Fall 2013 Newsletter
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES & CULTURAL STUDIES Departmental Newsletter Words from the Chair Volume 6 The East Asian region is more and Fall 2013 more relevant in international Chair’s Letter 1 society and culture, and Mission Statement 2 developments there affect in Sabine Frühstück: 2 significant ways also our lives in The Uses of Popular Culture for Sex and Violence the US. Economic developments, political events, international Chinese Corner 3 conflicts and cooperation, and Japanese Corner 5 cultural activities receive wide Center for Taiwan Studies (CTS) 6 coverage in the international News and Events, 2012-13 Fabio Rambelli - Chair media. The Department of East Recent Activities and Publications 8 Asian Languages and Cultural – EALCS Faculty Recent Activities and Publications 16 Studies serves as an important hub for research, education, – Lecturers Recent Activities and Publications 16 and cultural awareness on East Asian matters at the University – Graduate Students of California, Santa Barbara and in the larger Santa Barbara Recent Activities and Publications 16 – Affiliates community. Our mission is to make the news more intelligible by providing linguistic, cultural, and historical contexts to Wada Atsuhiko: 18 How Books Reach Readers current developments, but also to challenge mainstream media coverage by offering our students deeper knowledge Graduate Student Profile: ChunHui Chang 19 and alternative visions of East Asian cultures in the present Corey Byrnes Interview 21 and in the past. This year, we welcome a new faculty member, Nathaniel Smith Farewell 20 professor Corey Byrnes, who will join us in fall 2013 to Shinto Chair & Department Conferences 22 teach courses related to classical Chinese literature and Japan Foundation Summer Institute 2013 24 Chinese cultural history. Another new faculty at UCSB, Graduate Updates closely related to our field, is Naoki Yamamoto (Department David N. C. Hull 25 of Film and Media Studies), an expert on Japanese film. Eileen M. Otis 27 Research Resources 28 ISCUSSION PAPER: EALCS D The Uses of Popular ISSON Culture for Sex and Violence M TATEMENT S The Department of East In this discussion paper I would like to briefly Asian Languages and Cultural describe my experience of incorporating pop- ular culture in the broadest terms in two of Studies is committed to providing my undergraduate courses, “Representations students with the opportunity to of Sexuality in Modern Japan” and “Violence understand the many facets of and the State in Japan.” In each course, I have East Asian culture, including (but integrated one or more sessions that take up not limited to) languages, history, the popular cultural treatment of the core top- society, politics, economics, ics, sexuality in one case, violence in the other. SABINE FRÜHSTÜCK religiosities, media and art. In a Materials in these sessions range widely from erotic woodblock prints of the nineteenth world of increasing international entury to magazine ads for condoms in the twenty-first, and from 1930s racist cooperation and globalization, propaganda imagery to 2010s cartoons designed to increase the appreciation students will be prepared to face of the Self-Defense Forces, Japan’s currentday military. I have found that the a society in which Asia is now a analysis of popular cultural materials can go a long way toward accomplish- significant factor in the foreign ing a core goal of university-level teaching that, in my mind, has been best relations of the United States, and articulated by Michel Foucault. In an interview Foucault said that, “The main the rest of the world. interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” He wanted his books to be understood as a kind of toolbox for user-readers to “rummage through to find a tool they can use however they UR wish in their own area” (Gauntlett 2002). Accordingly, my courses are de- O TAFF signed to provide blocks of knowledge about a given subject matter, but I also S aim to provide students with questions and perspectives that challenge their Director Bob Ortega own views, and with tools to better think through the social and political im- (805) 893-2993 plications of their perspectives and attitudes. Financial Services Shubra Agrawal Manager (805) 893-4613 Sex Along these lines, I aim at using popular cultural materials to unsettle students’ Student Services Ra Thea sensibilities and thus allow me to more effectively convey, for instance, the Manager (805) 893-3316 specific cultural and historical conditions of sexuality in Japan while denatu- Financial Assistant Jesus Barragan ralizing their own beliefs and attitudes. I have always liked screening parts of (805) 893-5463 Ôshima Nagisa’s 1976 film Ai no korîda (In the Realm of the Senses) in my Grad. Student Ruby Gutierrez upper-division, undergraduate course of 160-plus students on “Representa- Advisor (805) 893-2744 tions of Sexuality in Modern Japan.” The