Anna Bugaeva, Institute of Arts and Sciences, Tokyo University of Science

This talk will be introduced by John Whitman, Linguistics.

In historical times, Ainu, the only non-Japonic language of Japan and a lone witness of earlier cultures in Japan, was spoken by the people inhabiting the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido, the southern part of Sakhalin Island, and the Kuril Islands. Traditionally, the Ainu were hunter-gatherers who eventually faced the modern colonial expansion of Japan and Russia. This expansion ultimately led to the loss of their language in the early 21st century. In 2008, the Japanese government finally recognized the Ainu people as an indigenous ethnic group. Subsequently, in 2019, the Act on Promoting Measures to Realize a Society in Which the Pride of the Ainu People is Respected was enacted to ban discrimination against the Ainu and to provide grants for culture and language-related projects. Japan has taken longer than many other countries to acknowledge the contributions of its indigenous minorities to the nation and to recognize their linguistic and cultural aspirations. This talk will discuss the significance, within a Japanese context, of the legal recognition of Ainu as an indigenous language.

We are pleased to host Haun Saussy, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago to present the text-reading, "Kang Youwei's Roman Diaries (1904)" for this Classical Chinese Colloquium.

Professor Saussy's primary teaching and research interests include classical Chinese poetry and commentary, literary theory, comparative study of oral traditions, problems of translation, pre-twentieth-century media history, and ethnography and ethics of medical care.

To view Professor Saussy's CV, click here.

To view Professor Saussy's personal website, click here.

To see Professor Saussy's Google Scholar page, click here.

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic text (古文). 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.Contact eap-guwen@cornell.edu for more information and subscribe to CCCC news for updates about events. Please make sure to send your subscription request from the email address at which you wish to receive CCCC updates.

Cornell faculty hosts are TJ Hinrichs, History, and Suyoung Son, Asian Studies.

The East Asia Program is honored to have Haun Saussy, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago give this year's Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture: "Exile As Formative Experience in Classical Chinese Poetry."

The “myth of loyalty and dissent” (as Laurence Schneider put it) surrounding the figure of Qu Yuan has structured a great many self-representations by cast-off officials. But when poets banished to the margins of the empire adopt Qu Yuan as a source of style and allusion, the result is, often enough, a gain in descriptive and evocative power. By calling the experience of exile “formative” in the cases of Xie Lingyun 謝靈運, Shen Quanqi 沈全期, Song Zhiwen 宋之問, and Su Shi 蘇軾, I aim to put biography in second place. What occupies the foreground is rather the fashioning of transpersonal roles and attitudes that could be adopted by later poets— replicating the author-function that had made Qu Yuan such a powerful reference.

The East Asia Program's 2023-2024 Annual Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture is co-sponsored by the Departments of Asian Studies, History, and the Cornell Society for the Humanities.

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Professor Saussy's primary teaching and research interests include classical Chinese poetry and commentary, literary theory, comparative study of oral traditions, problems of translation, pre-twentieth-century media history, and ethnography and ethics of medical care.

To view Professor Saussy's CV, click here.

To view Professor Saussy's personal website, click here.

To see Professor Saussy's Google Scholar page, click here.

In 2014 on the 100th anniversary of Hu Shih's graduation from Cornell, EAP initiated an annual distinguished lecture in honor of the philosopher and statesman, Hu Shih. Leading scholars of Chinese and East Asian studies are invited to speak on critical issues in their field of research. These lectures are archived as a resource for the Cornell community and beyond. Hu Shih Distinguished Lecture videos and programs are permanently archived in the Cornell eCommons archive.

Learn about Hu Shih here.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority children have been seized by the Chinese government, detained, and beaten if they speak their native language, according to numerous human rights groups.

These reported violations of children’s rights will be explored in a symposium entitled “Uyghur Children in China’s Genocide” on Fri., Oct. 27, from 1-5 p.m. in Goldwin Smith Hall, room 76. The symposium will be hybrid; register in advance for the livestream.

As organizer Magnus Fiskesjö explains, the children’s parents and grandparents are Uyghur and Kazakh ethnic minority people who are detained separately, in “re-education” camps, forced labor, or prisons. Their children are put into a children's Gulag of "boarding schools" and "orphanages," currently estimated to hold up to 1 million children. Family separations and boarding schools are soon to expand to all ethnic children, he says.

