Donald Keene Center Events Calendar
Spring 2001
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• Please check this site for calendar updates.
• All events at Columbia are free and open to the public.
• Unless otherwise indicated, all of the programs listed below take
place at Columbia University, 116th Street between Broadway and
Amsterdam Ave.
• To view a campus map,
click here. |
February 1 (Thursday)
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Gilt bronze
reliquary of secret-visualizaton jewel
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Booktalk: Jewel in the
Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early Medieval
Japan
Professor Brian Ruppert
(Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages &
Cultures and Religious Studies, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Discussion with Professor D. Max Moerman (Assistant
Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures,
Barnard College)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. &
Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM
 This
study addresses the relationship between the
veneration of Buddha relics and the appropriation of
power in early medieval Japan. Focusing on the ninth
to fourteenth centuries, it analyzes the ways in
which relics functioned as material media for the
interactions of Buddhist clerics, the imperial
family, lay aristocrats, and warrior society and
explores the multivocality of relics by dealing with
specific historical examples. Brian Ruppert argues
that relics offered means for reinforcing or
subverting hierarchical relations. The author's
critical literary and anthropological analyses
attest to the prominence of relic veneration in
government, in lay practice associated with the
maintenance of the imperial line and warrior houses,
and in the promotion of specific Buddhist sects in
Japan. |
Co-sponsored by the University
Seminar on Buddhist Studies
February 6 (Tuesday)
Booktalk: Cartographies of Desire:
Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600 - 1950
 Professor
Gregory Pflugfelder (Assistant Professor of Japanese
History, Columbia University)
Discussion with Professor Randolph Trumbach
(Department of History, Baruch College)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. &
Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM
In this sweeping study of the mapping and remapping
of male-male sexuality over four centuries of
Japanese history, Gregory Pflugfelder explores the
languages of medicine, law, and popular culture from
the seventeenth century through the American
Occupation. Pflugfelder's book has been hailed as "a
remarkable and sorely needed synthesis of the best
of traditional historiographical documentation and
critically astute analysis and contextualization." |
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute
February 8 (Thursday)
Lecture: Beyond the Genbun
Icchi Movement: Natsume Soseki's Writing in
Kokoro
Professor Yoshihiro Ohsawa
(Professor of English and Comparative Literature &
Culture, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences,
University of Tokyo)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. &
Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM
| The creation of new
literary language was a central issue in
modern Japanese literature of the Meiji
period. The Genbun Icchi movement of the
early Meiji period insisted that the wide
discrepancy between written and spoken
Japanese be removed, or at the least,
diminished. Writing is, however, essentially
different from speaking and literary
language is fundamentally separated from
ordinary spoken language. Since Natsume
Soseki was a formalist in character, he
envisaged literariness from a different
perspective. The examination of his
literature from Botchan to Light
and Darkness clearly exemplifies his
idiosyncratic attempts to create new
literary language in his way. Professor
Ohsawa will analyze his endeavors by
examining his revisions of the text of
Kokoro in his manuscripts. |
Natsume Soseki
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February 13
- April 10 & April 11
Film Series: Countries and
Cities in East Asian Film
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. &
Broadway)
» Campus Map
7:00 PM
These eight films move
through many "countries" and "cities"
throughout East Asia. They share, not a
Chinese, or a Korean, or a Japanese, but an
East Asian identity inherited but also
fragile, subject to both recall and
breakdown. Some probe specific zones of
dislocation and disaster in the twentieth
century. Others register deliberate flight,
the embrace of new possibilities. All
contribute to our sense of the great range
and power of East Asian cinema in our time.
They invite us to enter cities and countries
that are distant but hardly strange. And
from these places, rooted in East Asian
traditions and modernities, emerge stories
of loss and of love strong enough to cross
borders, between nations, or between East
and west.
