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MEAS Application 2024: Information Sessions

19. March 2024, 16:10

Yonson Ahn has published an anthology on interactions between Germany and Korea

29. November 2023, 13:06

Zhiyi Yang: Poetry, History, Memory: Wang Jingwei and China in Dark Times

8. November 2023, 13:00

6th Social Sciences Korean Studies European Network' (SoKEN)

3. November 2023, 13:00

Korean Studies Guest Lecture Series - winter semester 2023/24

3. November 2023, 12:45

The IZO ECRN Workshop on "Asia and the liberal global financial system: contestation, compliance or cooptation?" took place on 30 August/1 September 2023 

10. October 2023, 10:49

TIE Conference 2023 on 21/22 September 2023

16. September 2023, 10:59

IZO successfully organised the Second Asia Forum in Frankfurt on 6/7 July 2023

1. August 2023, 12:55

Yonson Ahn has published two new articles in the European Journal of Korean Studies

10. July 2023, 11:10

IZO Asia Forum Keynote by Dong Yeon Won: "Korean Film and Television -  Competitiveness and Future Prospects"

21. June 2023, 17:40

Korean Studies Lecture: "Covid Exceptionalism: Debunking Three Myths about South Korean 'Success' During the Covid-19 Pandemic"

31. May 2023, 13:40

Guest Lecture by Prof. Michael Lounsbury: "Entrepreneurial Possibilities: Broadening the Scope of Research on Entrepreneurship and Markets"

9. May 2023, 15:30

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IZO Events

May 19 2022
18:15

"The Moral Duties of Art: Yan Geling & Yang Lian visit Goethe University | Recording available on Youtube!

On 19 May 2022, two outstanding voices of the Chinese-language exile community, Yan Geling and Yang Lian, visited Goethe University Frankfurt as part of the event "The Moral Duties of Art - Chinese Literary Exile in Germany" hosted by the IZO.

Moderated by Prof. Dr. Yang Zhiyi, the Berlin-based novelist and screenwriter Yan Geling discussed with the poet Yang Lian, who has already been living in self-imposed exile since 1989. In front of a large audience of over 170 interested guests, including many members of the Chinese diaspora in Germany, both artists explained their break with the Chinese regime and talked about traumatic experiences in their own past and their influence on their respective artistic work.

While Yan was a respected and widely read author in China for many years, her criticism of the Chinese regime led to a de facto ban on her new book after the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. During the event in Frankfurt, Yan described her doubts before publishing the critical article, combined with the fear that her life would change drastically and she would become persona non grata in China. Nevertheless, she ultimately decided to publish the article, which in the end led to a de facto erasure of her person on the Chinese internet.

Following these accounts, both personal and political, Yan and her husband Lawrence Walker read excerpts from Yan Geling's work in the original Chinese and translation. Yang Lian entertained the audience with several of his poems, including one about his adopted home of Berlin and a very topical poem about his current residence in Frankfurt, which questions Theodor Adorno's attitude to poetry after Auschwitz.  Afterwards, the audience had the opportunity to ask the artists questions in German, Chinese and English. The audience was interested in both the artistic activities of the panellists and their assessments of the political and social climate in China.

The complete recording of the event on 19 May 2022 can be found here on Youtube.

Deutsche Welle also reported in detail (in Chinese) about the event. You can find the link here.


Image Credits: Peng Guo

IZO Events

May 6 2022
10:00

Upcoming: IZO Panel Discussion with Yan Geling and Yang Lian: 'The Moral Duties of Art: Chinese Literary Exiles in Germany' on 19 May 2022

