The Oriental Club of Philadelphia’s
Introduction Symposium
Mar 3, 2013
The Oriental Club of Philadelphia, an academic society founded in 1888, is one of the oldest
continuously running organizations of its kind in the U.S. In recent times, the OC has organized
regular lectures, conferences, and symposia for scholars of Asian Studies in the Philadelphia
area. This year, we are expanding our mission beyond our own neighborhood by inviting
scholars from throughout PA, NJ, and DE and beyond to participate in our first-ever Introduction
Symposium. All scholars, ABD graduate students, and library/museum professionals of Asian
Studies (including East, South, Southeast, Central Asia, and the Near East) in the region are
cordially invited to participate.
The purpose of this one-day event is to assemble together the Asian Studies community
throughout the tri-state region. We look forward to meeting one another socially, as well as to the
opportunity to briefly introduce one another to our research. The symposium will consist of a
series of brief “lightning lectures” of 5–7 minutes each, with frequent breaks for dialogue and
networking. A summary of the proceedings will be published both on the OC website
(www.TheOrientalClub.org) and in the program that will include abstracts of all presentations, as
well as contact information for all attendees.
This event will be hosted by Penn State’s Abington College, in the suburbs north of Philadelphia.
Location:
Abington College
1600 Woodland Rd.
Abington, PA 19001
Symposium registration fee:
$45 for those with employment
$25 for graduate students, emeriti, and unemployed
(Registration fees include 1-year membership in the OC.)
More information & registration:
http://theorientalclub.org/events.html
Registration deadline for presenters is Feb. 15. Presenters are required to submit a title and 100word abstract when registering. All registrations from qualified presenters will be accepted while
there is space. Please address any questions to oclub2013@gmail.com.
Best regards from the organizing committee:
Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University)
Kin Cheung (Temple University)
Benjamin Fleming (University of Pennsylvania)
Steve Lang (Penn Museum)
Pierce Salguero (Penn State University)
Ori Tavor (University of Pennsylvania)
Adam Valerio (Temple University)
Brian Vivier (University of Pennsylvania)
Symposium Schedule
PRELIMINARIES
C. Pierce Salguero, Penn State Abington
Welcome Statement
Frank Hoffman, West Chester University
History of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia
PANEL A
Mark McNicholas, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College
Popular Deceptions: Forgery and Impersonation in Eighteenth-Century China
I am a historian of China interested in encounters between commoners and the state in the Qing
period (1644-1911). My book manuscript, Popular Deceptions, examines the phenomena of
common people counterfeiting official documents and impersonating government agents.
Archival case records reveal bold perpetrators, the social and political spaces in which they could
operate, and contradictions between petty motivations and severe punishments. A second project
explores the culture and limits of political participation in the middle Qing by examining cases of
provincial scholars submitting policy advice to the throne. What did they propose, why, and how
did the court respond?
Masako Nakagawa, Villanova University
Kagayaku hi no miya, the Missing Chapter of the Tale of Genji
Not much is known about the structure of The Tale of Genji in the first two hundred years into its
existence. Some modern scholars believed that the chapter called Kagayaku hi no miya (the
Shining Princess) once existed but was lost. This missing chapter is believed to evolve around
young Genji’s illicit love affair with his stepmother, Fujitsubo. The only proof of its possible
existence is the 13th-century commentary (Okuiri) by Fujiwara no Teika, and the scholarly
debate over the chapter eventually died down. However, in recent years a few writers and artists
have attempted to recreate this chapter. Those writers include Maruya Saiichi and Setouchi
Jakuch!.
Benjamin Fleming, University of Pennsylvania
The Ramam!l! Library Collections
The Ramam"l" Library, Bangladesh, holds 6,000 palm-leaf and paper manuscripts from
1500-1900 in Sanskrit, Bangala, Pali, and Prakrit. My presentation will discuss some of the
contents of the collections (such as the Bengali Mah!bh!rata), their physical condition, and
efforts being made to digitize and conserve them through a partnership between the UPenn’s
Special Collections Center and the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Through its region-wide
preservation of household and family documents, this library offers a snapshot of Sanskrit and
Bengali literary culture as well as a picture of Bangladesh’s religious diversity (e.g., Hinduism,
Islam, Buddhism) on the eve of British colonialism.
Madeline Wilcox, University of Pennsylvania
From Rom-Coms to Melodrama: Lanehouse architecture in Shanghai’s Leftwing Cinema
This lecture examines the shift in China’s leftwing cinema movement from the 1930s to the
1940s through the lens of one local architectural form: the Shanghai lanehouse (longtang fangzi).
