Washington University  St. Louis, Missouri

From the Director’s Desk
 

East Asian Studies has enjoyed another prosperous year. Enrollments in undergraduate courses continue to thrive. A total of 1,366 undergraduates were enrolled in introductory EAS courses last year. A survey of students conducted in the Fall confirmed that interest in East Asia is substantial and deep on our campus. Of the students surveyed over 50% took EAS courses out of general interest, while less than 15% elected to take an EAS class to fulfill the University’s "Non-Western" course requirement. Nearly 70% had already taken at least one other East Asia-related course, and 50% had taken three or more. 66% expressed the wish to take additional East Asian Studies courses and 65% of those surveyed hoped to include East Asia in their future career goals. Exit surveys of graduating majors conducted last spring revealed a high level of satisfaction with EAS course offerings and faculty. Many noted that they intended to continue their pursuit of East Asian Studies in their future careers.
 

In fact, EAS graduates have been remarkably successful in establishing themselves in the job market. A recent survey of EAS graduates from both BA and MA programs confirms their success. Over 36% of those who responded have careers in the corporate sector—many in occupations that utilize their East Asian strengths. Nearly 25% have found careers in academia at the secondary or post-secondary level. A number are in tenure-track positions at universities here and abroad. Other graduates have found careers with the government (13%) or in non-profit organizations (9%). As far as improvements for the EAS Program, many respondents recommended a greater diversity of course offerings, particularly in the social sciences, and more interconnection with the professional schools. These are concerns shared by EAS, and items we hope to address in the near future. Almost every respondent to the survey noted the generosity and sensitivity of EAS faculty in assisting individuals with academic and career development. Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply to the survey. A break down of the response percentages are shown below:
 
 

Corporate sector 36 Non-Profit 9 Academic 22 Government 13 Other 20

COMINGS AND GOINGS
 
 

A number of East Asian Studies students will be graduating this spring. Our sixteen majors are: Christopher Braswell, Susi Conway, Sasha Freedman (Dual Degree in Art), Freya Fung, Kevin Ho, Chieu Vi Hong, Katherine Lane, Chun Wen Lee, Hong-Ming Liaw, Sarah Moore, John Ossenfort, Sarah Teal, Brett Tande (primary in Business), Frederick Tsai (primary in Business), Rhiana Wallace, and Jisun Yu. Jane Chen graduated in December 1999. Candidates for the MA degree in East Asian Studies are: Sarah Cao, William Collazo, Scott Markowitz, Joseph McGuire, Jia Wu, and Heather Eaton, who will be completing her J.D. degree this summer. Tara Adrian received her M.A. last December; Anne Schmidt and Walter Hutchens successfully completed the Joint Program in Law and EAS at that time; and Kelly Gates finished her Dual Degree in Business in East Asian Studies.
 

Although sad to see these students leave, we celebrate their new milestone. And we are pleased that so many new students will be joining the program in the fall. Although an exact headcount is not yet possible, we anticipate seven-eight new MA students; five-six new JD/MA students (two of whom have already completed their first year of Law School); and one new MBA/MA student!
 
 

NEW FACULTY
 

We are also delighted to welcome new faculty members. Elizabeth Oyler joined the EAS faculty last fall when she was appointed to the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (ANELL). Having recently completed her Ph.D. work at Stanford University, Dr. Oyler’s area of expertise is pre-modern Japanese literature, primarily The Tale of Heike. Since joining the program, she has initiated a weekly Hyakunin isshu poetry circle and a monthly career-development workshop, "Scaling the Ivory Tower."

Ms. Tz’u Chiang has also been newly appointed to ANELL as a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Language. A native of Taiwan, Ms. Chiang was an important contributor to the International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University (formerly known as the Inter-University Program, IUP), and now she brings her expertise and experience to our program!
 

This coming fall the East Asian Studies Program is pleased to welcome Dr. Lingchei Letty Chen who will be joining the ANELL department as an Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Literature. With interests in modern Chinese literature, comparative literature, and gender issues, Dr. Chen will be poised to offer EAS students a variety of interesting courses.
 

We will also be welcoming Mr. Jung-Tae Kim officially to ANELL. Mr. Kim has been teaching Korean on our campus for several years in an adjunct capacity. Beginning this fall he will be appointed as a full-time lecturer in Korean language.
 

Not least by any means is Professor John Owen Haley, who will be joining the Washington University Law School faculty this fall. Synonymous with scholarship on Japanese legal systems, Professor Haley has authored and co-authored a plethora of books and studies on the subject.
 

With every coming there must also be a going. We are sorry to see Beth Eckelkamp leave the Japanese Section where she has taught for many years. Ms. Eckelkamp will be taking a full-time position at UMSL in the fall, so at least she will not be far from sight!
 

