Japan [Day 1]: Yokohama

Thank you for watching. -S.Y.

The Past

The Great Kantō Earthquake Photo by: aboutjapan.japansociety.org

Although Yokohama stands tall as a beautiful port city today, its past is not as glamorous. In 1923, the Great Kantō Earthquake wiped out approximately a fourth of Yokohama's population at the time (140,000 people) and left the city in shambles. Furthermore, minority groups were made scapegoats of this disaster and faced persecution. 

The Future

Minato Mirai 21 'Future Port 21' Photo by: Soohyun Yang

Since then, the city has been rebuilt into an international port, a crossroad for cultural exchange. Several memorials surround the city to remember the individuals who were impacted, and several more were made in the spirit of looking to the future. 

Travel to Yokohama 

There are so many beautiful and interesting places to see in Yokohama, but I will just a mention a hand full where I went or would like to have gone.

Yamashita Park

Yamashita Park Photo by: Soohyun Yang

Yamashita Park is a 100-meter stretch by the shore. There are beautiful flower gardens and fountains surrounding the area. The summer breeze and pleasant scenery make it an ideal resting point while exploring Yokohama.

"Seabass" 

Photo by: Soohyun Yang

The "Seabass" is a boat that can take you to a few different locations in Yokohama. The starting point is Bay Quarters (right by Yokohama station) and the furthest point is Yamashita Park (700¥ or a little over $7). You can take a lot of amazing pictures and it's a good general overview of the city before hitting the busy streets.

Sky Garden in Landmark Tower

Photo by: Soohyun Yang

The Landmark Tower is the tallest building (although not structure) in Japan. It costs 1000¥ (~$10), but it's the best view of the city. I recommend that you go at night because all the lights give the city a magnificent glow. You can also take pictures that make you look like you're falling like me ;)

I would love to have gone to the Ramen Museum and the Red Brick Warehouse. The Red Brick Warehouse is a historical building that holds events and has several shops inside. 

Soohyun Yang

B.A. International Economics and Japanese Language and Literature 2014

Sigur Center 2013 Japanese Language Fellow

Sendagaya Japanese Institute, Japan

Japan: A Preview

Thank you for watching. -S.Y.

Soohyun Yang

B.A. International Economics and Japanese Language and Literature 2014

Sigur Center 2013 Japanese Language Fellow

Sendagaya Japanese Institute, Japan

Shirley in Taiwan

During my first 2 weeks in Taipei studying at National Taiwan Normal University, I find myself mainly commuting around the city with Taipei's Mass Rapid Transit System or simply known as ‘MRT’. The MRT system is a cheap, convenient and efficient way of transportation throughout Taipei and New Taipei city. It is similar to DC's metro system (albeit cleaner and more frequent trips) consisting of 97 stations and 70 miles of track. The MRT is my main mode of transportation to and fro classes, city explorations and safely back home. 

Map of Taipei’s MRT

 Another significant attribute of Taipei’s MRT is the use of each station space and passageway to support the works of local artists and the city’s creative aesthetics. In many busy stations, art works are exhibited within the station’s infrastructure to educate and aesthetically please commuters and travelers alike.

My first stop takes me to Zhongxiao Fuxing station. Two art exhibitions are displayed on either sides of the station’s passageway with one exhibition on traditional Chinese ink painting and the other mirroring a gospel oil painting exhibition by a local, deaf artist. These two art exhibitions juxtapose each other in many ways--- the traditional technique of calligraphy against the Western oil painting technique – capturing both the traditional and modern spirit of this city.

Traditional Chinese ink painting. (Zhongxiao Fuxing station, Taipei)

Traditional Chinese ink painting. (Zhongxiao Fuxing station, Taipei) 

Oil paintings by local Taiwanese artist (Zhongxiao Fuxing station, Taipei)

Me in Zhongxiao Fuxing,Taipei. Go GW Colonials!

My second MRT art exhibition stop is at the Nangang station which features the works of Taiwanese illustrator, Jimmy Liao. Liao's work comes from his best-selling illustrated book, "The Subway" with six of his pieces incorporated into the station’s entrance, exits of escalators, passageways and on platform walls. The exhibition portrays former industries in Nangang and takes the audience on a nostalgic journey either to a childlike fantasy or back to their childhood memories of living in the local community. 

