of summer. The painting conveys a lush, 

paradisiacal setting through blue-green coloration and fine details on silk. In the absence of any signature, 

seals or inscriptions, we are required to 'read' and hypothesize the meaning and function of the painting 

through the internal evidence of auspicious symbols and artistic and literary allusion. This paper explores the 

signs, metaphors, and compositional structure of the work, congratulations and wishes for success in a 

bureaucratic career. Although this painting suggests that the patron or recipient has 'arrived' at his station in 

life, there is an unusual aspect to narrative time and a twist on the popular theme of the elegant gathering, 

suggesting that such a gathering has not yet occurred. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Clare Wilkinson 

How do I look? Observations on costume, realism, and change in Bombay film 

This paper reviews findings based on research over the past eight years in Mumbai (still known in film circles 

as Bombay). The primary argument of this paper is that the ambitions and goals of film producers influenced 

by global trends in media, advertising and fashion have been grafted somewhat incompletely upon the 

longstanding structures and practices of the industry as a whole. Critics and filmmakers themselves are fully 

aware of the difficulties of imposing a contract-based culture on one previously based on oral agreements, of 

bringing in scripts where previously a story narration sufficed (as dialogues written on set as the shooting 

went on). Less remarked upon is the pressure that is put upon the practices of technicians and craftspeople 

in the industry. Focusing in particular upon the production of costume and make-up, I shall illustrate the 

change in productive conventions that new standards of fashion and beauty have created, and how workers 

have responded – some well, some not so well – to a new set of expectations flowing from the industry’s 

cultural and power elite. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Philip Williams 

A Topical Approach to Structuring a Survey Course in Chinese Poetry 

Basic survey courses in traditional Chinese literature tend to be structured either chronologically by dynastic 

progression or else typologically by literary genre. Although neither the dynastic setting not the generic 

affiliation of a literary work is lacking in significance, might there be a more engaging way to provide an 

overall structure to the survey course – especially for the plurality of non-specialist undergraduate students 

whose interest in the subject might wane from an overly technical or academic approach to Chinese literary 

studies. 

This paper suggests that a topical approach to Chinese poetry could better engage the general student 

and lay reader, and draws upon patterns in arboreal imagery in the time-honored collection Three Hundred Tang 

Poems to illustrate how certain trees tend to be associated with specific themes of historical allusions. For 

example, verses from the above anthology are cited to indicate how cypresses tend to be associated with 

memorials to exemplary figures in Chinese history such as Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period, while 

peach trees often serve as an allusion to the small agrarian utopia of Peach Blossom Spring devised by the Six 

Dynasties poet Tao Yuanming. Taking note of some of Burton Watson’s observations on patterns of nature 

imagery in Tang poetry, the paper demonstrates how poets of that era tend to turn back again and again to a 

44



very limited set of conceptually drenched arboreal images rather than simply referring in their poetry to any 

and every tree that one might encounter in a stroll through a Chinese forest. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Christian Wirth 

Maritime Governance, Nation-Building, and Regional Cooperation in Northeast Asia 

High economic growth rates, the revolution in telecommunication, and the end of the Cold War have 

brought about rapid and profound changes to the domestic as well as regional environments of Northeast 

Asian governments. The maritime sphere, in which increasingly militarized state boundaries delineate 

political authority while at the same time economic activities link increasingly interdependent communities 

therein, bears significance for the study of regional integration in several respects. This paper looks at how the 

Chinese and Japanese governments, in response to processes of globalization, have cooperated in the spheres 

of traditional security and maritime governance such as environmental and fishery management since the 

mid-1990s. Based on several case studies, the paper seeks to shed light on current dynamics underlying 

bilateral and regional cooperation. It assesses transactional processes in these areas in view of the emergence 

of norms conducive to the generation of dependable expectations of peaceful change (Adler, Barnett 1998). It 

finds that the two governments, despite potentially conflict-generating interests in all areas examined, have 

managed their relations in ways that indicate the emergence of norms of regional governance, particularly in 

maritime governance. At the same time, the combination of the absence of a third party to monitor 

compliance with such norms, the lack of a regional actor able to project a new sense of purpose, the lacunae 

of ideas of progress and a vision for the future, and domestic problems of governance results in mixed results 

in the traditional security sphere. It is suggested that the lack of mutual trust stems from the shortage of 

knowledge, not only about each other’s purpose and intentions but also about each other’s views on society, 

politics, economics, and culture. In view of the fragmentation of the once coherent national identities 

resulting from the rapid socio-economic changes in recent years, China and Japan generally continue to locate 

the history of their nation-states in storylines that emphasize their emergence as independent and unitary 

nations with long individual histories, rather than being part of a Northeast Asian region. Some evidence, 

such as the strengthening of transnational and international networks, as well as the largely absent use of 

coercive power, suggests, however, that these conceptions are about to change in favor of national identities 

aligned with a newly imagined Northeast Asian region. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Zhiwei Xiao 

