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Events found: 6
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012       1:00 PM TAIWAN FILM FESTIVAL Cape No. 7 (Taiwan, 2008) Director: Wei Te-sheng Auditorium, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. Sponsored by: Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in NY, The Council on East Asian Studies, Film Studies Program, and Films at the Whitney The film portrays the rise of a small-town rock band and the discovery of a cache of undelivered love letters from 1940's Japanese-occupied Taiwan that become the catalyst of another inter-cultural love affair 70 years later. --Highest grossing film ever produced in Taiwan surpassing even Ang Lee’s Lust: Caution and Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon. --Official Taiwanese Entry for the 81st Academy Awards® --Grand Prize, 4th AMFFM, JAPAN --Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Film Score, Best Original Film Song and Best Audience Award, 45th Annual Golden Horse Awards 2008 For more information: http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/2012taiwan_film_festival_pamphlet.pdf
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2012       3:30 PM TAIWAN FILM FESTIVAL Cannot Live Without You (Taiwan, 2009) Director: Leon Dai 85 minutes Auditorium, Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St. Sponsored by: Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in NY, The Council on East Asian Studies, Film Studies Program, and Films at the Whitney When the government decides to remove his daughter from his care, Li Wu-hisung does everything he can to get her back, leading to a desperate standoff in front of the media and the world. Based on a true story, it conveys a quest of love that knows no bounds. --Winner of Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Outstanding Taiwanese Film at the 2009 Golden Horse Film Festival --Nominated for Best Film at the 2010 Asian Film Awards. For more information: http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/2012taiwan_film_festival_pamphlet.pdf
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2012       5:00 PM CHINA COLLOQUIUM SERIES Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China Ezra Vogel - Henry Ford II Research Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University Room 203, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue Deng in 1978 inherited a country bitterly divided by the devastating Cultural Revolution, the average annual per capita income was less than $100, there was not enough food to feed the population, and China was isolated from the world. When he left the political stage in 1992, China had been growing almost 10% a year, food supply was adequate, contacts with the world had exploded, over three hundred million people had been lifted above the poverty line, and China was on the way to becoming a major power. What forces shaped Deng? What was his strategy for bringing about these changes? How did he accomplish it? Ezra F. Vogel is the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 1950 and serving two years in the U.S. Army, he studied sociology in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard, receiving his Ph.D. in 1958. He then went to Japan for two years to study the Japanese language and conduct research interviews with middle-class families. In 1960-1961 he was assistant professor at Yale University and from 1961-1964 a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, studying Chinese language and history. He remained at Harvard, becoming lecturer in 1964 and, in 1967, professor. He retired from teaching on June 30, 2000. For a more complete bio, please click here For more information: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rijs/people/faculty/e_vogel.html
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012       4:00 PM 13TH ANNUAL JOHN W. HALL LECTURE IN JAPANESE STUDIES Vessels of Influence: The Formation of the Porcelain Industry in Japan Dr. Nicole Rousmaniere - Director of the Sainsbury Institute, 2nd year of secondment at the British Museum Auditorium, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue Dining utensils not only mirror what the diner feels about him or herself, but also can reveal the image that he or she wishes to project to the community at large. These utensils leave tantalizing traces in archaeological, documentary, art historical and trade records. Recently in Japan unprecedented amounts of Chinese porcelain has been excavated in numerous medieval and early modern sites allowing for a reappraisal of the meaning and role of Chinese porcelain. In the first half of the 17th century, Japan started to produce its own porcelain and by the end of the century dominated the world market, a position that it subsequently lost in the 18th century. This lecture focuses on the consumption and meaning of Chinese porcelain in late medieval and early modern Japan and its relationship with Japanese porcelain that eventually replaced it. Chinese and Japanese porcelain can be seen as ‘vessels of influence’ through their use not just in dining and as important items of trade, but also as vehicles for the retelling of national histories and of cultural identity. Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere is the Research Director of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich, England. