Korea has one of the most dynamic and diverse religious cultures of any nation on earth. Koreans are highly religious, yet no single religious community enjoys dominance. Buddhists share the Korean religious landscape with both Protestant and Catholic Christians as well as with shamans, Confucians, and practitioners of numerous new religions. As a result, Korea is a fruitful site for the exploration of the various manifestations of spirituality in the modern world. At the same time, however, the complexity of the country’s religious topography can overwhelm the novice explorer.
Emphasizing the attitudes and aspirations of the Korean people rather than ideology, Don Baker has written an accessible aid to navigating the highways and byways of Korean spirituality. He adopts a broad approach that distinguishes the different roles that folk religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and indigenous new religions have played in Korea in the past and continue to play in the present while identifying commonalities behind that diversity to illuminate the distinctive nature of spirituality on the Korean peninsula.
Publication title:Catholics and Anti-Catholicism in Chosŏn Korea
Publication year: 2017
Author: Donald L. Baker with Franklin Rausch
About the book
Korea’s first significant encounter with the West occurred in the last quarter of the eighteenth century when a Korean Catholic community emerged on the peninsula. Decades of persecution followed, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Korean Catholics. Don Baker provides an invaluable analysis of late-Chosŏn (1392–1897) thought, politics, and society to help readers understand the response of Confucians to Catholicism and of Korean Catholics to years of violent harassment. His analysis is informed by two remarkable documents expertly translated with the assistance of Franklin Rausch and annotated here for the first time: an anti-Catholic essay written in the 1780s by Confucian scholar Ahn Chŏngbok (1712–1791) and a firsthand account of the 1801 anti-Catholic persecution by one of its last victims, the religious leader Hwang Sayŏng (1775–1801).
Confucian assumptions about Catholicism are revealed in Ahn’s essay, Conversation on Catholicism. The work is based on the scholar’s exchanges with his son-in-law, who joined the small group of Catholics in the 1780s. Ahn argues that Catholicism is immoral because it puts more importance on the salvation of one’s soul than on what is best for one’s family or community. Conspicuously absent from his Conversation is the reason behind the conversions of his son-in-law and a few other young Confucian intellectuals. Baker examines numerous Confucian texts of the time to argue that, in the late eighteenth century, Korean Confucians were tormented by a growing concern over human moral frailty. Some among them came to view Catholicism as a way to overcome their moral weakness, become virtuous, and, in the process, gain eternal life. These anxieties are echoed in Hwang’s Silk Letter, in which he details for the bishop in Beijing his persecution and the decade preceding it. He explains why Koreans joined (and some abandoned) the Catholic faith and their devotion to the new religion in the face of torture and execution. Together the two texts reveal much about not only Korean beliefs and values of two centuries ago, but also how Koreans viewed their country and their king as well as China and its culture.
Publication title:Kanbunmyaku: The Literary Sinitic Context and the Birth of Modern Japanese Language and Literature
Publication year: 2020
Author: Edited and translated by Ross King and Christina Laffin
About the book
In Kanbunmyaku: The Literary Sinitic Context and the Birth of Modern Japanese Language and Literature, Saito Mareshi demonstrates the centrality of Literary Sinitic poetry and prose in the creation of modern literary Japanese. Saito’s new understanding of the role of “ kanbunmyaku” in the formation of Japanese literary modernity challenges dominant narratives tied to translations from modern Western literatures and problematizes the antagonism between Literary Sinitic and Japanese in the modern academy. Saito shows how kundoku (vernacular reading) and its rhythms were central to the rise of new inscriptional styles, charts the changing relationship of modern poets and novelists to kanbunmyaku, and concludes that the chronotope of modern Japan was based in a language world supported by the Literary Sinitic Context.
Publication title:Contesting Islam, Constructing Race and Sexuality: The Inordinate Desire of the West by Sunera Thobani (2020)
Publication year: 2020
Author: Sunera Thobani
About the book
The current political standoffs of the ‘War on Terror’ illustrate that the interaction within and between the so-called Western and Middle Eastern civilizations is constantly in flux. A recurring theme however is how Islam and Muslims signify the ‘Enemy’ in the Western socio-cultural imagination and have become the ‘Other’ against which the West identifies itself.
In a unique and insightful blend of critical race, feminist and post-colonial theory, Sunera Thobani examines how Islam is foundational to the formation of Western identity at critical points in its history, including the Crusades, the Reconquista and the colonial period. More specifically, she explores how masculinity and femininity are formed at such pivotal junctures and what role feminism has played in the wars against ‘radical’ Islam. Exposing these symbiotic relationships, Thobani explores how the return of ‘religion’ is reworking the racial, gender and sexual politics by which Western society defines itself, and more specifically, defines itself against Islam.
Contesting Islam, Constructing Race and Sexuality unpacks conventional as well as unconventional orthodoxies to open up new spaces in how we think about sexual and racial identity in the West and the crucial role that Islam has had and continues to have in its development.
The Yip So Man Wat Memorial Lectures are made possible by the generous support of Messrs. Alex and Chi Shum Watt in honour of their mother, the late Mrs. Wat, and her passion for Chinese literature and culture.