“By way of brutal punishments and even sibling separation, children are forced to permanently forget their language and culture -- thus, the plan is clearly an intentional component of genocide as per the U.N. Convention -- in ways similar to the horrific 'Indian schools’ of the US and Canada’s past,” said Fiskesjö, associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Meanwhile, the rest of society is held in terror; international media is barred, and a campaign to intimidate and silence witnesses around the world, is also ongoing.”

The symposium will explore:

what is happening to children victimized by family separation, who are forcibly cut off from family, siblings, language, and culturewhy is the Chinese government doing thiswhat is the nature of the deep traumas the children endurehow can these wounds be remedied, if the genocide is halted tomorrowExperts, activists, and witnesses, including Uyghurs, will give presentations on these issues, including the experiences of “Indian schools” in the US and Canada. The panelists include:

Rukiye Turdush, independent scholar from East TurkistanZumret Dawut, camp survivor from East Turkistan, with her familyAdrian Zenz, Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial FoundationMagnus Fiskesjö, associate professor of anthropology (A&S)Jeffrey Palmer (Kiowa), associate professor of performing and media arts (A&S)Amy Bombay (Anishinaabe from Rainy River First Nations), Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, CanadaSymposium Schedule:

1:00-1:15 p.m. Opening Remarks: Uyghur Children in China’s Genocide–context and Urgency by Magnus Fiskesjö, Anthropology, Cornell

1:15-1:30 p.m. State of Our Knowledge on the Chinese Family Separation and Child Indoctrination Policies by Adrian Zenz, Victims of Communism Museum and Memorial Foundation (12-minute pre-recording)

1:30-1:45 p.m. Indoctrination of Uyghur Children as part of the Genocide by Rukiye Turdush, an independent scholar from East Turkistan

1:45-2:45 p.m. Uyghur Experiences of Chinese Schooling by Zumret Dawut and family

2:45-3:00 p.m. Q&A moderated by Ruslan Yusupov, Fellow, Society for the Humanities at Cornell

3:00 p.m. Coffee/tea break

3:30-4:00 p.m. The Experience of Indian Schools in the USA by Jeffrey Palmer, Kiowa First Nations, Performing and Media Arts, Cornell

4:00-4:30 p.m. Trauma and Resilience: The Intergenerational Effects of Government Policies of Forced Assimilation and Child Removal by Amy Bombay, Anishinaabe from Rainy River First Nations, Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Canada

4:30-5:00 p.m. Q&A moderated by Allen Carlson, Government, Cornell

The symposium is sponsored by the East Asia Program, part of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Cosponsors include the Reppy Program in Peace and Conflict Studies; Comparative Muslim Societies Program; American Indian and Indigenous Studies (CALS); Institute of Politics and Global Affairs (Brooks School); as well as the Institute for Comparative Modernities; Society for the Humanities; the Departments of Anthropology, Asian Studies, Sociology and Government; and the Program in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium welcomes Xin Wen, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton to lead this month's text-reading.

For much of China’s early and medieval imperial history, including the Zhou, the Qin, the Han, the Sui, and the Tang dynasties, Chang’an and the surrounding area served as the capital of the Chinese empire. The study of Chang’an is often siloed along these dynastic lines, with scholars on medieval China focusing on the Sui-Tang city, while early China specialists worked on the Han city and pre-Han sites. But historically, these two clusters of constructions were not unrelated, but were physically adjacent to each other: The northern wall of the Sui-Tang city was only about 700 meters south of the southern wall of the Han city. As a result, many Han dynasty and pre-Han sites were close to, or even within, the walled city of Chang’an in the Tang. In this meeting of the Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium, I share two stories where Tang people examined and interacted with old tombs in Chang’an. These encounters betray an attitude toward the past that was primarily not antiquarian, but exorcistic. The ways Tang people argued about, verified, and refuted the identities of the ghosts believed to haunt ancient tombs also reveal a unique epistemology where archaeological excavation and textual analysis—tools available to modern historians—were combined with necromantic knowledge produced by sorcerers or gained through nocturnal and dream encounters in order to acquire an accurate understanding of the past. This past was neither dead nor past, but often lethally alive in Tang Chang’an.

The Cornell Classical Chinese Colloquium (CCCC) 古文品讀 is a reading group for scholars interested in premodern Sinographic text (古文). 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.Contact eap-guwen@cornell.edu for more information and subscribe to CCCC news for updates about events. Please make sure to send your subscription request from the email address at which you wish to receive CCCC updates.

Cornell faculty hosts are TJ Hinrichs, History, and Suyoung Son, Asian Studies.

