About the speaker: Michelle Li received her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies from Princeton University in May 2000 with a major in pre-modern Japanese literature and minors in pre-modern Chinese and Japanese religions with an emphasis on Buddhism, and pre-modern Japanese history. Her focus in recent years has been on the grotesque and other modes of representation centered on the physical body in ancient and medieval Japanese literature. She is especially interested in the places in texts where religion, history, and literature meet. Her dissertation, Unfinalized Bodies: Reading the Grotesque in Setsuwa Literature, which she is currently revising as a book, develops a theory of the grotesque in short tales from the Konjaku monogatari shu­ and other collections of short tales compiled between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. She is also presently expanding her understanding of the grotesque by exploring how an aesthetic similar to the grotesque in setsuwa functions in Japanese literature from other genres and historic periods. Her next major project after completing this work will be a cross-disciplinary study of ancient and medieval wet nurses who, in addition to having great psychological impact on individuals, were politically and economically significant. In addition to her years at Princeton, her academic background includes a master's degree from Ochanomizu University in Tokyo in modern Japanese literature, particularly from the Meiji and Taisho­ periods. She has also lived and studied in Beijing. The first time, in 1989, was during the student protests and military crackdown by the government in and around Tiananmen Square. It was a significant period of her personal life as well as she met future husband, Jiayi, then. Chinese language and culture, including Chinese tale literature and its relationship to Japanese tale literature, remain side passions of hers.

Lunch served to those who respond to Okky Choi by Wednesday, February 26 by 12:00 noon. You can reach Okky at 650-724-8271 or via email at okkychoi@stanford.edu.

Lunch served to those who respond to Okky Choi by Wednesday, January 29 by 12:00 noon. You can reach Okky at 650-724-8271 or via email at okkychoi@stanford.edu.

Lunch served to those who respond to Okky Choi by Wednesday, January 14 by 12:00 noon. You can reach Okky at 650-724-8271 or via email at okkychoi@stanford.edu.

Widely regarded as a classic text of modern Vietnamese literature, Vu Trong Phung's The Storm (1936) is also the only colonial-era novel that features a leading member of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) as its main character. As a result, the novel provides rare insight into popular Vietnamese attitudes of the day toward communism and local communist activists. This issue merits attention because studies of early Vietnamese communism tend to approach the movement from the inside exclusively (by examining the institutional development of the Party and the lives and ideas of its leaders) while more or less ignoring perceptions of it from without. It is also important because the Party has long fostered a suspiciously monochromatic image of itself over time as an entity that is invariably modern, scientifically oriented, morally virtuous, socially based in the lower classes and deeply nationalistic. The process whereby this cluster of vaguely Stalinist attributes came to embody the transhistorical nature of the Party dovetailed with the consolidation of communist control over state power in northern Vietnam after 1954. Vu Trong Phung's The Storm, however, calls into question the historical continuity of the Party's character and reputation by presenting a pre-Stalinized portrait of the Vietnamese communist leadership. The recovery of this image is significant because of the likelihood that it reflected a widely held view of the movement during the late colonial era and because it is consistent with a fragmentary body of historical evidence about the nature of the ICP during its formative stage of development. Finally, a consideration of recent debates over the novel will reveal the limited extent to which the Party has been prepared, during the reform era, to tolerate the spread of unorthodox narratives of its origins and historical development. Peter Zinoman is associate professor of history and Southeast Asian studies at the University of California, Berkeley. His first book - The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001) - was awarded the John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History from the American Historical Association in 2,002. He is currently working on a study of the writer Vu Trong Phung and the emergence of modernist movements in inter-war Vietnam. His most recent publication - Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002) - is a translation of a vernacular-language satire of colonial society in Vietnam published originally in 1936.

