« Previous |
1 - 20 of 65
|
Next »
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. Reading The Backstreets in Ürümchi: Translation as Ethnographic Method and Practice of Refusal
- Author:
- Darren Byler and Andrew J. Nathan
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- While conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Northwest China in 2014, anthropologist Darren Byler found that a Uyghur language novel, The Backstreets, helped Uyghurs to narrate their own stories. By shifting the frame of the narrative of colonial violence away from the authority of the state toward the work it takes for the colonized to live, this difficult, absurdist fable gave young Uyghurs a way to articulate experiences of dehumanization and rage. With its English-language translation and publication, it also gave the novelist, Perhat Tursun, a way of refusing his own silencing through censorship and, ultimately, imprisonment. The Backstreets in Ürümchi is a novel by Perhat Tursun, a leading Uyghur writer, poet, and social critic from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Perhat Tursun has published many short stories and poems as well as three novels, including the controversial The Art of Suicide (1999), decried as anti-Islamic. In 2018, he was detained by the Chinese authorities and was reportedly given a sixteen-year prison sentence. Byler was a cotranslator with ‘Anonymous,’ who disappeared in 2017, and is presumed to be in the reeducation camp system in northwest China. This event would be meaningful to students and faculty in many different areas of the university including the above proposed cosponsors, and students of China and Inner Asia.
- Topic:
- Culture, Minorities, Ethnography, Literature, Language, and Uyghurs
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Xinjiang
3. A Monumental Relationship: North Korea and Namibia
- Author:
- Tycho van der Hoog
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Visitors to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, will quickly learn a remarkable fact that is well-known among the local population—much of the capital’s architectural landscape is designed and constructed by North Korea. In recent years, North Korean nationals have built the official residence of the president of Namibia, the State House; the national cemetery for the fallen heroes of the liberation struggle, the National Heroes’ Acre; the national history museum, the Independence Memorial Museum; the Ministry of Defense headquarters and other buildings. The Namibian government thus uses North Korean aesthetics for some of the most important aspects of its power: the president, the history, and the army. This analysis explores the relationship between Namibia and North Korea by providing historical and political context to the aforementioned buildings. Today, Namibia often has the reputation of a quaint and sometimes sleepy destination, tucked away in the southwestern corner of the African continent. Yet, Namibia was at the center of geopolitical tensions for most of the twentieth century. The complicated decolonization process of Namibia, or “the Namibian question,” as it became known in the corridors of the United Nations (UN), had its roots in the aftermath of three decades of German occupation between 1884 and 1915. German South West Africa, the area that became modern Namibia, was transferred to South Africa as a League of Nations mandate territory and renamed “South West Africa.” South Africa viewed the territory as an unofficial fifth province and introduced brutal apartheid legislation. Internal opposition against the South African regime resulted in the formation of nationalist organizations, of which the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) became the most prominent.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Politics, Arts, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Asia, North Korea, and Namibia
4. Korean Soft Power Goals and US-Korea Relations
- Author:
- Jenna Gibson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- Jenna Gibson, a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago, explains why "listing off credibly popular cultural products coming out of South Korea and calling it soft power rings hollow" and how declarations of this type obscure the concept of soft power.