Beautiful Imperialists: A Century of Chinese Cinematic Images of the U.S. 

This paper examines the representation of America in the Chinese cinema from the early 20 th century to the 

present and traces some important shifts and turns in the Chinese popular imagination about the U.S. It 

argues that, with the exception of the Mao years {1949-1976}, and despite the official ideology in the post 

Mao era, Americans have largely been casted in the positive light in Chinese films, which provide an 

interesting contrast to the way Hollywood has portrayed China and the Chinese on the screen. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jiaxin Xie 

Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University 

The study of Chinese will not just connect American students with the language, but also with the culture, 

literature, and rich history of China. SFSU’s goal to provide international experiences, perspectives and 

competencies complements the Confucius Institute’s mission to meet the surging demand for Chinese 

language instruction at all educational levels. The Institute’s resolution, “Making Chinese language instruction 

readily available to anyone who needs or wishes to learn Chinese in Northern California,” reflects our 

function as a Research and Service organization at the University, to promote Chinese language and culture 

and support local Chinese teaching. We agree to provide programs and services including but not limited to 

45



Chinese courses, teacher training, cultural exchanges, instructional materials for the communities, and a 

platform for research on Chinese language education in the U.S. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Zhihai Xie 

MacArthur’s Missionary Policy and the Christian Boom in Occupied Japan 1945-1952 

Right after World War Ⅱ, the United States conducted an occupation policy toward Japan from 1945 to 

1952. Japan under Occupation witnessed an unprecedented development of Christianity which was called 

“Christian boom” by many scholars. The Christian boom owed to both U.S. Occupation policy and Japanese 

domestic momentum. On the one hand, SCAP (Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers) and MacArthur 

regarded the spiritual reformation of Japanese people as the basis of the reconstruction of Japan. Therefore, a 

missionary policy was executed by SCAP to encourage the spread of Christianity to fill the “spiritual vacuum” 

in Japan. In addition, Christianity was also seen as a political value to accomplish the democratization of 

Japan as well as a strategic tool to contain the rampant Communism in Japan. On the other hand, the 

Japanese, both the government and the common people showed great interests and embracement towards 

Christianity. Katayama Tetsu, the first Prime Minister elected under the new Constitution was the first 

Christian leader in Japanese history. He declared that Japan should be guided by Christian morality and based 

on moral principles. The United Church of the Christ in Japan (Kyodan) also saw a great opportunity for its 

enlargement and actively exerted its influence on social and political affairs. The U.S. missionary policy and 

the Japanese Christian movement interacted with each other and made the “Christian boom” happen in 

occupied Japan. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Catherine Xiaowen Xu 

Revival: When a Tang Lady Lives in Wang Xiaobo's Contemporary Fiction 

This paper aims to explore the intertextual possibilities between contemporary Chinese fiction and Tang tales 

of the marvels, taking Wang Xiaobo's rewriting of a popular Tang tale as an example. With a contextualized 

reading of Wang Xiaobo's multiple re-writing of a Tang tale "Qiuran Ke" (The Bearded Stranger), I hope to 

uncover the marvelous dimension in the Tang text and reconstruct its revival in the contemporary text of a 

highly ironic nature. Hongfu, the Tang lady in the tale, has been taking a journey toward cliched image ever 

since the day she was created by the Tang literati. Her marvelous quality in her contemporary world was 

tamed by later adaptations, until Wang Xiaobo comes to her rescue in late 20th century. Her revival in Wang's 

texts showcases how a literary yearning for intellectual independence and literary imagination is reincarnated 

by contemporary contextualization of the cliches. Wang's texts present a continuation of the great marvelous 

tradition in the Chinese narrative literature, a tradition that gives more weight to imagination than to 

mundane reality, that pays more respect to aesthetic emancipation than to discursive regulation, and that 

endows literature a penetrating force across time and space. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Tongyun Yin 

