The Department of Asian Studies' 2022-2023 Faculty Seminar Series

Boundaries: Physical and Conceptual

Schedule

Abstract

The talk examines the attempts by certain cadres inside the Communist Party of the Philippines to seek military assistance from "fraternal movements and governments" so that it could move forward with its revolution beyond simple guerilla warfare. It follows this 1990s memoir by a former Party member who was assigned to acquire sophisticated weapons from a diverse group of actors who ranged from Palestinian armed movements to socialist Cuba and Nicaragua.

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Prof. Patricio Abinales | view
University of Hawaii
28/06/2023 - WED 16:30 - Room 5318

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Abstract

The Chinese Legalists are often condemned as defenders of despotism, but it is obvious that they consider laws (and institutions) to be crucial in governance. The critics then claim that what they are embracing is “rule by law” at best, and is definitely not “rule of law.” However, these terms are often used in a confused and unclear manner. In this paper, I first clarify and distinguish among terms of legal philosophy such as “rule by man,” “rule by law,” “positive law” (or “legal positivism”), “rule of law,” and “natural law.” Those who are critical of Legalists such as Han Fei Zi often take a very “thick” reading of the rule of law, making it the rule of the good law or a form of natural law. With this (mis-)reading, they then reject the idea that Han Fei Zi’s theory of law is in line with the rule of law. I will then show that despite the distinctions, there is a continuous spectrum from rule by man to natural law. In particular, when the law in legal positivism acquires certain features, rule by law can be transformed into the rule of law. Indeed, legal theorists from different schools may agree on a similar set of features of law, and based on these features, we can show that Han Fei Zi’s understanding of the law is firmly in the camp of the rule of law. But his theory has some subtle differences from Western political legal theories, and the study of it may then contribute to the enrichment of our understanding of law and politics.

 

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Prof. Bai Tongdong | view
Fudan University
14/06/2023 - WED 16:30 - Room 5318

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Abstract

In recent years, youth gender standards and the role of education in shaping them have become a contentious issue in Chinese public discourse. Some educators and political leaders have warned against a "crisis of masculinity" in the current generation of Chinese boys. Others insist that schools should promote the idea of "gender equality" and a "gender-safe" campus environment. This talk focuses on the latter strain of thinking. Noting the distinct, complex meanings of gender equality in the context of Chinese education, the talk considers how school materials produced in the Xi Jinping era (2012-) reflect and contribute to a growing moral panic about the blurring of boundaries between masculinity and femininity, and the threat this trend allegedly poses for the strength and stability of the Chinese nation. 

Abstract

This talk will discuss why certain types of East Asian religious images have been accepted, propagated, worshipped, and eventually enshrined within Western museums (and museums of the imagination), while other types of images have been proscribed, actively destroyed, and ignored by scholars and museums.  Certain sacred images and icons, especially those with materials (manuscripts, relics, materia medica) put inside of them at the time of consecration, inspire extreme forms of devotion, while others have presented problems for priests, politicians, philosophers, and academics who for various reasons have throughout history found them distasteful, attacked their validity and power, and have tried to hide them away or destroy them. Yet, even in the face of critique and destruction they have proliferated.

Abstract

My talk explores how mundane activities, such as switching off lights, conserving water, and making fewer phone calls, became an important political praxis and cultural prescription in Park Chung Hee period (1961-1979) South Korea. Administering frugality in daily life contexts became the “fingertip” project of the state, encouraging bureaucrats and citizens alike through "frugality awards."

Abstract

Following India's declaration of independence in 1947 and the subsequent partition into two nation-states, India and Pakistan, the region experienced a surge of violence and a massive exodus of refugees. In Delhi Reborn Rotem Geva explores the history of India's capital city during this tumultuous era, analyzing the ways in which the Second World War, nation building, and the crisis of partition all contributed to the city's profound transformation.

Abstract

This talk will discuss recent steps taken by the U.S. administration to promote financial disintegration in U.S.-China relations. Such recent steps, I argue, reflect an unprecedented form of financial lawfare. Its purpose -- to limit the flow of external capital to multinational Chinese firms and restrain the party-state's economic and technological ascent.  

