Recent News

Japanese Language Placement Test for Fall’21

Posted on | by Yoko Yamauchi

 

The application period for the placement test Fall’21 has closed. Please check back in November 2021 for the dates of the next Japanese Placement Test in Winter 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact Yoko Yamauchi (yokoy@eastasian.ucsb.edu)

〈How to prepare for the Placement Test〉
Review the materials (textbooks) of the course(s) you have taken before. We recommend to review verb and adjective conjugations as well as vocabulary and kanji. Please refer to the course description (Japanese Language Course Description) for more information about the each level of our Japanese courses. If you have a certain course you wish to start, look at the description of the course prior to the placement test. A course description indicates what you are expected to be able to do to take the course you wish to take.

Unhappy woman giving a thumbs down and holding a book

“The Worst Chinese Poetry” featured in The Current

Posted on | by Thomas Mazanec
“The Worst Chinese Poetry” event organized by Thomas Mazanec, Xiaorong Li, and Hangping Xu has been featured in the Current, UCSB’s general news outlet. Read the story here: https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2021/020304/lyrical-losers
An excerpt:
“By calling something ‘good,’ you are drawing a line, saying some things are good, some are bad,” Mazanec said. “That line was drawn differently in different times and different places. There are all sorts of considerations that go into drawing that line: aesthetic, moral, social and political standards that change with time. By investigating these standards, we can learn a lot about Chinese literary history.”
Gagaku Header

Our Gagaku Critical Interventions Lab is Going Virtual!

Posted on | by EALCS Admin

Our long-awaited Gagaku Critical Interventions Lab is going virtual!

“Gagaku: Cultural Capital, Cultural Heritage, and Cultural Identity” will discuss Gagaku (the ceremonial music of the imperial court and the main Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan) as “cultural capital” in its intellectual, political, and economic implications, as well as its transnational ramifications, for the definition of cultural heritage and the formation of cultural identity in Japan from the Edo period until today.

This Critical Interventions Lab gathers international scholars and performers engaged in cutting-edge research on the cultural history of Gagaku, with special focus on the Edo period and the modern era. Languages of the presentations and discussions are English and Japanese.

We have created an online platform that includes video presentations, texts, videos of performances, and live workshops and discussions, in the hope that this material will become an educational resource to learn about Gagaku in its various aspects.

Check out our participants, program, and resources here: http://gagaku.eastasian.ucsb.edu

This Critical Interventions Lab is organized by Fabio Rambelli (International Shinto Foundation Endowed Chair in Shinto Studies) as part of “Japanese Culture En Route: Transnational Currents and Connections in Japanese Performing Traditions” funded by a Japan Foundation Institutional Project Support grant (Ref. No. 10121178).

Congratulations Announcement for Professor Suma Ikeuchi for winning the 2020 Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion

Prof. Suma Ikeuchi Wins 2020 Geertz Prize in Anthropology of Religion

Posted on | by EALCS Admin

The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies is delighted to share the news that Prof. Suma Ikeuchi has won the prestigious 2020 Clifford Geertz Prize in Anthropology of Religion for her book, Jesus Loves Japan: Return Migration and Global Pentecostalism in a Brazilian Diaspora. Prof. Ikeuchi is also the recent winner of the 2020 Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize, sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Society for East Asian Anthropology. Congratulations, Prof. Ikeuchi!

The Clifford Geertz Prize in the Anthropology of Religion is awarded by the Society for the Anthropology of Religion as part of the American Anthropological Association. It seeks to encourage excellence in the anthropology of religion by recognizing an outstanding recent book in the field. The Prize is named in honor of the late Professor Clifford Geertz, in recognition of his many distinguished contributions to the anthropological study of religion. In awarding the Prize, the Society hopes to foster innovative scholarship, the integration of theory with ethnography, and the connection of the anthropology of religion to the larger world.

 

Flyer for The Worst Chinese Poetry for June 1 & 2, 2021, 5-7PM

The Worst Chinese Poetry: A Virtual Roundtable

Posted on | by Thomas Mazanec

Join us for phase two of “The Worst Chinese Poetry: A Virtual Workshop.” This will be two-day roundtable discussion open to the public, following up on phase one, which was a series of fourteen miniature workshops held in early April.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/WorstPoetry

Organized by our three Chinese literature specialists (Thomas Mazanec, Xiaorong Li, and Hangping Xu), the goal of this project is to rethink Chinese literary history through negative examples. It seeks to interrogate the aesthetic, social, moral, and political criteria by which Chinese-language poems were considered “bad” in different times and places. Selected contributions will be compiled to create a book, The Worst Chinese Poetry: A Critical Anthology.

  • Day 1 (June 1) will feature four thematic roundtables based upon our larger workshop held in April.
  • Day 2 (June 2) will begin with a reflection on the workshop by our three headlines, then will shift to a free-form discussion open to all.

Detailed schedule:

June 1
  • 5:00–5:05: Opening Remarks by Thomas Mazanec
  • 5:05–5:30: Vulgarity and Frivolity, featuring Xiaorong Li, Keith McMahon, and Jason Protass
  • 5:30–5:55: Commenting, Framing, and Judging, featuring Richard John Lynn, Maddalena Poli, Hangping Xu, and Yunshuang Zhang
  • 5:55–6:05: Break
  • 6:05–6:30: Appropriations and Aesthetics, featuring Graham Chamness, Soohyun Lee, Michelle Yeh, and Meimei Zhang
  • 6:30–6:55: Foreignness and Chineseness, featuring Nick Admussen, Angie Chau, and Sixiang Wang
June 2
  • 5:00-5:05: Welcome by Thomas Mazanec
  • 5:05-5:35: Reflections by Ronald Egan, Richard John Lynn, and Michelle Yeh
  • 5:35-5:55: Discussion between Egan, Lynn, and Yeh
  • 5:55-6:05: Break
  • 6:05-6:55: Open Discussion moderated by Thomas Mazanec, Xiaorong Li, and Hangping Xu

We hope to see you there!

Sponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies. Poster designed by Q. Z. Lau.