Jimmy Liao's platform art exhibition in Nangang station, Taipei.

Not only does Taipei’s MRT system provide a convenient and efficient mode of transportation to take me to my Chinese class and safely back home, but the use of these public spaces to support the works of local artists is creatively ingenious. I will continue riding the MRT and exploring this beautiful city through my linguistic journey through Taiwan.

Shirley Hsieh, M.A. International Trade and Investment Policy 2015,

Sigur Center 2013 Chinese Language Fellow, 

National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan.

​

The Crop Connection

Hello and welcome to my first blog of the summer, before I begin, let me introduce myself and more importantly my research. I am currently a 4th year PhD student at the Economics Department of The George Washington University. During the course of summer I will be conducting field research for my dissertation in rural areas of Pakistan. I would like to take this opportunity to first sincerely thank, The Sigur Center for Asian Studies for providing the grant that has made this opportunity possible.

Today cell phones have become an essential part of our lives in terms of communication. If we can’t find our cell phone for 10 minutes we start putting our entire household upside down to locate it. Somehow not having the cell phone makes us disconnected from the rest of the world as it serves as a source of information as well as communication for us. Today, the farmer sitting in a remote village of Chani Goth experiences the same situation. Cell phone is his primary source of information and communication and his crops and livelihood depend on that cell phone. Therefore, my research over the summer will study how farmers in rural Pakistan use cell phones for making their agricultural decisions.

Research from several countries all over the world has shown that cell phones have benefited agriculture markets by reducing spatial price dispersion. However in my research I am exploring this channel and other channels through which cell phones can influence agriculture related decisions. In particular one such decision is related to the choice of crops grown by farmer. In rural Pakistan growing high value but highly perishable crops is one of the few if not the only road to escaping poverty.  Some of the underlying mechanisms include but are not limited to: communicating over the prices, communicating over time of harvest, communicating sales of crops, communicating about the wait times and conditions at the mills in cases of crops such as sugarcane which need to be processed. To conduct this research I have designed a comprehensive household survey questionnaire. This household survey questionnaire includes modules on household roster, migration, household land use, agricultural production, post harvest losses, timing of plantation, harvest and fertilizer application, agricultural costs, household history of agriculture in previous generations, household non-agricultural sources of income, education, credit access, time use of farmers and finally household consumption. Using this survey tool I am going to interview a random sample 500 households in the province of Punjab.

The selection of villages is one of the most important tasks in this research. In particular to identify the causal impact of cell phone access on agriculture decisions; I am going to make use of a natural experiment. Cell phone coverage has been introduced in rural Pakistan after the year 2000. Although it has grown rapidly, based on security reasons, the first 10 Km along the international border do not have coverage. The map in Figure 1 is coverage map of villages in 20 Km of Border with India for 1 district only. To interview households that are similar in nature however are different in terms of access to cell phone coverage I will make use of this restriction and interviews households on both sides of the restriction. Although there is non-compliance in the data, this restriction still provides an exogenous source of variation in cell phone coverage. The methodology for this would be by collecting details about household location data with the help of handheld Geographical Positioning System (GPS) units.

During the rest of the summer, I will be conducting, survey pre-test as well as the actual survey. I will be posting more about my experiences as I travel more for the survey. Please feel free to post any comments or questions that you may have. 

Contextual Language Learning

Namaste! I have now been in my home away from home in the city of Pune, India for two weeks.

My name is Jessica Chandras and I’m going into my second year of the PhD program in Anthropology at the George Washington University. I plan to do research on the fascinating intersections of language and identity in the state of Maharashtra, India. To prepare for my future research I am spending the summer learning Marathi in Maharashtra- a state in India where Marathi is spoken. I am acclimating well to the rigorous American Institute of Indian Studies Marathi language program. I am gratefully able to attend this program through a grant for Asian language study in Asia from the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the GWU’s Elliott School for International Affairs. In just two weeks I am pleased to say I have made progress from almost no knowledge of Marathi to a beginner who can speak, read, and write basic sentences! It is a short time that I have been here so far, but living with a host family and studying the language where it is spoken speeds up the process of learning both the language and also about Punekar* life and culture.