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Series runs Tuesday evenings
from February 13
through April 10, 2001
Note: there will be no film screened
on March 13
East Asian Film Symposium
April 11, 2001
• All screenings begin at 7:00PM
• Films are free and open to the public
• Seating is limited
• All films are in their original languages
with English subtitiles
All films will be shown at the Roone Arledge
Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University
(115th St. and Broadway)
Subway: 1/9 to 116th St - Columbia
University
Program subject to
change
call 212-854-6916 for details
This program is
sponsored by the following
Columbia institutions:
the Richard W. Weatherhead Fund of the
East Asian Institute,
Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture,
the
Department of East Asian Languages and
Cultures, the Film Division of the
School of the Arts, and the Chiang Ching-Kuo
Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History |
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Schedule of Films
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February 13 (Tue)
7:00 PM
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Maboroshi (Maboroshi no
hikari)
Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu
(Japan, 1995) |
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February 20 (Tue)
7:00 PM
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City of Sadness (Beiqing
Chengshi)
Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
(Taiwan, 1989) |
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February 27 (Tue)
7:00 PM
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The Power of Kangwon
Province (Kangweondoeui
Him)
Dir: Hong Sang-Soo
(Korea, 1998) |
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March 6
(Tue)
7:00 PM
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Fallen Angels (Duoluo
tinashi)
Dir: Wong Kar-wai
(Hong Kong, 1995) |
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March 20 (Tue)
7:00 PM
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Muddy River (Doro no
kawa)
Dir: Oguri Kohei
(Japan, 1981) |
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March 27
(Tue)
7:00 PM
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Sopyonje
Dir: Im Kwon-taek
(Korea, 1993) |
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April 3
(Tue)
7:00 PM
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After Life (Wandafuru
raifu)
Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu
(Japan, 1998) |
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April 10
(Tue)
7:00 PM
9:00 PM
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Dust in the Wind (Lien
Lien Fung Chen )
Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
(Taiwan, 1987)
Panel Discussion including featured directors Hou
Hsiao-Hsien (City of
Sadness and Dust in
the Wind) and Kore-eda
Hirokazu (Maboroshi
and After Life) to be
held immediately following
the screening of Dust in
the Wind |
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April 11
(Wed)
2:00 PM
3:30 PM
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East Asian Film Symposium
Panel One: New Asian
Cinema: Cross-Cultural
Influences
Panel Two: New Asian
Cinema: U.S. Critical
Response |
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February 13 (Tuesday)
Note: This film was originally scheduled for February 20
Film: Maboroshi (Maboroshi no
hikari)
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu
(Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
»
Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
A visually lush, poetic tale of love and loss
with a touch of mystery, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s film
features a stunning performance by Esumi Makiko as
Yumiko, a young woman fearful that she somehow
brings death to the ones she loves. Moving between
the city and the country, the young widow’s intense
quest to understand her husband’s death is conveyed
in exquisitely photographed extended scenes. Harking
back to the golden age of Japanese cinema,
Kore-eda’s remarkable use of light, space and
stillness perceptively conveys the lives and
emotions of his characters. The result is a film of
great cinematic beauty and narrative elegance.
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- Film Society of Lincoln Center
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Mr. Kore-eda is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
February 19 (Monday)
Lecture: Beyond Paper and Curtain:
Works and Humanitarian Activities
Shigeru Ban (Architect; Visiting
Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
The New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute
of Technology
» Click here
for directions to NJIT
5:30 PM
For further information about this
lecture, please call 973-596-3080.
One of Japan’s leading younger architects, Mr. Ban gained
international attention for his low-cost quickly built
relief structures, using durable cardboard tubing, built in
Kobe immediately following the earthquake of January 1995.
He has since constructed similar buildings for victims of
earthquakes and other natural disasters in Turkey and
Rwanda.
 Born
in 1957, Mr. Ban received his architecture degree from
Cooper Union Univ. (NY), following study at the Southern
California Institute of Architecture. He worked in the
architecture firm of Arata Isozaki (1982-83). In 1995, Mr.
Ban established an NGO called
Voluntary Architects Network (VAN) and soon afterward
was made special consultant of the UN High Commission of
Refugees (UNHCR). He is also active as a designer of
private homes, apartment houses and public-housing
developments, galleries, museums, railway stations for JR,
and furniture and industrial designs.
Mr. Ban’s awards include: SD Architect of the Year (1985);
Tokyo Society of Architects House Award (1993); Mainichi
Design Prize (1995); Tokyo Journal Innovative Arts Award
(1996); Shinkenchiku Magazine Yoshioka Award (1996); Intl.