Upcoming Lecture
2024/25:
Thursday, April 10, 2024 (5:00 PM-8:00 PM; Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
Dr. David Der-Wei Wang (Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University and Director of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies)
2009/10:
Sunday 18 October, 2009 (6:00 – 8:00 PM; Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
The Lunar New Year is an important holiday in many Asian societies, significantly for China, Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. Followers of the Lunar Calendar celebrate the start of a new year on a different day each year, usually around the end of January and mid-February. For many Asian cultures, the passing of a new year means the survival of a year’s worth of trials and tribulations — and what’s a better celebration than a party? Celebrations may include a break from working, schooling, partying, as well as prayers and festivals to welcome in the new year. You might hear the crackle of firecrackers and the banging of drums as we welcome in the new year!
Next Upcoming Event:
TBD
Past Event List
2024:
Thursday 8 February, 2024 (11:00 AM – 4:00 PM; Lower Atrium, AMS Student Nest, 6133 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC)
About the John Howes Lectures in Japanese Studies:
John Howes was a founding member of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies, which he joined in 1961 after earning his doctorate from Columbia University. During his 30 years of active teaching and research, Professor Howes was at the forefront of Canada-Japan cultural, educational and people-to-people relations and inspired countless young Canadians to dedicate their careers and lives to the Canada-Japan relationship in one way or another. In 2012, a number of UBC faculty, staff, and Professor Howes’ devoted former students came together to launch an endowment in his honour. The fund supports the John Howes Lectures in Japanese Studies, an annual public lecture for prominent scholars from around the world to speak to the university community and alumni on topics in Japanese Studies with a focus on Humanities. Dr. Howes passed away peacefully on February 4th, 2017, at the age of 92.
Speaker: Professor James E. Ketelaar (Professor in the Departments of History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations, and Divinity School, University of Chicago)
2018/19:
Thursday 22 November, 2018 (6:30 – 8:30 PM; Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
The Harjit Kaur Sidhu Memorial Program celebrates the rich life of Punjabi language and culture and its importance in BC, in memory of a woman who shared such passions. Our goal is to call attention to important new scholarship on Punjabi language and culture and bring it to our students and the broader Vancouver area audience; encourage and recognize achievements in Punjabi language cultural production; and honor students for their work in learning and using the Punjabi language.
Upcoming
Wednesday 23 April, 2025 (5:15 PM – 7:30 PM, Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
Mr. John’s performance, in collaboration with Rangmanch Punjabi Theatre, of two works in Punjabi: “Dulatti” (The Hidden Power) and “Ghasea Hoea Aadmi” (Worn Out Man)
What is the Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference?
The Annual Asian Studies Graduate Student Conference is a day of presentations by graduate students from the Asian Studies department, featuring special guest presenters unique to each year. Participants in the conference will present their original research, engage in accompanying discussions on their papers or presentations, and enjoy refreshments while meeting and talking with scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines and regions.
Upcoming Event:
TBD
Past Event List
2024:
Sunday 3 March, 2024 (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM; Asian Centre Auditorium, 1871 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
Details TBD
2023:
Saturday 4 March, 2023 (8:30 AM – 5:30 PM; Room 120 at C.K. Choi Building, 1855 West Mall, Vancouver, BC)
Panel discussions from Dr. Christina Yi, Dr. Bruce Rusk, Dr. Ross King, Dr. Jessica Main and Dr. Hyung-Gu Lynn from the Department of Asian Studies
2016:
Saturday 12 March, 2016
2016 Graduate Student Conference
Opening and closing talks from Dr. Ross King and Dr. Christopher Rea from the Department of Asian Studies
2015:
Saturday 11 April, 2015
2015 Graduate Student Conference
Opening and closing talks from Dr. Stefania Burk, Dr. Anne Murphy, and Dr. Ross King from the Department of Asian Studies
2014:
Saturday 5 April, 2014
2014 Graduate Student Conference
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Daisuke Miyao, Associate Professor of Japanese Film and Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Oregon
2013:
Saturday 9 March, 2013
2013 Graduate Student Conference
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Copeland, Professor and Chair of Department of Japanese Language and Literature at Washington University in St. Louis
2012:
Saturday 12 May, 2012
2012 Graduate Student Conference
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Melek Ortabasi, Director and Associate Professor of the World Literature program at Simon Fraser University
We are proud to announce the UBC Tianzhu-Hurvitz Lecture Series, named for prominent academic and pioneer in the field of Buddhist Studies, Dr. Leon Hurvitz. Dr. Hurvitz’s fascination with medieval Japanese led him to explore Buddhism, which became his main passion. He published numerous monumental works over the course of his career while also teaching at UBC Department of Asian Studies for nearly twenty years. This lecture series invites distinguished scholars around the world to share and discuss their research at UBC in honour of Dr. Hurvitz’s contributions to the field. Learn more here
Next Upcoming Lecture:
(TBD)
Past Lecture List
2021:
Thursday 22 April, 2021 (9:00 – 10:30 AM; Online via Zoom)
