As part of the Tucson Humanities Festival, Dr. Albert Welter will present a talk titled "Buddhist Escapes: Caught Between Two Worlds." It is to be held on October 13 at 4:30pm, in the UA Poetry Center's Dorothy Rubel Room (Helen S. Schaefer Building, 1508 E. Helen St.).

Dr. Kenneth Lieberthal of the Brookings Institution will be presenting a talk called "Where are the United States and China Headed?" as part of the China Town Hall series. It will be held on Tuesday, October 18, 5:00-6:00pm, in 101 Saguaro Hall.

Kenneth Lieberthal is Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Brookings Institution, where from 2009 to 2016, he was a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development programs. Lieberthal served as director of Brookings’ John L. Thornton China Center for 2009 to 2012. Lieberthal is also Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where until 2009 he was the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Political Science. Dr. Lieberthal was Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asia on the National Security Council for 1998 through 2000. Lieberthal has authored, coauthored, and/or edited 24 books and monographs, and authored about 75 articles and chapters in books. He has consulted widely on Chinese and Asian affairs and has advised the U.S. Departments of State, Defense and Commerce, the World Bank, the Kettering Foundation, the Aspen Institute, the United Nations Association and other NGOs and corporations in the private sector. Dr. Lieberthal earned his BA from Dartmouth College and his MA and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Columbia University.

Hsuan-ying Liu, our most recent PhD awardee, has accepted a Chinese teaching position at the University of North Dakota. She will be responsible for the entire Chinese program at UND. Hsuan-ying completed her dissertation entitled Coming of Age Learning Mandarin: Chinese L2 learners’ investment during their transition from high school to university in the early summer of 2016. Her dissertation was directed by Professor Wenhao Diao.

Congratulations!

Photo: Farewell Party for Hsuan-ying, Aug. 5, 2016

(from left) Xia Zhang, Feng-hsi Liu, Chia-lin Pao-Tao, Hsuan-ying Liu, Eva Chen (Hsuan-ying’s daughter), Xin He, Patrick Mao (Xia Zhang’s son), Hongyi Jia, Dongchen Hou, Yi Wang, Yu Tian. 

Dr. David Pietz was recently awarded the 2016 Cecil B. Currey Book Award from the Association of Global South Studies for his book The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China. The Association of Global South Studies is the largest professional organization of its kind in the world, with a global membership and chapters in South Asia and Africa. Members include academics, practitioners in the area of Third World development, employees of government agencies, and diplomats who reside in the U.S. and 21 other countries around the globe.

The Yellow River is an exploration into the sources of China’s contemporary water crisis, mapping the confluence of historical forces that have shaped China’s current water challenges. The book shows how Maoist water practices from 1949 to 1976 cast a long shadow over the reform period, beginning in 1978. Rapid urban growth, industrial expansion, and agricultural intensification over the past three decades of China’s economic boom have been realized on a water resource base that was already acutely compromised, with effects that have been more difficult and costly to overcome with each passing decade.

Congratulations, Dr. Pietz!

Please join us in congratulating Brandon Barnett, the recipient of our 2016 Hucker Founders Award! Brandon became interested in East Asian Studies through his great-great grandmother, who identified as Japanese but lived in Mexico. Along with his family heritage, his enjoyment in his Chinese courses both in high school and college encouraged him to major in East Asian Studies, focusing on Chinese. Brandon has applied to teach at BASIS schools around Arizona and plans to become a 3rd/4th grade Mandarin Chinese language teacher. He eventually wants to attend graduate school here at The University of Arizona and research East Asian Hip Hop Culture. Next year he is planning to take a two week trip to Taiwan and Japan. Congratulations, Brandon!

Please join us in congratulating Amber Hunt, who is the recipient of the 2016 Blair Prize in Japanese Studies.

Amber is graduating from the University of Arizona with a triple major in East Asian Studies, Political Science, and Linguistics, and a minor in Spanish. Amber has also served as one of our College of Humanities Ambassadors, representing our department and advocating for Humanities both on and off campus. Her interest in East Asia began with her Japanese language courses at the University of Arizona, prompting her to study other East Asian Studies courses. Her overall decision to major in East Asian Studies was the result of her Japanese language instructors and her advisor Dr. Camp, all of whom encouraged her throughout her time in the program.  Immediately following graduation Amber will move to Himeji, Japan and begin teaching English as a participant of the Phoenix Sister City's Teach Abroad program. She's already proven that she is a great representative of both the Department of East Asian Studies and the University of Arizona. Congratulations, Amber!

This past December, M.A. student Christianne Ono travelled to Ikema Island in southern Okinawa to participate in Dr. Tsuyoshi Ono (University of Alberta) and Dr. Toshihide Nakayama’s (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) Second Miyako Language Documentation Training Workshop. During the intensive week-long workshop, Christianne and the other participants learned about and utilized various techniques to practice documenting Ikema, an endangered Ryukyuan language. In addition to linguistic research experience, they also spent time connecting with and giving back to the community by participating in local events and assisting with the after school care program.

The Department of East Asian Studies is proud to announce the publication of Spreading Buddha's Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, edited by our own Professor Jiang Wu in conjunction with Lucille Chia of the University of California Riverside. The volume follows the making of the Chinese Buddhist canon from the fourth century to the digital era, bringing together investigations of the religious, social, and textual practices of canon formation in the development of East Asian Buddhist culture. The book is published by Columbia University Press.

Liming Wang’s Biosketch

Liming was born and raised in a small village in northern China. Her fraternal grandfather was an intellectual but was persecuted and “sent down” during the Cultural Revolution. He had to relocate to a village from a coastal city and “re-educate himself” through farming. As a result, her father was forced to quit grade school to help on her grandparent’s farm. Her mother is illiterate. Nevertheless, education was always highly valued in her home.

Liming was a top student in both grade school and middle school. With a strong desire of changing her rural household registration (hukou) to an urban hukou, following her parents’ and teachers’ advice, she chose a four-year vocational school instead of high school. Her major was accounting.

Liming graduated from the vocational school in 1998. In 1999, she was assigned a job in a state-owned factory by the municipal government close to her hometown. She successfully changed her rural hukou to the urban hukou, which was highly desirable in China before the 2000s. 

However, at the beginning of 2000, the privatization process of state-run factories affected the city and the factory where she was working. Over 200 employees in that factory were laid off. She was one of them.

During the year 2000 to 2002, she took several jobs such as cashier at a supermarket, marketing representative in a newspaper agency, and sales representative in a jewelry store. Extremely disappointed at her life situation, she decided to make a big change. After months of preparation, she took the national higher education entrance exam (gaokao) and was admitted to Dalian University of Foreign Languages.

Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree in 2006, she pursued a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics in Dongbei University of Finance and Economics. After she received her master’s degree at the end of 2008, she had to make a decision between taking a job offer in Lijiang Normal University and pursuing a doctoral degree in East Asian Studies in the University of Arizona. She eventually decided to take the venture to come to the United Stated due to personal reasons. 

As a farmer’s daughter, she never forgot the farming days with her parents. The natural affection for farmers led to her dissertation research project. She conducted a 5-month fieldwork in five Chinese villages and finished her dissertation titled “The Making of New Farmers in Chinese Risk Society” in May 2015.

As Liming reflects on the course her life has taken, she believes that knowing oneself and what one want is fundamental. The courage and ability to make a change in times of adversity is crucial. Once a decision is made, even as difficult one as taking a PhD, perseverance and determination will unfailingly lead one to success.

Liming recently accepted a position at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, to teach Chinese language and culture courses in the Department of Humanities and Communication, College of Arts and Sciences. Best wishes to her in her continued adventures!