2010 Center for East Asian Studies

Center2010 for East Asian Studies University of Kansas | 2010 Annual Report Letter from the Director Connections between migration and their courses. religion are the subject of some of our 2010 In keeping with our efforts to has been other events. Jonathan Lipman of Mount expand our capacity in regions where another great Holyoke College gave a wonderful talk our least commonly taught languages year for on Islam in China that examined, among (Uyghur, Tibetan, and Mongolian) are CEAS. Most other things, historical connections spoken, CEAS has been working with importantly, between Chinese Muslims in Yunnan Environmental Studies, CGIS, and we competed Province and Central Asia, Egypt, faculty in some other units to get the successfully and other parts of the Middle East. In KU-Mongolia Initiative off the ground. in a very February, Xu Xin, author of The Jews of Not a Mongolian Studies program in a competitive Kaifeng, will speak on Judaism in China. conventional sense, this initiative aims pool for We anticipate that he will talk on both the to create new linkages with Mongolian another Title VI grant that will help history of Chinese Jews and Judaism in institutions, identify and work with faculty fund our activities through the 2013–14 contemporary China. We will continue to in a variety of science and social science academic year. Notice of the award came have some funding to bring in speakers disciplines who have an interest in doing a bit later this year, so we had to embark to talk about Islam in East Asia (not research in Mongolia, and help them to on planning for the grant even before we necessarily related to migration) for the develop a set of research projects that will knew we had the funding to carry out our remaining years of the grant, and I would enhance our knowledge and understanding projects. It was a great relief to learn that welcome your suggestions for possible of Mongolia. We also hope that this we would be able to move forward with speakers. initiative will get more material about nearly everything we had proposed. For In addition to our themed Mongolia into social science and science this grant cycle, the four KU area studies programming, Title VI funding allows classrooms at KU, and encourage both centers plus CGIS agreed to collaborate us to do a number of other things. For graduate and undergraduate students to on a set of yearly themes, although you example, the grant is seeding a position consider taking Mongolian. will see from our list of past and planned in Northeast Asian Political Science, events that CEAS is also doing plenty of In addition to our Title VI NRC grant, for which we are currently bringing in a programming on other topics and themes. we received a significant increase in series of three candidates. By the time you FLAS funding and are now able to give This year’s collaborative theme is receive this report, the search may have out more FLAS awards to both graduate migration, and we have been drawing come to fruition with the addition of a and undergraduate students during this upon the considerable expertise of KU Political Scientist with expertise on Korea, grant cycle. As of this past summer, faculty and graduate students to put on a Japan, or both. We also have funding we have been making FLAS awards very nice set of Tea & Talks on various to support the creation of a regional to undergraduates studying East Asian dimensions of this subject. We are working network of East Asian language instructors languages at the second-year level and on several activities for the spring that will who will encourage more interaction above. The availability of these new examine linkages between migration and among area language instructors and the undergraduate FLAS awards is a very the arts, including a collaboration with improvement of articulation of language exciting development in the program, the Lawrence Arts Center on Japanese instruction between high schools, junior and we at CEAS hope that faculty will printmaking and American art in February, colleges, and KU. And we will be offering encourage promising students to apply a collaborative teacher workshop on the funding to help support a couple of faculty so that they can take advantage of this arts and migration with the other centers members with research travel grants to opportunity. in April, and a collaborative film series at Xinjiang, Tibet, and/or Mongolia, so they Liberty Hall. may work material on those regions into continued on next page Director’s letter (con’t) keep CEAS running and to further the Center’s mission. The spring and summer CEAS also continues to run of 2010 were hectic and stressful for all Freeman-funded programs such as the of the staff at CEAS, but they were all CEAS Staff Kansas Asia Scholars Program, which wonderfully helpful, efficient, and full of sends 15 students from the School good ideas throughout the grant writing Director Megan Greene of Education to China each summer, (and