Cornell Botanic Gardens Tour of Chinese and Asian Plants

Join this guided outdoor stroll exploring different areas of the garden to highlight several plants endemic to China and eastern Asia. Discover the importance of trees and garden plants in East Asian culture, and learn about plans to develop an Asian Summer Garden to showcase tree and herbaceous peonies and other plants native to China, Japan, and Korea. Led by staff and volunteer garden guides. Co-organized by the Cornell Botanic Gardens, the Cornell China Center, and the Einaudi Center for International Studies' East Asia Program.

The walk will take place rain or shine, but will be postponed to the next day, Fri. May 9, 2025 in the event of severe or hazardous weather. Registrants will emailed at least 45 minutes in advance if this outdoor walking tour is postponed. Limited to 20 participants. Register here.

Please meet by the welcome sign/map next to the Nevin Welcome Center parking lot.

East Asia Program Korean Studies Speaker Series presents "Among Women across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War"

Speaker: Suzy Kim, Professor of Korean History, Rutgers University

Description: While social movements may appear to have receded in the 1950s with the rise of Cold War domesticity and McCarthyism (much like the upsurge of authoritarianisms today), the Korean War galvanized women to promote women’s rights in the context of the first global peace campaign during the Cold War. Recuperating the erasure of North Korean women from this movement, this talk excavates buried histories of Cold War sutures to show how leftist women tried to bridge the Cold War divide through maternalist strategies. Socialist feminism in the context of a global peace movement facilitated a productive understanding of “difference” toward a transversal politics of solidarity. The talk weaves together the women’s press with photographs and archival film footage to contemplate their use in transnational movements of resistance and solidarity, both then and now.

Speaker Bio: Suzy Kim is a historian and author of the prize-winning book Everyday Life in the North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (Cornell 2013). She holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, and teaches at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Her latest book Among Women across Worlds: North Korea in the Global Cold War (Cornell 2023) was completed with the support of the Fulbright Program and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is senior editor of positions: asia critique, and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Korean Studies and Yŏsŏng kwa yŏksa [Women and History], the journal of the Korean Association of Women’s History.

About East Asia Program

As Cornell’s hub for research, teaching, and engagement with East Asia, the East Asia Program (EAP) serves as a forum for the interdisciplinary study of historical and contemporary East Asia. The program draws its membership of over 45 core faculty and numerous affiliated faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students from eight of Cornell’s 12 schools and colleges.

Yumeng Zhang, Ph.D. Student, Asian Studies, will lead this Classical Chinese text-reading.

"Sacred Performances and Epigraphic Echoes: Temple Festivals in North China during Late Medieval China"

Zhang writes:

My study examines the intersection of contemporary anthropological observations and medieval epigraphic records, exploring whether modern temple festivals can provide insights into religious practices in late medieval North China. By analyzing "Invocation and Dismissal of the Deity/Deities" (迎神送神) rituals in both historical inscriptions and present-day festivals, this research investigates their role in village networks, intercommunal relations, and divine-human interactions.

The group meets monthly during the semester to explore a variety of classical Chinese texts and styles. Other premodern texts linked to classical Chinese in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese have been explored. Presentations include works from the earliest times to the 20th century. Workshop sessions are led by local, national, and international scholars. Participants with any level of classical Chinese experience are welcome to attend.

At each session, a presenter guides the group in a reading of a classical Chinese text. Attendees discuss historical, literary, linguistic, and other aspects of the text, working together to resolve difficulties in comprehension and translation.

No preparation is required; all texts will be distributed at the meeting.