The China Studies Graduate Student Colloquium is proud to present Baizhu Chen, Associate Professor of Clinical Finance and Business Economics at USC, and R. Bin Wong, Professor of History at UCLA, for talks on the transformation of China that occurred during the 1990's.

Professor Chen will address the changes that occurred in the economic sector and Professor Wong will address the transformation of China within a historical framework.

Baizhu Chen studies macroeconomics and international economics, with an emphasis on China. His work has been published in the Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of Political Economy, China Economic Review, Applied Financial Economics, Social Choice and Welfare, and Journal of Macroeconomics. He is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, chief economist of Sino-Century Capital, a VC firm in Shanghai, and former president of the Chinese Economists Society. He is academic director for USC Marshall's GEMBA program, and a recipient of the Golden Apple Award.

R. Bin Wong is Director of the UCLA Asia Institute and Professor of History. Before coming to UCLA in 2004, Bin Wong served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies at UC Irvine where he was also Chancellor's Professor of History and Economics. At UCLA he is responsible for overseeing and coordinating activities in five research centers and developing new initiatives in Asian Studies fields. Wong's own research has examined Chinese patterns of political, economic and social change, especially since eighteenth century, both within Asian regional contexts and compared with more familiar European patterns. Among his books, China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience (Cornell University Press, 1997) is the best known. Recent publications include an essay "East Asia as a World Region in the 21st Century" in Nihon Keizai Shimbun. A ten-page interview regarding his scholarship, intellectual background and vision appears in the August 2004 issue of Shehui kexue, published by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Sponsored by the UCLA China Studies Graduate Student Colloquium

Join the USC Korean Studies Institutes' Sori Pae folk music group at its first practice and gathering this Saturday.

If you are interested in becoming a member, or joining the meeting, please email ksi@usc.edu

Song Qinghua Song co-founded and directs Shining Stone Community Action (社区参与行动 – website). The organization is focused on fostering community discussion of issues and input into decision-making. The organization’s website, for example, highlights the group’s participation in a variety of November events and activities ranging from the Ju’er neighborhood organization, to the sharing of information gained from a visit to the US, and a leadership development project funded by the Harmony Foundation (Canada). Yunxiang Yan, co-director of the UCLA CCS, has worked with the group and describes it as doing solid work.

The discussion will be in Chinese and should be quite interesting. Song has been involved in civil society development efforts since 1997 and has visited South Africa and the United Kingdom. Her organization has received Ford Foundation support this year. Our discussion will begin with a short presentation by Song.

Please RSVP to uschina@usc.edu

Sponsored by the USC U.S.-China Institute

Film screening of Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008 and Q&A with documentary filmmaker Gu Jun.

About the Film
7 years of filming, 5 Olympic stories, 1 nation's preparation for the biggest sporting event in the world. Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008 is the first documentary that took 7 years to research, investigate, pursue and film 5 Olympic stories leading to China's first Olympic Games.

About Filmmaker Gu Jun
Gu Jun graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1991. With a strong interest in anthropology and sociology, Gu took on a directorship position at China Central Television (CCTV) in 1993 and focused on documentary filmmaking. As she researched, interviewed and filmed people, places, and events, her knowledge on social practices and social investigation increased. When it was announced that the 29th Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing in 2001, Gu began to divert her attention on how the Olympics will impact Beijing, and for the next 7 years, dedicated herself to doing up-close research and investigation to capture preparations for the Olympic Games in the documentary film Dream Weavers - Beijing 2008.

For more information, please contact the USC East Asian Studies Center at 213.740.2991 or email at easc@usc.edu. Please RSVP with your name and number of guests to eascrsvp@usc.edu.

Parking is available at PSX for $8. Enter campus through Gate #3 at Figueroa St. and McCarthy Way and proceed to parking kiosk. Off-campus parking is available in lots on Jefferson Blvd. and on the street.

Co-sponsored by the USC East Asian Studies Center and U.S.-China Institute

Honorable Survivor, written by Lynne Joiner, weaves John S. Service’s extraordinary story into the fabric of a watershed moment in our history when World War II was ending, the Cold War was dawning, and the McCarthy era was beginning. A true tale of intrigue, adventure, persecution, and redemption—and of the love of a loyal American wife and a Chinese lover—this biography of Jack Service tells the story of an idealistic U.S. Foreign Service officer in wartime China who early on predicted Mao Zedong’s successful revolution. His prescient reports went unheeded by U.S. policy makers, and later he became Senator Joseph McCarthy’s first victim. The author describes Service’s long fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ordered him reinstated, and reveals how his renewed career was derailed by anti-communist crusaders, the China lobby, the FBI, and Chiang Kai-shek’s secret police.

