Friday, September 10, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the Hamilton Library, Room 301

Presented by Erenst Anip, LIS Graduate Student

In July 2010, Erenst went to Southeast Asia to be the LIS program’s first intern at the National University of Singapore Central Library where he was introduced to the inner workings of a premier university library in Asia. There, he learned about a different library system and organization. In this informal talk story session, he will share his experience in ‘finding a missing librarian’/being a junior operative, the library’s outreach and social media initiatives, KPIs and PMS, and Singapore’s favorite past time of ‘makan’.

Erenst Anip is a 2nd year LIS student from Indonesia. As a future academic librarian, he focuses on digital technologies and social media features to enhance the library’s appeal to the users while keeping abreast of (Southeast) Asia area studies. He is also the project manager of Hawaii’s Digital Newspaper Project, part of Library of Congress’ National Digital Newspaper Project (NDNP). Also, he is currently the treasurer of SLA-ASIST SC.

Wednesday, 15 September at 2:00 pm in Moore 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Dr. Takeshi Kawanaka, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Developing
Economies

Although the Philippines started the “third wave” of democratization in Asia, its democracy has been perceived as unstable. The country experienced not a few coup attempts, scandals of the Presidents, and large scale rallies on the street. Even elections, a fundamental democratic solution to the conflicts in the society, have not been able to gain the confidence of the people due to various frauds. In the 2010 elections, Noynoy Aquino, son of the two national “heroes” of democratization, was elected new President. Did the 2010 elections bring the hope for democratic consolidation? Or was the same old game merely repeated? We will try to assess the impact of the 2010 Philippine elections.

TAKESHI KAWANAKA is Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Developing Economies, Japan. His research interests are in political institutions and political economy of new democracies. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Kobe University, and conducted research at the University of the Philippines, Stanford University, and Ateneo de Manila University as visiting scholar.

To reassess the complex interconnections between Brecht’s work and various Asian cultures at the beginning of the 21st century, the International Brecht Society (IBS) and the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa invite scholars and artists in theater, performance, and other cultural fields to Honolulu for the 13th IBS Symposium on “Brecht in/and Asia” from May 19-23, 2010.

Brecht was not the only Western modernist to turn to Asian theater and thought for inspiration, but he was an especially astute observer of the cultural encounter with this “other,” which had such a significant impact on his work. Conversely, Brecht’s own theater and thought returned to inspire new forms of political and aesthetic experiments in many parts of Asia. With the dynamic, ongoing echoes of this mutual relationship as point of departure, the symposium will provide a forum to explore its multiple dimensions.

Below are the Southeast Asian focused panels:

Fritz Bennewitz’s Caucasian Chalk Circle in the Philippines
Thursday, May 20 at 3:45 pm in Webster Hall 103
Presented by David G. John, University of Waterloo, Ontario

Linking with the previous presentations by Rolf Rohmer and Joerg Esleben, this paper will first outline former GDR director Fritz Bennewitz’s long association with Philippine theatre through his interactions with indigenous theatre practitioners there, and especially his collaboration with the Philippine Education Theatre Association (PETA) in producing many plays. It will then focus on his 1977 production, with local actors and collaborators, of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle, in Tagalog (Ang Hatol na Bilog na Guhit), staged in Manila with thematic and stylistic connections to the southern Philippine region of Mindanao and its Muslim culture. Bennewitz asserted frequently that this play was an ideal vehicle for mutual intercultural exploration and understanding. Although judged by Philippine critics to be the country’s best production of the year, questions need to be asked as to whether or not it was indeed a successful intercultural venture from points of view then and now.

Since 1974 David John has been Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His major book publications focus on eighteenth-century German theatre, Goethe and Schiller, and he has just completed a book on Fritz Bennewitz’s seven productions of Faust in various countries. He is currently involved in an international collaborative project on Bennewitz in India.