To write or not to write a poem after Auschwitz — that is not the question. The real question is how, so that art avoids falling victim to cultural barbarism. This question is particularly pertinent today to Chinese writers and artists, when the Chinese regime, an authoritarian world power, also styles itself as the custodian and patron of Chinese culture, with a lucrative and growing cultural market at its disposal. In this moderated dialogue, YAN Geling and YANG Lian, two distinguished Chinese authors living in Berlin, will answer questions about art, truth, power, and market. Yan Geling, a writer who consistently explores historical atrocities like the Nanjing Massacre or the Cultural Revolution in her novels, has also seen many of her works adapted into feature films with great commercial success. Through her fiction and essays, she investigates the human nature underlying the behavior of the Chinese regime. Yang Lian, a poet living mostly in self-imposed exile since 1989, whose works having entered the global scene of “World Literature," is also one of the most celebrated poets in mainland China. How do they perceive the moral duties of art? What do they think of literary exiles or those who choose to live in inner banishment? How do their works respond to the crises of our times, in China and beyond? The dialogue will be moderated by Prof. Zhiyi Yang (Sinology). The two authors will also read their works and take questions from the audience. The event is organized by the Interdisciplinary Center for East Asian Studies (IZO).


Date: 19 May 2022

Time: 6.15 – 7.45 p.m., followed by a small reception in the foyer

Place: Goethe University Frankfurt, Casino Building, R. 1811, Nina-Rubinstein-Weg 1


Please register for the talk and reception via e-mail to niepel@em.uni-frankfurt.de by 15 May at the latest.

IZO Events

May 5 2022
18:00

Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Marta Hanson: "Understanding is Within One’s Grasp, The World Within the Hands in the Classified Canon, 1624"

On May 5th, the IZO is organizing a guest lecture on the following topic by Prof. Dr. Marta Hanson: "Understanding is Within One's Grasp, The World Within the Hands in the Classified Canon, 1624".

By the early sixteenth century, some physicians considered the most important medical canon of Han antiquity, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Basic Questions (Huangdi neijing: suwen, ca. 1st BCE), to be in a state of crisis. Many of their contemporary physicians found it too archaic, inaccessible, and impractical to use. Many self-proclaimed healers favored more recent medical texts that private publishing had made more widely available, easier to read, and more practical for healing. The literati physician Zhang Jiebin 張介賓 (1563–1640) participated in the broader trend “to recover antiquity" (fugu 復古) by reorganizing the original Inner Canon, providing many illustrations, and adding explanations. The resulting Classified Canon, Illustrated with Commentary (Leijing tu yi 類經圖翼, 1624) also used many popularizing genres – diagrams, short essays, versified didactic poems, illustrations, and even the healer's own hand as a mnemonic tool. Dr. Zhang's amply illustrated, often versified, clearly explained, completely reorganized, and even, in part, embodied Classified Canon is best understood as one late-Ming literati physician's response to this perceived crisis. In fact, this Classified Canon was so successful among physicians in China that Jesuits used it as the source text for the first Latin translations of Chinese conceptions of the viscera and channels of the human body published in the Specimen Medicinae Sinicae (A Sample of Chinese Medicine) in 1682 in Frankfurt, Germany. 


Time: 05. 05. 2022 – 18:00

Place: Seminarhaus 0.106

Announcements

May 2 2022
13:00

IZO Fellowship

The IZO welcomes YANG Lian as the new IZO Fellow

In May 2022, the IZO is proud to host YANG Lian 杨炼 as a fellow who will enrich the centre's ongoing work on canonisation and innovation in East Asia. Born in 1955 in Bern, Yang began writing when he was sent to the countryside in the 1970s. In the 1980s, hebecame well-known inside and outside of China as a member of the now canonized “Misty"School of poetry. He was invited to visit Australia
and New Zealand in 1988 and next year, he became a poet in exile and started his globaljourney. Throughout the years, his literary writing, as well as his outspoken voice, has been calledas a highly individual voice in world literature, politics and culture. His poems have been translated into more than twenty languages and have won dozens of international prizes. 


Image Credits: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 

IZO Events

May 1 2022
17:00

Online Lecture Series of Korean Studies Frankfurt: 'Book Talks - Researchers Present their Published Monographs'

This online lecture series gives an insight into the diversity of recently published monographs from the international Korean studies and enables direct exchange with authors who are otherwise often considered 'unapproachable'. They will present their own research and are available for questions, comments and discussion after their 45-minute presentation.