NOTEWORTHY
 

EAS faculty and students are constantly engaged in noteworthy events and are frequently the recipients of awards and honors. Many of the events are recorded in the Alumni and Faculty reports below. But a few of the awards and honors are worth special mention here:

Fred Tsai (BS ’00) completed and successfully defended an Honors Thesis in East Asian Studies. His report of his experiences organizing the highly successful conference last fall "Memories of Nanking: Towards a Global Consensus," was evaluated by Professors Rebecca Copeland, Robert Hegel, and James Wertsch (Education). A copy of Fred’s thesis is available in the EAS Office. Fred will graduate CUM LAUDE..

The following East Asian Studies Majors will graduate with COLLEGE HONORS:
Susi Conway
Freya Fung
Kevin Ho
Chieu Vi Hong
Rhiana Lee Wallace

Kevin Ho has also been admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society in Liberal Arts, Golden Key National Honor Society (for Scholastic Achievement and Excellence)

Freya Fung also received the Golden Key National Honor.  And, Rhiana Wallace received the Ralph Bunche Award for academic achievement!

Tara Adrian (MA ’99) left Washington University with a first-prize award for her ceramic piece "Kemuri," which was part of the Art School’s Fall Juried Show.

Two East Asian Studies students participated in the Third Annual Graduate Student Conference on East Asia at Harvard University, which was held in Boston on March 4, 2000. William Collazo (MA ’00) presented a paper entitled "Dowa Education: Toward a Multicultural View of Japanese Society;" and Walter Hutchens (JD/MA ’99) presented "The Paradox of Secret Transparencies: China's Rule on Issuing Stock."

William Collazo received the "Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence for 1999-2000," which recognizes superb performance by a graduate teaching assistant in the instruction of Arts and Sciences undergraduates. William was the TA for "Japanese Civilization" in the Fall semester, assisting Dr. Copeland, and for "Buddhist Thought and Values" in the Spring, assisting Dr. Grant. In addition to grading papers and leading weekly discussion sections, William was also a first-rate AV specialist—arm wrestling ornery video machines and brow beating wayward slide projectors—and an accomplished webmaster. William’s "Japanese Civilization" course page can be seen at: http://artsci.wustl.edu/ ~wcollazo/ JapanCiv226.html

Scott Markowitz(MA ’00) participated in the Japanese Speech Contest at the University of Iowa and won First Place in the Advanced Level. Scott’s performance of his speech, "Free Trade and Community Interests: Finding the Perfect Balance," can be viewed on the contest website: http://www.uiowa.edu/~japanese/Speech-contest.html

Paul Saulski, JD/MA, is the recipient of the National Securities Education Program (NSEP) fellowship. This fellowship will pay for Paul to go to Middlebury's Japanese language program this summer and to Japan Jan'01-May'01, where he will continue his Japanese and Chinese language study and conduct research on "Legal Aspects of East Asian Industrial Policy as it Applies to International Trade and Finance."

1999 JD/MA graduate Anne Schmidt's article "The Confuciusornis Sanctus: An Examination of Chinese Cultural Property Law and Policy in Action" will be published in the spring/summer 2000 issue of the Boston College International and Comparative Law Review. Anne received four publication offers from top-25 international law journals and made it to the final review stage at both Harvard International Law Journal and Yale Journal of International Law.

Dr. Beata Grant, associate professor of Chinese and chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in Arts & Sciences, received a 1999 Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, a state policy board that oversees the Missouri Department of Higher Education.
 

Grant received the award at a statewide higher education planning conference held late last year. The awards have been presented annually to an outstanding faculty member from each of about 50 public and independent colleges and universities in Missouri. Award criteria generally include effective teaching and advising at the undergraduate level; service to the campus community; commitment to high standards of excellence; success in nurturing student achievement; and impact on academic and personal lives of students.

COURSEWORK
 
 
 
 

We were fortunate to have Dr. Han-Mook Lee visiting for the spring semester. Professor of English at Myong Ji University in Seoul, Korea, Dr. Lee taught "Korean Civilization" on our campus through an arrangement with the Korea Research Foundation. East Asian Studies is also grateful to Chou Ping, Ph.D., Stanford University, who taught an assortment of Chinese culture/literature courses, including "Chinese Civilization." Once again EAS students benefited from the expertise of University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) Faculty members. In the fall, Joel Glassman taught "Seminar in Chinese Politics;" and in the spring Susan Brownell offered "Culture and Business in East Asia." The spring term was enriched once again by Michele Shoresman who taught "East Asian Educational Policies: China, Japan, and Korea."

 

JOINT CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN STUDIES
 

The Joint Center for East Asian Studies, inaugurated in 1991, combines the resources and strengths of Washington University with those of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). Now approaching its tenth year, the Center has proved to be an unprecedented success—a model to which similar programs have turned for guidance and direction. The JCEAS not only provides EAS students on WU’s campus with access to UMSL’s distinguished faculty, many of whom specialize in areas that are underdeveloped on the WU campus—such as the social sciences, the agreement also allows both universities to co-sponsor a colloquium series, as described below.

