Spring 2012  1A Newsletter for AlumNi ANd frieNds of uBC AsiAN studies Department of Asian Studies Asian Centre, UBC 1871 West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 www.asia.ubc.ca Asian Edge is produced by the UBC Department of Asian Studies. Please send submissions and comments to Ross King: ross.king@ubc.ca. or Editor-in-chief Julia Paek: jpaek@mail.ubc.ca Asian Edge The Newsletter of the Department of Asian Studies Contents MeSSAge froM The heAD UBC ChineSe ChArACTer Tool App CeleBrATing pAST eVenTS UnDergrADUATe UpDATe grADUATe neWS AlUMni Corner DepArTMenT neWS profeSSorS eMeriTi Donor neWS 2 AsiAn EdgE: A newSletter for Alumni And friendS of uBC ASiAn StudieS A Gala to Celebrate 50 Years of Asian Studies Dear friends of the Department of Asian Studies: Time has flown by since the last newsletter in october, and as you will see from the contents of this issue, much has happened in the meantime. perhaps the most momentous occasion of all was our gala 50th Anniversary Banquet, attended by close to 300 people. As host of the event and Master of Ceremonies, i did not get as many opportunities to chat with everybody as i would have liked, but i was pleased to see graduates of the department from every one of its first five decades, and i was also pleased to see so many of our emeriti in attendance. indeed, in many ways the emeriti were the stars of the evening. it was a privilege to ask professor emeritus peter harnetty to announce the new prize he has generously endowed, the “peter harnetty prize in Asian Studies,” and to note some of the accomplishments of the inaugural winner, Michael Johnston. it was also a rare pleasure to be able to announce the creation of yet another endowment connected to one of our emeriti, this time for professor John howes. A number of professor howes’ ‘deshi’ from over the decades came together to suggest the idea of an annual John howes lecture in Japanese Studies, as a way to honour professor howes’ distinguished career in the Department and on the Canada- Japan interface, and to recognize the formative influence he has had on so many graduates of the Department. We are close to our fundraising goal for this endowment now--stay tuned for information about the inaugural John howes lecture sometime in late november this year. one other announcement i had hoped to make at the 50th Anniversary gale concerns our new UBC Chinese Character Tool for the iphone. professor Duanduan li (Coordinator of the Chinese language program), Senior instructor rebecca Chau (Coordinator of the Japanese language program), and myself have worked for a number of years on an innovative web- based learning tool to help students of Chinese, Japanese and Korean with that most time- consuming feature of these languages—Chinese characters (www.ubccjk.com). We have now created an iphone app based on the website, and the app has already been approved by Apple for upload to iTunes. Currently all that remains is to work out some UBC-internal bureaucracy around the financing, and we are hopeful that the app will be available for purchase by e-mail in early May; please buy a copy! Work on an Android version of the app continues apace, and you can find basic information about the app and its features here: http://m.ubccjk.com/. finally, please note that i will be disappearing off to Japan in September for a much-awaited sabbatical year at Waseda University in Tokyo. My four years as department head have come with a steep learning curve and many challenges, but also with many rewards. Without question the most rewarding aspects of the job have been getting to know many of our fascinating alumni from the past fifty years, working to improve the sense of community in the department, and collaborating with our friends in the iranian community on our new persian language and iranian Studies initiative. But much remains to be done, and despite my secret hope that i might screw things up so badly that i could get away with just one term as head, my colleagues have seen fit to visit a second term of yours truly upon themselves. My colleague harjot oberoi has kindly agreed to serve as Acting head during my absence, and i look forward to resuming my duties as head for another four years starting on July 1, 2013. in the meantime, if you happen to be passing through Tokyo, i’d be happy to connect. department Head, Ross King Watch our documentary that we debuted at our 50th Anniversary gala: http://www.asia.ubc.ca/ documentary.html UBC Chinese Character Tool App Coming Soon! Check out UBC public Affairs article about the app here: http://bit.ly/i2bDK1 The Virani Lecture in islamic studies On March 28th, at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, the fifth annual Virani Lectures took place with Professor Faisal Devji from Oxford University presenting on “Jinnah and the Making of Pakistan.” The annual Virani Lectures in Islamic Studies is generously supported by Mr. and Mrs. Amir and Yasmin Virani. For more information on this lecture and other events associated with the Virani Lectures please visit the Department of Asian Studies website: www.asia.ubc.ca Spring 2012  3 Chinese New Year Photos every year, the Chinese language program within the Department of Asian Studies