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East Asia Center
Howard Chiang, Lai Ho and Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies and professor of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara discusses Sinophone studies and the newly published reader he co-edited with Shu-mei Shih. “Sinophone Studies Across Disciplines: A Reader” compiles essays that showcase the interdisciplinary potential of Sinophone studies as a nexus for marginalized global topics.
Andrew B. Liu was hosted by the East Asia Center at UC Santa Barbara, where he discussed the complex relationship between China and the US and the effects of rising hostilities. He explained why economic decoupling remains unattainable and examined the business relations between the two countries.
When a resident of Wuhan, China wrote an online diary criticizing the government’s response to Covid-19, authorities retaliated by launching a disinformation campaign and propelling online hate toward her. This weaponization of the internet for political purposes parallels the information wars that occurred in the United States during the pandemic, said UCLA Chinese culture professor Michael Berry at a recent UC Santa Barbara Center for Taiwan Studies event.
Activists in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, including Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, visited UC Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center to speak about the increase in Anti-AAPI violence and bias in America after the COVID-19 pandemic. Following a panel discussion, Kulkarni gave a keynote presentation titled “Challenging Hate: How to Stop AAPI Violence.”
Robert Weller, anthropology professor at Boston University, spoke to a UC Santa Barbara audience about how Taiwanese religious rituals use both noise and silence to mark transitions, establish rhythm, and create an emotional choreography.
Venerable Yifa, religious scholar and Buddhist leader, spotlighted Buddhist organizations and practices that help protect the environment and reduce climate change, at an event co-sponsored by the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department, the East Asia Center, the Center for Taiwan Studies, and the Dalai Lama Endowment.
UCSB’s department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies organized a two-day internationally-attended symposium on Zoom titled “Translatability/Transmediality: Chinese Poetry In/And the World.” Hangping Xu of the East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies department and Yunte Huang of the English department organized the symposium to promote a special edition of a scholarly journal they wrote along with 10 scholars from around the world.
Meditation has become an increasingly popular practice and can aid in depression and anxiety. But the negative side effects of meditation are not well known. In a talk hosted by the East Asia Center, Pennsylvania State University professor Pierce Salguero discussed a phenomenon known as "meditation sickness" and the role of religious studies scholars in educating the public on the “dark side” of meditation.
The Sent-Down Youth Movement was a defining period in China’s Cultural Revolution. From 1968 to 1980, nearly 17 million urban students were forcibly relocated to rural Chinese villages in an organized effort to bridge the gap between China’s rural and urban populations. UC Santa Barbara Asian American Studies professor Xiaojian Zhao presented a talk on this movement called Crime and Punishment: Revisiting the Sent-Down Youth Movement in Mao’s China, to a UCSB virtual audience.
Smith College historian Marnie Anderson joined UCSB’s East Asia Center in a follow-up to discuss her virtual talk, “Starting Over in Meiji Japan: The Lives of a Former Samurai and his Ex-Concubine.” Anderson recounts how two reform-minded individuals were offered the opportunity to create new identities with the rise of the Meiji era in Japan.
Dongguk University media and communication professor Ha Sung Hwang’s research focuses on the effects of social media and the role it plays in the global popularity of Korean pop music. In a lecture hosted by UCSB’s East Asia Center, where she is a visiting fellow, she discussed how BTS and its ARMY are contributing to a new and diverse boy band culture fueled by digital power.
