Please mark the following dates in your calendar.
Unless otherwise indicated, all sessions will be held in the
C.K. Choi Building, Conference Room (Room 120) from 12:30 - 2:00.
For information please call 822-2629 or write to capri@unixg.ubc.ca.

Abbreviations:
CCR - Centre for Chinese Research
CISAR - Centre for India & South Asian Research
CJR - Centre for Japanese Research
CKR - Centre for Korean Research
CSEAR - Centre for Southeast Asia Research

7 January - "Cleaning up doi moi - can regulation and good governance promote environmental values in Viet Nam?" by Ian TownsendGault, Director, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, UBC.

This seminar examines advances in law-making and governance in Vietnam since the adoption of the policy of doi moi, illustrated by reference to key sectors, including issues arising from the protection of the environment, and the roles played therein by different levels of Vietnamese government and society and the donor community.

14 January - "Growth and Transformation in a North Pacific Resource Regime: Japan's Internaional Fisheries" by Roger D. Smith, Department of History and the Centre for Japanese Research, UBC. 12:30 - 2:30 p.m., C.K. Choi Building Seminar Room #129.

The North Pacific region has traditionally been important in Japanese domestic politics.  This seminar will dicuss issues in international fisheries of this region as related to Japan.

28 January - "The Ainu and the New I: Rethinking Tsugaru" by Sherry Tanaka, Faculty of Graduate Studies, UBC.

A personal narrative exploring the relationship between Ainu people and "dochakumin" (indigenous peoples) of northern Japan will be presented. It will focus on the water-based economic system which integrated Honshu and Hokkaido via Tsugaru Strait, the Salty River.

Dr. Orbaugh will be discussing the history of post-World War Two Japanese literature, one major stream of which is characterized by attempts to re-conceptualize gender roles through representations of outrageous forms of gender performance. Her recent work looks at the role of the family in these representations, so the presentation will be an attempt to integrate theory about family dynamics with theory about gender performance as seen in the postwar fiction of Oe Kenzaburo, Shimada Masahiko, Murakami Ryu, Kanai Mieko, Ohba Minako, and other major writers.

- "Deregulation of Electric Power: North America and Japan," by Takahide Niimura, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC. U.S. and Canadian experience in the deregulation of electric power industry will be compared with the Japanese movement towards deregulating Japan's power industry.
- "Post Currency Crisis in Asia: Long Run View and What Needs to be Done," by Bernard Yeung, Professor, University of Michigan Business School. Implications of the current currency crisis in Asia for the prospects of Japanese and other economies in Asia will be discussed.

On November 11th, 1993 a number of Sikh military veterans were excluded from the Newton Legion Hall in Surrey over a disagreement around the issue of the turban. Tracing the historical  constellation of factors around this event suggests the issue of identity and exclusion in urban "multicultural" spaces is a complex and intriguing one.event suggests the issue of identity and exclusion in urban "multicultural" spaces is a complex and intriguing one.

This presentation looks at the explosive growth of Japanese service sector firms (trading companies, banks, real estate developers etc) in the period since 1985 and their impact on Pacific Rim cities. The results point to some important changes banks, real estate developers etc) in the period since 1985 and their impact on Pacific Rim cities. The results point to some important changes in their spatial patterns since 1990 and their emergence of Hong Kong, Singapore and Los Angeles as regional centres.

Drawing on his experience as a business executive in Korea, Mr. Kim will examine the culture of Korean business. He will then explore the relationship between this culture and the current economic crisis.

6 March - "The Second Phase of Imjin Waeran: 1597 to 1598 and the "Mound of Ears." by Nam-lin Hur, Dept. of Asian Studies. 3:30-5:00 pm, Conference Room #120 C.K. Choi Bldg. CKR.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched a second massive campaign against Korea with an army of 141,000. This time his goal was to occupy the southern parts of Korea and capture prisoners as many as possible to lead a future negotiation with the Ming court to his advantage. Faced with Japanese troops, Koreans experienced extreme atrocities, which was symbolized by the "Mounds of Ears." This seminar deals with war casualties through the looking glass of a couple of major battles.

Dr. Gang will cover the following issues in his seminar: Why China is not the next "domino"? What are the short-run and long-run impacts of the crises on China's growth and reform? Will the Chinese currency be devaluated and the growth continue in 1998?

11 March - "Rethinking Conventional Wisdom: ethnicity, ethnic conflict, and India as an ethnic democracy" by Gurharpal Singh, Montford University, U.K. CISAR.

13 March - "The Philosopher as Parent: Tasan and his sons" by Donald Baker, Asian Studies. 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Seminar Room #129 C.K. Choi Building

Was Tasan, one of the greatest Confucian philosophers in all Korean history, also a Catholic?  Many Catholic scholars says yes. Many
non-Catholics say no. Usually the answer is sought in his philosphical writings, but Professor Baker suggest that a more fruitful approach may be to look at Tasan's letters to his sons.

24 March - "Korea's Strategy: Liberalization of the East Asian Air Transport Market and the U.S.Open Skies Initiative." by Tae Oum, Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration. 4:00-5:30pm, Conference Room #120 C.K. Choi Bldg. CKR

25 March - "The Current Economic Crises in Indonesia" - panel discussion on exchange rates, financial sector, agriculture, forestry and trade policy issues. CSEAR and the Department of Agricultural Economics.

