MAI Bulletin NOVEMBER 2013 - Arts - Monash University

Monash Asia Institute Bulletin November 2013

Contents ✪ From the MAI Director’s Desk

✪ MAI Seminar/Conference  International workshop: Multiculturalism and Asia  Japanese Studies Centre seminar (JSC Seminar) ◆ Japanese Studies, Monash and the theatre of research

 Asian Cultural and Media Studies Research Cluster (ACMS) ◆ Baseball in East Asia: Double Binding of East Asian

Consciousness  Special Lecture by Professor Bruce Jacobs (organized by School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics) ◆ Taiwan is not China: Aborigines, Colonial Rulers and

Democratization in the History of the Beautiful Island ✪ Publications  Kartini: The Complete Writings, 1898-1904 ✪ Others  Lectures by Emeritus Professor Anthony Seeger (UCLA)  Bridges Collective concert “Under an Eastern Sky”

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From the MAI Director’s Desk

We are having many stimulating events in November. MAI will organize an international workshop, Multiculturalism and Asia (21-22 Nov). Many prominent academics and young researchers will get together to discuss multicultural questions in the Asian contexts. There are also special lectures by two internationally renowned professors. On 29 Nov, Prof. Bruce Jacobs will give a talk on the relationship of Taiwan and China. The lecture is organized by the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics as a special event for Prof. Jacob’s official retirement from Monash University and reception will follow the lecture in praise of his great academic achievement. On 14 Nov, the world's top music archivist, Emeritus Professor Anthony Seegar of UCLA will give two talks on music archives and launch a new exhibition in the Music Archive of Monash University (MAMU). There will also be seminars on Japanese theatre and baseball in East Asia. Hope you will enjoy those inspiring events!

Prof. Koichi Iwabuchi If you have news on any events or other announcements that you would like us to include, please forward this to [email protected].

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MAI SEMINAR/FORUM

MAI International Workshop: Multiculturalism and Asia Organized by Monash Asia Institute in conjunction with Sociology, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd November 2013 Room HB.32, Building H, Basement, Monash University Caulfield Campus Registration required. RSVP (by 15 Nov) to: [email protected] Session themes include: *Rethinking multicultural questions from East Asia *Anti-Multiculturalism and Racism *Everyday Multiculturalism and Everyday Racism *Multiculturalism and the Asian century Australia *Media culture and multicultural subjects *Transnational practices/mobility and multiculturalism *Performance, art and multicultural imaginings *Roundtable discussion with Prof. Ien Ang & Prof. Kim Hyun Mee For the full program, please visit http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/mai/multiculturalism-andasia-program/ 2 of 6

Japanese Studies Centre “Japanese Studies, Monash and the theatre of research” Speaker: Dr. Peter Eckersall Wednesday 6th November 2013, 12.00–1.00pm, Japanese Auditorium, Building 54, Monash University Clayton Campus

Studies

Centre

On the occasion of taking up the Professorship in Asian Theatre at City University of New York, I have been given the pleasurable task of speaking about my time studying in the Japanese program at Monash. With only a drama degree and experience working in experimental theatre I first arrived to study a newly conceived MA in Asian Studies in 1989 when Professor Neustupny was still in the chair. I spent the next ten years completing my MA and PhD and teaching some of the studies units in the program while also occasionally teaching Kyôgen in the theatre and drama program. Since then I have taught theatre studies with a focus on the Japanese arts at the University of Melbourne and have continued to research on Japanese theatre and develop collaboration projects between theatre companies and artists in Australia and Japan. Monash is still the place to study Japanese. It is the capacity in the program to take in all manner of projects and interests that defines its significant contribution. The approach to teach and research the field of culture in the broad sense that was first developed by Professor Neustupny and expanded through the enthusiasm of generations of scholars has been its enduring legacy. In this talk, I will risk an indulgence to reflect on my time at Monash and on some more recent projects in the arts to broadly speak about Japanese Studies, Monash and the theatre of research. Peter Eckersall teaches theatre studies at the University of Melbourne. He has an MA in Asian Studies (Monash 1992) and a PhD in Japanese Studies (Monash 1999). From 2014 he takes up a Professorship in Asian Theatre at the Graduate Centre City University of New York. Recent publications include Theatre and Performance in the Asia-Pacific: Regional Modernities in the Global Era (co-authored with Denise Varney, Barbara Hatley and Chris Hudson, Palgrave 2013) and Performativity and Event in 1960s Japan: City, Body, Memory (Palgrave 2013). He is a visiting fellow in the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures, Berlin. He is the cofounder of Dramaturgies and the resident dramaturg for the performance group Not Yet It’s Difficult.

Asian Cultural and Media Studies Research Cluster “Baseball in East Asia: Double Binding of East Asian Consciousness” Speaker: Dr Younghan Cho (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea) Tuesday 19th November 2013, 3.00–5.00pm, MAI Seminar Room H5.95, Building H, Monash University Caulfield Campus

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This study explores the historic implications of baseball within the larger processes of constructing modernity in colonial East Asia by examining the game’s regional trajectory, with a focus on its introduction and proliferation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although baseball was initially introduced to the region as a symbol of American modernity, it was spread and popularized by Imperial Japan. By interrogating the ways that baseball was received and appropriated in East Asia, this study demonstrates that its trajectory reflects not only colonization by both the U.S. and Japan but resistance that amounted to a double decolonization against both of these entities. This trajectory indicates a strong stream of East Asian consciousness that was constituted as a condition of coloniality/modernity and still persists in contemporary East Asian societies. The term “double binding” is heuristically used to illustrate this regional consciousness, in which the U.S. and Japan functioned as a pair of modernizing/imperial forces and as the objects of decolonization. Dr. Younghan Cho is an associate professor in the Graduate School of International and Area Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. degree in Communication Studies from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore. Dr. Cho research interests include media and cultural studies, global sports and nationalism, and East Asian pop culture and modernity, and cultural economy in Korean and Asian contexts. His papers have appeared in numerous journals, including Sociology of Sport Journal, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Media, Culture & Society, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, and Cultural Studies. Dr. Cho has co-edited volumes “Colonial Modernity and Beyond: East Asian Contexts” (a special issue in Cultural Studies), “American Pop culture in Asia” (a special issue in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies), and “Glocalization of Sports in Asia” (a special issue in Sociology of Sport Journal). Enquiries to: Dr Olivia Khoo ([email protected]).