By closely analyzing sequences in two critically acclaimed and popular leftwing films, Shen
Xiling’s 1937 Crossroads and Shen Fu’s 1948 Myriad of Lights, we can illuminate how the
cinematic aesthetics of urban domestic space intersects with the discourse on politics,
nationalism, and gender in the development of local genres
Adam Valerio, Temple University
Why Did Mindfulness Come to the West? How Psychotherapists Helped Transform a Buddhist
Meditation into a Western Healthcare Craze
Psychotherapists did not introduce mindfulness meditation to the West. However, the growing
popularity of this ancient Buddhist practice is owed in part to unique interpretations and
repackaging by some in the Western psychological community. Changes in conceptualizations of
mindfulness from Buddhist historical contexts to modern biomedical contexts can be attributed
to many factors. These include sociopolitical dimensions such as the role of secularization in
many Western societies and pressures from the quasi-religious force of Scientism. There are also
questions as to the role of what we might call “Westernized Buddhism,” which is experiencing a
bounty of encounters with Scientism and creating Buddhisms that embrace many of the
principles of Scientific Naturalism. Psychotherapists interested in mindfulness and mindfulnessrelated therapies appear to intersect with more of these dimensions than most other groups. Their
utilization of mindfulness and other Buddhist concepts is worth interrogating.
Paul Reagan, Temple University
The Significance of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1858 and the Role of Ii Naosuke
The first American consul-general to Japan, Townsend Harris in 1858 rejoiced in: “showing that
at last I have forced this singular people to acknowledge the rights of diplomacy.” How did the
Japanese view the crisis? What would be the best approach for its survival against the challenges
of western imperialism of the mid eighteenth century? In examining the life and efforts of
Japan’s senior ranking shogunal official, Ii Naosuke, historians, may perhaps, gain a fuller
understanding of the crisis facing the final years of shogunal rule. The study of Ii Naosuke and
his response to this challenge is a study of political realism and the national survival.
Frank L. Chance, University of Pennsylvania
A Contemplative Bodhisattva Reconsidered
Korean National Treasure 83 is a gilt-bronze image of great beauty, often identified as Murk
Posal (the Bodhisattva Maitreya) but also variously identified as an image of Mirukbul (the
Buddha Maitreya), Sokka (Shakyamuni Buddha) or simply as a generic “contemplative
Bodhisattva.” This brief talk will discuss the iconographic implications of the various
identifications as well as other problems linked to this image, such as the lack of any firm
identification as to its provenance.
Rachel Epstein, University of Pennsylvania
The First Modern Japanese Poetry
Modern poetry grew up in Japan from 1882, when three teachers introduced a genre called
shintaishi, “new poetry.” With the Shintaishish", “Collection of New-Style Poetry,” these authors
presented their work as a break with the strictures of traditional verse, and readers took it as a
signal toward expression of fresh subjects. By 1897, the date for the collection Joj"shi, “Lyric
Poetry,” shintaishi had changed from a vehicle for discourse on public concerns, to a vehicle for
self-conscious development of poetic voice. To track this change is to describe a phase of Japan’s
modernization as it was conceived and processed through language.
PANEL B
Hank Glassman, Haverford College
Embodiment, Salvation, and Stone: The gorin no t" in early medieval Japan
This paper is a reflection on the gorin no t!, or “five-element pagoda.” This object came into
being in Japan around 1100 and became a central symbol in medieval Shingon Buddhism. The
five-element pagoda is an ideal vehicle for the examination of cultural flows in East Asia. In my
short comments, I'd like to talk about the relationships between the gorin no t!, meditation, and
death ritual.
Gooyong Kim, Temple University
Girls' Generation in New York City: Girl Industry and Neoliberal Governmentality in the Age of
KOR-US FTA
This paper argues how the Korean government has been an integral part of K-pop’s recent global
popularity as a part of state intervention in creating jobs and procuring foreign currency in a
post-IMF neoliberal society. To be more specific, I will examine how the growing popularity and
numbers of idol girl bands are possible in conservative Confucian Korean society, claiming that
they are the apex of neo-liberal commodity that creates vast surplus value to Korea’s talent
management companies and provides the contemporary myth of market competition in the age of
Free Trade Agreement between Korea and the United States (KORUS FTA). To this end, this
paper examines Korean pop music has been promoted to earn foreign currency by female talents
in the US Army bases in the 50s and 60s, and idol girl bands in post-IMF Korea. By examining
how the Korean government has played a role in the talent business, I will conclude K-pop,
especially female idol bands are the lasted export item to earn foreign currency and to perpetuate
the dominant market ideology of neo-liberalism.