Architects Academy Ecopolis Award (1996); Japan Institute of
Architects Best Young Architect of the Year Award (1997);
JIA Tohoku Award (1998).
Mr. Ban is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and
the NJIT Japanese Student Association
February 20 (Tuesday)
Lecture: Is the Japanese Education
System in Trouble?
Dr. Leo Esaki (Nobel Prize Winner in
Physics; Former President of Tsukuba University; Head of the
National Commission on Educational Reform in
Japan)Introduction by Professor Carol Gluck (George Sansom
Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University) &
Professor Koji Nakanishi (Centennial Professor of Chemistry,
Columbia University)
Dag Hammarskjold Lounge, 6th floor, International Affairs
Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
» Campus Map
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Followed by a reception
RSVP required
Seating is limited. Call 212-854-1742 or e-mail
klb52@columbia.edu
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute
February 20 (Tuesday)
Lecture: Architects Forum:
Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban (Architect; Visiting
Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY, 10017
 6:30
PM
Tickets: $10, Japan Society members $8, students $5.
To order tickets, please call Japan Society box office,
Mon-Fri, 10 AM to 4:45 PM, 212-752-3015, or visit their
Website. A $2 service charge is added to all orders.
For further information about
this lecture, please call the Japan Society at 212-832-1155.
Noted architect Shigeru Ban creates designs for residential
and public buildings, museum exhibitions and temporary
structures for refugees and survivors of natural disasters.
His work relies upon the fusion of Eastern and Western
aesthetics and an innovative use of recycled paper tubes is
at its core. Mr. Ban began experimenting with paper tubes in
the mid-1980s and used them in his architecture for the
first time in 1989. His recent projects include the Japanese
Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany, and a
30-foot-high lattice truss structure made out of recycled
paper tubes above the outdoor sculpture garden of the Museum
of Modern Art, his first U.S. project. Highly acclaimed for
his humanitarian work, Mr. Ban has designed shelters of
plastic sheeting and cardboard for Rwandan refugees, and
minimalist dwellings of plastic beer crates and cardboard
tubes for displaced survivors of the Kobe earthquake.
Mr. Ban is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by
Japan Society
February 20 (Tuesday)
Film:
City of Sadness (Beiqing
Chengshi)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
» Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in
East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts<
February 27 (Tuesday)
Film:
The Power of Kangwon Province
(Kangwondoui him)
Directed by Hong Sang-Soo
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
» Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
March 6 (Tuesday)
Film:
Fallen Angels (Duoluo
tinashi)
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
» Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
March 8 (Thursday)
Booktalk: Hiraizumi: Buddhist Art
and Regional Politics in Twelfth-Century Japan
Professor Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan
(History of Art Department, Yale University)
Discussion with Professor Melissa McCormick (Atsumi
Assistant Professor, Art History, Columbia University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
6:00 PM
 In
the twelfth century, along what were then the borders of the
Japanese state in northern Honshu, three generations of
local rulers built a capital city at Hiraizumi that became a
major military and commercial center. Known as the Hiraizumi
Fujiwara, these local powerholders were descendents of the
ancient Emishi, for centuries rivals to the central Japanese
state and only recently reluctant participants in the
growing Japanese polity. At Hiraizumi, these rules created a
city filled with art, from splendid temples and shrines to
landscaped gardens and palatial residences that rivaled in
scale and extravagance those found in Kyoto. This building
program was at least in part an attempt to use the power of
art and architecture to claim a religious and political
mandate. At the same time, it was an encounter with a set of
concerns that arose from the situation of the Hiraizumi
Fujiwara as outsiders in an emergent cultural homogeneity
defined by the center in Kyoto. In this, the first
book-length study of Hiraizumi in English, Mimi Hall
Yiengpruksawan studies the history of the region and the
rise of the Hiraizumi Fujiwara and analyzes their remarkable
program of construction.