Nationalism and the Construction of the Chinese Art Canon: Gugong Weekly 1929-1936 

Throughout the prolonged turmoil of modern Chinese history, the Forbidden City and its imperial collections 

have been inextricably intertwined with the culture, society, ideology, and politics of that era. Concomitant 

with the construction of new nation-state, the Forbidden City was transformed from the imperial palace to a 

public museum, with all the imperial family property being recast into national patrimony. This paper 

examines how the Palace Museum used modern media and printing technology to create new ways of seeing 

Chinese traditional art in general, and paintings in particular, through the lens of a periodical, the Gugong 

Weekly, published between 1929 and 1936. It argues that by using photography and printing technologies and 

by situating its art collections in the historical context created by the mass reproduction format, this periodical 

encouraged a general perception of the historical continuity and significance of Chinese art tradition. The 

46



intellectualization of these art collections, achieved by the Gugong Weekly, played a significant role in shaping 

the modern concept of Chinese art and in constructing the canon of historical art in modern China. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Zhou Ying 

Evaluating China’s Soft Power Diplomacy in Asia and Its Relationships with East Asian Integration 

It goes without saying that China is growing visibly and practically at a fantastic speed compared to decades 

ago or to other actors. Many analysts and experts spare no effort to assess China’s power, both hard power 

and soft power, for government policy recommendations. Their evaluations of China’s hard power are made 

difficult by the opaque Chinese government while their evaluations of China’s soft power are empirically 

lacking and methodologically problematic. These problems contribute to their hasty conclusions regarding 

China’s rising soft power. However, a report, Soft Power in Asia: Results of a 2008 Multinational Survey of Public 

Opinion, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (CCGA) in partnership with the East Asia 

Institute (EAI), produced a number of counterintuitive and counter-popular findings through a survey in the 

United States and five Asian countires, including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia. In 

terms of soft power in Asia, China ranks well below the U.S., Japan, and South Korea in five key areas 

addressed in this survey: economics, culture, human capital, diplomacy, and politics. Two main findings about 

China’s soft power diplomacy are: first, in aggregate China’s soft power diplomacy lags far behind other Asian 

great powers. Second, there is a huge gap between China’s own assessment of its soft power diplomacy and 

that of others. Given the growing importance of and rising international interest in the Asian region, along 

with the role of China’s soft power diplomacy in the regional integration, this paper focuses exclusively on 

soft power in the diplomatic area, examines the factors behind Asians’ evaluation of China’s diplomatic soft 

power from the 2008 suvey. The paper will argue that China’s performance in improving the regional 

integration elicits the lower scores from its neighbors. The paper looks at China’s soft power diplomacy 

through the ideas, interaction, institutions, and responsibilities on the bi- and multilateral level that is shaping 

China’s foreign relations in Asia. Then it will examine the relations between China’s soft power diplomacy 

and the East Asian integration. The paper concludes that in order to improve the effectiveness of its soft 

power diplomacy in Asia, China will need to more actively engage in and contribute to the regional processes 

and institutions in the region. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

MaryAnn Young 

Sustainability of Japanese City Festivals: Tensions Between Tradition and Tourism in Asahikawa’s Natsu Matsuri 

The topic of Japanese festivals (matsuri) has traditionally held the attention of scholars in the fields of 

ethnomusicology, religious studies, and anthropology. Traditionally focusing on understanding the structure 

and organization of matsuri (Chapin 1934; Morarity 1972; Grim and Grim 1982), scholarship has now turned 

to sustainability of festivals and the role of tourism in Japanese Shinto matsuri as “folk performing arts” 

(Thornbury 1993; Hashimoto 2003). Unfortunately, this interest in the traditional matsuri ignores the growing 

tensions between matsuri traditions and tourism demands in the sustainability of city festivals. Drawing on 

ethnographic fieldwork, this paper presentation places a cultural performance-centered approach (Singer 

1955) to Asahikawa’s Natsu Matsuri with particular focus on the examination of music occasions (Herndon 

1971) throughout the three-day festival. 

