Wednesday, February 01, 2012
12:00 pm
- 01:00 pm
Exhibit Opening, Gallery Talk & Luncheon: A Late Christmas Gift: Contemporary Prints from Japan
Imagine a box of all kinds of ornaments that come to light up the snows of February. These 45 little images are a late-arriving Christmas gift from the contemporary print culture of Japan -- from playful to reflective, from abstract to realist, from symbolic to descriptive - together they are a charming and effective cure for the mid-winter blues.
FEAS Gallery Room
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
12:00 pm
- 04:00 pm
EXHIBITION<br><b><i>A Late Christmas Gift: Contemporary Prints from Japan</b></i>
Imagine a box of all kinds of ornaments that come to light up the snows of February. These 45 little images are a late-arriving Christmas gift from the contemporary print culture of Japan-from playful to reflective, from abstract to realist, from symbolic to descriptive. Together they are a charming and effective cure for the mid-winter blues.
Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery
Thursday, February 02, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: A Corpse Standing Straight Up in a Desperate Bid for Life: Exploring the Uncanny Body in Butoh
Bruce Baird, Assistant Professor of Languages and Literature, University of Massachusetts AmherstButoh defies description. Observers resort to verbal contortions to articulate what they see: "the grotesque and the beautiful, the nightmarish and the poetic, the erotic and the austere, the streetwise and the spiritual." One might also say that the body in butoh is simultaneously more present and pure and more estranged than in any other manifestation. In this presentation, I seek to understand the place of the body in butoh, using the idea of the cyborg and the monster as foils for understanding this performance art.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Sunday, February 05, 2012
02:00 pm
- 03:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Pojagi Workshop - Jinyoung Kim
Workshop on Making Korean Wrapping ClothCelebrate the Lunar New Year by learning to the tradition of Korean patchwork (pojagi) and make traditional Korean pojagi by yourself. Participants in this hands-on workshop will explore unique Korean fabrics and how to adopt Korean pojagi in your everyday life. The traditional aesthetics of pojagi are related to both traditional American quilts and contemporary abstract painting. Ages 13 and up. We encourage mother-daughter participation.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
Feas Lecture Series: Strange Times: Cannibalism and Capitalist Kitsch
Dan O'Neil, Associate Professor, University of California, BerkeleyOne of the major new voices in contemporary Chinese cinema, the director Fruit Chan first gained international notoriety with his film Dumplings (200). Set in the aftermath of Hong Kong's "Handover" (the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China), the film's self-reflective blend of the grotesque and kitsch not only marked an aesthetic turnabout in Chan's oeuvre, but also arguably expanded the critical potential of contemporary horror cinema.While exploiting some of the tensions linked to the perceived erosion of cultural identity precipitated by the "Handover", the film also forges something strikingly original, inspired as much by the jarring iconography of the grotesque as it is by the theatrical affectations of kitsch.By focusing on the desperate circumstances and perverse desires that unite Auntie Mei (a former doctor from PRC) and Mrs. Li (a Hong Kongbourgeois), I hope to explore the various ways in which the film engages with the problem of temporality, as it beckons back to a long sweepingmystical history of cannibalism in China, then charges forward to a contemporary Hong Kong rendered as a space of freewheeling capital,gradually building up to a bewildering finale that leaves us with a strange aftertaste of disgust, parody and social critique.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, February 23, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Alternative Models for Social Organization during the Longshan Period in China
Anne Underhill, Professor, Anthropology Department, Yale UniversityArchaeological fieldwork in diverse areas of China has revealed evidence for multi-community polities from the late prehistoric period that remain inadequately understood. Even within the Yellow River valley alone, distinct differences in social, economic, and political organization are becoming evident. This lecture highlights differences between regions and describes ongoing efforts to explain the nature of the complex society that developed at Liangchengzhen in the Rizhao area of Shandong province.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Reshaping Collective Consciousness: Hebrew and Chinese Narrative on the Holocaust and Nanking Massacre (1960-1980)
Zhiqing Zhong, Professor, Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social SciencesThis presentation will survey how memories of historical trauma such as the Holocaust and Nanking Massacre were transferred into Hebrew and Chinese national literatures during the post-Holocaust and post-Nanking Massacre period. The focus will be upon how literature functions in reconstructing the national past and in the reshaping of collective consciousness. In both the Hebrew and Chinese contexts, the heroic myths created during the formative years of the statehood were eventually broken; in the 1960s in Israel and in the 1970s in China respectively. Historical landmarks during this period such as the Eichmann Trial, the Six Days War, the Yom Kippur War and Lebanon War in Israel and the Cultural Revolution in China will be shown to have brought about a dramatic change in narratives of collective memory of historical trauma.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, March 29, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Murakami Ryz and the Madonna Horror Complex
