By HEATHER HUMPHRE
Asian Awareness Week, sponsored by the Society for Asian Studies, has offered a variety of activities this week in the Garden Court of the Wilkinson Center to celebrate Asian culture.
The remainder of this week’s activities include a series of lectures and events which discuss and demonstrate the art, literature and politics of Japan, China and Korea.
“By becoming more aware of Asia, we can get away from the flat-world syndrome that many Americans are still stuck on today,” said Mark Peterson, coordinator of Asian Studies at BYU.
Tuesday’s activities focused on Japan. Scott Miller gave a lecture entitled “Voices From The Past: Meiji Storytellers” and Mike Sakurai spoke on “Losing Face in Japan.” Attendees participated in writing Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry and learned to scroll the Japanese art of calligraphy.
Wednesday’s activities and lectures focused on China. A forum sponsored by the Asian American Club discussed the issues and conflicts of Asian-American life, and Chinese ethnic dance was taught by Jia Ming of the BYU Dance Department.
Today at 11 a.m., Bruce Grant, a political analyst of northeast Asia, will discuss the current political situation in Korea, focusing on Roh Tae-Woo and Chun Doo-Hwan, two recent presidents of Korea who have been indicted for corruption.
At 1 p.m., Seong Soo Chang, a visiting professor from Seoul National University, will give a lecture in Korean on the “Aesthetics of ‘When the Buckwheat Flower Grows.'”
Sang-Ok Lee, another visiting professor from Seoul National University, will speak about the impact of European influence on Korean author Yi Hyo-Sok and his works, in the final address of the week.
“At BYU, unlike many other American universities, they seem to be very interested in Asian studies. I am very happy to be here and I hope I can contribute something to the promotion of Asian studies on this campus,” Lee said.
