Spring 2003 Events

February 1st: Chinese New Year Celebration

• Location: East Sea Restaurant in Emeryville
• Time: 6:00 PM at Underhill
• Description:
  Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year of the Ram!! The event was a real success with 16 people in attendance and great Chinese food from East Sea Restaurant to top that off! Pictures will be available soon!

February 10: Chinese-Jewish Cultural Dinner and Movie Night

• Speaker:Co-sponsored by the Jewish Campus Service Corps and Berkeley Chinese Students and Scholars Association
• Location:Tan Oak Room, ASUC Union
• Time: 6-8 PM
• Description:
  Free admission and vegetarian dinner. One of the objectives of this event is to have a cultural exchange between Jewish and Chinese, as we know, we rarely interact with Jewish people. It was a surprise and recent understanding for us that Chinese and Jewish people had shared a special bond in the ancient times.
  The movie showed will be "Minyan in Kaifen" and will served as a basis for discussion.

  Movie description: "The Documentary tells the personal journeys of a dozen Jews in search of an ancient Chinese Jewish community. Leonard Nimoy narrates both this modern story and the history of the Jews of Kaifeng, which begins in ancient Persia and evolves over a thousand years in the heart of the Middle Kingdom. The intertwining of these stories results in a film that both engages audiences and challenges their assumptions about culture, race, and religion. For Jew and non-Jew alike, Minyan In Kaifeng asks us to examine the relationship between our individual communities and unique identities. And to carefully consider the long-term effect of our life choices on both."

February 20: A study of the IT Industry Cluster and Young Female Labor in the Pearl River Delta

• Speakers: Yanshu Hao, Associate Professor, School of Business Administration, Meiji University. International Economics and Business
  Chensheng Shi, Visiting Scholar, Institute of East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley. Geography Information System
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8:30PM
• Resources: [WEB] Industrial Zone Survey in the Pearl River Delta
  [PDF] Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta by Rohlen
• Description:
  Just north of Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland's Pearl River Delta (PRD) occupies the low-lying areas adjacent to China's Pearl River (Zhujiang River) where it flows into the South China Sea. The Pearl River Delta is one of the mainland's principal economic engines and one of the world's largest manufacturing basins, with a GDP just above HK$778 billion (US$100 billion) in 2001. Abundant employment opportunities in the delta region have created a rising middle-income and professional class. The PRD has a permanent resident population rising to 30 million and is also the temporary home to about 12 million migrant workers from other parts of China. The PRD's long-term residents have a per capita income close to HK$29,564 (US$3,800), placing them among the mainland's wealthiest consumers.

  

  In 1978, the Chinese Government began a reform process that would open the Pearl River Delta to foreign trade and investment, ahead of the rest of China. This historic decision gave the Pearl River Delta a "first mover" advantage vis-a-vis the rest of the mainland in developing private enterprise, manufacturing capabilities and foreign trade. Maximizing interaction with Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta has become the manufacturing powerhouse of China.

  It leads all of China in the manufacture of a wide variety of electronics and communication products. Hong Kong-invested industries located throughout the delta are among the world's largest exporters of electronics, plastics, soft goods, household items, gifts and premium wares, toys, watches and clocks, garments and accessories. The Pearl River Delta sets cost and price standards for these products worldwide. (Source)

  To understand more about this dynamic region of China, come ready with questions to ask Professor Hao Yanshu!

February 27: Doing Ethnography in China: problems and experience?

• Speaker: Professor Xin Liu, Anthropology, UCB. Interviewer: Anna Wong
• Location:79 Dwinelle
• Time:6-7:30 PM
• Description:
  At a time when China was undergoing dramatic social change, Professor Xin Liu packed up his bags and set up his mind to study the life of the Zhaojiahe community, in a village of Northwestern China. As an ethnographer, the difficult task was to assimilate into the community as if he has been one of them, so that he could explore most truthfully many "domains of everyday life, kinship and marriage traditions, food systems, ceremonial celbrations, social relations, and village politics."

  At the other end of the spectrum, he undertook an investigation of the growing business community in Chinese cities by infiltrating a group of Chinese businessmen and engaging in their worldly life.

  How did Professor Liu manage to mingle so well with those Chinese people? What important observations was he able to make to shed a light on today's Chinese society? This is what we will found out at this unique interview with Professor Liu.

March 6: A Games Salon

• Speaker: Why, us members!
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8:30PM
• Description:
  Let's take a break from the pressure of midterms and homeworks by playing some chinese games! SHKCA will be hosting a games salon with Mahjong, poker cards, and Chinese chess (no monetary exchange will be allowed in these games). Mahjong is one of the most popular games in the Chinese community. If you don't know how to play, worry not, there will be experts who can teach you the rules!