Sayumi Takahashi Harb, Assistant Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Connecticut College.Murakami Ryu (b. 1952) is a prolific writer who has produced writings in a diverse array of genres, including his award-winning debut novel "Almost Transparent Blue" and his critically-acclaimed work "Coin Locker Babies". Takahashi Harb examines from a feminist perspective two seemingly disparate novels, "Kyoko" (1995) and "Audition"(1997), alongside their film adaptations directed by Murakami himself in 2000 and Takashi Miike in 1999 respectively. While the titular character of "Kyoko" is an innocent ingenue, the character of Asami in the horror-thriller "Audition" is anything but. However, they are ultimately manifestations of a certain shared concern and a recurrent motif within Murakami's work.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
12:00 pm
- 01:00 pm
Exhibition Opening Gallery Talk & Luncheon: Provincial Treasures: Chinese Antiques Donated in Honor of Houghton Buck Freeman
This intriguing and varied array of antiques provides a window into the lives of well-off people in late nineteenth century China. Ancestor portraits, furniture, wood sculptures, delicate bamboo cases, cleverly wrought brass braziers and more -- intriguing forms and attractive decorations help them transcend mere utility. This donation represents another instance of the spirit that Buck Freeman's generosity instilled in generations of Wesleyan students.
FEAS Gallery Room
Thursday, April 05, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Asian Tiger or Fragile Dragon? Understanding China's Development Model
Fubing Su, Associate Professor, Political Science, Vassar CollegeChina's dramatic growth in the past thirty years has reenergized a debate about development strategies for industrializing countries. Some policy analysts believe that the "made-in-China" Beijing Consensus offers an alternative model to the West. China has indeed followed a path that resembled the East Asian developmental state model. What distinguishes the China Model from other countries, however, is its strong dynamism at the local level. Chinese local governments exhibited an insatiable appetite for growth and investment, especially export-oriented manufactures. The competitive pressure resulted in over-investment, wasteful land taking, and poor labor and environment standards. Any evaluation of China's past experience and the projection of its future need to take into consideration of this dimension.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, April 12, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: China's Frustrated Quest for Global Influence
Richard Krauss, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of OregonAmidst China's economic growth and new military might, Beijing also believes that Chinese arts should enjoy respect and influence abroad. But this goal has been elusive. This frustration is explained by several factors, including China's aesthetic distance from the West, ham-fisted initiatives from China's leaders, and the international system's begrudging recognition of cultural influence by any rising power.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, April 19, 2012
08:00 pm
- 09:00 pm
FEAS Freeman Lecture: Post 3/11 Japanese Economy
Takeo Hoshi, Professor/Pacific Economic Cooperation Chair in International Economics, University of California, San Diego
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Monday, April 23, 2012
04:30 pm
- 05:30 pm
Japanese Tea Ceremony & Garden Viewing
Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstration and Viewing of the Freeman Family Japanese GardenStephen A. Morrell, Landscape Designer
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
04:30 pm
- 06:00 pm
FEAS Lecture Series: Chen Yinke (1890-1969) The Quiet Giant of China's Culture Wars
Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies & History:Historian and poet, Chen Yinke has been riveting the attention of Chinese intellectuals for the past two decades. In fact, his life and vast corpus of scholarly and literary output have become part of the heated debates centering upon the role of culture in Chinese history as well as the role of Western ideas, ideals and methodologies for the study of East Asian civilization. Fiercely non-political, Chen has become a politically contested cultural icon in the Chinese-speaking world. He remains relatively unknown in the West. This lecture explores the process through which a diminutive and blind man emerged as a visionary after his tragic death during the Cultural Revolution. After four decades of writing about modern intellectuals, Schwarcz is now exploring the poetry of Chen Yinke as a paradigm for the historian's conscience in China, and beyond.
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Monday, May 07, 2012
04:30 pm
- 05:30 pm
Japanese Garden Lecture and Garden Viewing
Japanese Garden Lecture and ViewingStephen Morrell, Landscape Designer,Freeman Family Japanese Garden
FEAS Seminar Room (Mary Houghton Freeman Room)
Sunday, May 20, 2012
10:00 am
- 12:00 pm
Garden Conservancy Open Days
"Open Days" Garden Conservancy Garden Tour of the Freeman Family Japanese GardenStephen Morrell, Landscape Designer,Freeman Family Japanese Garden
FEAS Tatami Room
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