Kathryn Hemmann, University of Pennsylvania
The Female Gaze in Contemporary Japanese Literature
The female gaze, which posits female characters and female readers as subjects instead of
objects, is a hermeneutic tool that may applied to contemporary Japanese literature using the
murder mystery novels of Kirino Natsuo and the graphic novels written by a popular and prolific
artistic collective called CLAMP as examples. The works of these female writers deliberately
encourage the female gaze, which offers alternate avenues of interpretation and possibilities for
feminist empowerment in media that are generally understood as taking a male gaze for granted.
The emergence and application of the female gaze in Japanese literature serves as an alternative
to both phallocentric theories of narrative consumption and the male-dominated discourses
concerning women and gender roles in contemporary Japan.
Kin Cheung, Temple University
How Studies of Meditation’s Effects on the Brain Can Help Us Understand Buddhist Claims of
Anatt! (No-Self)
The Buddhist assertion of anatt" (no-self) can be approached through philosophical, textual,
sociological, historical, and other methodologies. Recent studies of how meditation affects the
brain, such as one of Tibetan monks in meditation showing decreased activity in the parietal
lobe—the area of the brain that actively constructs the body in relation to three-dimensional
space (i.e. what constructs a sense of self as a separate entity)—can offer new perspective and
insight. While interpretation of these experiments is not without challenges, the promising
investigation into how such studies offer powerful analogies to enrich understanding of anatt" is
only just beginning.
Daniel Sou, University of Pennsylvania
A Note on the Liye Household Registers
Control of people is examined through “household records” from the Liye strips, which were
used to levy taxation and labor. Each household records are divided roughly in five sections from
top to bottom, recording on top the male household head, then his wife and mother who is under
sixty, minor sons, minor daughters, grand-daughters, and occasionally his mother who is over
sixty. This implies not only the Qin state was a male-centered society but also the government
viewed its people as labor resources. In other words, the record identifies who provides what
amount of labor power. This is why the grandmother is listed along with granddaughters if she is
over sixty, while adult brothers of the headmaster were listed on the top section. It is my
understanding that the Qin government viewed its people in a calculative way as resources for
the state/empire.
Philip Jablon, Independent Scholar
The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project
The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project is an initiative to document the architecture and social
life of stand-alone movie theaters throughout the Mekong region. I began the project in 2008 in
response to the demolition of the last two operating stand-alone movie theaters in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, my home since 2006. This event seemed to signify a sea change in the city’s social life,
inspiring me to deepen my understanding of the socioeconomic role that these venues played.
Through photography, I have built a visual archive of the architecture, spatial typology and
cultural life that the stand-alone theaters embody. They are physical representations of the
region’s social and cultural past, as well as potential players in a bright future.
Rachael Hutchinson, University of Delaware
Representing identity in Japanese narrative texts
My research analyzes Japanese representations of self and other in a range of narrative texts,
from the fiction of Nagai Kafu to the films of Kurosawa Akira and Kitano Takeshi, the manga of
Tezuka Osamu and videogames such as the Soul Calibur series by Namco Bandai. I am
interested in how colonial history impacts upon contemporary Japanese representations of Korea,
the Philippines and Okinawa, and how Occidentalist and Orientalist conceptions of race are
continuous from the Meiji period to the present day.
Zehao Zhou, York College of Pennsylvania
Declaring War on the Dead: The Political Lives of Dead Bodies in PRC History
This presentation will briefly address three main periods in PRC history when the dead became
part of the political process. These three periods are the Great Leap Forward (1959-1962), the
Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and present-day China. The presenter will discuss the roles of
the dead in these periods from political, economic, ideological, and religious standpoints.
Gregory Alles, McDaniel College
The Difference Gender Makes: Patterns of Possession Among the Rathva of Eastern Gujarat
The Rathva are an indigenous (adivasi) community (scheduled tribe) concentrated in eastern
Orsang district (created January 26, 2013), Gujarat. In religion they are divided between bhagats,
people who have joined a Hindu sampradaya, and numgras or jagats, people thought of as
adhering to adivasi traditions. A common jagat practice is possession. Although men’s and
women’s possession share some common physiological manifestations – e.g., both dhune [Guj.]
