| Skidmore to
Host Major Asian Studies Conference
International scholars will gather at Skidmore Friday and Saturday,
Oct. 25 and 26, for the annual meeting of the New York Conference
of Asian Studies (NYCAS).
Skidmore Trustee Oscar Tang will be among the dignitaries addressing
the approximately 200 participants of the event, which has as its
theme “Asia: Image, Imaging, and Imagination.” Also
attending the conference will be David Ludden, professor of history
at the University of Pennsylvania and a specialist in South Asian
studies, who currently serves as president of the Association for
Asian Studies. He will give the presidential address at Friday evening’s
dinner.
A number of panels and discussion groups over the two days will
be devoted to analyzing such questions as the images outsiders have
of Asians and the images Asians present to themselves and others;
the technologies that render Asia and Asians into images - and the
impact of such media as documentaries and feature films on the teaching
of Asian Studies; and the different traditions of imagination in
Asia, including the literary, poetic, artistic, philosophical, religious,
and political.
Mao Chen, director of Skidmore’s Asian Studies Program and
chair of the conference, explained, “Our conference theme
encourages an interface between disciplines and geographical interests,
and we hope it will bring a broad range of scholars from various
academic fields to this meeting.
“Asia has been defined in the imagination of the West with
different images — some demonized, static or passive; some
idealized, exotic or spiritual. I believe that our imagination of
the other is very often determined by the historical givens and
by the need of the self. It is my hope that the conference will
provide a forum for participants and our students to learn about
many myths and realities of Asia and ultimately deepen our self-knowledge
and cultural understanding.”
Each day will have a highlight event. The conference banquet, scheduled
Oct. 25 at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, will feature
Ludden’s address, “Maps in the Mind and Mobility of
Asia.” Following his talk, guests will move to the Dance Theater
for “Bridge of Souls,” a performance by the Chamber
Music Society of Minnesota with guest soloist Xiao-fen Min, who
plays the pipa, a Chinese four-stringed lute.
A University of Pennsylvania faculty member since 1981, Ludden is
the former director of Penn’s National Resource Center for
South Asia and past chair of the university’s Department of
South Asia Regional Studies. His research has focused primarily
on India and its political, economic, and cultural developments.
His most recent book, titled India and South Asia: A Short History,
is forthcoming from OneWorld Publishers. Ludden has received a number
of Fulbright grants and fellowships to support his research.
At 1 p.m. Oct. 26, in Gannett Auditorium, Oscar Tang will give the
event’s plenary address. He is expected to provide a personal
perspective on the Asian-American experience and include discussion
of the two great waves of Chinese immigration to the United States,
in the 1800s and in the late 20th century. President Jamienne S.
Studley will introduce Tang.
Best known at Skidmore for the Tang Museum, named for his first
wife, the late Frances Young Tang ’61, Oscar Tang is also
the father of Kristen Tang ’92. A native of Shanghai, with
a Yale B.S. and a Harvard M.B.A., he founded the investment firm
of Reich and Tang, which later combined with Nvest. He is now a
private investor and chair of KOA Holdings.
A longtime trustee of the China Institute of New York City, Tang
is a founder of the Committee of 100, a national organization committed
to Asia-America understanding. He is also a trustee of, and art
donor to, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where a new gallery for
Chinese art was recently named for Frances Young Tang.
Conference panels begin during the afternoon of Oct. 25 and continue
throughout the day on Saturday, Oct. 26. Panels will cover a wide
range of topics, including images from Taiwan and Indonesia of civil
society, human rights, and political change; social values and ethics;
the religion, politics, and environment of India; recent politics
in the People’s Republic of China; the 1989 Tian’anmen
protest; gender issues in China and Hong Kong; Japanese cinema;
and military history in Northeast Asia.
Throughout the conference, an exhibition titled “36 Ancient
Strategies of China” by artists Liming Tang and Xiaohuan Lee
will be displayed in the Tang Museum, and a book exhibition of Asian
Studies texts will take place in the lobby of Palamountain/Dana
halls.
complex.
Skidmore participants and their topics include the following:
- Joel Smith, associate
professor of philosophy, who will chair the panel on “India:
Religion, Politics, and the Environment” and present the
paper, “Gandhi, the Goddess and the Ganges: Liquid Shakti
in the Indian Himalayas.”
- Mao Chen, director of
Skidmore’s Asian Studies Program, Birgit Linder, Asian Studies
teaching fellow, and Jack Ling, director of the Office of Diversity
and Affirmative Action, who will be discussants at the panel on
“Teaching Images of China.”
- Doretta Miller, professor
of art, who will discuss “The Languages of Visual Space
in Contemporary Chinese Painting” in the panel “Interpretations
and Applications of 36 Strategies of Ancient China.”
- Charles Joseph, interim
vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty, who
will introduce David Ludden at Friday’s banquet.
- Margaret Pearson, associate
professor of history, will present “Images of Women in Early
China” and Megan Rhodes ’03 will present “Gender
in Contemporary China,” both as part of the panel, “Gender
Images: Examples from China and Hong Kong.”
- Virginia Murphy-Berman,
visiting professor of psychology, and John Berman, professor of
psychology, who will present “Difference in Western and
Non-Western Construals of Fairness and Duty: An Example from Indonesia,”
as part of the panel, “Constructing Images of the Other:
Views from Indonesia and the Philippines.” Murphy-Berman
also will moderate that panel.
- Rob Linrothe, associate
professor of art history, will chair the panel “Aesthetic
Encounters in the Himalayas” and present his paper, “Patriarchs
and Patrons: Images of Ethnicity in Tibetan Religious Painting.”
The New York Conference for
Asian Studies is the regional chapter of the national Association
for Asian Studies. NYCAS includes colleges and universities located
in New England, upstate New York, and southeastern Canada. View
the conference web
site for detailed information.
Skidmore
Intercom
Skidmore College
815 North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
518.580.5000
intercom@skidmore.edu
|