- Topic:
- Bilateral Relations, Culture, and Soft Power
- Political Geography:
- Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America
5. Photo Poetics: Chinese Lyricism and Modern Media Culture
- Author:
- Shengqing Wu, Ying Qian, and Alexander Alberro
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Chinese poetry has a long history of interaction with the visual arts. Classical aesthetic thought held that painting, calligraphy, and poetry were cross-fertilizing and mutually enriching. What happened when the Chinese poetic tradition encountered photography, a transformative technology and presumably realistic medium that reshaped seeing and representing the world? This event is organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Center for Comparative Media, all at Columbia University.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, Media, and Buddhism
- Political Geography:
- China and Asia
6. The Buddhist Dream Tale: Past and Present
- Author:
- Francisca Cho and Seong Uk Kim
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Kim Manjung's Kuunmong, or Dream of the Nine Clouds, was written by a scholar-official and he turned to the Buddhist trope that "life is nothing but a dream" in order to express his doubts and disappointment about the Confucian social structure in which he lived. The speaker argues that the dream tale turns the act of fiction writing into a Buddhist philosophical exercise, and she will draw out this argument by considering how the medium of fiction functions in a ritual way. In this vein, she brings the dream tale into the present by considering the experience of cinema as an analogue. This event is cosponsored by the Center for Korean Research and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
- Topic:
- Religion, Arts, Culture, and Literature
- Political Geography:
- Asia
7. China's Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet
- Author:
- Lhadon Tethong, Freya Putt, Jia Luo, Tenzin Dorjee, and Andy Nathan
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Chinese government policies are forcing three out of every four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating children as young as four from their parents. According to a recent report by Tibet Action Institute, the schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to supplant Tibetan identity with a homogenous Chinese identity in order to neutralize potential resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. The report, “Separated From Their Families, Hidden From the World: China’s Vast System of Colonial Boarding Schools Inside Tibet,” finds that an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Tibetan students aged six to 18, as well as an unknown number of four and five-year olds, are in these state-run schools. This panel will discuss how the schools function as sites for remolding children into Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP.
- Topic:
- Education, Culture, Children, Colonialism, and Boarding Schools
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Tibet
8. Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan
- Author:
- East-West Center
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- The inaugural edition of Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan, part of the Asia Matters for America initiative, maps the trade, investment, employment, business, diplomacy, security, education, tourism, and people-to-people connections between the United States and the Taiwan at the national, state, and local levels. This publication and the AsiaMattersforAmerica.org website are resources for understanding the robust and dynamic US-Indo-Pacific relationship.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Climate Change, Economics, Education, Environment, Politics, Science and Technology, Governance, Culture, Population, and Travel
- Political Geography:
- Taiwan and Asia
9. Shared History, Divided Consciousness: The Origins of the Sino-ROK Cultural Clash amid the Pandemic
- Author:
- Dong Xiangrong
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
- Institution:
- Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
- Abstract:
- Since 1992, bilateral relations between China and South Korea have sustained a state of positive development, although there have naturally been some moments of friction and contradictions. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a number of disputes arose between netizens in China and South Korea over such things as the origin of pickled vegetables (paocai in Chinese, kimchi in Korean) and the Van Fleet award acceptance speech of South Korea’s BTS singing group. Different interpretations of a few thousand years of bilateral interactions—cultural, political, military, historical, and other topics mutually entangling the two—have led to some sharply vitriolic disputes between netizens in the two neighboring countries. Today’s tensions over national identity issues are rooted in how history is understood in the two countries and the enduring salience of cultural symbols of identity tied to history. Nobody could have anticipated that pickled vegetables would, ultimately, become