UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND
Asian Studies Newsletter
Fall 2014
Alumna Selina Tran graduated in 2012 with a major in Politics and Government (Comparative) and Chinese. She
was also a Robert Trimble Distinguished Asia Scholar. While at the University of Puget Sound, Selina studied
abroad in Beijing for a semester and also participated in the 2011-2012 Pacific Rim/Asia Study-Travel Program.
Upon graduation, Selina moved to DC and worked at the nonprofit Global Ties U.S. before she decided to go back
to Asia again. Selina is now a teaching fellow at Tra Vinh University in Vietnam through VIA (Volunteers in Asia).
She teaches English to high school and college students as well as to other teachers.
Selina kindly agreed to share some excerpts from her blog:
I’m living in Vietnam now teaching English and am trying to learn Vietnamese while I’m here. So I’ve heard that if
you know Mandarin and Cantonese then you’ll know about 60% of Vietnamese. I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin, and while Vietnamese might be easier for me to learn than someone who hasn’t encountered a tonal language, I can tell you now that I do not know 60% of Vietnamese. At least not yet.
Cantonese was my first language and I only learned it on a conversational basis since I only spoke it with my own
family members. It wasn’t until I started studying Mandarin at the University of Puget Sound that I learned the
Chinese writing system. I’ll say that learning how to read and write in Chinese is like learning how to read and
write for the first time. Except harder. Knowing Cantonese definitely made learning Mandarin Chinese easier
since some words sound similar and the grammar is the same.
I’ve only been studying Vietnamese now for two months and I would say it’s a REALLY hard language to learn.
While some of the vocabulary that I’ve learned so far in Vietnamese is similar to certain words in Cantonese and
Mandarin, being able to pronounce Vietnamese correctly has been my biggest struggle.
I think language and culture go hand in hand and learning the language of a country or place helps give you a
better understanding of the people and culture around you. I think it is a crucial cultural component and it’s important for me to learn, if not to gain a better understanding of where I’m living.
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
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Fall Events
University of Puget Sound’s held its first annual Southeast Asia Symposium, on
October 24, from 4-7pm .
The symposium featured a talk by guest speaker, Ravichandran Moorthy,
Associate Professor of International relations at Universitas Kebangsaan
Malaysia, who gave a talk on "Environmental Ethics in Managing Resources in
the Asia Pacific.” Following Moorthy’s talk, students Logan Day, Claire Grubb,
Leonard Henderson, Kasey Janousek, Brenda Seymour, Caryn Stein and
Chelsea Steiner, presented their summer research in Indonesia as a panel.
After the student panel a delicious catered dinner of Southeast Asian specialties was enjoyed by the attendees and speakers.
Finally the evening closed with an interest meeting with Professor Peter Wimberger for Spring/Summer
2015 Field Course in Malaysia Borneo.
The departments of Art and Art History and Asian Studies welcome
.
Dr. Xiaofeng Huang for his lecture:
HOW DOES RAIN TRANSFORM CHINESE LANDSCAPE PAINTING?
Fu Baoshi’s Rainscape in 20th Century China
Dr. Xiaofeng Huang, Associate Professor of Art History from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, will
address the iconography of the rainscape in the history of Chinese art and its political symbolism in the
work of famed Chinese painter Fu Baoshi (1904-1965). Professor Huang is an expert in Chinese paintings of
the Song-Yuan period and modern era. He is currently a J. S. Lee Fellow of the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
helping the
museum to reevaluate its Chinese painting collection, which is relatively unknown amongst scholars.
This lecture is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6 WYATT HALL 101 4:00 PM
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
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Fall Events cont.
Chinese Program Hosts Two Cultural Events
The first event was a Chinese Culture Fair on September 26;
activities included painting Chinese Opera Masks and learning
the nuances of Chinese Calligraphy. Students from local
Chinese programs attended, and it was a huge
success!
The second activity workshop was on the art of tea drinking
with a tasting and beautiful arrangement of teas. Our Chinese
program faculty artfully decorated and presented the service.
These cultural events were hosted by the Asian Studies
Program and co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute.
Students Practice Chinese
Calligraphy
Yingqi Zheng, a Visiting Teaching Assistant, enjoys the tea
workshop with students
Professors David Hull and Lotus
Perry don some freshly painted
Opera Masks
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
Announcements
Asian Studies is pleased to offer the
Suzanne Wilson Barnett Writing Award
Students may submit any paper of any length written for any Asian Studies course,
including Asia-related first-year seminar courses taught during the most recent Spring
2015, Fall 2014 or Summer 2014. Authors of senior, junior or sophomore standing must
have
declared the Asian Studies designation or any of the Asian
Languages and Cultures majors or minors at the time of
submission.