In Contestation over Hegemonic Narrative: Kamron’s Brechtian Theatre and Beyond
Thursday, May 20 at 11:00 am in Webster Hall 103
Presented by Parichat Jungwiwattanaporn, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

During seventy-eight years of parliamentary democracy (1932 – 2010), Thai democratization has gone through a number of significant challenges including coup d’états and the recent call by neo-nationalist royalists for a semi-absolute monarchy. The hegemony of the national ideology of the “Three Pillars” (i.e., nation, religion/Buddhism, and the King) has been so deeply imbedded in the Thai consciousness that any attempt to question the meta-narratives of Thai history can be construed as an act against national security. Since open discussions and criticism about these meta-narratives have been legally, socially, and culturally repressed, live theatre has become an important tool for contemporary artists in Thailand to express their dissent and to create a space in which they can interact live with an audience. For the past three decades, the Crescent Moon Theatre Group (CMTG), led by Kamron Gunatilaka, has been known to use both Thai and Western theatre techniques, especially the Brechtian theatre, to articulate dissent. In countering different meta-narratives, his productions take great risk at criticizing the hegemonic social memory, history, and collective psyche of Thailand. This paper will be a case study of Kamron’s most important production, The Revolutionist, which has been the most frequently performed contemporary theatre production in Thailand since 1987. Thai theatre critics consider it one of the most important Thai plays of the 20th century. The Revolutionist, inspired by Brechtian theatre, depicts a story of the leader of the Thai revolution in 1932, Pridi Banomyong, a progressive intellectual who fell victim to political intrigues. The play also provides historical details that provide a counter-metanarrative to the well-known metanarratives of recent Thai history. Through Lyotard’s postmodern lens, this paper intends to analyze the influences of Brechtian elements in Kamron’s dramaturgy as well as the creative outcomes that resulted from using this approach.

Parichat Jungwiwattanaporn is a PhD candidate in Asian Theatre at the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Since 1999, as a researcher and writer on theatre history and criticism in Thailand, she has participated in a national research project, “Criticism as an Intellectual Power in Contemporary Thai Society.” Her publications include three co-authored books and two books on Thai Contemporary Theatre and Criticism, as well as a number of articles for such journals as ATJ and SPAFA and various newspapers.

Research Program Seminar on Politics
Tuesday, 4 May at 12:00 pm in John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)
Presented by Baladas Ghoshal, Visiting Fellow in East-West Center

For centuries Islam in Southeast Asia was renowned for its adaptability to local practices and tolerance of other religions. Over the past three decades, however, fundamentalists have tried to homogenize Islam, introducing new tensions. More than any other factor, what has fueled conflicts and divided Muslims and others in otherwise tolerant and harmonious plural societies like Malaysia, Indonesia and some other countries of Southeast Asia, is the slow but steady process of the transformation of Islam in the region, from a syncretic and inclusive Islam to a puritanical and exclusivist one under the influence of ideas, norms, practices, and finances flowing from the Arab world. The “Islam of the desert” has made inroads across the Indian Ocean. This process of homogenization and regimentation – a process I would like to call the “Arabization” of Islam – puts greater emphasis on rituals and codes of conduct than on substance, through the Wahhabi and Salafi creeds, a rigidly puritanical branch of Islam exported from, and subsidized by, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The internationalization of Islam drew Southeast Asian Muslims to the desert and brought the desert to them. Such “globalization of political Islam” could threaten stability throughout Southeast Asia and the world. Unfortunately, too many proponents of any form of fundamentalism rely on it as a tool, not for inspiring spirituality, but for acquiring economic or political power.

BALADAS GHOSHAL is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and an honorary Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. He is a former Professor of Southeast Asia and South-West Pacific Studies and Chairman of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. A leading expert on Indonesian politics and society, Professor Ghoshal has published extensively on Indonesian politics, ASEAN and regional security issues, South Asian regional security and political developments. He received his Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Friday, April 23 at 12:00 pm in the Center for Korean Studies
Presented by Anusorn Unno, Ph.D Student – University of Washington; featuring Marcus Ferrara, Dr. Ehito Kimura and Dr. Ben Kerkvliet

