Scope of Asian events expanded
Program brings broader variety of artists, performers, scholars

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

The work of the Asian Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences once was planted squarely in the social sciences.

Over the past few years, however, the program has quietly broadened its influence among the arts and letters departments at UB and has helped bring Asian artists, performers, political figures and humanities scholars to Buffalo to discuss and present work on contemporary Asian culture and arts.

This spring, with second-year funding from a two-year, $160,000 Title VI "Asian Studies and the Arts" grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the program will present even more varied Asian fare. "We want to invite everyone to the feast," says director Thomas Burkman.

Additional support for the programs will come from the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Baldy Center, the Council on International Studies and Programs and the Graduate Group on Marxist Studies. Updates and detailed information on the events sponsored by the Asian Studies Program are available at http://wings.buffalo.edu/asian/.

A major exhibition, "Words vs. Meaning: Seven Contemporary Chinese Artists," will be held March 31 through April 30 in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts. It will be curated by gallery director Al Harris and Kuiyi Shen, a former instructor in the Department of Art History.

The exhibition will open on March 31 with a scholarly symposium in the gallery that is free and open to the public. Titled "The Brush and the Sword: Art and Culture in 20th Century China," it will feature discussions by artists, historians, art historians, artists and specialists in Asian studies, East Asian culture and comparative literature.

Four Asian-American artists will be in residence in the Department of Art on a staggered schedule: painter and installation artist Quing-Min Meng, today and tomorrow; book and paper artist Nori Jung, March 27-31; installation artist, printmaker and sculptor Xu Bing, March 30-31, and Hirokazu Fukawa, a sculptor, installation and performance artist, April 3-7.

While in residence, each artist will present a lecture, make studio visits, present demonstrations and critiques. They also may visit language classes and participate in the Asia at Noon discussion series.

The Department of Comparative Literature will present "Matters of Representation: Feminism, Theory and the Arts," an Asian-oriented conference, March 31-April 1 in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus. The conference will explore such topics as art, love and feminism in turn-of-the-century Japan and "orienting orientalism," a discussion of how to map cyberspace.

The Department of Philosophy will present a conference on April 9 at which three Asian alumni of the department will present what they consider to be their most important work and explore the significance of philosophy in their respective countries and universities.

A conference March 23 organized by Roger DesForges, professor of history, will feature presentations and lectures by the internationally recognized China scholar and author William Hinton.

Hinton will present two talks on March 23 that are open to the public: "The Rise and Fall of Chen Yonggui," from 10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. in 532 Park Hall, and "Prevailing Academic Views of Socialist China," from 2-3:20 p.m. in 214 Norton.

At 3:30 p.m. in 330 Student Union, he will join a panel of China scholars in examining the social, cultural and economic effects of Deng Xiaoping's radical post-Mao reform programs.

These events coincide with the current Lockwood Library exhibit of large, colorful Chinese propaganda posters, titled "Revolution to Reform: Chinese Propaganda Posters of the Four Modernizations Era."

Other events coming up include Korea Night on Saturday, Thai Night on April 2 and China Nite on April 22 and "Asia at Noon" talks.