Please see the Asian Studies webpage or contact Lorraine Toler in the Asian Studies
office for more information ltoler@pugetsound.edu
We are in the midst of
Japanese Fall Films Festival,
So far we have enjoyed Hayabusa: Back To The Earth and Quartet.
For our final Fall Film we’ll be watching critically acclaimed
Hayao Miyazaki’s
Raputa: Castle In The Sky.
This beautiful animation follows the story of a young
boy and a girl with a magic crystal as they race
against pirates and
foreign agents in a search for a legendary castle,
hidden amongst the clouds.
Join us as we watch the adventure unfold in
Wyatt Room 209 on Wednesday,
November 19th
From 6-8pm
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ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
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Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar
Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar, one of our new colleagues this semester, has been awarded honors by the Society
for the Study of Social Problems for her paper The Tensions of Diasporic ‘Return’ Migration: Money, Class,
and the Vietnamese Transnational Family.
Mytoan’s general interests are on the political economy of labor migration, states, and civil society. She
wrote “The Tensions of Diasporic ‘Return’ Migration: Money, Class, and the Vietnamese Transnational
Family,” because it addressed a social paradox that has become apparent for the children of immigrants
who had obtained upward mobility and were coming into contact with their non-migrating relatives
back in their parents’ homeland: on the one hand, they were giving large sums of money and gifts out
of a sense of class guilt and privilege because of their success as migrants, and on the other hand, they
felt the need to set boundaries between themselves and their relatives because of the sets of cultural
demands imposed upon them.
Mytoan, on a 2010 fieldwork trip in
central Vietnam. She traveled with a
group of fellow Viet Kieu (overseas
Vietnamese) — the subjects of her research
To elaborate on how this paradox existed, she became a participant
observer to the work, leisure, and family lives of transnational high-skilled
workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She wrote to explain her interest
saying “These individuals and I shared a common background: our parents
had arrived to the US as refugees of the Vietnam War, and we were now
going back as adults to further our careers in Vietnam. In my case, it was
to complete my PhD in Sociology. The stories in the field that I
encountered re-affirmed for me that the children of immigrants often
navigate multiple axes of social class, cultural, and gendered differences
as return migrants to their parents’ homeland. For those who were in the
so-called 1.5 generation of Vietnamese Americans, even though they
looked like, spoke, and were aware of local Vietnamese cultural norms,
they were now caught in a world where they still felt like foreigners –
neither Vietnamese enough to fit into society there, nor American enough
to be recognized as complete foreigners to the land. On top of that, they
were also navigating reunification with extended relatives that their
families had maintained contact with since the War. Since publishing this
paper with the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, many scholars and
readers have told me how relatable these experiences are to their findings
in diverse communities from countryside Chinese migrants finding greater
opportunities in Shanghai, to Cook Island creative class migrants going
back and forth between Raratonga and New Zealand.”
This award helped fund her attendance at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, which is a conference that embraces theoretical and applied scholars and public sociologists. On behalf of all of Asian Studies: Congratulations on this huge honor Mytoan, you earned it!
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
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NEW CLASSES
ASIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS (SOAN 225)

Interested in learning about…
 alternate views of the body
traditional uses of plants, animals and minerals for
healing
 different ideologies of health and illness
…all in an Asian context?
Sign up for (Spring 2015):SOAN 225
By Prof Denise Glover; T, Th 12:30-1:50pm
See People Soft for a full description of the course, or
contact Professor Glover at dglover@pugetsound.edu
HOW DO I FIND MY CLASSES ON PEOPLE SOFT?
Students and faculty who are looking for the Spring Asian Studies or Asian Languages & Cultures schedules may now find them in the Class Schedule on PeopleSoft. However, because
Asian Studies is an interdisciplinary program, the schedule cannot be accessed by
searching for Asian Studies by Subject.
Leaving the Subject field blank, students should pull down the menu under Course Attribute and
choose Interdisciplinary Program. Then click on Course Attribute Value and choose either Asian
Studies or Asian Languages & Cultures. The Asian Studies list will show all classes offered in
Asian Studies more broadly, while the Asian Languages & Cultures list will show only the classes that satisfy the majors and minors in Chinese and Japanese.