a focus of the 2020 dispute between netizens of China and South Korea. Since over a decade ago when the Gangneung Danoje (端午祭) was granted UNESCO recognition and other developments occurred, all the way up to today’s pickles, it seems that almost all ongoing Sino-South Korean identity disputes are connected to the entangled histories of the two sides. Seen from the history of cultural exchanges from long ago, is traditional medicine, after all, your Chinese medicine or my Korean medicine? Is traditional dress our Han Chinese clothing or your Korean clothing? Is the May 5 festival our Duanwujie (端午節，Dragon Boat Festival) or your Danoje? Are vegetables marinated by pickling, our “paocai” or your “kimchi”? A thousand-year cultural legacy should be a factor to strengthen shared identity and tighten cultural connections in Sino-South Korea relations. However, against the current geopolitical and geo-economical background, shared cultural connections unexpectedly became the focus of contention between the two neighbors. Geopolitically, China and South Korea have been involved in different political camps since World War II. During the decades of Cold War, these two countries unfortunately fell into hot war although they were not each other’s main enemy. Each country describes the war and justifies its actions through its own lens. Was the war, after all, our “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea” or your “Korean War”? Different memories of the war led to widespread, fervent protest from Chinese fans against South Korea’s popular singing group BTS’s acceptance speech in receiving the Van Fleet Award by the Korea Society. Sensitivity toward remarks about the war some 70 years ago has unexpectedly heightened recently. Geo-economically, China and South Korea have been interdependent over the past three decades. China has been the biggest trade partner of South Korea for many years. The Chinese market is bigger than the U.S. and Japanese ones combined for Korean products. The market matters. The Samsung Group and Hyundai Group have had to react to the voices of customers and stop showing an advertisement performed by BTS. Also, when Seoul and Washington decided to deploy THAAD in South Korea, Seoul had to face the negative economic consequences of its deteriorating bilateral relationship with China. Both geopolitical differences and historical memories are now capable of arousing economic retaliation. This chapter analyzes from the angle of how history and the present are linked the current identity conflicts between China and South Korea. It recognizes that using today’s concepts to evaluate history leads clearly to tearing asunder Sino-South Korean mutual historical recognition. At the same time, the influence of values, geopolitics, differences in level of development, and other factors, along with cultural clashes between China and South Korea intersecting with political and security topics mutually arouse and even worsen relations between the two peoples. Security confrontations and ideological divergence have severely worsened public relations between the Chinese and South Koreans. These disputes, such as the Korean War and THAAD, have become important backdrops for the emergence and exacerbation of cultural rifts.
- Topic:
- Politics, Culture, History, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and South Korea
10. The Pandemic and its Impact on the South Korea-Japan Identity Clash
- Author:
- Scott Snyder
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
- Institution:
- Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
- Abstract:
- The global pandemic caused by the onset of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 has tested governance at both the national and international levels by challenging the capacity of nations to provide effective public health solutions to protect their citizenry. The pandemic has deepened preexisting international rivalries while also creating diplomatic opportunities to promote international cooperation and public diplomacy. Rather than serving as a turning point for a new era in international relations, the pandemic and the global response appear primarily to have accelerated preexisting trends. In Northeast Asia, the pandemic has accelerated deepening rivalry between the United States and China, reinforced political paralysis between Japan and South Korea, primarily by providing a pretext for privileging domestic concerns and constituencies at the expense of international relations, and has generated heightened new foreign policy challenges resulting from deepening identity-based major power rivalries. This chapter reviews the deepening of identity-based challenges facing Japan-South Korea relations prior to 2020, examines the conditions generated by leadership responses in both countries to the pandemic, identifies missed opportunities for pandemic-related cooperation between the two countries, and addresses challenges and opportunities facing the Japan-South Korea relationship in the context of anticipated recovery from the pandemic as well as the shifting geopolitical environment as tensions mount between China and the United States.