Veeraporn Nitiprapha, one of Thailand’s most famous contemporary authors, speaks about her novel Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat (published in translation in 2022).
Memories tells an entirely new story of Chinese migration to and personhood in Southeast Asia as it chronicles the history of a Chinese-Thai family throughout much of the twentieth century.

Introduction by Prof. Thak Chaloemtiarana (Cornell University)

Two-time Southeast Asian Write Award winner Veeraporn Nitiprapha is one of Thailand’s most famous contemporary authors. Spearheading a current wave of Chinese-themed literature, Veeraporn revises understandings of region and identity in tandem. Her second novel Phuthasakarat Asdong was published in translation in 2022 as Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat. Chronicling the history of a Chinese-Thai family, it tells an entirely different story of Chinese-Thai migration and personhood than previous literary and scholarly works. Using fantasy and centering female and feminized characters, Veeraporn tells this history as a critical, non-triumphalist one and highlights the lives of working and middle class migrants. China’s and Thailand’s histories are dynamically interwoven in this story. Surprisingly, China’s cultural history becomes intricately connected to Thailand’s. Veeraporn’s work provincializes China in certain ways but, more importantly, provides us with a rich idea of the mobility of trans-Asia histories of cultural circulation. In Thailand, she debunks dominant rags-to-riches myths of Chinese social and economic ascendancy. The author uniquely preserves minor histories of migration that are in danger of being erased by China’s hegemonic rise. Critiquing a military-led nation, Veeraporn’s work moreover imagines belonging anew.

Hosted by the Department of Asian Studies
With the generous co-sponsorship of

the Society for the Humanities,the Migrations Initiative,the Southeast Asia Program,the East Asia Program,Comparative Literature, andthe Department of Literatures in English

Bartels World Affairs Lecture

Fantasy author N. K. Jemisin discusses how she learned to build unreal worlds by studying our own—and how we might in turn imagine a better future for our world, and reshape it to fit that dream.

Jemisin's lecture kicks off The Future—a new Global Grand Challenge at Cornell. We invite thinkers across campus to use their imaginations to reach beyond the immediate, the tangible, the well-known constraints. How can we use our creativity to plan and build for a future that is equitable, sustainable, and good? Learn more on October 4.

After her talk, Jemisin joins a panel of distinguished Cornell faculty to explore how we can take a brave leap into the visionary future. What can we collectively achieve when we focus on "what we want," rather than "what I can do"? And when we've imagined a better future for our world, how do we chart the path—starting today—with practical steps to take us there?

Anindita Banerjee, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, College of Arts and SciencesJohn Albertson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of EngineeringKaushik Basu, Carl Marks Professor of International Studies, Professor of Economics, A&S***

A reception with refreshments will follow the lecture and panel.

Lecture: 5:30 | Rhodes Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman HallThe Future panel, featuring Jemisin and Cornell faculty: 6:15Reception and book signing: 7:00-8:00 | Groos Family AtriumReserve your free ticket for the in-person watch party.

General admission seating is now sold out. By registering for a watch party ticket, you will have an in-person seat reserved in an adjacent classroom near the auditorium where the lecture will be livestreamed. Please follow signage upon your arrival. All watch party attendees are invited to join the post-lecture reception and book signing at 7:00 in Groos Family Atrium, Klarman Hall.

Livestream: For Local, National, and International Viewers

The lecture and panel will be livestreamed. Register to attend virtually at eCornell.

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How are N. K. Jemisin’s novels acts of political resistance? Read a Bartels explainer by Anindita Banerjee.

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Book Signing

Ithaca’s cooperatively owned independent bookstore, Buffalo Street Books, will be selling a wide selection of N. K. Jemisin’s books after the lecture.

Meet N. K. Jemisin and get your book signed at the reception!

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About N. K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin is the first author in the science fiction and fantasy genre’s history to win three consecutive Best Novel Hugo Awards, for her Broken Earth trilogy. Her work has also won the Nebula and Locus Awards. She was a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Jemisin’s most frequent themes include resistance to oppression, the inseverability of the liminal, and the coolness of Stuff Blowing Up. She has been an advocate for the long tradition of science fiction and fantasy as political resistance and previously championed the genre as a New York Times book reviewer. She lives and works in New York City.

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About Global Grand Challenges at Cornell

Global Grand Challenges bring together Cornell's world-class strengths—vision, expertise, people, and resources—in a multiyear focus to understand humanity's most urgent challenges and create real-world solutions. Global Cornell organizes and supports related research collaborations, courses and academic programs, student experiences, campus events, and more. Cornell's first Global Grand Challenge is Migrations, launched in 2019.