Studying a language is an exceptionally rich way to learn about the people who speak that language. Often the first words learned in a new language tell a great deal about what is important to locals for daily interaction as well as their shared values and beliefs. This may seem like common sense, but I think that recognizing why you learn the first words you do in a new language provides an interesting window into the culture. For example, I notice that much of the vocabulary that I am learning at the beginning of my studies is related to temples and religion. In the US you would not learn this vocabulary in a classroom, let alone in the first weeks of learning English. Yet vocabulary related to temples and religion is extremely important here and the people who live where I am studying. I have also found that knowing some basic words related to these topics, while seemingly random, has come in quite handy!

A day or two before I arrived in Pune the monsoon season began. In my first days here I often got caught outside soaking wet in the heavy, warm, but greatly needed rain. Understanding how important the rain is and how welcome the rainy season is makes it easy to understand why I quickly learned the word for umbrella. I also learned a useful phrase that translates to “a big rain came” and the word for monsoon. However, even after two weeks I do not know the word for “good morning.” I’ve listened to how people greet each other and either people say Namaste or nothing at all. Therefore, it is not extremely important that I know how to say “good morning," although it is a phrase I use daily in the US, since it is not used in the cultural context of morning interactions here. Therefore, it is important when learning a new language to not just try to speak English in the new language, but to speak the language in its cultural context.

I also found that I use the words “here” and “there” quite a bit. These words were not the first words I learned in other languages but I did not need them as much as I need them now. Each morning I take an auto rickshaw to class and this provides an excellent opportunity to try out new words and phrases. Then I realized that I had probably learned these words and phrases specifically because the people I interact with knew I would take rickshaws and they did not want me to get lost. A lot could happen when I put myself in an old, rusty automobile by myself for a relatively great distance and time with a non-English speaker, so I thank my local teachers for arming me with a basic rickshaw themed vocabulary. In addition to “here” and “there,” my vocabulary also includes “stop,” “change,” “left,” “right,” and “thank you.” "Thank you" is difficult for me because locals do not frequently thank one another, and if they do, the English word is used. I incorporate the word for thank you (dhanyavad) into my speech because it is a distinctly American habit to say thank you to everyone for everything. I think this is an excellent example of how hard it can be to speak the culture and not just the language.

Apart from vocabulary, another linguistic concept impressed upon me early as a beginner in Marathi was the honorific tense used to speak respectfully to older individuals and those of higher status. Through this linguistic construction I have come to understand my place in relation to other individuals and that there is a rather rigid social hierarchy in place that one must abide by to avoid offending anyone. These social rules are acted out behaviorally and also through language. For example, just to ask someone how they are feeling I first need to go through a mental checklist to arrive at what is hopefully the correct linguistic expression for the number of people, the gender of those people, and level of respect they deserve.

I know this is still very early to comment profoundly on the new language and culture I am immersed in but this post can serve both as a record of my introduction to life and language in Pune and also assist others who may be beginning a new language abroad. I look forward to continuing to learn and document my adventure learning the Marathi language and culture while in Pune this summer!

* What someone from Pune is called.


Jessica Chandras, PhD Anthropology
Sigur Center 2013 Summer Language Fellow
AIIS Pune, Marathi Summer Language Program, India

JAPAN [2]: SHOW ME THE MONE¥

Photo by: Soohyun Yang

I had never thought about the yen in the context of Japanese literature until I took Japanese Literature in Translation with Hanami sensei. He just asked a straightforward question, “Who is on the 1,000¥?”

Natsume Sōseki - 1000¥ Photo by: Soohyun Yang

The class answered, “Natsume Sōseki.” Sōseki is the author of the most celebrated Japanese classic, Kokoro, which depicts the internal conflict of the Japanese people as they begin to absorb more western values during the Meiji Restoration.