Born and raised in China by YMCA missionaries, Service became America’s key liaison with the Communist Chinese when General Joseph Stilwell wanted their help against the Japanese. Later, he became a target of revenge for the Nationalist Chinese, a convenient scapegoat for American politicians eager to advance their careers, and a “person of interest” to J. Edgar Hoover for more than a quarter century. Joiner was given special access to Service’s private papers and photographs and gained access to FBI, CIA, and State Department security records and to confidential transcripts of congressional hearings and federal loyalty review boards. Although newly released Soviet and U.S. documents demonstrate that some of his wartime associates were in fact identified as communist spies or fellow travelers, Joiner shows that Jack Service was an honorable survivor innocent of Senator McCarthy’s charges.

Lynne Joiner is an Emmy award–winning broadcast journalist, news anchor, and documentary filmmaker. Her work has included assignments for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, NPR, Christian Science Monitor Radio, Newsweek, and Los Angeles Times Magazine. She is currently a media consultant for Shanghai International TV Channel (ICS-TV). She lives in San Francisco, California.

Sponsored by the USC U.S.-China Institute

For the Global Health Lecture Series: Visions for Change, Dr. Gonghuan Yang presents on China’s new disease burden and the shift from infectious disease to a global chronic disease epidemic.

Dr. Gonghuan Yang, deputy minister of Health at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is a pioneer in China’s work on tobacco control and its chronic disease transition. She earned her medical degree from West-China Medical University in 1982, and studied epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1987 to 1988. Yang has published more than 70 academic papers in international and national journals and has written more than 10 monographs and books.

To RSVP, email global.health@usc.edu

Sponsored by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

The West coast is a natural place for the academic study of the international relations of the Pacific Rim, and many of the universities on the West Coast from San Diego to Vancouver-have significant scholarly and teaching strengths in this area. The purpose of this workshop is to build connections and strengthen our interactions between scholars at these various universities.

Sponsored by the USC Korean Studies Institute

USC KSI will honor USC Trustee and Korean Air Chairman Yang Ho Cho at its fundraising dinner gala to raise financial support for its academic mission. The dinner will be held at the Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles. Table sponsorships start at $10,000.

For more information about sponsorship opportunities for the symposium or the dinner, please contact Lydia Lee at 213.740.4991.

A look at filmic works from Japan, by some of the most creative and accomplished filmmakers working today.

The recent Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Departures, directed by Yojiro Takita, has given new international visibility to the rich and dynamic history and tradition of Japanese cinema. Often overshadowed by the celebrated directors of the past, such as Ozu Yasujiro and Akira Kurosawa, contemporary Japanese filmmakers in fact are among the most creative and accomplished practitioners of the art. Filmmakers like Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinji Aoyama, Nobuhiro Suwa and Takashi Miike have established themselves as unique within a highly diverse film culture, reflecting changes in Japanese art, culture and society.

This festival will showcase a selection of these works and will include discussions with invited scholars and filmmakers.

RSVP is required.

Sponsored by the USC School of Cinematic Arts and Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative

The 10th Korean Teachers’ Training Workshop

The Korean Teachers' Training workshop targets towards Korean language teachers and attempts to provide efficient approaches on Korean language teaching and learning, by dealing with contemporary issues.

The 1st International Conference of Korean Applied Linguistics The 1st USC International Conference of Korean Applied Linguistics will be held on February 20 -21, 2010 at the campus of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California. The conference is organized to promote the research of Korean applied linguistics and to provide a venue for lively discussion of various studies made by people who are engaged in Korean applied linguistics. The conference will provide many opportunities for academians and professionals from Korean language related fields to interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines. Cross-disciplinary submissions with other fields are welcome. Selected papers will be published in an independent volume.

Sponsored by the USC Korean Language and Culture Project, Korean School Association of America, Association of Korean Bilingual Education, Korean Language Information Science Society, and East Asian Studies Center

Dean Qingyun Ma leads a conversation with city planners and administrators from four landmark cities: L.A., London, Mexico City and Shanghai.

As the world moves toward a global urbanism and centers issues of sustainability and international collaboration, cities are not so much planned as re-planned and reborn.

Qingyun Ma, dean of the USC School of Architecture, will moderate a conversation with city planners and administrators in which they discuss the present and future of urban planning in the flux of unpredictable, migrant forces and the shaping of iconic, livable cities. From the sprawl of Los Angeles to the expanding megacities of Mexico City and Shanghai, the juxtapositions of cultural, political and spatial differences will demonstrate how creative agents can transform a city physically and socially.

Sponsored by the USC School of Architecture and Visions and Voices