As Secretary of the Technology, Trade, and Commerce Agency, Lon Hatamiya advises the governor and the legislature on all matters related to international business, serving as the voice of California's private sector in the State Cabinet. Appointed by Governor Gray Davis in 1999 and confirmed unanimously by the State Senate, Secretary Hatamiya is the first Asian-American to hold a cabinet-level position in California history. As the state's primary promoter of economic development, he directs numerous programs stimulating economic activity for international trade and investment, and under his leadership the Agency added the Division of Science, Technology, and Innovation, focusing on R&D and the commercialization of new technologies. Prior to his appointment as secretary, Mr. Hatamiya served as administrator for the Foreign Agricultural Service in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He holds a degree in economics from Harvard University, and JD and MBA degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Korean peninsula has been at the center of Cold War politics ever since its 1945 territorial division, and remains so even after the demise of the Soviet empire. After half a century of intense conflict and tensions -- including a major war -- the leaders of North and South Korea held their first summit in summer 2000, creating hope and enthusiasm for peace and unification on the peninsula. However, the current stalemate in inter-Korean relations and the recent tension over North Korea's nuclear program clearly indicate that a peaceful conflict resolution, let alone unification, will not come easily. The current situation also attests to the urgent need for a new forum that can address various issues related to inter-Korean and North Korea-U.S./Japan relations at the nonofficial, nonpolitical level.

We believe that early 2003 will be a critical moment in inter-Korean and North Korea-U.S./Japan relations. The new South Korean government will take office in late February 2003 and the newly created special economic zone in Shin-ui-ju is expected to be at work in a few months. Also, the recent visit of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi to North Korea could lead to a new relationship between the two countries, and the Bush administration will be entering the second half of its term in early 2003.

All these developments, along with the recent revelation of North Korea's nuclear program, make the proposed policy conference timely and essential for (re) formulating new North Korean policies by South Korea, Japan, and the United States. The proposed conference will discuss policy issues toward North Korea among scholars and policymakers from the United States, Japan, China, and Russia, as well as South Korea. We seek to produce a policy proposal to be presented to the new South Korean government, as well as to the governments in Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

Following the success of the first conference held in January 2002, the Asia/Pacific Research Center and the US Army War College plan to hold a second conference in January 2003. Its theme is "The Prospects for Peace in South Asia." The participants will address several topics: the role of religion in the politics of the region (primarily in Kashmir, but also in Indian and Pakistani politics), the political role of the Pakistani army, and the new challenges that nuclear weapons and the global war on terrorism have introduced. Possible lessons for the United States in trying to prevent war in South Asia as well as furthering its aims in the war on terrorism will be discussed. The conference speakers will provide an understanding of Kashmir, the role of religion in South Asian politics, local culture and attitudes, US military perspectives on South Asia and the situations and politics in India and Pakistan.

When Shorenstein APARC's 2002 South Asia conference was being planned at Shorenstein APARC, the events of September 11, 2001 had not taken place. To Americans, September 11 is mostly associated with the war against terrorism. However, the impact of 9-11 on longstanding political relations between India and Pakistan is less understood. Without such an understanding, it is difficult to explain why India and Pakistan have twice almost gone to war in the past months due to acts of terrorism linked to September 11.

Kashmir is the main locus of the two countries' dispute. There is much history on why disagreements over Kashmir have created political problems: they began with the handing over of Kashmir to India in 1947 and have continued with rigged elections, poor governance, military occupation, and indigenous and Pakistani-supported militancy, up to the present day.

The risk of nuclear war between India and Pakistan arising from the Kashmir dispute remains high. Local elections in both Pakistan and Kashmir over the next few months might prevent war till then, while affecting the dynamics of the future. The United States is keenly concerned with the possibility of war and has been actively engaged in diplomacy, with more senior American officials visiting South Asia in 2002 than at any time in the past.

Indian and Pakistani politics have also taken new turns. In India, the ruling NDA is dominated by the BJP, a party with past links to militant Hinduism. India is constitutionally secular and Muslims have played an important political role, though more as a vote-bank (comprising 14 percent of the population) and less, particularly in recent times, as influential decision-makers. This influence may be set to decline further. Economic uncertainties and the polarization of religious communities in some areas (after sectarian riots) have led the BJP to believe that a return to its aggressive roots might be politically successful. This leads to a need for understanding of how India's future will be affected by its great religions, Hinduism and Islam.

In Pakistan, recent political developments have concentrated power almost entirely in the hands of President Musharraf, a situation that may persist after its upcoming elections. This lack of institutionalization of political processes and power poses new risks to the security environment in the subcontinent.

Japanese pop culture has gained a global following in recent years, with recognition that now extends far beyond the stereotypes of oriental exotica. With the reach of pop culture comes tremendous economic potential. Nakamura, whose varied experiences in rock, art, and multimedia have been applied to policymaking and education, gives a preview of a new research project he is coordinating on the impact of pop culture on politics, society, and the economy. Japan's economic troubles have taken center stage during the last decade. But has Japan's "lost decade" really been a "glorious decade"?