([email protected])

or

Dr

Daniel

Black

Special Lecture by Professor Bruce Jacobs “Taiwan is not China: Aborigines, Colonial Rulers and Democratization in the History of the Beautiful Island” Friday 29th November 2013, 12.00pm − 1.00pm Organized by School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics Japanese Studies Centre Auditorium, Building 54, Monash University Clayton Campus The Chinese and the former authoritarian regime of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Chingkuo asserted that Taiwan was a part of China. Thus, for example, the 1993 Chinese White Paper on Taiwan said, “Taiwan has belonged to China since ancient times”. In fact, such statements have no historical basis. No permanent Han Chinese communities lived in Taiwan until after the arrival of Dutch colonialism in 1624. Rather, since the arrival of the Dutch, Taiwan has undergone rule by a succession of six colonial regimes: Dutch ( 16241662), Spanish (1626-1642, in northern Taiwan simultaneously with Dutch), the Zheng 4 of 6

Chenggong family (1662-1683), the Manchus (1683-1895), the Japanese (1895-1945) and the Chinese Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo (19451988). (A colonial regime is rule by outsiders for the benefit of the outsiders.) Only with democratization (1988-) have Taiwanese begun to rule themselves. Since democratisation, Taiwan identity and a separate Taiwan have come to the fore on the island. Reception will follow the special lecture. Please RSVP to Jocelyne Mohamudally ([email protected]) by 25 November.

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Publication

Kartini: The Complete Writings, 1898-1904 Edited and translated by Dr. Joost Coté (Senior Research Fellow, History School of Philosophy, History and International Studies, Faculty of Arts, Monash University) In Indonesia, the legacy of Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879–1904) is celebrated on Kartini Day, 21 April, every year. Around the world Kartini is recognised as a major figure in the history of the advancement of women, their education and emancipation. The product of several decades’ study and based on archival sources, Kartini is extensively annotated and provided with an authoritative historical introduction by one of the world’s leading Kartini authorities. The author Joost Coté talked to Waleed Ali about Kartini's work - ABC Radio - interview 9 Oct.-http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/historyonics3a-ra-kartini/5012398 Joost was a guest at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival - www.ubudwritersfestival.com/writers/joost-cote/ Kartini is published by Monash University Publishing: http://www.publishing.monash.edu/books/kartini-9781922235107.html

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Others

◆Two lectures by Emeritus Professor Anthony Seegar (UCLA) “The Reel Living Dead: Tales from the Archival Vaults” Thursday 14th November 2013, 10.30am–12.00pm, 5th Floor, Building 11, South Wing, Monash University Clayton Campus Audiovisual archives may seem like dark dusty places where old and obsolete stuff--like reels of audio tape--is put to moulder away. But materials stored for decades in archival vaults have brought the wisdom and art of dead generations to inspire and improve the lives of people around the world. They haven’t fed on brains, but rather fed brains. These tales about ways people have used old archival materials to improve their lives, their art, and their futures come from five different countries, including Indonesia. 5 of 6

At the end of the seminar, Professor Seeger will launch a new exhibition, “Collections that Captivate” in the Music Archive of Monash University (MAMU) “Archiving for the Future: Heritage Seeds and Heritage Culture for an Uncertain Future” Thursday 14th November 2013, 7.00–9.00pm, Music Auditorium, Building 68, Monash University Clayton Campus Chair: Professor David Griggs, Director, Monash Sustainability Institute What do we need for the desert islands we may live on in the future? Diverse crops, diverse histories, and an ethic of sharing and understanding in Asia, the Americas and beyond. This talk argues that archives and seed banks are not as much about storing the past as creating important resources for our uncertain future, and proposes an archival approach to eco-musicology.

◆ Bridges Collective Concert “Under An Eastern Sky” 10th November, 3pm-, Gryphon Gallery, 1888 Building, University of Melbourne Under An Eastern Sky is an sonic painting of scenes from the beautiful vast land of China. From majestic rivers to tranquil lakes, grand military generals to quiet domestic fishermen, this concert seeks to portray snapshots from a land of great contradictions. Featuring multiple award-winning Lanzhou-born Mindy Meng Wang on the guzheng, Artistic Director Brenna Wee on piano and Taryn Richards on the flute, the trio will present arrangements of traditional Chinese folk songs from North-Western, Middle-Eastern, South and SouthEastern China. They will also perform the music of internationally-acclaimed composer Julian Yu, one of the first composers to have introduced Western avant-garde compositional techniques to China in the early 1980s. Much of Yu’s music has a distinctive contemporary sound. This concert features a more recent trend of his, where he incorporates the ancient Chinese practice of ornamenting a melody (similar to jazz improvisation) in his compositional approach and infuses popular Western art music with Chinese idioms. See more details at: www.bridgescollective.com

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