26 March - "Gender Equality in Vietnamese Arts and Its Implications for Gender Development in Vietnam" by Julie Trang Nguyen, Centre for Southeast Asia Research in collaboration with Khac Chi and Ngoc Bich, Vietnamese traditional instrumental musicians. 1:30-3:00 pm, C.K. Choi Bldg. Conference Room #120. Cross Cultural Literary Studies in Asia Group.

4 April - "Edo:  Past and Present". 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, Asian Centre. CJR and Japan Foundation.

Papers will be presented on various aspects of the Edo period culture in Japan. The topics of the papers to be presented include:  ukiyoe, kabuki, Tokugawa period maps, late Edo Buddhist images, Kaguya-hime and the representation of the world and people during the Edo period.

Underdevelopment in agrarian economies, defined as low productivity, absence of innovation, and low average income, is often the result of a "coordination" problem. No single sector (or household) with the economy may be able to invest and grow unless other sectors (households) grow simutaneously, because of sectoral (inter-household) interdependencies. Certain NGOs have recently been successful in delivering scarce goods and services to rural areas, and initiating a process of economic growth. Their success relative to state agencies and market forces suggests that NGOs may be better equiped to solve sectoral (household) coordination problems. Their ability to deliver credit to the poor in an efficient and equitable manner is especially noteworthy, since the credit sector is crucial to development and its poor performance can unravel development efforts. The paper will discuss the possible role of NGOs in solving the "coordination" problem, and overcoming hurdles in credit delivery by creating 'social capital' (norms of reciprocity) among target households.

9 April - "Between Cultures" by Fumiko Kometani. 2:00 - 3:30 pm C.K. Choi Bldg. Conference Room #120. CJR.

Fumiko Kometani is a well-known Japanese author and a long resident of the United States.In 1985, she won a number of Japanese literary awards for her writings: Bungakkai shinjinshoo, Shinchoo shinjinshoo and Akutagawashoo.  The Akutagawashoo is one of the most prestigious literary awards in Japan. In this CJR Seminar, she will talk about her experiences during World War II and its aftermath in Japan and her decision to spend the rest of her life in the US.

16 April - "Developments in Chinese Politics Since the 1997 Party Congress", Mr. David Hsieh, Staff Correspondent (China), Asia Week. 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm, C.K. Choi Bldg. Seminar Room #129. CCR.

17 April - "The Samgang Haengsil-to: Linguistic and Philological Approaches to a 15th Century Illustrated Korean Ethics Text" by Ross King (Assistant Professor of Korean, UBC) and Hyeonhie Lee (Associate Professor of Korean Language and Linguistics, Seoul National University). 12:00 - 1:30, C.K. Choi Seminar Room (129). CKR.

Professors Lee and King will present a progress report on their joint project to annotate and translate in English the recently discovered London Library copy of this important Middle Korean text and its subsequent editions from the 16th to 19th centuries. Presentation will be in both Korean and English.

Dr. Sylvia Tiwon teaches Asian Literature at the University of California at Berkeley.   Her main research interests focus on Indonesian Literature (modern and traditional), constructions of gender, cultural resistance in Indonesia. Her many publications include: "Models and Maniacs: Rearticulating the Female in Indonesia", in L. Sears. ed. Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia. Durham: Duke University Press.l996, and a forthcoming book, Breaking the Spell: Colonialism and Literary Renaissance in Indonesia, being published by Leiden University.

Since the mid-1980s, when Korea was stabilized with the low level of fertility, sex ratios at birth have risen remarkably.  After a brief introduction of demographic situation in Korea, Professor Kim will try to develop explanations for why and how the sex ratio at birth has risen recently.  The pattern of changing trends and regional differences in the sex ratio at birth will be explored.  He argues that masculine sex ratio at birth is mainly caused by son-selective reproductive behaviors.  A conceptual scheme of son-selective behaviors will be discussed.

6 May - "Customary Law and Common Property Resources Are Building Blocks For Natural Resource Management" Northern India and British Columbia  by Dr. Minoti Chakravarty-Kaul, Department of Economics, Lady Shri Ram College University of Delhi, New Delhi. CISAR.

The Author has recently published a book entitled: Common Lands and Customary Law: Institutional Change in Northern India in the past two centuries. She is extending this work to examine the relation between statute and customary law. Hence, arising out of this work she is here in the Faculty of Law, UBC, as a Shastri Indo-Canadian visiting Scholar. In the talk she will examine the Delhamuukw case which involves two First Nations of British Columbia and their claims to land rights. The paper will seek to compare the property rights systems of the two regions - Greater Punjab and British Columbia - which the author hopes will support a hypothesis that the institutional framework of natural resources management provide the building blocks of social capital and thereby equip local communities to manage natural resources as in the Himalayan and northern plains of India and British Columbia.
 

Fr. Dominic George trained in philosophy, theology and management studies has been Dean of Studies at the XLRI Management Institute, Jamshedpur; Director, Socio-Religious Centre, Calicut; and Director, Indian Social Institute, Bangalore.  Currently, he is the Director of the Loyola Extension Services and Rector of the Loyola Institutions.  The Loyola Extension Services has centres in fifty-seven different cities and towns in Kerala and is carrying forward a programme of urban poverty alleviation.