East Asian Studies Center

Monday, October 14, 2024 | 3:30PM-4:50PM | DMC 207 | COURSE ONLY

Torquil Duthie (UCLA) with Faculty Moderator Wanmeng Li will discuss the rise of literary writing in Japan in the late seventh and eighth centuries. It is at this historical moment, when the Japanese court required a documented history and a written culture worthy of a realm with imperial aspirations, that specific individuals were recognized for their skill in creating beautifully patterned pieces of writing, and their names attached to these works in collections and anthologies that were transmitted to posterity. The Man’yōshū (Collection of a Myriad Ages, c. late eighth century) refers to such individuals as “authors” (sakusha) literally, those (sha) who “make” or “compose” (saku) literary works—meaning poetry and forms of prose that make use of the literary skills epitomized by poetry.

This event is for registered students of EALC 110.

Monday, October 14, 2024 | 3:30PM-5:00PM | GFS 330 | RSVP

Prof. Chung-hye Han (Simon Fraser University), with Faculty Moderator Stephanie Shih, presents a methodology for defining compositional semantics using Synchronous Tree Adjoining Grammar (STAG), a pairing of a Tree Adjoining Grammar (TAG) for syntax and a TAG for semantics. TAG makes a distinction between a derivation structure and a derived tree. The derivation structure defines dependencies between elementary trees and compositional semantics, and the derived tree defines aspects of surface constituency. She shows that STAG can be used to provide a computationally constrained compositional semantics for apparently non-local dependencies, illustrated with analyses for it-clefts and argument sharing clausal coordination.

Co-sponsored by the USC Department of Linguistics

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 | 12:00PM-1:00PM | ASC 207 | RSVP

Book Talk by Edward Wong (The New York Times), with introductions by Prof. Viet Thanh Nguyen (English and American Studies & Ethnicity, USC) and moderated by Clayton Dube (USC US-China Institute).

Wong tells a moving chronicle of a family and a nation that spans decades of momentous change and gives profound insight into a new authoritarian age transforming the world. A groundbreaking book, At the Edge of Empire is the essential work for understanding China today.

This event is co-sponsored by East Asian Studies Center and US-China Institute.

Thursday, October 17 | 4:00PM – 5:00PM | CAS 100 | RSVP

EASC is hosting a Q&A Info Session for the Global East Asia Maymester Program to Tokyo, Japan. Please review this video first and if you still have questions, feel free to join us at the info session. The informational video covers Program Overview, Course Breakdown, Program benefits, Eligibility, Program Costs, Funding Opportunities, and an Application walkthrough.

Friday, October 18 | 1:00PM – 3:00PM | CAS 100 | RSVP

Please join us for the Fall 2024 EASC Undergraduate Mixer! Come meet other East Asian area studies and Korean studies majors and minors while enjoying some food and drinks. We would love for you to also invite any other students interested in East Asian media, research, or study abroad opportunities!

Please note that this event is open to USC undergraduates only.

Thursday, October 31, 2024 | 2:00PM-3:20PM | Zoom | RSVP

Dr. Tian Li (Yale University), with Faculty Moderator Raymond Tsang, discusses the Korean Wave (Hallyu) that has flourished on the Chinese mainland since the 1990s despite looming political conflicts and cultural boycotts. Tian Li’s research theories the (re)localization of Korean screen culture in China through the concept of what she terms screen capitalism—a system of audiovisual relations that foregrounds the negotiations of boundaries through affective and sensory co-experiences. This talk will show how Hallyu has already become an Amnyu (undercurrent) in the Chinese context, and so (re)shaped the contours of Chinese screen culture despite that it continues under different names. By demonstrating the compatibility of screen capitalism’s logic with both capitalist and (post)socialist societies, Tian Li contends that this audiovisual mechanism, insofar as it is fluidly transplantable, ideologically permeable, and transnationally gendered, circulates a shifting cultural paradigm both on and off the screen.

Thursday, October 31 | 4:00PM – 5:30PM | CAS 100 | RSVP

Please join us for the Fall 2024 EASC Grad Mixer! Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so this is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with East Asia-related research topics and interests!

Halloween Costume Optional!

Friday, November 8, 2024 | 3:30PM-5:00PM | SOS 250 | RSVP

Dr. Ed Pulford (University of Manchester) with Faculty Moderator Joshua Goldstein, explores drawing on a new book, at the three-way convergence of China, North Korea and Russia, populations with similarly stark but also very different experiences of socialism and its ambivalent aftermaths interact regularly, and in doing so shed unique light on the progressive state projects which have swept this borderland. Everyday cross-border encounters bring the temporal ideas spawned by Maoist, Soviet and Kimist socialisms, the Soviet collapse and ‘rise’ of China into direct contact. As a decade of fieldwork shows, borderlanders here remain haunted by divergent visions of progress and struggle to see their neighbours as ‘coevals’ in an era of postsocialist commerce and utilitarian friendships.

Co-sponsored by the USC Department of Anthropology. 

Wednesday, November 13, 2024 | 11:00AM-12:20PM | DML 240 | RSVP

Prof. Namhee Lee (UCLA) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Sunyoung Park, argues that despite the widespread despair, a broad spectrum of civil society has made equally determined and vociferous efforts to demand and work for democratization in all spheres of life. She explores the political horizons and social imaginaries of these movements, which compel rethinking the meaning of democracy and broadening the existing concept of social movements.

Co-sponsored by the Korean Studies Institute. 

Wednesday, November 13 | 5:00PM – 6:30PM | Location TBD | RSVP

Please join us for the 10th annual East Asia Career Panel! The East Asia Career Panel is an annual event EASC organizes and is open to all undergraduate and graduate students interested in using East Asian language and area studies skills in their future professions and learning about the different career options available. Our impressive alumni panelists come from professions in fields such as business consulting, entertainment, journalism, non-profit, marketing, and education. The panel will be followed by a Q&A and networking opportunity.

Wednesday, November 20 | 2:00PM-3:00PM | CAS 100

Please join us for the EASC Open House as part of International Education Week (IEW) at USC! Come meet the EASC team and find out about our events, academic programs, fellowships, and other resources. Snacks and drinks will be provided!

Thursday, November 21, 2024 | 4:00PM-5:30PM PST | Zoom | RSVP

EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Zhange Ni (Virginia Tech) with Faculty Moderator Dr. Kun Huang 

The Cthulhu Mythos is fictional universe positing the existence of Cthulhu and other monstrous deities and warning against attempts to venture into a cosmos indifferent, if not hostile, to human interests. These monsters have arrived in China and transfigured there. The Cthulhu conquest of China is also the Chinese conquest of Cthulhu. The anti-humanism of supernatural horror has been transformed into a humanist critique against the capitalist system that utilizes information sciences and digital technologies to exploit human capacities. Prof. Ni will use Chinese fantasy novels to explore themes of corporate horror, proletarian manifesto, and the salvation of insanity.