What is so intuitive about a famous figure gracing the cover of the most frequently used banknote in Japan? Although I couldn’t pinpoint the insight right away, the juxtaposition of the Japanese yen to the U.S. dollar made it clear that the two nations were telling their stories from different perspectives. The dollar glorifies the founding fathers. Their image represents the importance of political power in the U.S. However, most of the figures on the Japanese banknotes are writers who propelled the nation through the changes in Japan’s social landscape. They exposed the struggles of a nation transitioning into a new era and shaped the image of Japan as a crossroad between the east and the west.

I hope to guide you all through Japan with respect for the value of money and the values of the nation shown within it.

P.S. 

Ichiyō Higuchi

•Prominent writer in the Meiji Era that depicted life in the red light district as well as the suffering of the lower class

Ichiyō Higuchi - 5000¥ Photo by: Soohyun Yang

Fukuzawa Yukichi

•Published the English-Japanese Dictionary

•Encouraged the citizens to shape the political and social structure of Japan through his newspaper called Jiji Shinpo

Fukuzawa Yukichi - 10000¥ Photo by: Soohyun Yang

Soohyun Yang

B.A. International Economics and Japanese Language and Literature 2014

Sigur Center 2013 Japanese Language Fellow

Sendagaya Japanese Institute, Japan

How to more easily shrug off culture shock

Yesterday I had my first wave of culture shock after living in Taiwan for a little less than two weeks. Perhaps I’m used to the mostly Chinese-Western hybrid culture here, which I also found while living, working, and studying in Shanghai for a year. Perhaps this is why the disorientation hadn’t hit me until that moment. The cause of this more recent bout of discomfort is not as significant as how I dealt with these feelings of alienation. I did my tried and true method and I absorbed myself in something different from the native norms—I had to escape the culture I was living in as quickly as a person tries to escape a burning building. I went to a Mexican restaurant, ordered a shot or two of tequila, and proceeded to listen to seventeen different Prince songs in a row the next morning.

Is it appropriate to always deal with even the most off-putting un-Western thing by binging on Western culture? When I walked around a poor section of Shanghai only a few blocks from where I taught English, I would have trouble reconciling seeing dogs for sale for obvious consumption or hearing people slurp noodles or eating loudly. The problem with my extreme Western reactions to these events back then—usually involving Western alcohol and ‘80s songs, just as they do now—is that my reaction was so extreme that I made my own studying abroad experience almost unbearable. I began to completely reject the culture around me because it didn’t conform to my Western notions of what a civilized person should do. Somehow civilization seemed to always involve margaritas and “Blue Monday” and I saw any Chinese person’s desire to not conform to Westerners’ cultural imperialism to be off-putting.

It’s much harder to see your own culture from someone else’s eyes. Western culture is held is such esteem across the world, especially American culture; Palestinians and Taiwanese alike thus try to appropriate it for themselves in various forms. The people of Taipei share a lot of my habits and interests because of globalization and the primacy of Western culture—this non-Western gravitation towards things associated with a seemingly more “advanced” scientific, economic, and military power is rooted in inventions and ideology in the Western world from the time of Prince Henry the Navigator and in the centuries which followed. Having figured out that rejecting the sights and stories around me in Taipei is an understandable, but avoidable reaction, I’m instead using history and context to evaluate cultures to come up with a better coping mechanism. This requires a much more nuanced view, but it may ultimately lessen the likelihood of this alienation occurring.


In the future I’ll try to keep in mind that many Taiwanese, Chinese, Iranians, etc. have already discarded many elements of their native cultures as a result of geopolitical, economic realities which ultimately determine their habits. I’m a student of Chinese and Taiwanese history and even I fell into this really easy trap that many Westerns fall into. Ultimately, it is worth your time to study imperialistic histories to really grasp how differently things could have been had economies and ideologies operated slightly differently. Some Westerners deal with this alienation by living in bubbles filled with other alienated Westerners. I’ve been the person who can’t deal with this alienation and loses out on learning a lot while abroad. When you go out and explore a new place that isn’t Western, come with an open mind that is still packed with a lot of history.

