Recent News

Prof. Howard Chiang Publishes New Book

Prof. Howard Chiang, the Lai Ho & Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies, has a new book out—Sinophone Studies across Disciplines: A Reader, edited with Shu-mei Shih, from Columbia University Press. Congratulations!

Description

Sinophone studies—the study of Sinitic-language cultures and communities around the world—has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the past decade. Today, it spans not only literary studies and cinema studies but also history, anthropology, musicology, linguistics, art history, and dance. More and more, it is in conversation with fields such as postcolonial studies, settler-colonial studies, migration studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, and area studies.

This reader presents the latest and most cutting-edge work in Sinophone studies, bringing together both senior and emerging scholars to highlight the interdisciplinary reach and significance of this vital field. It argues that Sinophone studies has developed a distinctive conceptualization of power at the convergence of different intellectual traditions, offering new approaches to questions of plurality, hierarchy, oppression, and resistance. In so doing, this book shows, Sinophone studies has provided valuable conceptual tools for the study of minoritized and racialized communities in diverse global settings. Essays also consider how the rise of China has affected Sinophone communities and the idea of Chineseness around the world, among other timely topics. Showcasing cross-fertilization and diversification that traverse and transcend conventional scholarly boundaries, Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines gives readers an unparalleled survey of the past, present, and future of this inherently interdisciplinary field.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines, by Howard Chiang and Shu-mei Shih
Part I: Interdisciplinary Conjunctions
1. The Question of Chinese Empire, by Shu-mei Shih
2. Stonewall Aside: When Queer Theory Meets Sinophone Studies, by Howard Chiang
3. Written Out: Dance and the Sinophone, by Emily Wilcox
4. Cantonese Opera and Sino-Soundscape in North America, by Nancy Yunhwa Rao
5. Ann Hui, Hainan, and the Sino-Vietnamese War: A Sinophone Inter-Asian Recasting of Boat People’s Transpacific Refugee Critique, by Brian Bernards
6. Sinophone Affects: Kyle Dargan’s Anagnorisis and the Poetics of Infrastructure in Chan Tze Woon’s Yellowing, by Lily Wong
Part II: Theories, Methodologies, Controversies
7. Geocritical Sinophone and Transgressive Community, by Yinde Zhang
8. Sinophone Postloyalism, by David Der-wei Wang
9. Parasite: Conceptualizing a Sinophone Approach and Ethics, by E. K. Tan
10. Queer Hong Kong as a Sinophone Method, by Alvin K. Wong
11. Enjoy Your Sinophone!, by Chien-heng Wu
12. The Lure of Diaspora and Sinophone Malaysian Literature in Taiwan, by Wai-Siam Hee
13. Conditions of Theory in Taiwan: Americanism and Settler Colonialism, by Shu-mei Shih
Part III: Places of Differentiation
14. Chinese Settler Colonialism: Empire and Life in the Tibetan Borderlands, by Carole McGranahan
15. Beyond Musical, Political, and Linguistic Boundaries: The Influence of the Hong Kong Rock Band Beyond in the PRC in the 1990s and Its Legacy, by Nathanel Amar
16. Translanguaging as a Transcultural Marker in the Italian Sinophone Play Tong Men-g, by Valentina Pedone
17. From Multilingualism to Mandarin: Chinese Singaporeans as a Sinophone Community, 1945–1990, by Jason Lim
18. Adaptation and Identity Building Among the Ethnic Chinese Communities in Vietnam: A View from Ritual Transformation in Popular Religion, by Tho Ngoc Nguyen
19. The Misconstrued Reader: Contemporary Sinophone Literature in Thailand, by Rebecca Ehrenwirth
Contributors
Index

Yoko Yamauchi Elected President of the Board of the Teachers of Japanese in Southern California

Congratulations to Yoko Yamauchi, UC Santa Barbara’s Japanese Language Program Coordinator, who has been elected President of the Board of the Teachers of Japanese in Southern California (TJSC)! On June 1, Yamauchi (front row, 4th from left) and Sabine Frühstück attended the TJSC Workshop and Reception hosted by Kenko Sone, Consul General of Japan, his wife Mami, and Yasuko Uchida, Director of Japan Foundation, Los Angeles (front row, 5th, 6th and 7th) to discuss current challenges to a robust future of teaching Japanese in California and nationwide.

Prof Ikeuchi to Serve for the Distinguished Speakers Bureau in The Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies

Professor Suma Ikeuchi has been selected to serve as one of the distinguished speakers for The Northeast Asia Council of Association for Asian Studies for the next three years. Colleges in North America, especially those without well-established programs on East Asia, can invite a distinguished scholar to give a public lecture on their campus in-person or virtually, partially funded by this initiative. More information can be found here.

Jin Young Lim publishes new book The Dao of Flow

Announcement:

New Book Announcement! The Dao of Flow: A Journey to Discover the Ancient Wisdom of Water by Jin Young Lim, PhD student at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, is now published by Penguin Books! For more information about the book or to pre-order, check out Amazon!

About the Book:

Jin Young Lim was studying ancient philosophy when he delved into a philosophical investigation of his life to date – from his humanitarian work in Fukushima to studying in Tokyo, becoming a yoga teacher and Taijiquan instructor, and co-founding a non-profit in the Himalayas before moving to Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar. Along the way, Jin Young met scholars, teachers, artists, philosophers, farmers, social workers, and spiritual leaders. In this book, he weaves classical texts into his experiences with Taijiquan, Daoism and Zen, tea, agriculture, conservation, art, history, geography, politics, and social economics. He captures his physical, intellectual, and spiritual journey in a series of incisive reflections, vignettes, and anecdotes that make it accessible in simple terms. Through these stories, Jin Young constructs a philosophical framework of Daoist principles that he calls ‘The Dao of Flow’ ― a way of continuous transformation based on embodying, flowing, and regulating water. These same three principles recurred as patterns in the lives of his role models or ‘walking flowers’ – those who ‘walk the flow’ and do so beautifully and naturally like flowers. This book is an invitation to discover the wisdom of water and provides readers with a novel spiritual map to deeper harmony with oneself and the world.

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Natalya Rodriguez Receives Fulbright U.S. Student Award for 2024-2025

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We are pleased to announce that Natalya Rodriguez, a doctoral student in EALCS, has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to conduct her dissertation research, “Threatened Threads: Weaving Values in Heritage Textile Production in Okinawa, Japan,” while affiliating with the University of the Ryukyus for the 2024-2025 academic year. Congratulations, Natalya!

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