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About the Bartels World Affairs Lecture

The Bartels World Affairs Lecture is a signature event of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. This flagship event brings distinguished international figures to campus each academic year to speak on global topics and meet with Cornell faculty and students, particularly undergraduates. The lecture and related events are made possible by the generosity of Henry E. Bartels ’48 and Nancy Horton Bartels ’48.

A Conference Sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies and the Institute for Comparative Modernities, Cornell University, Ithaca

Friday, September 22 | Saturday, September 23, 2023

DAY 2 –– Saturday, September 23, 2023 | Physical Sciences Building 401

10:00 – 11:30 a.m. PANEL TWO – Questioning Areal Lexicons: Colonialism, Decolonization, Communism, Fascism

Moderator: T. Joshua Young (Cornell University, Ithaca)

Panelists:
Arnika Fuhrmann (Cornell University, Ithaca): Southeast Asia as Question: Thinking Region from Bangkok
Peter Button (Independent Scholar, New York): Settler Democracy, Anti-communism and the Area Studies
Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto, Toronto): Sensing Violence: On the Use of the Concept of Fascism

Discussant: Gavin Walker (Cornell University, Ithaca)

LUNCH BREAK

1:30 – 3:30 p.m. PANEL THREE – Area and the Authorization of Language

Moderator: Andrew Campana (Cornell University, Ithaca)

Panelists:
Natalie Melas (Cornell University, Ithaca): Modern Lyric and Racial Time: Langue in and against Empire
Naminata Diabate (Cornell University, Ithaca): Whither Fieldwork or Homework? Naming a Methodology in Comparative Literature
Takashi Fujitani (University of Toronto, Toronto): Is Clint Eastwood a Japanese Director? Some Thoughts on Language and Subtitling in Letters from Iwo Jima
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University, Ithaca): No Game is Fun if Only One Side Keeps Winning

Discussant: Grant Farred (Cornell University, Ithaca)

COFFEE BREAK

4:00 – 5:30 p.m. PANEL FOUR – Language, Nation, Area

Moderator: Viranjini Munasinghe (Cornell University, Ithaca)

Panelists:
Jon Solomon (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon): The Ideological Inscription of Capitalist Hegemony in Language: On the Unity of Language and the Mode of Address
Setsu Shigematsu (University of California, Riverside): Yellow Skin, White Masks, and the Force of AntiBlackness: The Structuring Epistemic-Ontology of Japan Studies
Hideto Tsuboi (Waseda University, Tokyo): Resist Fluency

Discussant: Naoki Sakai (Cornell University, Ithaca)

5:30 – 6:00 p.m. Concluding Roundtable with Brett de Bary (Cornell University, Ithaca)

Friday, September 22 conference schedule (Goldwin Smith G64, 15:00-18:00)

La Langue, Colonial Legacies, and Area Studies: Comparative Modernities

The conference proposes that what is taken for granted today as national or ethnic language, in the sense of “la langue,” came into existence in the world in modernity, that is, the world as it was gradually organized according to the basic schema of internationality instituted in Europe from the 16th to 19th centuries. Initially this understanding of an “international world” was limited to a special region called Europe, but as the territorial states in Europe moved into non-European regions and conquered their lands, the Eurocentric structure of the international world gained global dominance. Gradually, all the land surface of the earth came to be organized by the bipolarity of Europe (also called “the West” since the end of the 19th century) and the Rest. Thanks to the pioneering work of Cécile Canut (Provincialiser la langue, Edition Amsterdam, 2021), Jon Solomon (Spectral Translation), and Naoki Sakai (Voices of the Past) we now understand that the notion of la langue is closely associated with the colonial internationality of the modern world. Our attempts to seek national languages everywhere as the sign of indigenous cultural and political autonomy is, in fact, a continuation of the colonial imposition of the Eurocentric norm on colonial populations. Hence, Canut’s appeal for ‘provincializing Europe’ challenges the established modality of knowledge production about the Rest, particularly in area studies.

The conference will therefore consider the formation of national language to be closely affiliated with knowledge production in the modern human and social sciences, on the one hand, and with the creation of the new “imagined community” called “the nation,” on the other. We seek to discuss how broader problems of knowledge production are implicated in the international structure of Eurocentric modernity with a particular emphasis on the intimate connections between the formation of the area and the constitution of la langue.

