East Asia Center

 

Hok-lam Chan, a long-time faculty member at the University of Washington, passed away June 1 at his home in Seattle. Professor Chan was a distinguished scholar of Early Modern and Modern Chinese history in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Originally from Hong Kong, Professor Chan earned his BA and MA in Chinese History from the University of Hong Kong, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. A well published scholar, his works on the Chin, Ming, and Yuan empires were well recognized by his peers. After his retirement, he enjoyed spending time between his native Hong Kong and Seattle.

 

 

The East Asia Center at the University of Washington is committed to fostering and sustaining the active research of East Asia.  Stay up to date with the latest news from the East Asia Center and our faculty by clicking on the latest edition of our Newsletter.

 


 

Recent News:

 

 

 

Congratulations to Ann Anagnost and Andrea Arai on their recent publication!

 

Global Futures in East Asia Youth, Nation, and the New Economy in Uncertain Times

For more information please click on the picture:

 

 

 

 

Congratulations, Yomi Braester, for being awarded the 2012 Joseph Levenson Book Prize, post-1900 Category for Painting the City Red: Chinese Cinema and the Urban Contract

 

Painting the City Red is a fantastically original study of the interaction between cultural producers, urban planners, and city residents in the creation of urban space. Challenging the conventional view of urban culture as a response to the physical reality of the city, Braester shows how Chinese filmmakers and stage performers were often directly involved in the building of that reality. Focusing on the period from the 1950s to the present, Braester sees dramatists and filmmakers acting as cultural brokers, helping to forge an "urban contract" between planning authorities, real estate developers, propaganda officers, and city dwellers. Collectively, the parties to this contract promoted the developement of Mao-era Beijing and Shanghai, the gentrification of contemporary Taipei, as well as the revamping of Beijing in the lead-up to the 2008 Olumpic Games.

Braester examines over a hundred Chinese films and plays, blending in rich archival material related to the circumstaces of their production and interviews with individuals involved. His exemplary scholarship demonstrates the complex nature of "art worlds," while making an elegant and important argument about the significance of cultural production to shaping the world in which we live. Theoretically astute yet virtually jargon-free in its formulation, the book combines excellent sinological research with a genuine contribution to drama and film studies, urban studies, and political history. Braester's work encourages us to take a fresh look at cities we thought we knew, and to reconsider the way we look at cities and their culture in general.

 


 

 

 

 

 

Scholarship and Fellowship information:


Korea Studies Program Scholarships

Japan Studies Program Scholarships

China Studies Program Fellowships

 

 

East Asia Center
University of Washington
301 Thomson Hall
Box 353650
Seattle, WA 98195
(206) 543-6938 phone
(206) 685-0668 fax
►eacenter@u.washington.edu

William Lavely, Director (On Leave 2012-2013)
David Bachman, Acting Director 2012-2013
Mary Bernson, Director of Outreach
Kristi Roundtree, Associate Director
Cassandra Lee, Technology Assistant
Josiah Byers, Program Assistant