March 20 (Tuesday)
Film:
Muddy River (Doro no kawa)
Directed by Oguri Kohei
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
»
Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
March 27 (Tuesday)
Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series:
The Current Cultural Crisis Facing
 Japan
Alex Kerr (Permanent Director,
International Shinto Foundation)
918 International Affairs Building, Columbia University
(118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
» Campus Map
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
A talk on his new book Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark
Side of Japan
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute
March 27 (Tuesday)
Film:
Sopyonje
Directed by IM Kwon-taek
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
»
Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
March 28 (Wednesday)
Note: This program was originally scheduled for March 29
Lecture: Classical Literary Motifs
in Surimono by Kubo Shunman
Professor John Carpenter (Donald
Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art, SOAS,
University of London & Sainsbury Institute)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
6:30 PM
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A lacquer picnic box, violets, and dandelions by
Kubo Shunman
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While introducing rare surimono (privately published
Japanese prints) from the collection of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, this lecture will explore the interaction of
scholars of the kokugaku (National Learning) movement, kyôka
poets, and ukiyo-e artists during the late Edo period.
Within a literary and artistic context dominated by kokugaku
sensibilities, the surimono designer Kubo Shunman
(1757-1820) still remains exceptional and seems to have had
a firmer grounding in classical studies than his fellow
surimono designers. Shunman's erudition and kokugaku
inspired artistic tendencies are evident in his surimono
production of the Bunka era (1804-1818), especially in his
extended series inspired by works of classical literature
such as Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise),
Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), and Torikaebaya
monogatari (If I Could Only Change Them).
John T. Carpenter received his Ph.D. from Columbia
University in 1997. His research interests range from the
history of East Asian calligraphy to early modern Japanese
painting and prints. He was co-author of The Frank Lloyd
Wright Collection of Surimono (1995), and Jewels of Japanese
Printmaking, Surimono of the Bunka-Bunsei Era 1804-1830
(2000), and helped edit and translate Hokusai Paintings,
Selected Essays (1994). He has just been reappointed as
Donald Keene Lecturer in the History of Japanese Art at the
SOAS, University of London.
Co-sponsored by the
Ukiyo-e
Society of America
March 30 (Friday)
Mishima Symposium
East Gallery, Buell Hall, Columbia University (116th St.
& Amsterdam Ave.)
»
Campus Map
11:00 AM-1:00 PM (Panel 1)
3:00 PM-5:00 PM (Panel 2)
Followed by a reception
As novelist, critic, and dramatist, and as a cultural actor
on many fronts, Mishima Yukio (1925-1970) was a powerful and
provocational presence in post-war Japan. This symposium
will revisit and reexplore Mishima's work and his life, his
literature and his politics, and his significance for the
culture of our time.
 Panel
1 (Fiction and Criticism)
11:00 AM-1:00 PM
· Paul Anderer -
Discussant (Professor of Japanese
Literature, Columbia University)
· Nina Cornyetz
(Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary
Studies, Gallatin School of Individualized
Studies, New York University)
· Keith Vincent
(Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies
and Comparative Literature, New York
University)
· Dennis Washburn
(Associate Professor of Japanese and
Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College)
Panel 2 (Drama and Performance)
3:00 PM-5:00 PM
· Thomas Rimer -
Discussant (Professor of East Asian
Languages and Literatures, University of
Pittsburgh)
· David Goodman
(Professor of Japanese and Comparative
Literature, University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign)
· Donald Keene
(University and Shincho Professor of
Japanese Literature Emeritus, Columbia
University)
· Laurence Kominz
(Professor of Japanese, Portland State
University) |
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April 3 (Tuesday)
Film: After Life (Wandafuru raifu)
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu
(Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center)
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
»
Campus Map
7:00 PM
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
 Newly
dead people assemble in a kind of limbo (it looks
like an old school) and are asked to choose, after a
polite interview, a single memory of happiness. A
celestial film crew then makes a movie of that
moment, and the shade is allowed to live with the
memory for all eternity. In this sombre, delicate
Japanese fantasy, written and directed by Kore-eda
Hirokazu (a former documentary-maker), the light is
gray and even, the emotions tranquil, the politeness