Participants:

Brett de Bary (Cornell University)
Naoki Sakai (Cornell University)
Jon Solomon (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon)
Cécile Canut (Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)
Peter Osborne (Kingston University, London)
Hideto Tsuboi (Waseda University, Tokyo)
Chul Kim (Yonsei University, Seoul)
Peter Button (Independent Scholar, New York)
Setsu Shigematsu (University of California, Riverside)
Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto)
Takashi Fujitani (University of Toronto)
Natalie Melas (Cornell University)
Arnika Fuhrmann (Cornell University)
Naminata Diabate (Cornell University)
Gavin Walker (Cornell University)
Mukoma wa Ngugi (Cornell University)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University)
Grant Farred (Cornell University)

A Conference Sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies and the Institute for Comparative Modernities, Cornell University, Ithaca

Friday, September 22 | Saturday, September 23, 2023

DAY 1 –– Friday, September 22, 2023 | Goldwin Smith Hall 64, Kaufmann Auditorium

3:00 – 3:15 p.m. Welcome Introduction – Brett de Bary and Naoki Sakai

3:30 – 5:30 p.m. PANEL ONE – Colonialism and the Invention of the National Language

Moderator: Esra Akcan (Cornell University, Ithaca)

Panelists:
Cécile Canut (Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris): L’ordre-de-la-langue: The Myth of French as a Universal Language
Chul Kim (Yonsei University, Seoul): Construction of Colonial Internationality: Centered on the Production of National Language in Korea
Mukoma wa Ngugi (Cornell University, Ithaca): African Literary Criticism in Crisis: Politics of Language, Periodization, and Citizenship

Discussant: Peter Osborne (Kingston University, London)

Saturday, September 23 conference schedule (PSB 401 10:00-17:00)

The conference proposes that what is taken for granted today as national or ethnic language, in the sense of “la langue,” came into existence in the world in modernity, that is, the world as it was gradually organized according to the basic schema of internationality instituted in Europe from the 16th to 19th centuries. Initially this understanding of an “international world” was limited to a special region called Europe, but as the territorial states in Europe moved into non-European regions and conquered their lands, the Eurocentric structure of the international world gained global dominance. Gradually, all the land surface of the earth came to be organized by the bipolarity of Europe (also called “the West” since the end of the 19th century) and the Rest. Thanks to the pioneering work of Cécile Canut (Provincialiser la langue, Edition Amsterdam, 2021), Jon Solomon (Spectral Translation), and Naoki Sakai (Voices of the Past) we now understand that the notion of la langue is closely associated with the colonial internationality of the modern world. Our attempts to seek national languages everywhere as the sign of indigenous cultural and political autonomy is, in fact, a continuation of the colonial imposition of the Eurocentric norm on colonial populations. Hence, Canut’s appeal for ‘provincializing Europe’ challenges the established modality of knowledge production about the Rest, particularly in area studies.

The conference will therefore consider the formation of national language to be closely affiliated with knowledge production in the modern human and social sciences, on the one hand, and with the creation of the new “imagined community” called “the nation,” on the other. We seek to discuss how broader problems of knowledge production are implicated in the international structure of Eurocentric modernity with a particular emphasis on the intimate connections between the formation of the area and the constitution of la langue.

Participants:

Brett de Bary (Cornell University)
Naoki Sakai (Cornell University)
Jon Solomon (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, Lyon)
Cécile Canut (Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)
Peter Osborne (Kingston University, London)
Hideto Tsuboi (Waseda University, Tokyo)
Chul Kim (Yonsei University, Seoul)
Peter Button (Independent Scholar, New York)
Setsu Shigematsu (University of California, Riverside)
Lisa Yoneyama (University of Toronto)
Takashi Fujitani (University of Toronto)
Natalie Melas (Cornell University)
Arnika Fuhrmann (Cornell University)
Naminata Diabate (Cornell University)
Gavin Walker (Cornell University)
Mukoma wa Ngugi (Cornell University)
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University)
Grant Farred (Cornell University)

In a live, hybrid (in-person and livestreamed) Chats in the Stacks book talk Jeremy Wallace, professor of government, will discuss his latest book Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China (Oxford University Press, 2023). Synthesizing and interpreting the past 40 years of China’s political economy, Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts reveals the consequences of relying on quantifiable indicators such as GDP and fiscal revenue for dictatorships, arguing that while quantification can help convince a populace of a leader’s right to rule, it also comes with its own perils.

This talk is hosted by Olin Library. Light refreshments will be served