This Semester's Events, Spring 2004

February 5: The Politics of Land Development in Chinese Cities

• Speaker: Professor You-Tien Hsing, Department of Geography
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8.30pm
• Description:

  Professor Hsing will be speaking about her work on the transformation of landed property rights and its connection with China's political and economic decentralization.

  For those interested in pursuing this topic further, Professor Hsing is teaching a course this semester entitled Comparative Analysis of Economic and Political Development in China and East Asia.

  Professor Hsing's research focuses on the political economy of development in China. She has written a book on the topic, "Making Capitalism in China: The Taiwan Connection", and is currently writing a second book, "Landed Politics in China's Small Towns".

February 12:Learn to Play Mahjong

• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8.30pm
• Description:

  Mahjong is the most popular Chinese game. Dickson Mak and Joan Chow will be giving lessons on how to play. No prior experience required.

February 26: Internet Development and Freedom of Expression in China

• Speaker: Professor Xiao Qiang, Graduate School of Journalism
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 7-8.30pm
• Description:

Professor Xiao will be talking about the Internet's impact on traditional news reporting, the formation of online opinion in the virtual public sphere, and the Internet enabled civil society building in China. He'll also discuss the control of the Internet by the Chinese government, and his current project in the Journalism School: China Digital News.

Professor Xiao is the Tang Teaching Fellow and the Director of Berkeley China Internet Studies Program at the Graduate School of Journalism. A physicist by training, he received a B.S. from the University of Science and Technology of China and studied as a PhD candidate (1986-1989) in astrophysics at the University of Notre Dame.

He became a full time human rights activist after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. He was the Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC) from 1991 to 2002. He is a weekly commentator for Radio Free Asia, and on the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy. Professor Xiao was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2001.

His latest project is China Digital News, a collaborative news weblog about emerging information and communication technologies and their impact on Chinese society.

March 4: The Challenges of Land Conservation

• Speaker: Mark Henderson, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm
• Description:
  
  Economic development in post-Mao China has brought great benefits to millions of people, but has also taken a toll on the natural environment. In addition to the widely recognized problems of air and water pollution, China's land resources have also suffered from degradation and conversion to inappropriate uses. The Chinese government and international environmentalists alike are concerned about the loss of farmland and its potential effects on China's food security and the global carbon cycle.
  
  In this talk we'll discuss the current state of China's environment and policies aimed at conserving land resources. We'll examine satellite imagery to evaluate the success of these policies across different regions of north China. Through a spatial analysis of land use change we'll highlight the constraints and opportunities embedded in the social and political structures in which land conservation takes place.
  
  Mark is a grad student in Professor Ye Qi's Ecosystem Dynamics and Management Group.
  
  Join us for dinner after the talk.

March 11: Overseas Chinese Communities

• Speaker: Professor Aihwa Ong, Department of Anthropology
• Location: 229 Dwinelle
• Time: 5-6pm (note change in time)
• Description:
  Professor Ong has carried out extensive research on nation-building, industrialization, gender, migration, and transnationalism in Southeast Asia, coastal China, and California. She has written and edited numerous books and articles on the capitalist transition, gender politics, transnationalism, and citizenship, including Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality and Buddha in Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, and the New America. Her current projects focus on global anthropology, global cities and governmental technologies and citizenship in globalizing Asian cities.

  She recently received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship to study governmental technologies and citizenship in globalizing Asian cities.

  Join us for dinner after the talk.

March 18: Dare Ya! (documentary)

• Location: 123 Wheeler
• Time: 6pm
• Description:
  
  Dare Ya! explores what has made the members of Hong Kong's most controversial band, "LMF" (LazyMuthaFuckaz), the new "voice of Hong Kong youth".
  
  With their explicit tell-it-like-it-is lyrics that speak of today's questioning youth market, the ten-member LMF address issues that have always been at the core of teen-angst music—the difference being that, for the first time, the subject matter tackled is what is relevant to the young and the restless of Hong Kong.
  
  95 min. Cantonese, English subtitles. Foul language.
  
  Join us for dinner afterwards.

April 1: Paper Airplane

• Speaker: Professor Chris Berry, Department of Film Studies
• Location: 182 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm (note change in time)
• Description:

  Screening of "Paper Airplane" followed by lecture and discussion.