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
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Course Offerings for Asian Studies Spring 2015
Course
Course Title
ALC 320A
Modern Japanese Literature
ALC 335A
Chinese Classic Novel
ARABIC 102A Modern Elementary Arabic
ARABIC 202A Intermediate Arabic
Unit
1
1
1
Days
TTH
MWF
MTWF
MWF
Time
2:00-3:20 AM
1:00-1:50pm
10:00-11:50
Instructor
Jan Leuchtenberger
David Hull
Yasmine Khattab
Yasmine Khattab
ARTH 278A
Asian Art Survey
1
1
ART 367A
Chinese Art
1
ART 371A
East Asian Calligraphy
1 Tuesday
AS 344A
Asia In Motion
1
MW
3:30-4:50PM
Karl Fields
Chin 102A
1st Year Chinese
1
MWF
9:00 - 9:50 AM
Lotus Perry
Chin102B
1st Year Chinese
1
MWF
11:00-11:50AM
Lotus Perry
Chin 102CC
1st Year Chinese Disc
T
11:00-11:50 AM
Lotus Perry
Chin 102DD
1st Year Chinese Disc
T
12:30 -1:20 PM
Lotus Perry
Chin 202A
2nd Year Chinese
1
MWF
12:00-12:50PM
Lotus Perry
Chin 202B
2nd Year Chinese
1
MWF
1:00 - 1:50PM
Lotus Perry
Chin 202CC
2nd Year Chinese Disc
M
2:00-2:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 202DD
2nd Year Chinese Disc
M
3:00-3:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 202EE
2nd Year Chinese Disc
M
5:00-5:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 202FF
2nd Year Chinese Disc
T
2:00-2:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 202GG
2nd Year Chinese Disc
T
3:00-3:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 202HH
2nd Year Chinese Disc
W
2:00-2:50PM
Lotus Perry and Yingqi Zheng
Chin 260A
Situational Oral Expression
Chin 305A
Chinese Literary Texts
HIST 248A
History of Japan 1600-Present
1
1
HIST 343A
Law/Society/Justice in China
HIST 349A
1
MWF
11:00- 11:50
9:00-9:50 AM
MWF
11:00 -11:50 AM
Zaixin Hong
3:30 - 6:20 PM
Zaixin Hong
TTH
MWF
3:30- 4:50PM
Zaixin Hong
David Hull
David Hull
MWF
1:00-1:50PM
11:00-11:50AM
1
MWF
1:00 - 1:50 PM
Jennifer (Wilson) Neighbors
Women of East Asia
1
MWF
9:00-9:50AM
Jennifer (Wilson) Neighbors
IPE 323A
Tourism and Global Order
1
MWF
10:00 -10:50 AM
JAPN 102A
1st Year Japanese
JAPN 102B
1st Year Japanese
JAPN 202A
2nd Year Japanese
JAPN 311A
Communicative Japanese
JAPN 360A
1
1
1
1
MTWF
MTWF
MTWTH
MWF
11:00AM -11:50
1:00PM - 1:50PM
10:00-10:50AM
11:00-11:50 AM
Jennifer (Wilson) Neighbors
Nick Kontogeorgopolous
Judy Tyson
Mikiko Ludden
Jan Leuchtenberger
Mikiko Ludden
REL 233A
Japanese through Fiction/Film
Japanese Religious Traditions
1
1
MWF
MWF
10:00-10:50 AM
11:00-11:50 AM
Mikiko Ludden
Jonathan Stockdale
SS12 168A
Zen Insights and Oversights
1
MWF
2:00PM-3:20 PM
Jonathan Stockdale
REL 335A
Classical Hinduism
1
TTH
3:30PM-4:50PM
Stuart Smithers
SOAN 225A
Asian Medical Systems
1
TTH
12:30-1:50PM
Denise Glover
ASIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
Welcome Emma Casey!
Join us in welcoming our new student assistant
for Asian Studies, Emma Casey. Emma is a first
year student. Though she hails from Boston
Massachusetts, she took a gap year prior to her
attendance here, and last fall was volunteering
with Asian Elephants in Surin, Thailand. She is
taking Chinese and IPE with an environmental
focus, and is loving her time at Puget Sound.
Asian Studies Program
University of Puget Sound
1500 North Warner St. #1054
Tacoma, WA 98416-1054
Emma Casey ‘18 is the current student assistant for Asian
Studies. She is pictured above and below in Surin, Thailand
with elephants Sah Fai and Euangluang.
TO:
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