exquisite. Kore-eda has no interest in orgiasts or
roller-coaster riders: the cherished moment, it
turns out, may be nothing more than a passing mood
of pleasure—a breeze felt at a window—or a pleasure
given rather than one received. The picture raises a
marvelous, fanciful question: Are all movies simply
the favorite dreams of the dead? With Naito
Taketoshi as a fastidious elderly man whose life was
too uneventful to yield an easy choice. |
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- The New Yorker
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Mr. Kore-eda is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
April 4 (Wednesday)
Lecture: Space and Subjectivity in
Japanese Modernism
Professor Seiji Lippit (Assistant
Professor of Modern Japanese Literature, Department of East
Asian Languages & Cultures, University of California, Los
Angeles)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
6:00 PM
April 10 (Tuesday)
Film:
Dust in the Wind (Lian Lian
Fung Chen)
Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Roone Arledge Cinema,
Lerner Hall, Columbia University (115th St. & Broadway)
» Campus Map
7:00 PM
Director's Panel Discussion
9:00 PM - IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE SCREENING OF DUST
IN THE WIND
•
Hou Hsiao-hsien
(Director, City of Sadness and Dust in the
Wind)
• Kore-eda Hirokazu
(Director, Maboroshi and After Life)
• Linda Hoagland
(Subtitler of numerous Japanese films and
Interpreter for Mr. Kore-eda)
• Chu T'ien-wen
(Screenwriter)
• Peggy Chiao (Taiwan
Film Center)
• Paul Anderer (Japanese
Literature and Film, Columbia University)
• David D. W. Wang
(Chinese Literature and Film, Columbia University)
Part of "Countries and Cities
in East Asian Film" Series |
Kore-eda and Hou
|
| |
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
April 11 (Wednesday)
Symposium: East Asian Film
Dag Hammarskjold Lounge, 6th floor, International Affairs
Building, Columbia University (118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
» Campus Map
2:00 PM-5:30 PM
Followed by a reception
Panel One: New Asian Cinema:
Cross-Cultural Influences
2:00 PM-3:30 PM
• Paul Anderer- Panel Chair
(EALAC, Columbia University)
• Zhang Zhen (Cinema Studies, New
York University)
• Gina Marchetti (Cinema and
Photography, Ithaca College)
• Peggy Chiao (Taiwan Film
Center)
• David D. Wang (EALAC, Columbia
University)
• Charles Armstrong (History,
Columbia University)
Panel Two: New Asian Cinema: U.S.
Critical Response
4:00 PM-5:30 PM
• Stuart Klawans - Panel Chair
(Film School, Columbia University)
• John Anderson (Newsday)
• Dave Kehr (The New York
Times, "The Street")
• Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment
Weekly)
• Amy Taubin (Village Voice)
Part of
"Countries and Cities in East Asian Film" Series
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute, the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, the
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation Center for Chinese Cultural and
Institutional History, and the Film Division of the School
of the Arts
April 16 (Monday)
Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: Popular
Uses of History in Japanese Life
Professor Masako Notoji (Visiting
Fellow of the Donald Keene Center; Professor of Area
Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of
Tokyo)
918 International Affairs Building, Columbia University
(118th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
» Campus Map
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
Professor Notoji is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the
East Asian Institute
April 18 (Wednesday
Illustrated Talk: Secrets of the
Geisha
Lesley Downer (Journalist)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
6:00 PM
In the summer of 1999 Ms. Downer spent several months living
among the geisha, researching her book, Women of the
Pleasure Quarters: The Secret History of the Geisha
(April 2001). She befriended many geisha, shared their lives
and discovered why modern young Japanese women still choose
to become geisha. The author met women who were geisha in
the 1920s, the geisha heyday, and heard tales of the pre-war
years, when women were sold into geishadom and endured
compulsory defloration at the age of 13. This is the first
time that anyone has lived among the geisha since the
anthropologist Liza Dalby 25 years ago. It may also be the
last: the geisha are rapidly declining in numbers and the
women who can remember their glory days are in their 90s.
Ms. Downer will discuss how she gained access to this closed
and secretive world and what she found there: the geisha she
met, their way of life, their romantic history and their
extraordinary, sometimes shocking, customs. The talk will be
illustrated with slides and geisha paraphernalia (e.g.
geisha shoes, lipstick, etc.)
Lesley Downer is a British journalist and a regular
contributor to the Arts and Leisure section of the Wall
Street Journal. She also writes feature articles for the
London Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph,
the Independent and has written for the New York
Times Magazine and Fortune. Her specialty areas
include travel, food, fashion, arts and interviews/profiles.