puts on quite the spectacle for Chinese new Year. 2012’s Year of the Dragon was no different. Many of the students taking courses from the Chinese language program showcased their skills through acting, dancing and singing. All photos courtesy of professor Duanduan li. Congratulations! The 1st Annual UBC Asian Studies graduate Student Conference will be held on Saturday, May 12, 2012 at the UBC Asian Centre from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Melek Su ortabasi (SfU, World literature) will be our keynote speaker. for registration or more information, please check out: http://ubcasiagradconference.wordpress. com/ E-mail: ubcasiagrad@gmail.com Seven UBC students were awarded Chinese government Scholarships. full scholarships went to leea Maria Salmi, James Whale, Michael peters, rafael Anderson and Byungchan Kim. partial scholarships went to Siyeon Min and Chris Chiang (pictured right with professors and government officials.) Congratulations to francisca park (left), who won first prize in the Advanced Category in the 23rd Canada national Japanese Speech Contest. Also, a huge congratulations to professors rebecca Chau and Michiko Suzuki for hosting a successful contest! 4 AsiAn EdgE: A newSletter for Alumni And friendS of uBC ASiAn StudieS Undergraduate Update Join UBC’s Asia Club Hi everyone! This is a message from the UBC Asian studies interest Association (AsiA Club). UBC AsiA club is an AMs club working under the department of Asian studies; we provide a wide variety of events (social, cultural and academic) to all students with an interest in Asia. some of the events that took place this year include skating night, a trip to experience the ghost Train in stanley Park, a Bachelor Auction for Valentine’s day, and many other events involving exchange students mainly from south Korea and Japan. One of the key offerings of AsiA Club is the Language Buddy Program, where each UBC student is paired with an exchange student from prestigious schools in south Korea and Japan. This has become a popular program where over 200 students participate each year. UBC and exchange students learn each other’s language and culture. Productive meetings with the department of Asian studies faculty and staff, including Professor Ross King, have the current executive team pumped up and excited as we look forward to introducing and promoting more about Asia through club collaborations, academic workshops or lunches and attempt to introduce a new new Year’s tradition to our sUB concourse! As a team, we are definitely working as one and trying to complete all the ambitious challenges we have set ourselves. However, as many of the executives are leaving due to graduation, exchange opportunities, or other reasons we lack manpower on the executive team! The UBC AsiA club is welcoming any interested individuals to email ubcasia@gmail.com to request more information, and we hope to see you on the team in August 2012! Have a safe and wonderful summer! sincerely, 2012 UBC AsiA club From one successful year to another: photo and Message to right from: Asia Club president Gabi Chen and executives Jinny Cho and Jung Ah Won See Asia Club facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ubcasia Graduate News The 1st Annual UBC Asian studies graduate student Conference Spring 2012  5 Alumni Corner Barry Hong, (BA-Asian Area Studies, 1984) is Ceo of August hotels & properties, inc., a property investment and development company in Vancouver and hong Kong. A self-starting entrepreneur, Barry has worked in hong Kong, Beijing, and Vancouver in property investments, and hotel and property development, and has a unique understanding about bridging cultural differences between Asian and north American culture in the board room and in the economic market place. Barry has worked overseas in Asia since he graduated in 1984, and has recently returned from Beijing, living and working in China’s capital city since 2008 on a landmark hotel restoration project. Erika Thomas, BA’03 (Asian Studies, minor Japanese) is a Supply Chain Coordinator (logistics) in the Chemical Department at Mitsubishi Canada in Vancouver. After graduating from UBC, she was a Coordinator of international relations (Cir) on the JeT programme for three years. Amber Ballard, BA’02, until recently has been the Donor relations and Annual giving Specialist at regent College. in April, she will begin a new role as the Senior Manager, Annual giving, at pearson College in Victoria, B.C. pearson is one of 13 United World Colleges and is committed to using education as a means to work toward peace, compassion and understanding between peoples. prior to regent, Amber worked as a fundraising consultant, development director and major gifts fundraiser for charities in Canada and in Thailand. Amber holds her professional designation in fundraising (Cfre) and is also an avid mountain biker, trail-runner and swimmer. Maria Kim, BA’10 (Asian language & Culture), is currently a second-year law student at UBC. She hopes to utilize her Asian Studies background and language skills with her law career in the future. During her BA, she participated in a 1-year exchange program to Waseda University, Japan, and served as a UBC go global Ambassador upon