Ethnomusicologist Marcia Herndon defines a music occasion as “an encapsulated expression of the 

shared cognitive forms and values of a society, which includes not only the music itself but also the totality of 

associated behavior and underlying concepts” (Herndon 1971, 340). In the context of this study, each music 

occasion sheds light on issues facing city festival sustainability with nostalgia for traditional Shinto matsuri 

amid tourism demands. The city of Asahikawa provides an interesting challenge as tourism is promoted not 

only for cultural outsiders, such as Japanese tourists from other cities or regions, but also cultural insiders in 

the form of previous residents generally leaving for education or work. For this reason, music occasions range 

from processions of mikoshi and odaiko to competitions featuring enka, yosakoi, disco, and hip-hop. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

47

Xiaoduo Zhang 

Feminist Study of the Poetry of Li Shangyin 



It has been a convention in Chinese poetry to write about women. This convention can be traced back to the 

Classic of Poetry (shijing), the earliest existing anthology of Chinese poems back in 1000 Be By conjecturing 

the psychological world of female, male poets inevitably adopt the so-called feminine language". Sometimes, 

in order to write like a woman, they even impersonate the female persona and voice. This is the case in the 

poetry of Li Shangyin, a renowned late Tang poet famous for the allusive and imagist nature of his cryptic 

poems. A large portion of his collection is about women, ranging from deities, legendary female figures, to 

ordinary female characters. 

Feminist theory will be employed as the theoretical frame of the study in order to demonstrate that 

(1) The poetic language employed by Li is feminine; (2) The representation of the images of women in Li's 

poetry reveal man's conception of what an idealized female should be like in the 7th Century China; (3) The 

adoption of female voice and impersonation of female persona not only reinforce the hierarchy of capable 

male power and female dependency, but also provide male poets an outlet to reveal their repressed self It is 

expected to find the significance of the feminine characteristics in Li Shangyin's poem in influencing later 

development of poetry and the emergence of a novel poetic genre -song lyrics. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Xiaohua Zhang 

Dissidence or Distance—Bei Dao’s Poems after 1989 

The dissident label has been following Bei Dao ever since he became famous internationally in the mid-1980s. 

It has been a most important factor in the reception of his work in the West. My paper aims to challenge the 

Western obsession with Bei Dao’s dissident status. It argues that continuing to label Bei Dao as dissident 

writer runs the risk of pigeonholing a writer whose work has increasingly shown thematic diversity, 

conceptual complexity and stylistic maturity. It could mislead some into trying to find political messages in 

his poems, an effort doomed to fail. It could also furnish others with an excuse to dismiss his poems as 

political kitsch without even looking at them. Indeed, a closer look at Bei Dao’s poems after 1989 shows that 

the poet distances himself increasingly from the public and the political. Through close readings of some of 

his poems, my paper demonstrates that Bei Dao’s poetry after 1989 goes through three phases. A gradual 

move away from the past and an increasing focus on the private, the personal and the poetic potential of the 

language are discernible in his poems. Especially in the third phase, after the poet’s resigned acceptance of 

exile, he expands his poetic horizon to cover a whole range of topics, including exile, poetry, travel, life in a 

foreign country, landscapes and the night, to name but a few. Therefore, the dissident label is no longer 

adequate for his work after 1989. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Yu Zhang 

Cross-dressed Courtesans in Late Qing Shanghai7 

In this paper I examine the new, striking and out of order images of cross-dressed courtesans in late Qing 

Shanghai. They are mainly presented in three media: lithographs such as Diashizhai huabao(点石斋画报 

Dianshizhai Pictorial Magazine); narrative fictions including haishang fanhua meng(海上繁华梦Dream of the 

flourishing Shanghai) and Jiu wei hu(九尾狐The nine-tailed fox); and photographs that courtesans took to 

record their beauty as well as for commercial advertising. Although in late Qing Shanghai, female crossdressing 

was no longer a taboo, in male representation and narration, their cross-dressed images were either 

constructed as an exotic variation on traditional objects of male desire, or were attacked as a cause of social 

disorder. However, as a seductive fashion set by Shanghai courtesans, cross-dressing was not only a playful 

gesture and a unique sexy fascination, but also an expression of their agency. The phenomenon of crossdressing 

courtesans was not a simply passive reflection of social change. Rather, these women were projecting 

their own interests and concerns thorough their identity performance. In this sense, the cross-dressed female 

body was connected to the emerging Shanghai modern at the turn of the twentieth century. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

48



Yan Zhou 

Who's Knocking My Door? --A Reading of a Late Ming Homosexual Romance 

Do the characters in the late Ming homosexual romance court differently as those in heterosexual stories? 