Also, keep in mind that many foreigners understand Western cultural nuances far better than many Westerners grasp foreign mores and norms. Not knowing Western culture can lead to a loss of face in many social circles within non-Western cities. This burden isn’t as present for Westerners studying in Beijing or Moscow. Cultural exchange shouldn’t be such a one-way street. Finally, I realize I was given a scholarship to go to Taiwan in order to participate in such exchanges. I should probably become a little more adept at describing the distinctions of different kinds of Oolong tea and drink a little less of the tasty, strong, and cheap American coffee that’s brewed at Taipei’s 7-Elevens—this won’t be easy, I admit. Yet I’m satisfied with knowing that breaking down Western cultural hegemony can be a really great opportunity to grow and make some new friends.

When a Pawn Acts Like a Pawn**--A View From Taipei

I came to Taiwan to study Mandarin Chinese by way of a pretty significant scholarship from the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University’s Elliott School for International Affairs. After receiving this scholarship, I dug a little deeper and it became apparent that the Taiwanese government has been paying for endless cheap vegetarian buffets and the cheap, hot, “complimentary” Chardonnay I struggled to drink on a particular Japanese airline company’s flight to Taipei. I can either dance around the simple fact that the Taiwanese government is giving me this money for a reason or I can confront it head on. The implications for this confrontation lie before me like that vegetarian buffet, but I cannot afford to spend as much time as I would like sampling every issue.

The kinds of motivations I’m seeing here from Taiwan are geopolitical and cultural. I see myself as just one pawn in a much larger geopolitical chess board. Taiwan’s government hopes I can come here and convince the rest of you that Taiwan really has something precious worth preserving. When push comes to shove in a geopolitical contest between the US and China, Taiwan’s government wants Americans to be aware of the distinctions between Taiwan and China, the similarities between Taiwan and the US, and the need to preserve these common values which the US and Taiwanese share and seem to value. I am getting all of this money to convince some of you of this through my pictures, word of mouth, or in a blog. Let’s call a spade a spade.

I’m increasingly a willing accomplice in this act. My situation and how I serve Taiwan’s goals seem like an all-too-easy trap for an American to fall into though. Take any American who has heard about China’s censorship of speech and religion and authoritarian government and throw him or her in a place that is culturally Chinese, at least most of the time, but reflects many of the same political values Americans have either through experience or education come to value and you have easy-to-absorb Taiwanese soft power diplomacy—or propaganda to put it more bluntly. Sermons at public churches don’t have to receive the party in power’s OK in Taiwan, church memberships aren’t capped on the island either, and Taipei has seasonal elections that Freedom House says are free—what’s not for an American to love? Also, it’s quite easy to notice how Taiwan’s relatively low amount of censorship gives the island’s residents greater access to cosmopolitan outlets of culture. A freer marketplace of ideas—or mindless, irresistible fluff, as Taiwan’s fondness for the American TV show Nashville shows—comes across as something to strive for and preserve.

I felt this way before I came to Taiwan, but I feel it ever more strongly now: The US needs to play a role in ensuring that the Taiwanese people retain all of their political and religious freedoms when the island officially becomes subject to at least some of the People Republic of China’s control—and this shift will happen, it isn’t a question of whether or not it could happen, I believe at least. My reasoning stems from this fact that Taiwan’s economy is completely dependent on that of the PRC’s and interconnections between the two increase daily. Moreover, many Taiwanese would favor such a retrocession if certain freedoms were preserved. 

Taiwan’s government has the right idea: More people need to come to this island and see that these freedoms are worth preserving, even if this preservation requires the use of American diplomacy and a show of its strength. Few students at the Sigur Center even applied to study Chinese in Taiwan this summer, perhaps because too fewer students were interested in such a relatively less significant island the size of a combined Delaware and Maryland or perhaps because students are afraid of having to learn traditional characters—I am continuing to learn simplified characters while enrolled at National Taiwan University’s ICLP program, so this shouldn’t be an issue.

It’s important for students to keep in mind that going abroad is an inherently alienating process and that going to study abroad in a repressed political and social culture is even more alienating.  Your internet connection in China moves at a speed similar to that which you had when Facebook first became available and you can’t easily visit a legal church in Shanghai, for example, because the number of congregants is capped so you’re forced to go to an underground church and risk your own visa status, so you can’t worship easily—these are things which make living abroad more difficult. It makes you want to write a scathing blog post, but that’s not advisable or polite. If China is a somewhat discomforting, very basic metaphorical sedan for the information hungry or religious foreigner—the kind that doesn’t have power windows, then Taiwan is a car with seat warmers and seats so comfortable they’re almost soporific. 