Such steps, however, have largely backfired. Recent changes in Chinese law reflect that such efforts were answered by the Chinese Party-state de-facto establishing an extraterritorial regulatory authority over worldwide affiliates of Chinese firms. Financial disintegration thereby furthered the control of the party-state over such firms.  In addition, the steps ended up invigorating efforts to gradually divert capital-raising activities to Asia, and will likely reduce any (limited) reliance that Chinese firms had on U.S. capital. Rather, they are expected to contribute to a strengthened, more connected, Asian sphere of influence with China at its core.

Abstract

In the late 1910s and early 1920s, a new modern self as a cosmopolitan subject grew aware of the universalized space of modern culture, in which Japan coexisted with other European countries. Though cosmopolitan and outward-looking, it was also an era of reflecting on the self as an individual before thinking about one’s relationship with society. Intellectuals actively sought to embrace the spiritual and cultural aspects of Western thought, philosophy, and literature; German idealism, Marxism theory, and Russian humanism of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky fused in one spatiotemporal framework. In parallel with the Jazz Age in the United States and Les Années folles in France, the Age of the Dancefloor (odoriba no jidai) in Japan saw an expansion of urban lifestyle and mass consumption as well as the cultural and social transformation. I argue that in opposition to the commodification of dance, modernist dance or dance art (buyō geijutsu) emerged as an independent art medium with its radically different forms of expression and ways of looking at the world. This talk is based on unpublished and ongoing research.

Abstract

Between 1870 and 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy provided uniquely broad legal protection to subordinates who perpetrated crimes under the orders of military superiors. Not only were those who obeyed their superiors in breaching international law provided with legal immunity – so were soldiers who violated under orders standing legislation of the Japanese Army. This gave rise to a so-called “paradox of obedience”: while disobedience among officers was rampant, their subordinates were expected to unquestionably obey their orders, even in rebellion against the Japanese government. This mix of blatant disobedience to the system at large on the one hand, and blind obedience to immediate superiors on the other, was a remarkable feature of the Imperial Japanese armed forces. Drawing on law codes, court cases and judiciary writings, This presentation explores how this “paradox of obedience” encouraged mutinies as well as atrocities, especially in the 1930s and during the Asia-Pacific War.

Abstract

Quality measurements are an essential component for improving outcomes for chronic conditions, which weigh a heavy toll on individuals and societies, particularly in China. However, little is known about their implementation within the Chinese health-system and how they are perceived by patients, physicians, and policy-makers. We examined stakeholders’ perceptions of quality and performance measurements for primary diabetes care in Shanghai, China, and analyzed facilitators and barriers to implementation. In this Seminar Talk, findings from a qualitative study conducted from 2018 to 2019 will be presented, along with the local and global implications for exchanging healthcare indicators across borders, particularly among neighboring Asian countries.

Abstract

Studying Japan in the postwar United States created space for wrestling with the ghosts which have haunted narratives of modernization—questions of social solidarity, shared social meaning, and the psychological impoverishment of mass production and consumption. Japan studies in the latter part of the 20th century raised questions about the nature of community in the context of late modernity that have never been adequately answered. The talk considers three case studies: the work of Ruth Benedict, Robert Bellah, and Thomas P. Rohlen.

Abstract

Since 2010, China has sought to establish cyber sovereignty as a fundamental norm in global digital governance. In this vision, every state has the right to decide for itself how to govern its cyber territories, without intervention or interference from other states or non-state actors. China’s stance both reflects and has accelerated a global trend towards greater territorialization and securitization of the digital environment, in which other players, such as the US and the EU, have become increasingly willing to deploy sovereign power for strategic aims and purposes. The talk will address the complex and contradictory notion of sovereignty within Chinese policymaking, and the impact that global digital fragmentation will have on China’s technological ambitions. 

Abstract

What do we mean by 'text'? Is it a clearly defined category, which reflects the content intentionally designed by distinct authors? In the case of the early discourses attributed by tradition to the historical Buddha, such attitudes are deeply suspect. Here, texts had a dynamic life, being shaped and re-shaped by a web of creative processes, so that the purported collections of the Buddha's words emerge as methods for generating authoritative scripture. A text is a potential more than a fixed entity, and the end product we read today in the 'canon' shifted boundaries, much in accord with the Buddhist law of impermanence.