Asian Languages and Cultures

Old Announcements

New Graduate Chinese Master of Arts for Teachers Degree to be offered starting January 2008 (Tentative Start Date)

The graduate faculty in Chinese will begin offering a Master of Arts for Teachers (M.A.T.). This program is designed for those already teaching Chinese and for those who are interested in pursuing a carrer related to Chinese language and culture teaching. Undergraduates majoring in Chinese or related fields may wish to augment their B.A. with this degree. Further information will be posted as soon as it is available.

Dalai Lama Talk at Radio Music Hall

The Dalai Lama will give teachings in New York for three days on " the Diamond Cutter Sutra and Seventy Verses on Emptiness." The event is hosted by The Tibet Center and Healing the Divide, of the Gere Foundation. The teachings will be followed by a public talk on "Peace and Prosperity". Both events will take place at Radio City Music Hall on October 12, 13, and 14. Please visit The Tibetian Community of New York and New Jersey for for more information.

Dr. Vladimir Tikhonov (Park Noja) “Progressive Religiosity - Minjung Christianity and Minjung Buddhism in Modern South Korea”

Professor Joy Kim (Korean History; Princeton University) Professor Micah Auerback (Religious Studies; Univ. of Michigan)

Tuesday, September 25 2007, 4:30-6 p.m. Teleconferencing Lecture Hall, Scholarly Communications Center (4th floor) Alexander Library, 169 College Avenue, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Please click here for details

Japanese Part-Time Facilitator Opportunity

The Rutgers Department of Asian Languages and Cultures seeks a part time facilitator for its Japanese language class on Newark Campus. Advanced undergraduate or graduate students with advanced Japanese language skills are preferred. Travel expenses from New Brunswick to Newark campus will be reimbursed. Interested candidates should contact the Asian Languages Department at 732-932-7605.

New York Korean Film Festival 2007

The 2007 New York Korean Film Festival will be held from August 21st~September 2nd. For more information on the films and dates, please visit The 2007 New York Korean Film Festival website.

Intermediate Chinese (201) Section 3 Added to Fall 2007 Schedule

An additional section of Intermediate Chinese (201) has been added to the Fall 2007 schedule. The class meets at the following hours:

Monday 7th period (6:10~7:30) --- Cambell A1

Tuesday 7th & 8th period (6:10~9:00) --- Hardenberg B1

Wednesday 7th period (6:10~7:30) --- Cambell A5

Tibet in Asia: Cultural and Religious Interactions: A Symposium

Thursday, September 22, 2005, at 4:15 p.m.
Rutgers Student Center, Room 411 ABC
126 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ

An interdisciplinary symposium on cultural, religious, and artistic interactions between Tibet and other parts of Asia, particularly in the modern period. With Dr. Chun-fang Yu as moderator and speaker, and including Professors Gary Tuttle, Robert Barnett, and Lauran Hartley. Sponsored by Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian Studies.

U.S.-Japan Relations in the Era of Globalization

A Lecture by Minister Kojiro Shiojiri
Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Japan
Washington, D.C.

Thursday, October 21, 2004, 4:30 P.M.
Scholarly Communication Center
Alexander Library, 4th Floor
College Avenue

Minister Shiojiri is a senior career diplomat and currently deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Japan to the United States. Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, he has served in many different positions in Japan, Europe, the Republic of Korea, and the U.S. Minister Shiojiri's main expertise is in international economic affairs and secur8ity issues related to the Korean peninsula.

Korea's ‘Early Modern':
Colonial Literature and the Constellation of History

November 5-6, Rutgers University

“Constellation” refers to the result of a non-predetermined intellectual pursuit and a type of reading that animates the relations between disparate elements of a given sociopolitical reality which produces a work of art. Built on the premise that there is no neutral ground on which any work stands, such a reading allows for the discovery of a complex field of relations between literature and history, between literary production, memory, and political option; this is the kind of reading that encourages movement across the borders which used to separate the disciplines. In this conference we will examine issues that deal with modernity in the colonial context of early twentieth century Korea. Papers on poetry, fiction, intellectual history, as well as on film and cultural studies will be presented in the hope that the papers would themselves animate one another and illuminate a vital field of inquiry. Pending funding, a workshop will follow next year featuring selected papers to be published as a volume. (More...)

Rutgers Summer Chinese Study Program in Nanjing 2005

Time: End of May through early July 2005
Place: Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Deadline for Applications: End of March 2005

This coming Summer, the Rutgers University Department of Asian Languages and Cultures will hold its annual summer program in China in the ancient city of Nanjing. The program is designed to provide students with an opportunity to study Chinese in a native environment. Located on the southern banks of the Yangtze River, Nanjing is a major political, commercial, historical, and cultural center of the lower Yangtze Region. Its historical status as a national capital and proximity to the Mandarin speaking North make the city of Nanjing a fine environment for the study of Standard Chinese. Nanjing University is one of the best and oldest universities in the country and is located in the middle of the city, within a 15 minute walk of downtown Nanjing. The famous cities of Shanghai, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Hangzhou are also all very near - within a half-day's ride by train or bus. The program is conducted under the direction of a Professor of Chinese at Rutgers. (More...)