**A Fiona Apple reference

JAPAN [1]: Where is Tokyo?

東

京

Tōkyō

Tokyo. I have been studying Japanese for three years now, but I realized that I know absolutely nothing about this location. So, a mere four days before I come face to face with the poster child of Asia, I have decided to share some of the basics of Japan and Tokyo. 

HOW BIG IS JAPAN? WHERE IS TOKYO?

Tokyo is located at the mid-point of Japan (✪). 

Image created by Soohyun Yang using image sources from www.freeusandworldmaps.com and www.abcteach.com

WHAT IS TOKYO?

Tokyo is one of the 47 prefectures in Japan. However, it is best known for its "23 special wards" (23区 nijūsan-ku) in Southern Tokyo. Nearly 7% of the nation's entire population (8.97 million people) lives here in the metropolis.
Information source: http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/

Image source: www.tokyomap.com

✪ For more detailed information, check out this link.  

SOO IN JAPAN

I will be living in Koto-ku. However, my school is in Shinjuku-ku, which is roughly a 30-40 minute commute via metro. 

I'm really old school, so I prefer following maps over the GPS. Either way, I'll probably accompany my blog posts on different excursions with maps to keep everyone locationally aware. 

じゃ、またね〜（＾0＾）／

jya, matane (see you)

Soohyun Yang

B.A. International Economics and Japanese Language and Literature 2014

Sigur Center 2013 Japanese Language Fellow

Sendagaya Japanese Institute, Japan

FALL 2013 INTERNSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT Congressional-Executive Commission on China Deadline: July 1, 2013

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (www.cecc.gov) is offering paid internships to qualified undergraduates, graduate students, or recent graduates this coming fall in Washington, D.C. Interns must be U.S. citizens. The application deadline is July 1, 2013 for the Fall 2013 internship that runs from September to December 2013. Fall internships are part-time; interns are expected to work from 15 to 20 hours per week. See application instructions below.

CECC internships provide significant educational and professional experience for undergraduates, graduate students, or recent graduates with a background in Chinese politics, law, and society, and strong Chinese language skills.

Interns work closely with the Commission and its staff on the full array of issues concerning human rights, the rule of law, and governance in China (including criminal justice, democratic governance institutions, environmental problems, religious freedom, freedom of expression, ethnic minority rights, women's rights, etc.).

Interns perform important research support tasks (often in Chinese), attend seminars, meet Members of Congress and experts from the United States and abroad, and draft Commission analyses. Click here for CECC analysis of recent developments in the rule of law and human rights in China. Interns may also be trained to work with the Commission's Political Prisoner Database, which has been accessible by the public since its launch in November 2004 (click here to begin a search).

The CECC staff is committed to interns’ professional development, and holds regular roundtables for interns on important China-related issues.

Fall 2013 interns will be paid $10/hour. Those unable to apply for Fall 2013 internships may apply for the Spring (February-May) or Summer (June-August). Further details are available on the Commission's Web site at http://www.cecc.gov/pages/general/employ.php.

Qualifications:

• Interns must be U.S. citizens.
• Interns should have completed at least some China-related coursework. It is also desirable that they have some background in one or more of the specific human rights and rule of law issues in the CECC legislative mandate.
• Interns should be able to read Chinese well enough to assist with research in newspapers, journals, and on Web sites. More advanced Chinese language capability would be a plus. The successful candidate for an internship often will have lived or studied in mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan.
• Although our interns are generally undergraduates, graduate students, or recent graduates, others are also welcome to apply.

Application Instructions for Fall 2013:

Interested applicants should send a cover letter, resume, and the names and contact information for two references, to the CECC via e-mail to Judy Wright, Director of Administration at judy.wright@mail.house.gov by July 1, 2013. Applications must be received by our office no later than 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on July 1. Please discuss in your cover letter how your professional goals, interests, and background relate to the Commission's legislative mandate regarding human rights and the rule of law in China. No phone calls please.