  Paper Airplane is both a revealing journey into Beijing's drugs-and-punk-rock youth subculture and an example of the new generation of DV independent documentary that is so popular there now. Filmmaker Zhao Liang spent several years on the film, becoming close to his subjects as arrests and addiction threaten to destroy them. What could have been exploitative becomes empathetic and moving.

  Professor Berry's interests include Chinese Cinema, Korean Cinema, and the role of the cinema in the production of individual and collective identities. He is the author of A Bit On The Side: East-West Topographies Of Desire, the editor of Perspectives On Chinese Cinema, the co-coordinator of The House of Kim Ki-Young, and the co-editor of The Filmmaker And The Prostitute: Dennis O'Rourke's "The Good Woman Of Bangkok."

April 8: Hong Kong, 1997 in context

• Speaker: Professor Priya Raghubir, Haas School of Business
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 7pm
• Description:

  On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong ceased to be a British colony and became the first Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

  Professor Raghubir will be speaking about experiments on the effect of question wording and order in surveys on attitudes to the handover in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The results show that the ordering and wording (for example, "reunification", "handover" or "takeover") have a significant effect on survey results.

April 10: Hiking at Alamere Falls with CPU and BCSSA

• Location: Meet Saturday April 10, 8:30am at West Gate
• Description:

  This is the first time SHKCA, CPU (Chinese People Union) and BCSSA (Berkeley Chinese Students and Scholars Association) are collaborating and we hope to promote conversation and communication between our groups. We hope to hold this as an annual event between the clubs.

  Spring has come upon us and to enjoy the nice weather with your fellow students we are holding this year’s Joint Getaway event at Alamere Falls (Point Reyes), a perfect chance for you to get away from Berkeley and embrace nature. For detailed information on the beauty of the falls check the following websites.

  http://www.waterfallswest.com/ca_alamere.html
  http://hiking.adampaul.com/alamere03.shtml

  We will leave Saturday morning and come back before dinner time. Meeting place: 8:30am at West Gate

  Schedule:
  • 10am Start hiking
  • 12noon Lunch on the beach
  • 2pm Depart beach
  • 4pm Depart Point Reyes
  • 5pm Back in Berkeley

  Bring water, sunblock, camera. Wear comfortable clothing and shoes.

  Cost: (Lunch Included): $7 (non-drivers), FREE (drivers)

  Reply to shkca@ocf.berkeley.edu by Monday April 5 to reserve your place with:

  1. your name
  2. phone number
  3. email
  4. do you want to drive?
  5. how many people can you fit in your car?
  6. special dietary needs - (what can’t you eat)
  Hope to see you all at our getaway!

April 15: Chinese Law Reform: its achievements and its future

• Speaker: Professor Stanley Lubman, School of Law
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm
• Description:
  
  Professor Lubman will review briefly the legislative explosion that has been occurring since 1979, the building of legal institutions, and the current state of the Chinese judiciary. He'll then consider current Party policy toward law, possible reforms, and some obstacles to law reform.
  
  We'll be meeting for dinner afterwards.

April 22: Photography in the Image of China

• Speaker: Professor William Schaefer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm
• Description:

  Professor Schaefer will be talking about the problems of representing China through photography in the changing visual cultures of two key historical moments: the 1920s and 1930s in semi-colonial Shanghai, and the present in globalizing mainland China.

  We'll be meeting for dinner afterwards.

April 29: Game Night

• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm
• Description:

  Take a break from homework and studying for finals and play some Chinese games! SHKCA will be hosting a game night. Games will include

  • Mahjong
  • Chinese card games
  • Chinese chess
  • Go (Weiqi)

  If you don't know how to play, there will be experts on hand who will be happy to teach you the rules.

  There'll be some free food. Pizza!

May 6: Election and End of Year Party

• Location: 283 Dwinelle
• Time: 6pm
• Description:

  Come vote and enjoy our end of year party!

  Did you enjoy attending SHKCA's events this year? Want to take a more active role? Become a SHKCA officer!

  SHKCA will be holding an election to choose next year's executive committee. Some of the benefits of becoming an officer:

  • organize the events that you want—invite your favorite professor to come speak at a SHKCA meeting
  • meet lots of people
  • gain experience at organizing events

  Available posts:

  • President
  • Vice President (Internal and External)
  • Treasurer
  • Secretary
  • Historian
  • Event Coordinator

  For more details about officer responsibilities, see the SHKCA constitution. To run for office, fill in the form at http://shkca.berkeley.edu/SHKCA-Officer-Application.doc and submit it to by Friday April 30.

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