UMSL has recently added several new key players to the JCEAS. Last year Dr. Hung-Gay Fung joined the Center for International Studies at UMSL as the Y.S. Tsiang Professor of Chinese Studies. A native of Hong Kong, Dr. Fung’s expertise is in Chinese business and international banking and finance. Beginning in the fall, Dr. Alan Bird will join the UMSL program as the Eiichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Professor in Japanese Studies. Dr. Bird’s area of expertise is Management and International Business.

In addition to this new appointment, UMSL will also welcome Dr. Debin Ma to its Economics Department. Dr. Ma received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and, until April 2000 was a Researcher at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
 

COLLOQUIUM
 

Every academic year EAS—under the auspices of the Joint Center for East Asian Studies—sponsors a Colloquium Series. Past topics for the series have ranged from "East Asian Diasporas" to "Political Transitions in East Asia" and have featured such speakers as Dorothy Ko (University of California, San Diego), Cameron Hurst (University of Pennsylvania), and Thomas Gold (University of California, Berkeley).

This year EAS graduate students were invited to submit themes for the series. The Colloquium Committee was pleased to accept the topic suggested by Joseph Dreher (MA ’01) and organized the subsequent colloquium under the title "The West and East Asia." Following the thoughtful suggestions of a variety of other graduate students—foremost Walter Hutchens—we were able to compile a fabulous array of scholars from across the nation who engaged us with their insights on the subject of Westerners in and the Westernization of East Asia. Dr. Sandra Buckley, Director of the Center for Arts and Humanities, SUNY-Albany, provided the inaugural lecture "Global Feminism? Negotiating Feminist Futures in Asia" on September 16, 1999.
 

Dr. Andrew Nathan, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, followed on October 1, 1999, with "Democracy and Democratization in China."

On November 11, 1999, Independent Film Director and Producer, Mr. Regge Life spoke on "The Underestimated Power of Culture." His talk was preceded by a screening of his documentary "Struggle and Success: African Americans’ Experiences in Japan." Dr. Seung Kim of Saint Louis University spoke on "Financial Stabilization in Contemporary Korea after the IMF Bailout," January 27, 2000. On February 10, 2000, Dr. Xi Lian, Associate Professor of History at Seattle Pacific University addressed the issue of "The Rise of Indigenous Christianity in China." And John O. Haley, soon-to-be Professor of Law at Washington University, concluded the Series with "The American Lawyer in Japan."
 
 

SPECIAL LECTURES

In addition to the Colloquium series, EAS also sponsored the following lectures:

Co-sponsored by the St. Louis Art Museum, this annual lecture was inaugurated in October 1998 to honor Nelson I. Wu. A specialist in Chinese painting, Wu is the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the History of Art and Chinese Culture and a world-recognized scholar of Asian art and architecture.

The 1999 lecture "The Emperor's Choices: Painting in India in the Early 17th Century" was presented by Dr. Milo Beach, Director of the Sackler and Freer Galleries at the Smithsonian Institution, on October 21 at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Dr. Beach also visited Professor Elizabeth Child’s class on "Exoticism and Orientalism in Modern Art" earlier in the day to discuss Orientalism, and he took time to meet with Washington University students the following morning to provide advice on careers in museum work.

The 2000 lecture will be held Thursday, October 26, and will feature Dr. Nicole Rousmaniere, Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich, England.
 
 

This lecture was founded in 1994 to honor Dr. Stanley Spector (1925-1999) for his tremendous contributions to the creation and development of Asian Studies at Washington University. Past Spector Lecturers have included: William Kirby (Harvard University), Jonathan Spence (Yale University), and Carol Gluck (Columbia University). The Seventh Annual Spector Lecture was presented by Dr. Tani Barlow on April 14. Professor of Women’s Studies at University of Washington, Dr. Barlow spoke on "The Problem of ‘Women’ in Twentieth Century Chinese Thought."

Dr. Bruce Cumings, Norman & Edna Freehling Professor of History, University of Chicago, will be our guest speaker for the Eighth Annual Spector Lecture next April.
 
 

STUDENT CONFERENCE ON NANKING MASSACRE

The newly organized "Asia Forum," comprised of enterprising Washington University undergraduates, convened an international student conference on the Nanking Massacre, November 11-12, 1999. Over the course of the two-day conference, preeminent scholars from throughout China, Japan, and North America and students from universities as distant as Berkeley and Princeton came together to "depoliticize the ownership of memory and move the world towards a consensus on the Nanking Massacre." The Asia Forum brought together nine internationally renowned professors, including Sun Zhaiwei of China and Tokushi Kasahara of Japan, both of whom are leading experts in the study of the Nanking Massacre. With a student committee of close to 20 students from all schools at WU, the endeavor was led by East Asian Studies major Fred Tsai, along with business major Tony Yeung. It was advised by Rebecca Copeland, Director of East Asian Studies and Associate Professor of Japanese Literature; Robert Hegel, Professor of Chinese Literature and Chair of Comparative Literature; as well as James Wertsch, Chair and Professor of Education. In addition, the student group was advised by other leading academics, including Ezra Vogel from Harvard and John Dower from M.I.T.
 