course fulfills a number of require- Undergrad. Deborah McCleister ments and is thus populated by students pursuing a broad range of majors, Student Advisor (805) 893-4381 from Japanese Studies to Chemistry, Art History, Mathematics, and other Webmaster AJ Hinojosa fields. Typically, only a small number of students have taken courses on Japan (805) 893-2731 or have studied the Japanese language. Most generally, the course traces the history of various sex/gender themes and issues from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, including sexuality and the nation state; sexuality and the arts; gender ambivalence; homosexuality, LGBT activism and queer queer identities; traditional, new and international women; family planning 2 Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies from infanticide to the pill; sexual slavery; the politics of prostitution; and sex HINESE and visual culture. C ORNER For years, the film had seemed like a perfectly provocative match for two very different academic takes on the case of Abe Sada featured in the film, C By Shu-Chuan (Bella) Chen namely William Johnston’s book, Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, The Chinese Language Program provided and Morality in Modern Japan (2004), and Christine L. Marran’s treatment of various extra-curricular activities in the Sada and other transgressive female figures in Poison Woman: Figuring Female academic year 2012-2013. To improve Transgression in Modern Japan (2007). Abe Sada’s story is set in the 1930s. She language learning, we organized a pursues an intense sexual relationship with the (married) owner of an inn. Chinese table for 1st year Chinese learners After killing him as the result of one of their sexual plays, she cuts off his penis to have conversations with native Chinese and testicles, and leaves the scene. Caught by police days after the incident, speakers in the spring session. On Chinese she becomes a celebrity whose story is widely covered by the print media of movie nights, we played Chinese versions the time, frequently adapted as a literary subject, and studied and examined of the well-known Chinese animated by a number of new kinds of experts from various fields of medicine and law. movies Mulan and Kong-Fu Panda I for our ABINE RÜHSTÜCK S F In previous years, students had laughed at scenes that appeared humorous students. For cultural activities, highlights to me as well. included a Chinese New Year’s celebration For instance, when the male protagonist puts a hard-boiled egg into held at a local Chinese restaurant in the vagina of Sada’s character, she squats to push it out again while insisting February. Students not only had delicious that she is not a hen. Both lead characters deliver the conversation in good Chinese food, but also conducted humor. Both laugh at this situation and similarly playful, erotically charged different performances, including singing activities throughout the film. In general, for a film that used to be censored Chinese songs, and performing skits, in Japan and internationally for its explicit, unsimulated sex scenes, there is street dancing, tongue twisters, and a whole lot of witty talk, teasing and laughter. raffles. Then, in order to expand the In the dark of the lecture hall, students also occasionally shrieked students’ interests in Chinese culture, we or, rather lightheartedly, it seemed to me, articulated their disapproval of embarked on Mahjong workshops and certain scenes. An audible murmur went through the room when, for in- practiced throughout the academic year; stance, Abe Sada goes to bed for monetary compensation with an elderly the students were coached by native man whom she refers to as “teacher.” Some scenes prompted the occasional Chinese speakers at UCSB. The students “eew” from the student audience but none as noisily as the bloody end. not only learned new Chinese characters More importantly, however, the screening of the film in class prompted extensive discussions about sexuality in modern Japan; the pro- duction of scientific knowledge; feminism, agency, gendered standards of morality; erotic art versus pornography; among a number of issues. Despite its availability on home video since the 1990s, I suppose that “In the Realm of the Senses” has not been fully absorbed into popular culture. My impres- sion is, however, that at least in the classroom setting, its very radicalism helps students approach more current mainstream popular culture and its and symbols, but also learned the rules treatment of sexual themes with fresh eyes. It also makes the very power- and acquired new skills. In addition, we ful point that sexual mores aren’t on a continuous path towards liberation offered a dumplings workshop in the fall and freedom. What was shocking in the eyes of many audiences during the session and a Chinese onion pancake 1970s has remained so in those of many undergraduates who populate my making and eating party in the spring courses today.