This paper takes the "Story of Four Golden Orchid Friends" as an example to explore the gender 

representations of male homosexuality in classical romance novella of the late Ming China, concentrating on 

the perspectives of identity, poetic performance and gift exchange inside the narrative. The author attempts to 

analyze the dynamic milieu created by the two major characters: how their homosocial friendship is carefully 

developed through the poetry exchanges, and how it leads to homosexual panic, reaches the stage of 

homosexual love but ends with a traditional heterosexual marriage. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Jingjing Zhu 

From Buddhist Monks to Buddhist Ministers - Buddhist Ordination Across the Pacific, Past, Present and Future 

In this paper, I will discuss the origin of Chinese Buddhist ordination, and compare this with the 

contemporary condition of Buddhist ordination in Asia (mainly in China) and as practiced in Chinese expatriot 

communities in the United States. From this analysis, I intend to explore what has changed and how 

these changes may impact Buddhism as it is practiced in the United States. The author will refer to recently 

developed Buddhist chaplaincy programs, which have rapidly come about to adapt to the spiritual and 

emotional needs of American Buddhists. I find there are some striking and intriguing similarities between 

reception of Buddhism in United States and the dynamic between Chinese people and their culture when 

Buddhism was first transmitted to China. The innovation of Buddhist Chaplaincy stands to act as a medium 

of communication between the needs and desires of American Buddhists and their Chinese Buddhist 

counterparts, ex-patriot or otherwise. 

I will examine this issue in three parts. In the first section I outline and highlight the history of 

Chinese monastics and ordination in early Han dynasty. In second section, I will discuss ordination as it is 

understood and practiced in American Buddhism. The final section is about the developments in Buddhist 

ordination in response to the advent of Buddhist chaplaincy: in particular, the ministerial "ordination." This 

will address the academic, psychological, religious and even theological implications of these innovations. The 

paper will talk about the issues includes the questions as follows: What's the future of American Buddhism? 

What will American Buddhism come to look like? How will the generations after the first, who are born in 

American, understand their Buddhism in contrast to the form introduced by their forebears from the 

continent? 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Adam Zollinger 

The Manufacture and Procurement of “Daimyo Masks” as Revealed Through Original Records and Hereditary 

Possessions of the Saga-Nabeshima Domain 

By the early Edo period, noh had become the official ceremonial music of the Tokugawa government and 

daimyo, inspired both by duty and genuine personal interest, grew intensely dedicated to the practice of the 

art. In accommodation to their noh activities, daimyo actively sought out and acquired masks, assembling 

collections far and beyond the practical necessity of the stage. Commonly referred to as “daimyō-men,” a vast 

majority of the masks making up these collections were reproductions of earlier works. Mask makers, no 

longer focused on creating original works, directed their energies towards emulating works from the past. 

Supported by a consistent stream of commissions, primarily from daimyo, hereditary guilds of specialized 

reproduction mask makers emerged, forming the almost exclusive core of noh mask making throughout the 

period. This study explores the fundamental character of the daimyo mask industry based on an analysis of 

hereditary materials of the Saga-Nabeshima domain. 

With no surviving noh masks and only a few surviving costumes to account for, there has been little 

discourse up to this point regarding noh-related activities of the Saga-Nabeshima domain. The scale and 

49



significance of Saga-Nabeshima noh is however unquestionably realized in the existence of three ancestral 

noh mask inventories – Oyuzuri omen, Onō omen sonohoka odōgu, and Onōji men-ishō-dōguchō – in which an 

extraordinary 421 masks are recorded. In regards to the Kashima-Nabeshima domain, branch domain of 

Saga-Nabeshima, an important scroll of rare early modern noh mask templates survives: “Nōmen kirigata 

zu,” a traditional tool and reference for transmitting technologies of reproduction. Here a detailed analysis 

reveals an explicit relationship to the Ōmi Izeki line of hereditary mask makers, indicative of the underlying 

foundation of reproduction masks. 

“Nōmen kirigata zu” and the Saga-Nabeshima noh mask inventories represent two distinct varieties 

of data in regards to the study of daimyo masks: the data of “Nōmen kirigata zu” concerned with the ancestry 

and practice of their manufacture, and the data of the inventories with the culture of their procurement and 

management. Viewed together, a uniquely comprehensive and profound understanding of the daimyo mask 

industry is achieved. 

50

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