EAST ASIAN STUDIES OCCASIONAL PAPERS

Occasionally (or more nearly, every year) EAS compiles select examples of student-authored papers into an Occasional Papers Series. This series, which represents the talent and diversity of the EAS program, will soon be adding a FIFTH volume. Thanks are due to Heather Eaton for her diligence and brilliance in editing the volume. The contents will include papers by Tara Adrian, William Collazo, Scott Markowitz, and Heather Eaton.
 

EAST ASIAN LIBRARY
 

The East Asian Library, located on the second floor of January Hall, now accommodates 121,000 volumes in Chinese and Japanese vernacular and a modest holding in Korean. Tony Chang, Head Librarian, offers the following report on the Library’s Pinyin conversion project:

The Library of Congress and the Council on East Asian Libraries have decided to convert to the Pinyin system for the romanization of Chinese. The switch from Wade-Giles to Pinyin romanization will have widespread impact on our local catalogs. The East Asian Library is going to catalog Chinese materials following the Library of Congress’ new Pinyin romanization guidelines in October 2000, and also carry out a project to convert our existing Chinese language bibliographic records, associated authority records for headings in these bibliographic records from Wade-Giles to Pinyin in Spring 2001.

The East Asian Library added two new Japanese databases on our public workstation. Nichigai Japanese journal index is a web-based database which allows users to search 1,870,000 journal citations from 5,700 Japanese scholarly journals. BOOKPLUS contains 1,610,000 book citations of books published in Japan from 1926 to the present. Both databases are helpful research tools. The library will provide workshops on using these databases upon request.

FACULTY BITS AND PIECES

Tz’u Chiang, Senior Lecturer in Chinese, has the following to say about her first year at WU: It has been a very busy year. A different country, a new working environment, new students—no wonder it was a little scary at first. But since so many people have been kind to me, this first year has not been as difficult as I expected. Professor Beata Grant took a lot of trouble to find an apartment for me and furnish it before I even got here. Professor Robert Hegel spent hours assembling a futon for me. Professor and Mrs. Shih take me to the grocery store regularly. And my colleagues have helped me learn all about the Chinese Section. They are my living dictionaries!. . . With so much help, my new life here has started happily indeed!

And, there is more! The Chinese Section held its annual talent show on April 7. It was great fun. The students are really talented! There was singing, skits, and poetry recitals. Mr. Fred Wu, lecturer in Chinese, used his talent in calligraphy to create a Chinese banner to mark the occasion. Both the participants and the audience had a wonderful time together. Professor Grant took pictures and these will be posted on the board outside Busch 27 soon. Take a look when you pass by!

This year, Beata Grant has been kept very busy with her administrative duties as chair of the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. (In this regard, she is particularly pleased that the Department was able to hire Letty Lingchei Chen from Columbia University who will be joining ANELL in the fall as a new assistant professor of Modern Chinese Language and Literature.) However, if truth be told, her happiest times have still been in the classroom – this year she taught "Introduction to Asian Religions" and "Buddhist Thought and Values" and thoroughly enjoyed teaching and learning from the wide variety of students these courses often attract. In December of 1999, she was honored with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Not surprisingly, there has been less time for research, although she has done a significant amount of editorial work for the journal Nan Nu:

Men Women and Gender in Early and Late Imperial China and participated in a roundtable discussion on recent research in the studies of women of pre-modern China at the annual Association of Asian Studies conference which was held in San Diego in April. She has also managed (just barely!) to publish a couple of book reviews. A longer article, "Through the Empty Gate: The Poetry of Buddhist Nuns in Late Imperial China" is scheduled to appear in the fall in a volume to be published by the University of Hawaii Press entitled Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism, edited by Marsha Weidner. This summer she is looking forward to catching up on the reading for which there is little or no time during the regular academic year: and also to getting back to the mountains of New Mexico to visit family and see the stars…

Robert Hegel, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature and Chair of Comparative Literature, was busy with a variety of commitments beyond the usual load of teaching, administrating, and mentoring. In February he delivered a paper at the Flushing Library in New York. The paper was part of a symposium held in conjunction with the first exhibit of rare books and manuscripts from the National Library in Beijing to be held outside that country. Entitled "Visible Traces: Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China," the materials on exhibit included Ming period imprints of a quality rarely seen anywhere before, especially novels, plays, and albums of pictures, and illuminated manuscripts of religious works in several languages of China’s minority peoples. Perhaps the most surprising items on display were maps from the Qing period ranging upward in size to nearly eight feet square. The exhibit was at the Queens Library through March 15; now it is on display at the Los Angeles County Library. Its curator, Philip K. Hu of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, has edited a wonderful catalogue of the exhibition. Hegel was one of six speakers at the symposium; his paper was titled "Painting Manuals and the Illustration of Ming and Qing Popular Literature." Hegel also participated in the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, which was held from March 9-12 in San Diego. He presented a paper entitled "Illustrations as Guides to Reading Late Imperial Chinese Fiction" in the panel "The Informing Image: ‘Illustration’ in Early-Modern Chinese and Japanese Printed Editions of Narrative, Dramatic and Poetic Texts."