- Topic:
- Culture, Domestic Politics, COVID-19, and Identity
- Political Geography:
- Japan, Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America
11. The Coronavirus: Fueling Concerns and Contrasts between India and China
- Author:
- Tanvi Madan
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
- Institution:
- Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
- Abstract:
- On February 26, 2020, an Indian plane landed in Wuhan carrying medical supplies for China, which was then the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. On its return, it evacuated a number of Indian and Bangladeshi nationals, as well as citizens of other countries. On the face of it, this is the kind of cooperative effort that is expected during a global public health crisis, with countries—even competitors—coming together at a time of need. However, the saga of that flight reflected another (prescient) dynamic—that COVID-19 would reinforce and increase rather than alleviate competition between China and India and complicate cooperation, with pandemic response and recovery efforts being seen through a competitive prism. That flight to Wuhan was not smooth; indeed, it was much delayed. Delhi had announced it a week earlier. It was a way to help China, demonstrate India’s capacity, and assist India’s neighbors by evacuating their citizens. But then Indian officials publicly, albeit anonymously, revealed that Beijing was not clearing the flight. The reason was unclear—China, after all, had been requesting international support. There also did not seem to be a bureaucratic snafu. So, was it the visual of Beijing accepting support from India, which Chinese officials and analysts sometimes dismiss as a less capable, even chaotic, neighbor? Was it the desire not to give India a soft power win, including with its neighbors? Was it because the flight involved a military transport aircraft procured from the U.S.? Was it retaliation for the temporary Indian detention of a Chinese ship bound for Pakistan due to a tip-off of dual-use items on board? Or was the reason Chinese unhappiness about Indian travel restrictions to and from China, or Indian export limits on certain medical products? Whatever the reason, China eventually gave the flight clearance, but only a week later and after much Indian negotiation. It was an early sign that the public health arena would not be immune from the competitive atmosphere prevailing between the two countries, and in the region as a whole. Subsequent events only bore that out. There has been considerable discussion about how countries’ perceptions of China would change due to the pandemic—at the beginning because of its mishandling, and then because of its recovery. This chapter argues that, rather than change perceptions, Beijing’s handling of COVID-19 increased the largely skeptical views of China that prevail in India, which had at least 29 million cases and over 385,000 deaths in India by mid-June 2021 (the 2nd and 3rd highest in the world respectively). This trend was further bolstered by the worst boundary crisis between the two countries since they fought a war in 1962. Together, the pandemic and the boundary crisis have ensured that the competitive and conflictual elements of the India-China relationship have been front and center over the last year. They have reinforced and accelerated concerns in India about China’s lack of transparency, its uncertain commitment to the rules-based order, as well as its growing influence in the Indo-Pacific and in international institutions. And they have demonstrated that despite Delhi and Beijing’s efforts to cooperate and to stabilize their relationship over the last two decades, it remains a fundamentally competitive one that can spill over into conflict. This chapter examines the impact of first the pandemic and then the boundary crisis on perceptions of China among the Indian government, establishment, and public. It proceeds to outline the consequences of these perceptions on Indian domestic policy, its partnerships with like-minded major and middle powers, and its counter-COVID activism. Finally, it considers China’s response, particularly to Indian policy changes.
- Topic:
- Bilateral Relations, Culture, Domestic Politics, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- China, South Asia, India, and Asia
12. The Sino–U.S. National Identity Gap and Bilateral Relations
- Author:
- Danielle Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
- Institution:
- Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
- Abstract:
- The national identity gap between China and the United States has become increasingly apparent. Under Xi Jinping, China has sought to reclaim its historical greatness and proclaimed itself to be a responsible great power that offers a credible alternative to Western values, while also promoting increasingly authoritarian policies at home, complete with extensive repression in Xinjiang and renewed state control of the economy. Assertions of U.S. national identity were somewhat muted under Donald Trump, confused by the battle between those who supported the administration’s “America First” policy, its transactional approach to foreign affairs, and its deemphasis on human rights and democracy promotion in U.S. foreign policy, and those who worried about the global repercussions of an isolationist, nativist policy. For a time, the United States seemed more preoccupied with its trade war with China than with claims that the United States should act as the global protector of human rights and democracy. