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Conference Review Transnational Cultural Interactions

between Korea and Japan


by Yoonjung Seo (Art Histories Fellow 2014/15, Forum Transregionale Studien)
Conference Review - Transnational Cultural Interactions between Korea along with Japan, from your
Pre-modern to the Colonial Period; Hebrew School of Jerusalem, Israel, Might 17-19, 2015
Scholars within the field associated with Korean and also Japanese studies from all over the world
congregated at the Hebrew School regarding Jerusalem throughout Israel for a three-day conference
in Transnational Cultural Interactions between Korea and also Japan, which began in Could 17th,
2015. This international conference can be held under the actual auspices the particular Frieberg
center with regard to East Asian Scientific studies and also Korean Cultural center in Jerusalem as
well as the Dr. Jooyeon Lee and also Dr. Nissim Otmazgin in the Department of Asian Studies.

Yoonjung Seo
The conference opened using a haunting keynote address through Dr. Theodore Hughes (Columbia
University, USA), entitled "Colonialism, area Studies, Globalization," in which he emphasized the
worth of present scholarly inquiries derived from transnational perspectives along with evoked your
changing dynamics regarding location studies inside the era associated with globalization. Certainly
these tips broaden the actual scope associated with research via renewed thought for global
interconnectedness, the complex concerns revolving around trans-regional exchanges and
colonialism along with post-colonial discourse. Such approaches carry with each other multiple
perspectives along with voices through scholars on distinct continents, facilitate interdisciplinary
pedagogy, and enhance awareness of entangled concerns involving transcultural processes in which
we have sometimes tended to acquire rid of sight associated with within the actual traditional frame
associated with places studies, focusing on historical eras and also geographical divisions.
Twenty-two scholars representing academic institutions in Korea, Japan, Israel, the actual United
States, United Kingdom, Germany, and lots of other countries introduced papers in the conference.
Your themes concerned the major element questions articulating Korea-Japan cultural interactions,
with a unique emphasis upon transnational perspectives; this encompass issues associated with
artifacts and artists vacationing across boundaries, exchanges among intellectuals via colonial Korea
and Japan in add-on to their consciousness associated with modernity, ethnicity as well as
nationalism, too because the emergence of gender concerns along with subculture throughout postcolonial Japanese along with Korean society.

Theodore Hughes' thought-provoking phrases had been brought prominently in order to bear about
the 2nd day with the conference, when Sol Jung (Princeton University, USA) opened the initial panel
upon vacationing images and artifacts together with the girl presentation: "K?rai: Korea' place
within Sixteenth Century Aesthetics." Via any cautious studying regarding Japanese tea-related main
documents and the Portuguese-Japanese text, she analyzed the actual aesthetic standards of
Japanese elites inside the sixteenth century as well as the historical perception regarding foreign
objects imported from your continent for the Japanese archipelago. Inside exactly the same vein,
Yoonjung Seo take on Korean Buddhist paintings within Japanese collections and Satoko Sakaguchi's
(Kyoto College involving art and Design, Japan) function about Korean envoy-painters' paintings and
their cultural exchange along with Edo painters shed mild about the afterlife associated with
cultural artifacts as well as the reception aesthetics involving reception.

Yoonjung Seo
As represented inside the panel matters for the 2nd day, "Korean Students within Japan,"
"Intellectual Exchange among Colonial Korea and also Japan," along with "Japan and Korean
Literature," a recurring theme had been exploring how Japanese as well as Korean intellectuals, or
perhaps activists responded to numerous social concerns such because the colonization involving
Korea, your Korean Independence Movement, Christianity along with Protestantism, as well as
Marxism and socialism within the early twentieth century. The Particular final panel in the
conference might be considered the continuation associated with examination associated with
inquiries raised by the previous panels as well as a meaningful add-on to the program by means of
the actual incorporation associated with gender issues and also subcultures inside Post-colonial
period. The Particular presentations by Todd Henry (UC San Diego, USA) as well as Nadeschda
Bachem (SOAS, UK) focused about the multi-faceted play, tension, and negotiation among
subjectivity through imperial masculinity as well as the effeminate colonial body, which in turn had
been exemplified within the gay and transgender cultures and also literature that will emerged
following the Korean liberation.
All inside all, the international conference upon Korea-Japan cultural interactions draws our interest
towards the significance of transcultural approaches as well as reconfirms our dedication to
interdisciplinary analysis like a way to create cross-dialogue amongst visual, textual, material and
also archeological evidence and also to use border-crossing supplies in our very own disciplines. in
addition, the actual conference provokes larger concerns for scholars throughout Korean and
Japanese studies; how must we define Korea and Japan as the premise for an analytical frame and
also exactly how should we broaden the actual connection with other location studies, including
Center Eastern and North American studies, beyond current national along with geographical
borders. Your conference's intriguing talks, productive discussions, as well as fruitful exchanges
within as well as out in the conference venue offered numerous insights into diverse facets in the
field, along with alternative direction even though that researchers elsewhere discover their really
own avenues regarding inquiry.

Find the conference program here.


--Yoonjung Seo is an art historian specializing in Korean art. The Lady received your ex PhD lately
throughout Artwork History from your College involving California, Los Angeles. Your Ex
dissertation examines the particular ways where meaning will be constructed, modified, as well as
reinstated both throughout textual and also visual forms, and also what may happen when themes
from a literary text are generally adapted for you to painting and/or transfer across serious amounts
of cultures. This particular inquiry further opens on crucial cultural problems like how Chinese
antiquity has been appropriated by posterity throughout East Asia regarding self-fashioning and in
addition the celebration associated with contemporary events.

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