The Red Shirts’ uprising which emerged right after the 2006 military coup and has intensified over the past four weeks represents significant changes in Thailand’s political landscapes. Streets in Bangkok which were used either by “the student movements” in the early and mid 1970s or by “the cell-phone mobs” in 1992 or by “the Yellow-Shirt Alliance” in 2004-2006, are now occupied by ordinary people from and of the upcountry in their attempt to express their political grievances and concerns. It is also the first time in Thai history that a Prime Minister has been brought to the negotiation table with protest leaders in a television live broadcast, and also the first time that such an uprising has forced the military back to the barracks. Several academic attempts have been made to make sense of these changes. The Red Shirts’ uprising, some argue, shows that the paradigm of an urban/rural divide (which implies that “rural” elects the government but “urban” overthrows it), is no longer tenable. Others maintain that the ruling elite conspiracy theory has also been discounted. In addition, the idea that there is a “class war” has also been debated and critiqued. The panel will discuss a crucial moment in Thailand’s political history and examine it through the perspectives of both Thai and international observers.

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Friday, April 16 at 12:00 pm in Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Theresa Christine Navarro, Public Relations Coordinator – Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

As a bridge between digital “native” and “immigrant,” email communication offers new strategies for program marketing in the face of severe budget cuts affecting academic outreach and administrative support. For Hawai‘i, email serves a dual purpose of connecting island educational institutions with continental and international counterparts as well as disseminating programmatic information to students, faculty, and administrators alike. With the proliferation of email survey programs, educational centers can now afford to conduct demographic studies and assess user feedback, both key to supporting successful funding initiatives. Part two of the SEA series on the University in the Digital Age, this presentation discusses strategies that earned the Center for Southeast Asian Studies the Constant Contact® Newsletter Award in 2009. Several free and affordable communication programs will be discussed, as well as ways to connect email content with free social networks to engender an interactive educational experience online, and create tools to measure and assess program user interests.

Theresa Christine Navarro is a Master’s Student in American Studies and Museum Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She received her BA in U.S. History and Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Prior to her graduate studies at UH, Theresa was the Corporate Relations Manager for the Center for Asian American Media, where she developed strategic corporate partnerships and worked with staff and board members alike to raise over $250,000 in institutional support. Theresa is currently the Public Relations Coordinator at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and remains actively involved with arts and educational centers on-island. She has provided development, event and outreach consultation for various non-profit organizations in California, Hawaiʻi and across the country.

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Thursday, 18 March 2010 at 3:00pm
Crawford 105

Anthropology Spring 2010 Colloquium Series
Co-Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Presented by Dr. Terry Rambo, Special
Professor at Khon Kaen University, THAILAND

More information can be found at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Dept. of Anthropology webpage.

Image taken from Lucas Jans under creative commons licensing.

Sponsored by the Center for Philippine Studies, , Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Tuesday, March 16 at 12:00 pm in the Center for Korean Studies
Presented by Dr. Tokushi Kasahara (Tsuru University) and Dr. Satoshi Nakano (Hitotsubashi University)

Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks by Dr. Tokushi Kasahara: Differences in the ways Chinese and Japanese publics have remembered the Massacre are a major obstacle in reconciliation today. Also, historical education causes a rift in understanding the atrocities associated with this event. In his paper, Prof. Tokushi Kasahara will discuss (1) how clear the differences in those public memories actually are by giving a quick look at the history textbooks used by both Japanese and Chinese; (2) why many Japanese do not know the details of the massacre, while most history textbooks in Japanese schools refer to the Nanjing Massacre; and (3) the significance of the publication of History That Opens the Future (2005), the first piece of educational historiography in East Asia edited by authors from Japan, China, and Korea.

Battle of Manila 1945: Politics of Forgetting and Remembrance by Dr. Satoshi Nakano (Battle of Manila: February 3 – March 3, 1945) which slaughtered approximately 100,000 civilian non-combatants by Japanese soldiers and the collateral damage caused by urban warfare, including US indiscriminate shelling, was once given considerable publicity in the Japanese War Crimes Trials (1946-1948). However, it has long been the subject of amnesia in Japan, the United States, and even in the Philippines. The 50th year’s anniversary (1995) marked the quiet beginning of protest against forgetting with the erection of a small memorial in Intramuros, Manila. Will it cause another “Rape of Nanking” problem for Japanese in the near future? Prof. Satoshi Nakano will discuss a brief history of forgetting and remembrance of the battle in postwar Philippine-Japan relations, and the possibility of a more meaningful reconciliation by not forgetting it but by living with its memories. The presentation includes a film showing (about 20 minutes) of NHK documentary “Remembering the Battle of Manila” (2007).