return. She is passionate about people, cultures, learning and legal outreach initiatives. Helen Lau, BA’06 (Chinese), is a general Manager with perfect Tutors, a tutoring network based in Vancouver. She is currently completing her MBA degree and loves working in the field of education management. Allan Wong, BA’86 (Asian Area Studies), is serving his fifth term as a Vancouver Board of education trustee and is a former board vice-chair. After graduating from UBC, Allan taught in Vancouver area public schools for five years. A long-time public education advocate, he has been elected to the board for five consecutive terms, serving since 1999, and has advocated for public education, eSl and Special needs students, and for seismic upgrades of Vancouver public schools. Congratulations to our students! The Department would like to congratulate our phD students and MA students who defended their dissertations and theses recently. They will be graduating this May: natasha Chow, MA, Chinese language and pre-modern literature, supervisor Dr. Swatek, Title: Sequels to the Honglou Meng: How Gu Taiqing Continues the Story in Honglou Meng Ying Masumi El-khoury, MA, Modern Japanese literature, supervisor Dr. orbaugh, Title: Editors’ intentions and authors’ desires: how junbungaku affects the Akutagawa Prize and Japan’s commercial literary world dong Kyu Kim, phD, Korean Shamanism, supervisor Dr. Baker, Title: Looping effects between images and realities: understanding the plurality of Korean shamanism iuliia Vorontsova, MA, Chinese Thought, philosophy and religion, supervisor Dr. Ted Slingerland, Title: Metaphors for Thinking in Modern Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus Study Congratulations also to former phD student Dafna Zur who will be assistant professor in the east Asian languages and literatures department at Stanford University this fall. Convocation will be occurring on May 23 at 4 pm in the Chan Centre. further information about a Department reception will be e-mailed to you. spotlight on Curriculum: KORn 410 Thanks to a multimedia course created by ross King, professor of Korean, in the 1990s, Asian Studies at UBC has become the primary training ground in the english-speaking world for Korean-to-english literary translation. UBC students past and present have accounted for more than 70 published translations of modern Korean fiction, and almost all of these translators are veterans of Korn 410, a two-term six-credit sequence open to all students who have successfully completed Korn 300. Utilizing some three dozen modern Korean short stories, each accompanied by detailed grammar notes and a comprehensive vocabulary list, Korn 410 offers systematic training in the reading and translation of modern Korean literary fiction. Counter to the common wisdom that proficiency in literary translation requires years or even decades of experience, Korn 410 students have been producing translations that with standard editorial intervention by the instructor are publishable. Both heritage and non-heritage students have thrived in this course, their published translations showcasing several of present-day South Korea’s most imaginative fiction writers, such as Kim Young-ha (who enjoyed an eight- month residency at UBC in 2008-9), ha Sŏng-nan, and p’yŏn hye-yŏng. All three of these authors appear in the well-received anthology Waxen Wings: The Acta Koreana Anthology of Short Fiction from Modern Korea, seven of whose nine stories were translated by UBC students. Check us out on our Facebook and Linkedin pages under UBC Asian Studies and let us know what you have been up to since graduation. 6 AsiAn EdgE: A newSletter for Alumni And friendS of uBC ASiAn StudieS Upcoming Program: Happy Retirement to Professor Tineke Hellwig Tineke Hellwig has been an integral part of Asian Studies for over 20 years. indeed, some have called her the “moral compass” of the department. not only has she promoted indonesian studies, but she has been very active in Women’s Studies, and has served on innumerable committees at both the MA and phD levels, despite having few graduate students of her own. She has, in all senses, been an exemplary colleague, professor and friend of the Department. of her retirement, professor hellwig has said: “it has truly been an enormous privilege to be part of Asian Studies, Women’s Studies and the UBC community. Your kind words, friendship and collegiality mean a lot to me and i look forward to continuing our connections beyond UBC in the future.” Department News Photographic Expressions of Asia Featuring dr. neville Poy’s photographic images. dr. neville Poy and senator Vivienne Poy bring Asia to Vancouver through captivating images, and compelling stories. Thursday, May 17, 6:30 pm reception to follow Fletcher Challenge Theatre (room 1900) sFU at Harbour Centre 515 West Hastings street, Vancouver Please reserve your seat at: www.sfu.ca/reserve Asian Centre “Facelift” our main office has moved upstairs to rm 607. please come drop by our new home. As per usual, we should have tasty treats in the reception area. Also, the entire Asian Centre is undergoing major renovations. The lobby has already received major upgrades, and a new roof is next. The renovations should be complete by