waiting) whirlwind, and managed and the Undergraduate Asian Studies to keep CEAS and its activities running Accountant and Office Manager Initiative, which brings three Chinese beautifully through it all. I also want to Jun Fu professionals—a journalist, a visual artist, thank our core and affiliated faculty for and a theater director—to KU each year. their generosity in giving time and ideas to CEAS K–12 Outreach Coordinator Through the ongoing KCTA, CEAS CEAS. Without them we could not do all Randi Hacker continues to teach teachers throughout that we do. the Midwest about East Asian history and CEAS Program Coordinator We look forward to seeing you at the culture. Leslie vonHolten lunar new year party on February 4. Finally, I would like to extend my With best wishes for 2011, Associate Program Staff thanks to the staff of CEAS, Jun, Randi, Leslie, and Nancy, for all that they do to Megan Greene Executive Director, The Confucius Institute at the University of Kansas Lipman Delivers 2010 Islam in East Asia Lecture Sheree Welch Willis Associate Director for Education, KU Confucius Institute; Associate Director, KCTA Nancy Hope Center for East Asian Studies The University of Kansas 1440 Jayhawk Blvd. #201 Lawrence, KS 66045 Tel: (785)864-3849 Fax: (785)864-5034 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.ceas.ku.edu CEAS publishes electronic and printed newsletters that provide up- to-date information on CEAS events and news. To sign up, please contact Prof. Jonathan Lipman (center) with Linguistics graduate student Leslie vonHolten at [email protected], Abduwali Ayup (left) and Engineering undergraduate student and (785) 864-1457. CEAS FLAS scholar Margaret Neff (right). he Center’s new Title VI grant provides for an annual speaker to address Tissues related to Islam in East Asia. Thanks to the efforts of Arienne Dwyer (Anthropology), in December CEAS hosted Jonathan Lipman, CEAS Mission Statement professor of History at Mt. Holyoke University. Lipman spoke to a diverse group of students, faculty, and community members about the history of CEAS produces specialists in East Asian Muslims in China’s Yunnan Province. He spoke particularly about the case languages and cultures and provides of Yusuf Ma Zhu, a Chinese Muslim scholar and gentryman of the 17th expertise on East Asia to the state, region, century who identified as both a Confucian and a Muslim. and nation. On campus, CEAS supports teaching, curriculum development, faculty and student research, the library, and media resources. CEAS outreach ALUMNI: We want to hear from you! programs enrich the educational experience of our students, provide training and educational materials for We are always looking for better mechanisms to track our alumni, and K-12 teachers and educators at other we appreciate when we hear about your professional activities. post-secondary institutions, and make the university’s East Asian resources, including faculty expertise, available to Please remember, you may create and update entries on our Alumni the community, business, government, webpage by emailing Leslie vonHolten, [email protected] and the media. Chancellor Travels to South Korea n early November, new distinctive things about the particular university that you go to IKU Chancellor Bernadette that would make it an enriching experience. Gray-Little traveled to How do KU faculty benefit from these exchanges? South Korea to meet with representatives of three There are benefits for faculty who are studying Korean culture, universities that have art, history, military history—obviously current military cooperative agreements conditions—urban design, urban development, to name a few. with KU: Korea University With urban design and development—there are 12 million people of Technology and in Seoul, and the government is building new cities to ease Education (KUT), Kookmin overcrowding. It’s a different level of planning than what we are University, and Ewha used to seeing here. It would be a good experience for a faculty University. These schools member or a student to see. have signed partnerships How do you see the future of KU relationships in Korea? to exchange students and There are other universities that would like to have exchange faculty, and KUT has a joint agreements with KU. The question for us is, how many really degree program in engineering with KU. Dr. Gray-Little shared make sense, and how many can we cultivate, and how many her thoughts about her first visit to the peninsula. can we really have a meaningful relationship with? There will How does KU benefit from exchange agreements with certainly be other opportunities for us. We were even invited to universities in South Korea? build a research building in one of the new cities! [laughs] There For students who want to study in Korea, it simplifies the process will be a city that will have a lot of the government offices, their to make a connection at another university.

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