Tokushi Kasahara, professor in the Faculty of Literature of the Tsuru University in Japan, is a leading scholar of modern Chinese history and has long been fighting against attempts by the Japanese government to whitewash the memories of Japanese wartime aggression, as well as against right-wing revisionists alleging that the Nanjing Massacre was an illusion or fabrication. He is one of the editors of History That Opens the Future (2005). Currently he is “back” to rural history of modern China and Kuomintang history.

Satoshi Nakano, professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences of the Hitotsubashi University, has pursued various aspects of the Philippines-Japan-United States history, including Philippine Independence, Japanese occupation and war memories, American cold warriors in the Philippines during 1950s, and of Filipino World War II veterans and their migration to the United States and the present equity movement. He is currently an organizer of the grants-in-aid research project “Truths and Memories of the Battle of Manila: Area Studies for Peace.”

Photo from Britannica Online showcasing the aftermath in Manila after the Allied Forces recaptured the city in 1945.

Sponsored by the Center for Philippine Studies, , Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Wednesday, March 10 at 3:30 pm in Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Dr. Pia Arboleda, Assistant Professor – Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

This presentation will examine the challenges encountered in translating and subtitling Filipino director Raymond Red’s Sakay in an effort to make it accessible to Filipino heritage language learners and non-Filipino language students in a classroom environment. In translating and subtitling Sakay, Dr. Arboleda will try to “[reproduce] in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.”

The major challenge in translation is that many language equivalents are available because of variations of possible meaning in the dialogue. In a number of cases, the equivalents may be accurate in meaning, but unnatural in colloquial delivery. In this regard, certain choices are made in order to ensure that the subtitles produce the same understanding for non-Filipino viewers as they would for native speakers.

Sakay is set in the early 1900s in the Philippines, when the Philippines changed colonial masters from the Spanish to the Americans. It was necessary to consider the historical and cultural context of the period, and include these important contextual elements in the final English subtitles.

This presentation will include video clips of scenes in support of issues discussed in the presentation.

Dr. Pia Arboleda is assistant professor of Filipino and Philippine Literature at the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures where she teaches Translation Theory and Practice, Philippine History and Culture, and Philippine Folklore. She received her doctorate degree in Language and Literature from De La Salle University, Manila. She has taught Philippine Literature, Language and History at Osaka University for four and a half years.She is also a poet and creative writer. Her works have appeared in Forbidden Fruit: Women Write the Erotic, Kung Ibig Mo: Love Poetry by Women and Essays on Women, among others.

more info at +1 808 956 6086 or cps@hawaii.edu | Center for Philippine Studies | Sakay

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Friday, February 19 at 12:00 pm in Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Ronald Gilliam, Online Development Coordinator – Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

In the past five years social networking sites have drastically gained in popularity, but many users have yet to discover the true power behind effectual social networking. Surprisingly, few academics and educational administrators use free social networking sites despite the fact that online communities such as Facebook.com originated with an academic focus. This presentation aims to showcase various social networking technologies and how they may be applied in an academic setting. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies social networking tools―Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Vimeo―will be used as a guide for our exploration and we will discuss examples of good/bad social networking habits. In addition, advice will be given on various online sources to aid academics and educational administrators in adapting to new online methods of communication.

Ronald Gilliam is currently a doctoral student in Asian theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Graduate Degree Fellow of the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He previously received his MA from the Department of Performance Studies at New York University and his BA in Theatre and Chinese Language from Butler University. As a Graduate Assistant in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Ronald is responsible for the continuing online development of the Center’s web presence(s). Since joining the center in Fall 2009, Ronald has redesigned the SEA website and incorporated numerous social networking strategies in order to create a dynamic community on the web. He freelances as a graphic designer and marketing consultant through Colordrop.

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