Xia Liang, Lecturer in Chinese, returned to her hometown—Beijing—last summer to work for the Chinese Education Tour (CET). As the advising instructor she worked with 22 local Chinese teachers and 45 American students. She reports: "I was very happy to learn from the CET that ‘100% of students surveyed felt that their academic needs were met by the program’." Ms. Liang was not completely absorbed by CET work, she also took time to visit with her family and eat lots of good Chinese food! Last fall she presented a paper on "how to teach long sentences in the Third-Level Chinese class" at the ACTFL conference, and she will present another paper at the Princeton Chinese Pedagogy Conference, April 29, 2000. This summer she will teach Level IV for the Princeton in Beijing Summer Program (PIB) from June to August. The opportunity will allow her to interact with teachers from other programs and to see her family once again.

Judy Mu, Lecturer in Chinese, will be co-directing the Duke-in-China Program in the summer, of which we are a consortium member. WU has 7 students going to the program, 5 at the second-year level and 2 of higher level. Also, she will be presenting a paper at the CLTA conference in Nov. 2000 in Boston.

Fred Wu, Lecturer in Chinese, will return to Middlebury again to spend another 9 weeks in the summer program there. He will be the lead teacher for Level IV. Immediately following the Middlebury Program, Fred will head to Beijing where he will be working until Christmas. This semester Fred taught the calligraphy course. And although he offered it on Friday afternoon, he still had a very large enrollment. The class has been so popular that Fred notes, "a number of people have asked me to demonstrate the beauty of this special Chinese art form in public. I wrote hundreds of characters for the students participating in the Chinese Spring Festival Celebration and the largest ones were about two square feet! Our jiaozi (Chinese dumpling) party turned out to be so successful that the Business School also asked me to be one of the ‘dealers’ at their annual ‘casino’ party March 31. I had to dress to impress!" Come on Lucky Seven!
 
 

 
 
 
 

Rebecca Copeland, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature and Director of East Asian Studies, has enjoyed yet another year of East Asian Studies Directorship. Her time this fall was spent writing grants and reports—to mixed success. She undertook a few recruitment trips late in the fall to universities in North Carolina and participated in the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in March, 2000 where she was the Chair of a panel of Individual Papers entitled: "Demons, Cyborgs, and Absent Fathers: Shifting Identities in Japanese Literature Past and Present." The highlight of the year had to be dressing up like the fated Oiwa for the EAS Halloween Party.

Mary-Jean Cowell, Associate Professor of Performing Arts, was invited to present a lecture at the St. Louis Art Museum on November 7, 1999 in conjunction with their mask exhibit. The title of the lecture was "Noh Theatre: Distilled Gesture and Image."

Emi Fujiwara, was recently promoted to Senior Lecturer status. This academic year she taught Fourth- and Fifth-Level Japanese, in addition to Business/Legal Japanese which this spring was offered on the fourth level. She attended the ACTFL conference in Dallas and plans to attend the Virginia Regional Workshop in Japanese Pedagogy in Washington, D.C. in May, and the Asian Business Language Workshop in Park City, Utah in June. She reports: "As I do every spring, I interviewed seven of the prospective graduate students either on the phone or in person. I have had a very good group of students this year. Scott Markowitz and Hye Won Lee made my YEAR. Scott won the first prize at Iowa Speech Contest, and Hye Won passed the first level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test with a score of 93%! I am returning to Tokyo to teach in the summer course at International Christian University."

Masayuki Itomitsu, Lecturer in Japanese, taught First and Third levels of Japanese during the 1999-2000 academic year. He attended the ATJ conference in San Diego in March and presented a paper at the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese (CATJ) conference at Washington University in April. He is working on the Japan Picture Gallery http://www.artsci. wustl.edu/ ~japanese/japanpicturegallery and Katakana Study Online (soon available). This summer he’ll be teaching at The Ohio State University and Bryn Mawr College, working with Drs. Noda and Jorden, among others.

Ginger Marcus, Senior Lecturer in Japanese and Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program attended the celebration of the 10^th Anniversary of the Kyoto Center for Japanese Studies held in Kyoto last October where she was able to meet many former WU students. Marcus was also busy this year organizing and hosting the Twelfth Annual Conference of the Central Association of Teachers of Japanese with other colleagues in the Japanese Language Program. She reports: The conference theme was "J2K: Designing Japanese Language Curriculum for the New Millennium," and it was attended by some fifty Japanese language teachers from the central U.S. Drs. Eleanor Jorden and Pat Wetzel gave the keynote addresses. Papers concerning goals, assessment, strategies, and technology in a language-learning curriculum were given by scholars and instructors from all over the U.S. The WU Taiko Drummers provided entertainment during the lunch break.

For more news and information about the Japanese Language Program, please visit their website:
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~japanese/JapaneseSection.html. Same old faces but they keep adding new pages and new links every year. Drop them a line. As always, they’d love to hear from all of you!

