The Asia Colloquia Papers Series is published by the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) at York University, Toronto, Canada.

The series aims to make available to wider audiences the content of selected lectures, seminars and other talks presented at YCAR. The first three Papers were launched at YCAR's Celebration of Publications on 27 September 2011. Further Papers will be launched throughout the academic year.

 

Asia Colloquia Paper 1(4)

Poverty and the Imagination of a Future: The Story of Urban Slums in Delhi, India
Veena Das
Krieger‐Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology // The Johns Hopkins University

How do the poor see themselves? In their daily struggles, how do they use creative imaginings to withstand various stresses and their seemingly never- ending effort at subsistence? In this paper, Veena Das explores the many revealed ways the poor exercise creativity, boldness and enterprise in their attempts to cope and transcend, even for brief moments, daunting states of deprivation and the destitute roles that both experts and society seemed to have consigned them to.
In this lecture, delivered as part of York University’s 50th anniversary celebration, Dr. Das shares with her audience insights from her ongoing multi-year research on the residents of New Delhi slums including the not often assumed ability of the poor to think, feel and act in ways that are all-too-human – both spontaneous and rational.
Equally insightful responses are provided by Vanessa Rosa and Mark Ayyash, PhD Candidates in the Graduate Program in Sociology at York University.

 

Asia Colloquia Paper 1(3)

What Does the Ethnic Costume Represent?
Haji Oh
Visiting Scholar / / York Centre for Asian Research, 2008–2009
PhD Candidate // Graduate School Division of Fine Arts // Kyoto City University of Arts

Clothes are inseparably related to our daily life. They not only protect the body, but also enable expression of one’s identity through design, color, and so on. In particular, an ethnic costume is a strong statement of individual circumstances. It is unique and has a cultural background. It has symbolic value because it stands for ethnicity, gender, religion and emphasizes social belonging. Thus, ethnic costumes have two features - one as a private “second skin” and the other as a “symbol” of social belonging.

 

Asia Colloquia Paper 1(2)

Floating Points: From Diasporic Spaces to Multicultural Places
Angela Pao
Department of Comparative Literature // Indiana University, Bloomington

In the study of Asian immigrant communities and culture in North America, particularly in arts and literature, two intellectual approaches have emerged: the transnational which focuses on country and culture of origin regardless of the location of the Diaspora community; and, the national which de-emphasizes Diaspora in favour of a racial character distinct to the new generations of Asians born and residing in the U.S. and Canada today. In her talk, Angela Pao engages both approaches by presenting the benefits and drawbacks of examining social and cultural institutions, artistic products, and processes through a transnational and consequently de-territorialized perspective, as opposed to a domestic one that continues to emphasize Asian histories specific to
a destination country or territory. Race and the context of uneven social and power relations between immigrant and local communities, more specifically, are the primary bases on which Pao examines the development of Asian immigrant culture, in particular, Chinese literature in North America, and its usefulness in helping interpret the local and global Asian immigrant experiences.

 

Asia Colloquia Paper 1(1)

Canada and China at 40
B. Michael Frolic
Professor Emeritus, Political Science // York University

In the 2010 Asia Lecture, Professor Frolic shared unique insights into the evolution of Canada-China relations focusing on the complex negotiations and diplomatic coup by which Canada established diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic in autumn 1970. One of Canada’s foremost China scholars, Frolic first visited China as a graduate student in 1965 and went on to become a Canadian diplomatic representative to the Communist state in the mid-1970s. Using first-hand experience, expert knowledge, and rare interview material, Frolic provided glimpses of how Canada’s diplomatic ties with China came about despite Cold War tensions. As he explained with candour and simplicity, although the decision to formalize ties with China brought a chill to Canada’s own relations with the United States for a time, it marked a coming of age for Canadian foreign policy: what became known as the Canadian Solution to the diplomatic quandary of the “One China” policy was eventually adopted by other countries. Frolic places the evolution of formal Canada-China relations in the context of milestones, from Norman Bethune to the controversial Canadian grain sales to China during its Great Famine, from the “missionary kids” who became Canada’s first crop of diplomats to China to the deft handling of the “One China” issue that brought Canada to diplomatic centre stage. Prominent
Canadian China scholar, Prof. Ruth Hayhoe, offered an equally insightful response.

For more information, please contact us at ycar@yorku.ca.