2004-2005 Global Futures Symposia
As East Asia Turns:
Nationalism, Regionalization, and Cosmopolitanization

A Lecture by Katharine H. S. Moon
Chair, Department of Political Science
Wellesley College

Monday, October 4, 2004 at 4:30 p.m.
College Hall, Livingston Student Center

More information online at livingston.rutgers.edu, or call 732.445.4085, ext. 819

The 2003 North American Taiwan Studies Association (NATSA) Conference

Conference Theme: Changes, Continuity and Contestations in Taiwanese Society
Location: Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Time: June 19-22, 2003

Pre-Registration Required: NATSA has set up an on-line registration for the conference at our website (http://www.natsc.org/index.html). We encourage you to take advantage of this on-line function and register before May 20 since the early registration discount will expire the next day (i.e., May 21). You can find check in, arrival and departure, transportation, and accommodation on our Question and Answer (Q&A)
section on the website.

As Rutgers Taiwan Study Association (RTSA) is co-sponsoring this conference through the funding of Rutgers Graduate Student Association, all Rutgers students/faculty/staff with valid ID will not need to pay the registration fee for attending this conference. However, in order for NATSA to prepare the paper work, only those who register before May 20 will get a conference booklet for free.

The Kamasutra: Translating Orientalism

A Lecture by Wendy Doniger
Mircea Eliade
Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions University of Chicago

Friday, February 28, 2003, 7:30 P.M.
Room 411 ABC, Rutgers Student Center College Avenue Campus

Wendy Doniger is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Committees on Social Thought and on the Ancient Mediterranean World, and the College. Her research and teaching interests revolve around two basic areas, Hinduism and mythology, particularly the cross-cultural mythology of death, dreams, evil, horses, sex, and women.

Her lecture will be about the remarkably liberal way that the Kamasutra treats gender issues that are important to us nowadays, such as the voices of women embedded in male-authored texts and the non-judgmental treatment of homoerotic sex. She will argue that the standard old translation of the Kamasutra, by Sir Richard Burton, mistranslated the gender issues, and only now is it possible to see how extraordinarily broad-minded and subtle the Kamasutra treatment of these subjects is.

Intercultural Film Club
Spring Program

The Intercultural Film Club has just been founded this September and is jointly organized by the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Asian American Cultural Center of Rutgers University. The mission of the club is to enhance intercultural understanding in the university community and to broaden faculty/student interchange inside and outside of the classroom through films. Movies are selected based on recommendation by faculty members in all departments of Rutgers University and should be linked to a particular class or course at the university. Each film screening will include a short introduction to the director and movie by a faculty member or graduate student.

This fall, the film club will show 15 full-length feature movies by directors from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Asian directors living in the US. Most of the movies we will screen during this fall term have been rarely, if ever, shown in commercial or arts theaters and we are proud to present most of them in 16mm format.

All films are shown in Milledoler Hall 100 on College Avenue Campus at 7:30 on Friday nights. For the fall schedule, please visit the following URL: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~filmclub/

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the Intercultural Film Club, please e-mail either Dietrich Tschanz from the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (dtschanz@rci.rutgers.edu) or Dr. To-thi Bosacchi of the Asian American Cultural Center (bosacchi@rci.rutgers.edu).

"Taiwan Today: Contemporary Photography & Cinematography"
Alexader Library
September 20 to November 21, 2001

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures in collaboration with the Information Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York presents an exhibit on contemporary Taiwan in the Gallery '50 and the East Asian Library of Alexander Library. The exibit will be on view between September 20 and November 21, 2001, during the regular opening hours of the library. Co-sponsors of the event include the Asian American Cultural Center, Special Collections and University Archives, and the East Asian Library.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Intercultural Film Club will present four feature films directed by well-known Taiwanese directors. The films will be shown in Milledoler 100, College Avenue Campus, on Friday evenings at 7:30. Admission is free.

Films to be shown include:

9/21 "Red Persimmon" by Want Tung, 1996
9/28 "Dust in the Wind" by Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1987
10/12 "The Terrorizers" by Edward Yang, 1986
10/26 "Pushing Hands" by Ang Lee, 1991

All of these movies will be shown in the original language with English subtitles.

For a full list of the fall program of the Intercultural Film Club, please visit the following URL: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~aacc/

Interpretation and Intellectual Change:
An International Conference on the History of Chinese Hermeneutics

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures will host a conference entitled "Interpretation and Intellectual Change: An International Conference on the History of Chinese Hermeneutics" at the University Inn and Conference Center at Rutgers from October 4 to 6, 2001. For more information, please go to the conference web site at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~easian/Hermeneutics.html.

Asian American Visual Arts Exhibition

April 2 - May 4, 2001
Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Center for Latino Arts and Culture

With works by:
Rajini Sarma Balachandran, Zhiyuan Cong, Ming Fay, Hong Tatt Foo, Dae-Young Jeong, Christiane Lee, Youg-Wha Lee, Allen Takichi Maertz, Mayumi Sarai, Seow-Chu See, Ela Shah, Liao Shiou-Ping, Dorothy Yung

Presented by the Asian American Cultural Center

For more information please call the Asian American Cultural Center at (732) 445-8043.

A Talk by Ruth Keyso-Vail on her book Women of Okinawa

The Asian Studies Program Presents a talk by Ruth Keyso-Vail on her book Women of Okinawa: Nine Voices from a Garrison Island.

Thursday, April 19, 2001
4:30 p.m.
Murray Hall Room 204
College Avenue, New Brunswick

All Welcome, Open to the public.