Marvin Marcus, Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, is back from 1998-99 leave, which was spent researching/ translating/writing on the subject of Japanese literary reminiscence (no doubt a form of overcompensation for his own flagging memory...). He assumed directorship of the University College International Affairs Program upon return. In addition to presenting papers at the MCAA meeting (MSU, 9/99) and AAS (3/00), he has been at work on essays for 3 different literary encyclopedias.

Marcus notes: "Currently I am in training for a 10-day trek with my son's boyscout troop in the New Mexico Rockies in early July. If I survive all the high adventure, I'll be back this Fall--teaching an EAS home-based course entitled ‘The Nativist Dimension in Modern Japanese Culture’ and a course on Japanese fiction: ‘Sense and Sensuality in the Novels of Tanizaki’."

Elizabeth Oyler, Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, reports that she is thrilled to be teaching pre-modern literature as well as classical language classes here at WashU. Her specific field of research interest is medieval narrative, The Tale of the Heike in particular. She will spend most of the summer vacation researching The Tale of the Heike in Tokyo and will present some of the fruit of this work at the European Association of Japanese Studies conference in Lahti, Finland, in August.

Misako Suzuki, Lecturer in Japanese, was put in charge of Second-Level Modern Japanese this academic year. She reports: It has been a while since I was in charge of a particular level, but I enjoyed my new responsibility. I was fortunate to team-teach this level with Ms. Beth Eckelkamp and Ms. Ginger Marcus. In this class we had students who had been in Japan and some who will go to Japan next year.

I also enjoyed team-teaching the Third-Level Modern Japanese class with Mr. Itomitsu. It is a great pleasure to teach students three years in a row. I am so impressed to see how far they have gotten since they started from the First Level!

I will be teaching in the SPEAC program at The Ohio State University this summer. In addition to my normal teaching responsibilities (i.e. teaching first and fourth level Japanese language courses), it seems I will also be involved in the teacher training program this year, and I am very excited about it.
 
 

Frances Foster, Professor of Law, recently published "Linking Support and Inheritance: A New Model From China" in the 1999 Wisconsin Law Review. During the Spring semester she was on research leave in Los Angeles.
 
 

STUDENT UPDATES
 

Cara Hamaguchi (BA ’01) will be heading to Fort Lewis, Washington as soon as the term ends to attend Advanced Camp for five weeks and then to Washington, D.C. for a three-week internship at the Pentagon!
 

Joseph Dreher (MA ’01) will be a special research student (tokubetsu kenkyûsei) at Tsukuba University in Japan and is the recipient of a scholarship administered by the Association of International Education, Japan (AIEJ), a non-profit organization affiliated with the Japanese Ministry of Education.
 
 

Krystel Mowery (MA ’01) returned to the East Asian Studies Program this past Fall to continue her Japanese studies after a long absence from the States. She quickly discovered her niche in the field of East Asian Art History. Krystel’s summer plans include studying Chinese at Middlebury College. Next year she will stay for the academic year. She looks forward to a TA position in the department and continuing her Chinese and Japanese studies.

Chi-hyon Son (MA ’02) will be attending National Taiwan University next academic year and is the recipient of a scholarship administered by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.
 
 
 

THE NEWLY GRADUATED
 
 

Sarah Cao (MA '00) has accepted a position as Program Officer for Chinese Security Affairs at the JFK School of Government, Harvard University. Susi Conway (BA ‘00) torn between options: either to go Japan in July as an Assistant English Teacher for the JET program or to work with the Pacific Islands Resort Club in Guam, Susi has decided to go to New York City instead!           Freya Fung (BA ’00) will be a buyer for a wire and cable company.           Heather Eaton (JD/MA ‘00) will be working for the City Attorney’s Office in San Francisco    with the employment practice group. Sasha Freedman (BA/BFA ‘00) is facing the same wall of uncertainty many freshly-minted graduates face. After struggling through a dual-degree in Art and East Asian Studies, he’s just not sure what the distant future holds. The near future, however, will find him in San Francisco. That’s for sure. He’ll be moving there in June and will take it from there. Before he leaves, he will have presented his work at two shows in St. Louis. The first was on April 28th and held at the Deslee Gallery. The second was his BFA show, held in Steinberg gallery on Friday, May 12th.

Hong-ming Liaw (BA ‘00) will enter the graduate program here in East Asian Studies!

Brett Tande (BS ’00) will be heading off to a job in corporate finance with KPMG in Chicago.

Sarah Teal will be entering the University of Tulsa School of Law.

Fred Tsai (BS ’00) will be joining Deutsche Bank in their San Francisco-based Internet Investment Banking group. He plans on leveraging his East Asian Studies background by returning to Asia in a year or two to work with Deutsche Bank’s Investment Banking initiative in the region.

Rhiana Wallace (BA ’00) was accepted into the "Teach for America" program and will be located in Washington, D.C. where she will teach math to either middle-school or high-school students in the inner city.
 