  Light refreshments will be provided. Please feel free to bring your friends and dinner along!

March 13: How did the Cross-Straits Conflict come to be?

• Speaker: Professor Yeh, History, UCB
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8:30 PM
• Description:
  The China-Taiwan relationship is an important controvery in the modern days, as it is the potential source of conflict in East Asia. While Mainland China regards Taiwan as a renegrade province, leaders in Taiwan see Taiwan as an independent country. Because of the many possible interpretations of the history of who belongs to who, the modern China-Taiwan relationship has been marked by tensions. In justifying their views, many use history to support their view, whether the stance is one-China or Taiwan as an independent country. History has become an essential tool to take a stance in this issue.

  Some questions we hope to bring out are: What is the truth (if there is one)? Is there such a thing as historic truth? How is history being used today to justify each side's stance? Is history relevant?

  This Thursday Professor Yeh, a Historian at Berkeley with an expertise in Chinese history, will explore this issue from a historic perspective, starting from Coxing's (Zheng Cheng-gong) conquer, to Chiang Kai-shek's arrival, and to the present day. Professor Yeh's research interest include Modern China, social and cultural history. She received her BA from Taiwan National University and PhD from UC Berkeley.

  If you are interested in learning about how this modern controversy began and developed, we welcome you to join us at Dwinelle 235 7-8:30pm.

April 3rd: The North Korea Effect: its influence in East Asia Power Relations

• Speaker: Professor Pempel, Political Science (East Asian Studies), UC Berkeley
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8:00 PM
• Description:
  In the recent months, a crisis that garners the world attention aside from the Iraq issue is North Korea. North Korea, as we might know, is one of the few hardcore communist state in the world. It has also been labeled by Bush as part of the "Axis of Evil," which has threatened to continue with its building of nuclear weapons.

  In this talk by Professor Pempel, we will be examining questions such as the role of other Asian countries in dealing with North Korea, which is known internationally as a trouble maker. We will be discussing questions such as: how will the power relations in Asia play out, as China comes to power and US involved with its own war? How will the relations among countries in Asia (exclude N Korea) change in response to the North Korea crisis?

  This thusday Professor Pempel, a Political Science professor at Cal with an expertise on Asian regionalism, will be exploring this issue from a political perspective. Professor Pempel received his Ph.D. in Columbia University and he is currently the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies. He'll provide us some sense of how he and other colleagues in the UN and two delegates from North Korea (Who were here on Campus in March) see the current power relations play out.

April 10th: Movie Showing: HER0

• Director: Zhang Yimou, Read Time's Interview
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-9:00 PM
• More info: Sneak pictures of the movie here.
• Description:
  
  Set in the Qin dynasty, at the height of China's Warring States period, Hero spins the tale of three extremely skilled swordsmen - Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Sky (Donnie Yen) - whose sole objective in life is to assassinate the ruthless King of Qin (Chen Daoming).

  Such is their fame that a huge price is put on their heads. Word is sent out that whoever defeats the three assassins will be rewarded with great power and wealth. In addition, he or she will be granted a private audience with the King and if all three are killed, the victor will get to sit within 10 paces from the King. This is when a lowly county sheriff called Nameless (Jet Li) makes his entrance with a dramatic gift for the king....

April 16th: WTO's impact on Chinese Legal System

• Speaker: Professor Lubeman,
• Location: 234 Dwinelle
• Time: 6:15-8:00 PM
• Description:
  Ever since China entered the WTO, many questions have been raised as to the changes this memberhsip in the WTO will bring about both for China's legal system, which is currently rather incomplete and ambiguous, and the WTO itself. However, WTO treaty obligations and dispute settlement rulings are not applied domestically until China fully incorporates them into its legislation. While the WTO does not specifically requires a flawless legal system from its members, it requires however a high degree of transparency and fairness in certain areas. The traditionally dense legal system in China seems to predict looming difficulties in fulfilling transparency requirements and finding recourse from WTO proceedings.

April 24th: Photography in Colonial China

• Speaker: Professor Andrew Jones, Chinese Department, UC Berkeley
• Location: 235 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8:30 PM
• Description:
  Andrew F. Jones, Associate Professor, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997. Professor Jones teaches modern and vernacular Chinese literature and popular culture. His research interests include music, modern fiction, media culture, and the cultural history of the Republican period. His most recent publication is Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age (Duke University Press, 2001). He began teaching for the Department in Fall 1999.
  
  

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Past Events:

Events from Fall 2005

Events from Spring 2005

Events from Fall 2004

Events from Spring 2004

Events from Fall 2003

Events from Spring 2003

Events from Fall 2002

Some events from Spring 2002