Trans-Asia Graduate Student Conference (TAGS)

Panel 2A: Culture/Counter Culture in Asia and Beyond

Friday, April 14, 3:30PM-5:00PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 206
Zoom Meeting ID: 973 7274 0096; Passcode: TAGS

• “‘More Than Fantasies in the Clouds’: Articulations of the Cambodian Literary Imaginary and the (Re)negotiation of Postcolonial Modernity in Khun Srun’s The Accused” — Ben Rost, University of Washington
• “Asian Religions and Psychedelics in the 1960s American Counterculture” — Kyle Dougherty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  
• “Redefining Shoujo: A Reclamation of Agency that Expands a Traditional Understanding of Gender” — Grace Najmulski, University of Iowa
• “Breaking and Broken Boundaries in Murakami Ryū’s Almost Transparent Blue” — Tzu-Lu Hung, University of Washington
  

Discussant: Mary Green, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 2B: East and Southeast Asia in the 20th century

Friday, April 14, 3:30PM-5:00PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 336
Zoom Meeting ID: 974 3161 7900; Passcode: TAGS

• “Legacy of the Flying Tigers: Covert Aerial Interventions in East and Southeast Asia during the Cold War” — Daniel Jackson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Developing Asian Land, Reforming Asian Labor: Sino-Indian Friendship and Economic Exchange, 1949-1960” — Yasser Ali Nasser, University of Chicago
• “Documenting Cultural Specimens in Maoist China: Visuality and Materiality of Feng Jicai’s The Brick-carving Art of Tianjin” — Yuzhe Li, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Understanding Structural and Cultural Violence” — Krishnayan Das, Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

Discussant: Lin Ye, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 3A: Sensuality and Sexuality

Satuday, April 15, 9:30AM-11:00AM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 206
Zoom Meeting ID: 981 4912 7544; Passcode: TAGS

• “Deviant Divinity: The Sacred and Sexual Female Figures of Tang Romance Literature” — Genevieve Jacobs, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Smelling Flowers, Wearing Scents: A Sensuous Form of Knowing” — Dishani Roy, Presidency University, Kolkata
• “Mainstreaming Sex Work as an Institution” — Jarken Gadi, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune

Discussant: Bidisha Mukherjee, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 3B: Memory and Resistance

Satuday, April 15, 9:30AM-11:00AM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 336
Zoom Meeting ID: 953 2196 5269; Passcode: TAGS

• “The Indigenous Binaries of Resistance in Postcolonial India” —  Satkirti Sinha, DeMonfort University, Leicester
• “South Asia’s Second World War: Exploring the Legacies of World War II in Indian Memories Through the Memoirs of Benegal and Crasta” — Amitrajeet Mukherjee, University of Delhi
• “Institutionalized Infringement of Human Rights during South Korea’s Developmental Stage: A Historical Analysis of the 1960s and 1970s” — Yoon Walker, SOAS University of London
• “Recording and Imagining Wartime Xikang, A Han-Tibetan-Yi Frontier 1939-1946” — Hanzhi Dai, University of Edinburgh

Discussant: Shatrunjay Mall, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 4A: Family and Education

Saturday, April 15, 11:15AM-12:45PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 206
Zoom Meeting ID: 981 4912 7544; Passcode: TAGS

• “A Children’s Story Database for Readers of Tibetan: Applied Linguistics As Translation Methodology for Enhanced Readability” — Dirk Schmidt, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “‘Mothers’ in Fluidity: Chinese Maternal Care Workers’ Emotional Labor in the US” — Ruochen Cao, University of California-Los Angeles
• “History Education in Shanghai’s Secondary Schools in the 1950s” — Guanhua Tan, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• “Does Affirmative Action Impact Inter-Generational Mobility? Evidence from India” — Manisha Jain, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussant: Jennifer Reynolds-Strange, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 4B: Transcendent Media

Satuday, April 15, 11:15AM-12:45PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 336
Zoom Meeting ID: 953 2196 5269; Passcode: TAGS

• “Being Chinese: Debates about the National and Racial Identity of Eileen Gu on Chinese Social Media” — Shiyi Zhang, University of Southern California
• “‘Positive Energy’ and Affective Spectatorship: the (Self-)Representation of Migrant Workers in Rented Room Short Videos” — Suchen Ding, Duke University
• “East Asia’s Influence on American Hip-Hop” — James Van Gilder, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Borderless VTubing” — Danni Xu, Duke University

Discussant: Luwei Wang, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Keynote speech:

Saturday, April 15, 2:00-3:30PM (CDT)
Ingraham Hall 206
Zoom Meeting ID: 981 4912 7544; Passcode: TAGS

Dr. Paul Vierthaler

Assistant Professor of Chinese Studies (and by courtesy Data Science)
College of William & Mary

Machine Learning and Imperial Chinese Source Material: The case of Jinpingmei

In this talk, Paul Vierthaler will introduce his recent work developing algorithms for automatically identifying source material in late imperials Chinese novels. He will discuss how he uses computational tools to study material appropriated by the pseudonymous author of the infamous 17^th century Chinese novel Jinpingmei (Plum in the Golden Vase). This complex novel masterfully spins a highly salacious narrative out of older fictional, historical, poetic, and dramatic material. The multi-layered intertextuality within Jinpingmei makes it an ideal site of experimentation for developing and evaluating machine learning algorithms for source extraction. Vierthaler will use these experimentations as a starting point to talk about the promise of, and potential issues that come along with, using computational tools to better understand late imperial literary culture.

Panel 5A: Language and Poetry in Asia

Satuday, April 15, 3:45PM-5:15PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 206
Zoom Meeting ID: 981 4912 7544; Passcode: TAGS

• “Language Policy, Linguistic Violence, and Cultural Genocide in China” — Hadley Spadaccini, The Georgia Washington University
• “The World of Poetry in Trans-Asia: From Language to Metrics and Beyond” — Jihye Yun, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• “Clouds and Water: Buddhist Monastics’ Poetic Practices Beyond the Non-Establishment of Words” — Liting Wang, University of California-Los Angeles

Discussant: Maria Tsoy, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Panel 5B: Transcending Borders

Satuday, April 15, 3:45PM-5:15PM (CDT)
In-person: Ingraham 336
Zoom Meeting ID: 953 2196 5269; Passcode: TAGS

• “Maritime-Bandit or Maritime-Bounty? Lin Feng and the Ming Officials” — Calvin Lin, University of British Columbia
  
• “The Emergence and Digital Afterlife of Transboundary Haze in Southeast Asia” — Jing Hao Liong, Duke University
• “Tocqueville On/In China” — Wenjin Hannah Fang, Duke University

Discussant: Hyemin Park, University of Wisconsin-Madison