ALUMNI SIGHTINGS

Tara Adrian (MA’99) has landed herself a very nice job in New York City working for Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd. a Japanese art dealer. Mirviss deals in prints, scrolls, screens, and modern Japanese ceramics. The art world is apparently flourishing because Tara is extremely busy. In late March she was involved in the International Asian Fair at the Park Avenue Armory which included dealers and galleries from around the world and was attended by wealthy art patrons and museum curators. Tara was able to meet Mr. Steven Owyoung here. She credits him and her internship at the St. Louis Art Museum last year with helping her land the job. To see some of the beautiful art works that Tara gets to enjoy daily, visit the website: http://www.mirviss.com/

Linda Bohaker (MA ’96) is an assistant professor at Principia College, Illinois, where she teaches primarily in the business administration area but also teaches Japanese history and coordinates an Asian Studies Minor Program.

Linda Flores (MA ’95) is nearing the end of her Ph.D. course work at UCLA. She spent her summer at home in Guam and then returned to LA for what will hopefully be her last year there before departing for Japan and dissertation research on Hirabayashi Taiko. She will affiliate with Josai University.  In March she participated in the AAS’s presidential panel at the annual meeting in San Diego.

Patri Ginsburg (JD/MA ’98) has recently joined the American law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and is working in their Tokyo office. Although in Japan, Patri is clearly not isolated from former EAS students. As she reports: The sakura are in full bloomed here in Tokyo as I write, and the sight is absolutely magnificent—almost enough to make me forget the busy workload that a young associate handles in a law firm.
 
 

Since my move to Japan last year, I have not had the chance to explore the city because of a major case that I was involved in. However, my work schedule is finally under control. I would love for any EAS folk who pass through town to allow me to be their Tokyo host. I live right next to a historic park and near Waseda University, and despite the residential setting, I am also only 2 stops away from the bustle and hustle of Shinjuku. Last week, Kent Anderson (JD/MA ‘95) came to Tokyo for bankruptcy research and we met up for a delicious Korean barbecue lunch. Kent is an associate professor at Hokkaido University School of Law, and he seems extremely content with work.

Besides Kent, I have been in touch with John Grellner (JD/MA ’98), and he is busily raising 4-5 different species of bamboo and happily working in the St. Louis firm, "Helfrey, Simon, and Jones." They recently sent him on business to Shanghai, and despite my attempts to meet him there, I was too tied up with work that required travel to Korea. I’ve been in sporadic contact with Nick Holcombe (JD/MA ’98). He was living in Hong Kong for a couple of months last year, working at a law firm there. The Holcombe family welcomed a lovely new member last year when Nick's wife gave birth to a baby girl (and all of this took place while Nick was preparing for bar exams - kudos to Nick's wife!) Last but not least, in July of last year, I attended Ellen Szymanski's (JD/MA ’97) wedding in Rhode Island. She must have been the most beautiful bride!

Karl Gruendel (BA ’96) is still working for Arthur Andersen (in their Transfer Pricing Division) in Tokyo. He notes: "I don't have any immediate plans to leave, although I will probably move back to the U.S. eventually."

Walter Hutchens is in New York with Paul Weiss. He and his wife are expecting their first child and word is—it’s a girl! A Federal Court of Appeals has cited Walter’s Quarterly Note in a recent decision. Dr. Michele Shoresman reports: The case concerned whether or not a Hong Kong corporation (before HK returned to Chinese control) could access the federal courts through diversity jurisdiction, or "alienage jurisdiction" as it is called in this context. Walter's note had argued diversity jurisdiction should exist for HK corporations. The Second circuit had previously held that diversity jurisdiction should NOT exist for HK corporations because HK has never been recognized as a "foreign state" by the US government. The Second Circuit also denied that the HK corporation could claim diversity through the UK, which obviously is recognized as a "foreign state." Being a joint degree student enthusiastic about foreign trade, Walter thought that the second Circuit result was far from ideal and wrote several pages arguing as much. While doing so, he wondered in a footnote why the Second Circuit did not regard the HK litigants as "subjects" of the UK (the diversity statute says "citizens or subjects of a foreign state"). Or, in Walter’s words: even if colonial populations are not enfranchised citizens, I mentioned they could be properly considered subjects of a foreign state and that a "foreign state" could have both citizens and subjects. The third Circuit adopted exactly this point. They held an HK corporation qualified for diversity jurisdiction because it was a "subject" of the UK at the time the suit was filed and they were kind enough to cite me for the observation. The case is Southern Cross Overseas Agencies, Inc. v. Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd., 181 F 3d 410, 417 (3rd Cir. 1999).

Susan Jones (MA ’96) is as busy as ever with her work for Yomiuri TV in Osaka. Her job requires a good deal of travel. Not that she’s complaining. October saw her in France and November in Singapore. Since 90% of the station’s business comes from Asian countries, she is finding that her MA studies are coming in handy.

K. John Kinoshita (BA ’96) was appointed by California Governor Gray Davis to serve in his administration. He received his commission with the CA Trade and Commerce Agency as Special Assistant to the Secretary and in this capacity deals with international trade and economic development.