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated already tense Sino–U.S. relations and called both countries’ national identities into question. While China had, as of spring 2021, succeeded in keeping its COVID-19 outbreak remarkably small, the damage caused by its initial suppression of medical reports, along with successful virus mitigation in a number of non-authoritarian states, called into question its claim to be a responsible world power on the basis of its pandemic performance. Meanwhile, the Trump administration failed to protect U.S. citizens from catastrophic death tolls and prevented the United States from taking a leading role in resolving this global crisis. In January 2021, the Biden administration took office with a focus on swiftly ending the pandemic, while also reasserting the traditional U.S. global leadership role. When combined with its assessment of U.S. power after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and of U.S. domestic social and political instability evident throughout 2020-2021, the pandemic has strengthened China’s perceptions of the United States as a country in decline, and of China as a “risen” great power that should now play a major role in shaping the global order. At the same time, although U.S. policy towards China remains firm despite the presidential transition, the underlying rationale has shifted from the “America First” approach of the Trump administration to the democratic values-infused approach of the Biden administration. As the world struggles to move beyond the pandemic, the national identities of China and the United States are increasingly defined in opposition to each other and seem likely to drive an ever more challenging bilateral relationship in the coming years.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Bilateral Relations, Culture, and Domestic Politics
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, North America, and United States of America
13. Our Epistemological Crisis: "Ilmu Budaya" and "Two Cultures" Revisited
- Author:
- Donald K. Emmerson
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
- Abstract:
- This talk on the subject of scientific research was delivered virtually on 1 November 2021 to mark the anniversary of the official opening on 1 November 1958 of what is now called the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Padjadjaran University in suburban Bandung, Indonesia. In his remarks, Donald K. Emmerson recalls his experience as a student in Indonesia, discusses the rejection and subversion of the distinction between fact and opinion in what he calls “our epistemological crisis," and ends with comments on a different but related distinction: the institutional separation of the humanities from the sciences, as if they were two different spheres of thought and specialization.
- Topic:
- Science and Technology, Culture, Research, and Institutions
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia, Asia, and Indo-Pacific
14. Beijing Brushstrokes
- Author:
- Beatrice Camp
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- American Diplomacy
- Institution:
- American Diplomacy
- Abstract:
- While studying Chinese in Taiwan in preparation for assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I gave birth to baby William, our first child. Along the way, I learned a fair amount about Chinese birthing beliefs; our teachers at the Foreign Service Language School were happy to talk about the importance of fetal education and how my studying Chinese while pregnant would benefit the baby. A few days before my due date, my husband David dreamed I gave birth to a koala. David’s shock over having a furry animal for a son was compensated by the thrill of hearing the newborn utter a Chinese phrase. We had, after all, spent the previous two years struggling to master tones and characters. Not to mention that the little koala’s question of “gànmá” (干吗) or “whatever for?” seemed right on the money.
- Topic:
- Diplomacy, Culture, Language, and Memoir
- Political Geography:
- China, Taiwan, and Asia
15. Exchange and Cooperation in Music and Art between the Soviet Union and North Korea (1948–1990)
- Author:
- Byong-Jo Lee
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- East Asia Institute (EAI)
- Abstract:
- Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, an extensive number of cultural exchange visits were made between the Soviet Union and North Korea in various fields including the arts. Mutual visits paid by delegates of the respective countries served as an opportunity to introduce cultural techniques and receive training by experts of the other country. In this Research Review, Lee Byong-Jo, Professor at Al-Farabi (Kazakh) National University, explains the exchange of arts between the two countries. While most of them have been made with the intentions of praising the North Korean regime, findings show that there have been exchanges in folk music as well. In addition, research shows that Koryoin artists in Central Asia led cultural exchange between two countries. According to articles on the Lenin Gichi, exchange visits started with the founding of North Korea and persisted until the 1960s. Art groups reflected the sorrow of the Koryoin community, encouraged them to preserve their national identity, and contributed to the development of the arts in both countries.
- Topic:
- History, Arts, Culture, and Music
- Political Geography:
- Asia, North Korea, and Soviet Union
16. Arising From “the People”: Bottom Up Change in North Korean Society
- Author:
- Seunghee Ha
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- East Asia Institute (EAI)
- Abstract:
- From the construction of open-air theaters to the use of new celebratory mediums in national events and the resumption of the 2020 Youth Day Celebration amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has experienced a significant transformation in its social and cultural underpinnings over the past year. Seunghee Ha, a research fellow at the Dongguk University DMZ Peace Center, argues that these changes provide important insights into how the North Korean authorities are gradually accommodating new tastes and desires that have emerged among its citizenry. Where such behaviors were once deemed threatening “non-socialist” behaviors, Ha believes that the state’s reactive adaptation highlights the increasing agency of ordinary North Koreans upon the direction of the country’s social preferences. For Ha, this “bottom-up” approach ultimately has the potential to produce a North Korea more socially aligned with the rest of the international community.