Downer divides her time between London, New York, and Japan.
April 21 (Saturday)
Symposium: Animals / History /
Japan
Coordinated by Professor Gregory
Pflugfelder (Assistant Professor of Japanese History,
Columbia University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
9:15 AM-5:15 PM
All are welcome to attend.
In order for us to provide adequate seating and
refreshments, please let us know of your plans to attend by
e-mailing the Donald Keene Center at
donald-keene-center@columbia.edu
» Click here to see the symposium schedule,
participants, and paper titles
 |
|
from the 18th century encyclopedia
Wakan Sansai Zue
|
The interrelation of human and (other) animal communities
has become an object of growing historical interest. Changes
and continuities in human-animal relations within the
context of Japanese history and culture will be the focus of
this one-day symposium. Morning and afternoon panels
will provide an opportunity for scholars to present their
current research and exchange ideas with other participants,
including specialists from outside the Japan field. Research
presentations will cover such topics as the institution of
the zoo in the Meiji period, changing images and
significances of the "Japanese dog" (Nihon-ken) under
fascism, and the geopolitics of whaling during the past two
centuries. There will also be more informal opportunities
throughout the day to discuss the prospects, promises, and
problems of studying human-animal interactions historically.
Please contact Professor
Gregory Pflugfelder at
gmp12@columbia.edu for further information.
Co-sponsored by the East Asian Institute Weatherhead Program
Development Fund
April 26 (Thursday)
Lecture: Dazzlement, Consumption,
and the Hyperreal: American Theme Parks in Japan
Professor Masako Notoji (Visiting
Fellow of the Donald Keene Center; Professor of Area
Studies, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of
Tokyo)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
4:00 PM
Followed by a reception
While most of Japan's domestic (not imported) theme parks
are in deep financial trouble, two newly imported theme
parks are expected to rescue the regional economy from the
long-time recession. Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka
in late March and the new Disney Sea will open adjacent to
the 18-year-old Tokyo Disneyland this fall. Professor Notoji
will discuss Japan's reception of American popular culture
and the globalization of America's Hollywood media culture
in the context of otherwise tension-ridden Japan-US
relations.
Professor Notoji is a
Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a
program supported by the
United
States-Japan Foundation.
Co-sponsored by the
Department of History
May 1 (Tuesday
Soshitsu Sen XV Distinguished Lecture
on Japanese Culture: The Pleasures of Translating
Burton Watson (Columbia Professor
Emeritus and Renowned Translator of Japanese and Chinese
works)
Low Rotunda, Low Memorial Library, Columbia University
(116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
» Campus Map
5:30 PM
RSVP REQUIRED
PLEASE E-MAIL the Donald Keene Center at
donald-keene-center@columbia.edu or call 212-854-5036 by
April 25th
| 5:30 PM |
Sen
Lecture The Pleasures of Translating
by Burton Watson
 |
| 6:30 PM |
Reception and Awards Ceremony for the
Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prizes for
the Translation of Japanese Literature
|
7:30 PM
Cancelled |
The Panel
Discussion has been cancelled due to
unforeseen scheduling conflicts
Panel Discussion:
The Art of Translation
· Burton Watson - Professor Emeritus of
Chinese, Columbia University
· Donald Keene - University professor
and Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature
Emeritus, Columbia University
· Jennifer Crewe - publisher for the
humanities, Columbia University Press
· Hortense Calisher - former
president of the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters, author of
more than 20 volumes of fiction and essays,
including The Novellas of Hortense
Calisher
· Amy V. Heinrich (Moderator)- Faculty
Director of the Donald Keene Center of
Japanese Culture, Director of the C.V. Starr
East Asian Library, Columbia University |
|
May 18 (Friday)
Lecture: Japanese Language,
Literature, and Pedagogy: Inflections as Discourse in
Classical Japanese
Professor Charles Quinn (Associate
Professor of Japanese, Director of the Japanese Language
Program, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures,
Ohio State University)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam
Ave.)
12:00 PM-1:00 PM
Co-sponsored by the
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
|
|
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