Conor O’Scannlain (BA ’93) has been working with Ride Snowboards for the last four years. He notes that last November the company merged with K2Corporation—a former competitor—and things have been rather crazy. "Until January 1, I was the International Sales Manager for Ride, which marketed to every country in the world where they sell snowboards outside of North American, but mostly Japan and Europe. Now with the merger, my position has changed due mainly to the fact that K2 (KTO on NASDAQ) is so big that they have International subsidiary sales/operations offices, one in Tokyo and one in Penzberg, Germany. . . . Now I’m the ‘International Sales, Sales Support, Distributor Sales (to certain markets), and Anything-Else-Required Guy’ based at the US headquarters on Vashon Island outside Seattle."

Heather Peck (JD/MA ’99) is now an associate of Greenberg Traurig in Atlanta, Georgia and has the following to report: Things are rolling along here in Atlanta. My husband and I have moved into a nice apartment and plan on staying put for a few years while we save some money for a house. In my new job I will be doing mergers and acquisitions, which is fun stuff. The best part is, although there is really no Asian work to speak of, a partner is a graduate of Wash U and actually did some coursework with Professor Bill Jones. It is great fun to have another Asian scholar-type in the building.

After a few years in Shanghai and six months in India with Texas Instruments, Eric Riutort (MBA/MA ‘97) is now Director of Business Development at Jexp Inc. in California—a high performance enterprise webtop applications company.
 
 

Owen Rosa (BA ’99) is a CIR (Coordinator for International Relations) on the JET Program in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Asked what exactly a CIR is, Owen responded: It depends on the type of city that you’re place in. For me, this means I am the go-between for the international division here in Hanamaki and our sister city back in Hot Springs, Arkansas. For example, in September a delegation of 13 members, including the mayor of Hot Springs and the President of the Chamber of Commerce came to Hanamaki for a one-week visit. I was the translator for the delegates by day and their tour guide by night. Exhausting. Now I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the industries in Hanamaki. You’d be surprised to know that there are over 300 major industries in this small town of 70,000. These include steel, diary, and technology and there’s also a Coca-Cola factory under Japanese management here. . . . The most important aspect of all this is the language.

     Reading and translating all this information has given me an opportunity to learn a new area of Japanese, one that is more business focused. In addition, I will be teaching three English classes at the local international center. My only worry is that my students will leave speaking with these strong Brooklyn accents!

Bert Scruggs (MA’96) is presently busy with fatherhood and PhD studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His update for the newsletter: "Pilan will be ten months old next week, and another 83 short papers and blue books will spill all over our dining room table again soon."

Ted Stonecliffe (BS ’98)writes: I am still working as a Transportation Engineer for the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in Oakland. Although I am not using my Japanese on an every day basis, I have joined a bilingual Japanese/English Toastmasters club in San Francisco where we practice public speaking in both English and Japanese. Most of the American members have excellent Japanese skills, so it makes for very good speeches. I am also helping the public relations branch of Caltrans when they host groups of Japanese engineers who come to visit various projects here in California. Many of the seismic retrofit projects related to the eight bay bridges owned and operated by Caltrans attract engineers and politicians from around the world, especially where earthquakes are of concern. So even though I was not expecting to use my Japanese working for the State, every once in a while, I am honored to act as a guide for visitors.

Jessica Zeldin (JD/MA ’95) is an associate in the corporate and commercial litigation department in a law firm in Wilmington, Delaware.
 
 

LOOKING AHEAD

Now that spring is drawing to an end, fall semester is just around the corner!

Orientation for East Asian Studies Graduate Students will be held Thursday, August 24. New students and old are welcomed and encouraged to attend.

Placement Examinations for language classes will be held Friday, August 25.

Fall Courses: Dr. Elizabeth Tsunoda will teach the Core Seminar this fall. Dr. Richard Mitchell will be visiting from UMSL and offering a seminar in the history of the Japanese judicial system.

Association of Japanese Literary Studies will hold its Ninth Annual Meeting at Washington University November 10-12. Entitled "Acts of Writing: Language and the Construction of Identities in Japanese Literature" the conference will be hosted by Rebecca Copeland, Marvin Marcus, and Elizabeth Oyler. For more information, visit: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~ajls/

WEB PAGE

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, they say. Having taken a quickie course in Webpage design and construction, I’ve since been tinkering with the EAS Homepage. When you have time, please visit the site at: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~eas/

A lot of work is left to do—and much that exceeds my abilities. But please check our Alumni Profiles page: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~eas/profiles.html

And if you have time, please send your own profile to include! Or perhaps a kind word or two of advice for improvement! Until then!
 
 

THANKS go to JoAnn Achelpohl for her efficient resourcefulness, wisdom, and good humor in managing the EAS Office for yet another year.
 
 

The East Asian Studies Newsletter is published annually by the East Asian Studies Office, Campus Box 1123, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130   Editor: Rebecca Copeland Lay out and Productions: JoAnn Achelpohl