- Topic:
- Culture, Youth, and Society
- Political Geography:
- Asia and North Korea
17. Recognition, Non-recognition, and Misrecognition of Minority Communities. What Lessons Can Be Drawn from a Comparison between European and Central Asian Approaches?
- Author:
- Sergiusz Bober and Aziz Berdiqulov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2021
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues
- Abstract:
- This Research Paper focuses on practices concerning recognition and non-recognition of minority communities in six European and Central Asian countries (Denmark, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, and Tajikistan). Additionally, it also assesses the risk of misrecognition with regard to some of the minority communities resulting from these practices. The text is structured as a dual comparative analysis, first scrutinizing approaches to recognition within two macro-regions, and afterwards confronting them in order to identify similarities and discrepancies. This results in the identification of two “cultures” of recognition: a “strong” one in Europe and a “weak” one in Central Asia, with their characteristics originating mainly from differences concerning social, political, and legal contexts. At the same time, some features are shared by both macro-regions: hierarchization of minority communities, general limited access to minority rights, and sometimes a severe risk of misrecognition. Moreover, the paper argues in favour of formal mechanisms of recognition, a wider scope of application of minority rights (especially in Europe), as well as the strengthening of minority rights frameworks in Central Asia.
- Topic:
- Culture, Minorities, Ethnicity, and Community
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Central Asia, and Asia
18. Field-by-Field Changes in China since Covid-19 and Implications for Korea
- Author:
- Jai Chul Heo
- Publication Date:
- 03-2021
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
- Abstract:
- China has been able to escape from the Covid-19 outbreak relatively quickly compared to other countries. Nevertheless, it still remains greatly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic across its politics, economy, society, culture, and other areas, which has led to various changes throughout China. Therefore, this study comprehensively examined the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on various aspects of Chinese politics, economy, society, and culture. And in response to these changes in Chinese society, the study explores new strategies toward China in the post-Covid-19 era.
- Topic:
- Politics, Culture, Economy, COVID-19, and Society
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, and Korea
19. Collecting Tibet: A Roundtable Discussion with Four Curators
- Author:
- Karl Debreczeny, Elena Pakhoutova, Kurt Behrendt, and Jeff Durham
- Publication Date:
- 05-2021
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- How do curators approach representing Tibetan collections in their respective museums? What are the ways in which they make their collections accessible to the public and their specific audience? What digital initiatives related to Tibetan art and culture these museums offer or plan to develop? The event included individual presentations from each of the curators followed by a discussion. This event was cosponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University and the Rubin Museum of Art.
- Topic:
- Arts, Culture, and Museums
- Political Geography:
- Asia and Tibet
20. Mediums and Magical Things: Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places
- Author:
- Laurel Kendall, Lesley Sharp, Max Moerman, and Myron L. Cohen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2021
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
- Abstract:
- Paintings, statues, and masks—like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums—give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities and sometimes they are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bali, Indonesia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art market commodities and museum artifacts. The two discussants approach this discussion of animated images from two different but intersecting directions. Max Moerman is a scholar of Japanese religion whose work focuses on visual and material representation. Lesley Sharp is a medical anthropologist with an interest in material culture whose recent work has focused on organ transplants and related questions of “life” and “death.” As moderator, Myron Cohen brings a broad knowledge of East Asian popular religion. The event is organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the New York Southeast Asia Network.
- Topic:
- Religion, Arts, Culture, Spirituality, Museums, Magic, and Mediums
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia, Asia, South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bali
- « Previous
- Next »
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4