– they also differ systematically through several registers. Among the most significant: becoming
possessed distinguishes a man as a badvo, a principal religious functionary, but it assigns women
to the socially precarious role of dakini (witch).
PANEL C
Bert Beynen, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Temple University
Rostam, Dionysus and Tariel: the Panther as Uncontrolled Emotion
This paper analyses the symbolism of the panther in the Dionysus worship, Ferdowsi’s
'Shahnameh,' and Shota Rustaveli’s Georgian epic 'The Man in the Panther Skin,' and proposes
that it indicates uncontrolled emotion. This explains why Rostam puts on a panther skin in battle:
in battle emotion, or aggression, need not be controlled. Avtandil, too, is like a panther in battle.
In Dionysian rites the participants dress like animals since in the rites emotions need not be
controlled. Tariel wears his panther skin only as long as he cannot control his emotions.
Marcus Bingenheimer, Temple University
Digitization and Visualization of Chinese Buddhist Biographies
Over the last few years I have been working on a number of digital datasets concerning the
history of Chinese Buddhism. In the presentation I will address design principles of one of these
sets and the use of the online interfaces that try to visualize the information of 'Eminent Monks'
in various ways.
Beth Tucker, University of Pennsylvania
“Engulfed in Darkness:” Mourning Poetics in Classical Japanese Literature
This project is the first to analyze inter- and intra-textual medieval Japanese “mourning poetics.”
I argue that Murasaki Shikibu, author of the eleventh century tale, The Tale of Genji, invites
readers to translate and comprehend multi-layered references to sorrow, authority, eulogy, and
spirit pacification infused in scenes of mourning. This newly complex mourning poetics reflected
changing concepts of court culture and spirit pacification, as well as prefigured mourning scenes
that would eulogize historical characters through elegant and sage-like mourning. This paper
links the form and content of mourning scenes throughout nearly four hundred years of canonical
Japanese literature.
Anna-Alexandra Fodde-Reguer, University of Michigan
Dream divination in early China
A cache of texts now known as the “Yuelu Qin Slips” dates to the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.E.),
but the provenance is unknown. One section is entitled “Dream Divination.” I am translating and
analyzing this text, comparing it to passages on both early dream divination and Chinese
medicine, such as the Huangdi Neijing. My goal is to decipher the ways in which the author(s) of
the text viewed both the universe and their place within it.
Dennis Stromback, Temple University
The Value of Buddhism as Philosophy
There are many functions to the study of Buddhism. While there is long-term value to exploring
the historical trajectory of Buddhism within the framework of positivism, others argue that the
teachings of Buddhist thought as a philosophical discourse that can shed light upon the
constitution of subjectivity is equally as illuminating. David Loy's book Lack and Transcendence
presents a challenge to the dominant narrative that religious studies, or Buddhist studies rather,
should be one of textual analysis. By critiquing Heidegger, Derrida, and Sartre through the pen
of Buddhist non-duality, Loy brings this once-thought antiquarian discourse into the fold of
literary theory, and thus offering an alternative theoretical framework that is not rooted in
Western philosophy.
Linda Chance, University of Pennsylvania
Possessing Women: Feminine Strategies in the Japanese Literary Canon
In Japanese literature, as in many traditions, male writers frequently chose to speak in
feminine voices, thereby becoming literary cross-dressers, if you will. The notion of a gender
divide in writing was crucial to the structure of the canon, and affected the reception of works
by female authors, which were frequently rewritten by men. (This tendency continues to the
present day.) Rather than argue that these appropriations were unfair, I show that "speaking as"
a woman enabled the creation of important archetypes and affected the hierarchy of genres
in Japan.
Guia Calicdan Apostle, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
The Spiritual Beliefs of Baha'i Mental Health Practitioners
With growing recognition on the importance of religious and spiritual concerns in mental health
practice, empirical research into spiritually integrated practice has been largely conducted from a
Christian perspective. This presentation aims to expand through thematic analysis an exploration
of the beliefs and spiritual orientation towards mental health practice by a cohort of mental
health providers who are self-identified members of the Baha'i Faith, one of the lesser-known but
fast growing religions in the world today.
Stephen Lang, Penn Museum
The Asian Collection at the Penn Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has diverse holdings
from all over the world. This presentation will highlight some of the strengths of the Asian
collection and serve as an invitation for scholars in the region to come visit the museum and do
research. Upcoming events of scholarly interest at the museum will be announced followed by a
brief demo of the 'Search the Collections' website and its functionality.