‘Cat on the Mat’ and other Troubles

Many of my friends know that sometime half way through my masters degree I found a renewed interest in history and theory. This has prompted a lot of new reading and re-thinking. Much of this reading involves areas of thought I have never had much exposure to while some of it is re-covering old ground. Today I read a short introductory work on Wittgenstein, a somewhat problematic figure in the field of analytical philosophy, where I spent many of my undergraduate days.

The work has left me a bit frustrated, to say the least. In addition to many other reactions I won’t share here, it made me realize the incredible lack of context which marked my undergraduate training in philosophy…
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Korean Language Textbooks and Christianity

My study of the Korean language is progressing only slowly, especially since I’m neither enrolled in any serious program of language study here nor am I in Korea where I might use the language daily. I supplement the study of various textbooks and the use of my flashcard software with a number of language exchanges with Korean friends of mine. Their patience and kind explanations have been the most crucial to my attempt to gain proficiency while I’m in Japan.

I have been using a number of textbooks of varying quality. All of them have little attached sections which introduce the culture and history of Korea itself or the city of Seoul. None of these little sections have (yet) taken up the topic of Christianity in Korea and its strong evangelistic tendencies, which, prior to my study of the Korean language, has been the feature of Korea that I took greatest notice of.

However, in two of my textbooks, Christianity does pop up indirectly in the instructive language material of the text itself, and it does so in a way I have seen in no textbook for the Japanese or Chinese languages…
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Scholar Blogs and Generating Interest

It has been a busy two weeks but I have been working a little on my online projects. The East Asia History Forums have been visited by most people I have spread the word to but not much has been posted.

I have started a new project at ChinaJapan.org, a “Scholar Blogs” project. Basically, I am trying to convince a number of scholars doing Sino-Japanese studies or research in related fields to allow me to host web logs for them at ChinaJapan.org…
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If only this would happen more often…

A posting from my friend Derek:

This is old, but I found this news blurb at Mainichi

I only wish this sort of thing wasn’t so exceptional that it actually made the news. Even my own wife Ryoko, though she kicks my butt 3 times a week at Aikido class, can certainly take care of herself, she’s told me that the 3 or 4 times that someone tried to fondle her on the train that she didn’t do anything confrontational. She either elbowed the guy and pushed his hand away, or just moved herself away from him. (not necessarily an easy task on a crowded train…) That’s better than just enduring it, I suppose.

Of course the men that do these malicious things are the real perpetrators and are completely at fault, but I can’t help but thinking that if women in Japan weren’t so afraid of creating a scene this never would have escalated to the problem that it is today. In a similar way, if a burglar enters your house and steals your valuables he is at fault and will go to jail, but if you never lock your house when you leave or at night you’re just ‘asking for it’.

The problem is bad enough that several train lines are adding ‘women only’ cars to be used during rush hour. I think it’s a wonderful idea, I’m only sad that it has come to the point where this sort of thing is necessary.

Derek

East Asia History Forums

I had my first real, full hour long presentation in Japanese today, on the topic of the Hanjian (traitor) trials in postwar China. I was so nervous but I think it went alright. I’m now exhausted.

I set up several research forums for those doing research on various areas of East Asian history. Among others, there is a forum for discussion of the Sino-Japanese War and forums for the study of the colonial history of Korea and Taiwan etc.

I also included a number of forums on postwar issues, such as postwar Sino-Japanese relations and War and Memory

I hope some of my friends begin posting on the site and encourage others to participate.

No Taiwan in June, Going to New York

I have successfully reversed the nocturnal existence I have been leading ever since I recovered from jetlag in October and have been an early riser for almost a week now. Zheesh, it was like kicking cocaine or something. Of course, I don’t know why I bothered given that I’m leaving for New York on Sunday.

The Taiwan conference was postponed until October. I lost my ticket but hopefully can afford another one by October. Also, let us all hope that SARS has been successfully contained by that time. It would be sad indeed if China steaming economy were truly derailed by the fear of the disease.
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英雄 (Hero)

I just finished watching “Hero”. I was fascinated by it, but found it to be a deeply disturbing movie. In fact, it is a very difficult movie to review. The movie’s basic story surrounds the attempts of a group of assasins to kill the ruler of the kingdom of Qin. The movie alternates between Jet Li’s conversation with the king of Qin and the various battles and stories of the assasins themselves.

On the one hand, it is a very simple movie. It is possible to describe the movie as one with a simple story, very simple images, simple characters, and a very simple message. You could either criticize the movie for its simplicity, or pour praise on it for its beauty and sincerity. It has and doubtlessly will continue to receive awards and admiration for its perfection of a kind of purity of style we are used to seeing in the best of Chinese cinema.

On the other hand, the movie, or specifically, its message, is disturbing. I think Chinese and non-Chinese alike who are familiar with the history of Qin, or at least understand the basic ideas of the movie will, after seeing this movie, feel at least torn and at most horrified. I would like to think (and I have yet to read any reviews or web sites discussing the director’s own thoughts about the movie) that we are meant to feel deeply torn and disgusted by the movie, but the final images and captions of the movie suggest otherwise.
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Recent Projects

I have been working on various projects recently. One is Jii-chan’s Kanji Flaschards for studying Chinese characters used in Japanese language. I also got a full server for chinajapan.org and will hopefully get working on the software for this site soon. Sayaka has a personal homepage up now over at Securitygirl.net and her pages on Clausewitz got linked over at the Web’s center of Clausewitz research.

Finally, my work on OWLS has paid off and it looks like I will be able to give a presentation about it at the International Conference for Internet Chinese Education this June in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Fear of SARS

SARS is about to get in my way. Yesterday, the WHO has changed Taiwan’s status from “limited local transmission” area to “affected area”. Following up, the US center for disease control and prevention put Taiwan on its travel advisory list.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I was due to present at a conference on “Internet Chinese Education” in early June but I now am beginning to seriously doubt whether it will take place. I can’t get through to the conference web page and have gotten no reply to an inquiry to their staff.
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