end of summer. our Asian Studies website is also getting a major revamp, so please check back later this summer for the unveiling of a new and exciting website that will feature all our latest news and events. in the meantime, make sure you check out our facebook, Twitter and linkedin pages. shift in Heads Department head professor Ross King will be away on sabbatical for the upcoming academic year (June 2012 ~ June 2013) in Japan. professor Harjot Oberoi will be taking over as Acting head, while professor Joshua Mostow will be Associate head of the Department. here are a few words from professor oberoi: “it is a great honour to be asked to serve as the Acting head of the Department during 2012-13. During the year i would like to continue building on the initiatives launched by professor King, particularly in the areas of excellence in teaching, development, and student engagement. While the Department has always been central to the mission of the University, it is in the years ahead going to become even more central as UBC increasingly seeks to broaden its engagement with the Asia-pacific region. “ We also say goodbye to post-doctoral fellow Marko geslani who has received a prestigious Two-Year Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of religious Studies at occidental College in los Angeles, California. he had a productive year of publishing and presenting, including a recent lecture at Yale University on “enshrining early indian rituals,” for the Sensory Cultures of religion research group. Celebration of Punjabi: April 3, 2012 sanskrit Performance: April 18, 2012 Spring 2012  7 Professors Emeriti Past Events peter hArneTTY prize in Asian Studies – in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Department of Asian Studies, an annual prize of $1,000 has been endowed by UBC alumnus and professor emeritus, Dr. Peter Harnetty, to recognize the student graduating with the highest marks in a major in Asian Studies. Dr. harnetty was one of the original faculty members of the Department of Asian Studies when it was established in 1961. The recommendation is made by the Department of Asian Studies. fourth-year student Mike Johnston is the first recipient of the award. he was honoured at the 50th Anniversary gala last December. here are some of his remarks: “i was shocked and overjoyed to be the very first recipient of the peter harnetty Scholarship in Asian Studies! i moved to Vancouver specifically to pursue Asian Studies at UBC, and my experience thus far has exceeded all expectations, so to be recognised by the stellar faculty of such a prestigious Department has been truly humbling. it feels surreal to be rewarded for simply taking great enjoyment in my Asian Studies courses, for thriving under such motivating professors and instructors, and for being helped along by the always cheerful staff working in and around the Department. i intend to set this prize aside as an “Asia fund.” The Department of Asian Studies has versed me well in Asian culture, language, history and geography, and i am determined to live and explore what i have learned by traveling to (and hopefully working in) Asia once i have graduated.” Vasantasena (Alanna Coady) and Parabhrtika (Chuu Huey Ng) prepare to sing “Even the Minds of Yogis are Distracted,” one of four songs composed for the year-end Sanskrit play. This song tells of the powerful influence the God of Love spreads about him as he stands in a garden with his arrows made of Ashoka blossoms. The melody for the song was drawn from Raga Alam Giri, a creation of the late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Also visible are dhrupad singer, David Tsabar, who composed two dhrupad songs for the show, guest artist, sitarist Tim White from Berkeley, California, and Dr. Tom Hunter, who composed two songs for the show. norouz Celebrations and Events: Gala Photos: Don Erhardt for information on Start an evolution, please see: http://startanevolution.ubc.ca/ for information on Alumni Weekend, please see: www.alumni.ubc.ca 8 AsiAn EdgE: A newSletter for Alumni And friendS of uBC ASiAn StudieS Thank You! The Department of Asian Studies works closely with colleagues in the Development and Alumni engagement office in the faculty of Arts. Together we would like to thank the alumni and friends who support our programs and our students. With your help, we continue to enrich the university experiences of our students and prepare them to be innovative leaders, global citizens and agents for positive change. Support the UBC Asian Studies Department please make cheques payable to “The University of British Columbia” with a note “Asian Studies Annual fund” and mail to: UBC Annual giving, 500 – 5950 University Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Thank you to all our donors and supporters who have helped make the inaugural year of persian language instruction at UBC a reality. We are so thankful for your support and look forward to continued success with our persian language and iranian Studies initiative. A special thank you to our major donors: Dr. Behrooz Behbudi Canadian iranian foundation Mr. Mohammed esfahani Mr. and Mrs. rahmat and Tara forouzandeh Dr. Abbas M. Milani Dr. and Mrs. Arjang and goli nowtash and family Anonymous