02-05-2022 – 16:00 o'clock
'Language and truth in North Korea'
by Sonia Ryang

16-05-2022 – 16:00 o'clock
'Invincible and Righteous Outlaw: The Korean Hero Hong Gildong in Literature, History and Culture'
by Minsoo Kang

30-05-2022 – 16:00 o'clock
'Korean Digital Diaspora'
by Hojeong Lee

13-06-2022 – 14:00 o'clock
'Korean Food, Television and the Korean Nation'
by Jaehyeon Jeong

Please register for Zoom via this link:
https://uni-frankfurt.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5AkcumtrT8pH9JNgIO1NCZVInX1WCMOAzcw


MA Modern East Asian Studies

Mar 28 2022
09:00

Start of the Application Period

The application period for the MA programme Modern East Asian Studies (MEAS) starts on 1 April. The application deadline is 15 August. If you did your BA abroad, we recommend applying by 15 July at the latest.


If you are interested in applying for the programme, check out the more detailed information about entry requirements, application documents and the application process in the Admissions section of the MEAS website.  Should you have further questions, please contact the MEAS programme coordinator, Mirjam Tröster.

MA Modern East Asian Studies

Mar 25 2022
12:00

MEAS Alumni Database

Have you graduated from the master's programme Modern East Asian Studies (MEAS) and would like to stay in touch with your former fellow students?

Alumni can now register for the newly established MEAS Alumni Database! We will then send you emails informing you about activities hosted by the programme and its students that are of potential interest to MEAS alumni.

If you would like to be included in the MEAS Alumni Database, please write an email to Ms Kiradjieva.

MA Modern East Asian Studies

Mar 21 2022
11:30

New MEAS Programme Website Online

Are you passionate about East Asia and consider to apply for a master's programme that combines both language training and research-orientated lectures and seminars from a broad range of disciplines?


Then check out the new website of IZO's MA programme Modern East Asian Studies (MEAS): http://meas.uni-frankfurt.de. There you will find everything you need to know about the programme, including application and admissions.

Announcements

Mar 7 2022
11:00

IZO Third-Party Funded Project

QuaMaFA Summer School Open for Applications

The IZO joint project QuaMaFA (Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia) hosts a graduate student summer school on “Innovative Research Designs and Methods in Asian Migration Research” from 18 to 19 July 2022 at Goethe University Frankfurt. This summer school targets early PhD students and late MA students (who can demonstrate their plan of pursuing a PhD), who examine methodological issues related to migration, mobility and ethnic diversity in Asia. This summer school aims to bring together these challenges and offers a platform to jointly discuss new opportunities and constraints that arise in a rapidly digitalizing, pandemic-struck world.

The deadline for abstract (250–300 words) and short-bio (100–150 words) is 15 April 2022 (via email to quamafa@gmail.com). Once your abstract is accepted, please submit a short paper (1500–3000 words) describing your methodological concerns or fieldwork challenges by 15 June 2022. The summer school will be held in person, but depending on the situations of travel restrictions, it may be switched to online. Costs for transportation and accommodation during the event are fully covered by the organizer of the summer school .

For further information, check out our website (https://quamafa.de/upcoming-event/).

Announcements

Mar 2 2022
09:00

Yonson Ahn Receives the 2020 Asian Law & Society Association (ALSA) Distinguished Article Award. 

Yonson Ahn received the 2020 ALSA Distinguished Article Award for her article, "Traumatic bonding between Korean 'comfort women' and Japanese soldiers during World War II". European Journal of Women's Studies, Volume 26 issue 4: November, 2019.

This work analyses the complex and contentious issues of mutual affection and codependency in relationships between Korean 'comfort women' and Japanese soldiers during World War II. Drawing on a combination of interviews and published resources, it explores the groups' perceptions of one another within the framework of 'traumatic bonding'. Despite traumatic violence and stark inequalities, this article finds nuanced contributions from the parties involved. For the soldiers, the relationships provided a form of emotional relief from the violence of war and from the oppression they themselves were subjected to by those of superior rank within the military hierarchy, while the women often sought kindness and protection from the military men with whom they had formed relationships. However, underneath the yearning for human connection, these relationships were highly complex and deeply affected by the overarching power dynamics of gender and the racialised colonial hierarchy.

Source: Yonson Ahn, "Traumatic bonding between Korean 'comfort women' and Japanese soldiers during World War II". European Journal of Women's Studies, Volume 26 issue 4: November, 2019, pp.360-374. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506818796039