In November, 2011 EAS hosted two Chinese artists and scholars, Chu Peiyan and Xiao Yushan, for a lecture and demonstration of Chinese painting.
Mr. Chu, a native of Jiangsu Province, is professor of Jiangsu Provincial College of Education. An award winning painter, he has worked in fine arts education for over twenty years and in recent years has devoted himself to traditional landscape painting and figure painting. A member of the Chinese Fine Arts Society, his work has appeared in several magazines and has been acquired by museums and galleries. Mr. Xiao is professor in the Fine Arts Department in Yangzhou Vocational University. A member of the Jiangsu Fine Arts Society, he is known for developing innovative artistic techniques, as well as his work in oil and watercolor. His work has been collected by galleries and has won awards in national and international exhibitions.
The Department of East Asian Studies successfully organized the First International Conference on the Chinese Buddhist Canon, which is entitled "Spreading Buddha's Words in China: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon." The conference was held at the Westward Look Resort in Tucson, Arizona from March 26 to 27, 2011. Mary Wildner-Bassett, Dean of College of Humanities, and Alain-Philippe Durand, Director of School of International Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SILLC) delivered welcome speeches at the opening session and J. Philip Gabriel, head of Department of East Asian Studies, hosted the farewell banquet for all guests and spoke on behalf of the college and department. Lewis Lancaster, professor emeritus at University of California, Berkeley, director of Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiatives (ECAI), former president of University of the West at LA delivered a keynote speech on the patterns of Buddhist canons research.
It was a great honor to have His Excellency Mr. QIU Shaofang, Consul-General of Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles, with us. He kindly accepted our invitation and attended the opening session in the morning of March 26, during which he delivered a speech to congratulate us on the success of the conference.