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1998. She has taught at various institutions, such as University of East Anglia and SOAS and recently was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. Her research interests include early modern to contemporary ceramics in East Asia and trade networks, the history of archaeology and collecting of Japan objects in Asia and in Europe, Japanese contemporary craft expression and manga. She is currently seconded to the British Museum as a curator in the Department of Asia working on their extensive ceramic collection and completing a publication on the history of the Japanese porcelain industry.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012       7:00 PM THE SWORD AND THE SCREEN: THE JAPANESE PERIOD FILM 1915-1960 Rare Samurai Films From the Collection of the National Film Center, Tokyo Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium Sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies and the National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo A series of rare Japanese samurai films from the collection of the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, which highlights the abundant variety of Japan's most famous genre. There are social critiques, melodramas, comedies, ghost films and even musicals, directed by some of the masters of Japanese cinema who, in part because they worked in popular cinema, have rarely been presented abroad. The series is the first time Japan's national film archive has cooperated with a non-Japanese university. ALL FILMS ARE IN 35 MM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES 先代萩 御殿の場 義大夫出語[英語字幕付][No.1] 1915 Sendaihagi One of the few films from this era that exists, this provides a rare glimpse of the "kabuki cinema" of the time and features one of the earliest stars of Japanese cinema, Nakamura Kasen. Remarkably, unlike kabuki and other early films which usually featured female impersonators for female roles, this film actually has a female cast! 長恨[部分][英語字幕付] 1926 Ito Daisuke An Unforgettable Grudge 忠次旅日記[トータル・イマーション版][英語字幕付] 1927 Ito Daisuke A Diary of Chuji’s Travels The director of nearly a total of 100 jidaigeki films, Itō Daisuke (1898-1981), often revered as “father of jidaigeki” by critics and moviefans in Japan. A Diary of Chūji’s Travels stars Itō’s frequent collaborator Ōkōchi Denjirō as the legendary late-Edo gambler Chūji Kunisada, portraying him as a man at odds with an oppressive society as he strives to save the geisha Oshina. While only the last reel of An Unforgettable Grudge has been preserved, the fast camera movement and rapid cuts offer an early glimpse into Itō’s distinctive style. The portrayal of disgruntled, lonely, nihilistic drifters as protagonists marks Itō’s socially conscious filmmaking, creatively exaggerating, critiquing, and transforming the period film conventions of the time. For more information: http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/2012samurai_film_series_pamphlet.pdf
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2012       4:00 PM THE SWORD AND THE SCREEN: THE JAPANESE PERIOD FILM 1915-1960 Rare Samurai Films From the Collection of the National Film Center, Tokyo Whitney Humanities Center Auditorium Sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies and the National Film Center, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo A series of rare Japanese samurai films from the collection of the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, which highlights the abundant variety of Japan's most famous genre. There are social critiques, melodramas, comedies, ghost films and even musicals, directed by some of the masters of Japanese cinema who, in part because they worked in popular cinema, have rarely been presented abroad. The series is the first time Japan's national film archive has cooperated with a non-Japanese university. ALL FILMS ARE IN 35 MM WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES 河内山宗俊[英語字幕付] 1936 Yamanaka Sadao Kochiyama Soshun The title of this film refers to a heroic character from popular stories and the kabuki stage , re-imagined here as a human being with a nuanced personality. Kochiyama is a monk who has broken his vows and runs a tavern in Edo who becomes involved in local intrigue when he tries to protect a pair of orphans from a group of gangsters. The film is notable for realistic performances by actors from the Zenshinza theater troupe at a time when more stylized acting was the norm. The sober atmosphere of the film matches its legacy as one of the only extant films by director Yamanaka Sadao--he died as a young man in World War II, and nearly all of his films were destroyed; this is one of only three that remains. 花ちりぬ[英語字幕付] 1938 Ishida Tamizo Flowers Have Fallen Without repeating a shot position or depicting a man on camera, this film set entirely within a Kyoto geisha house explores the lives and relationships of the women who work there, while battles rage in the city streets outside as rebel factions attempt to restore the emperor. Flowers Have Fallen offers us not only an intimate, female-centric perspective on a transitional moment in Japan’s history, but also a glimpse of how such a historical moment was imagined on the eve of another period of social upheaval and war. Final screening followed with a SYMPOSIUM at 8:00 PM: Panelists: David Desser ( Editor, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema) Fumiaki Itakura (Curator, National Film Center, Tokyo) Daniel Botsman (Chair of Council on East Asian Studies, Professor of History, Yale) Moderator: Aaron Gerow (Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Languages & Literatures, Yale) For more information: http://eastasianstudies.research.yale.edu/2012samurai_film_series_pamphlet.pdf