UC Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies

05/08/2026

May 15 at 7pm
TOSIYA SUZUKI performs at the Wu Performance Hall in Morrison Hall.

World-renowned recorder virtuoso Tosiya Suzuki (鈴木俊哉) performs an evening featuring new works by UC Berkeley graduate student composers: Josiah Adrineda, Xinglan Deng, Claire Hu, Pablo Teutli, Shu Wang, Jenny Xiong, and Tianyu Zou. This concert showcases vibrant contemporary music written for solo recorder, highlighting the creative voices of Prof. Ken Ueno’s studio.

Learn more about the artist at https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/315499-tosiya-suzuki.

Free and open to the public.

05/01/2026

May CSEAS Newsletter

CSEAS wishes all newsletter readers a smooth end of the semester and academic year! May your summers be full of rest, discovery, and fun 🌻

We have one more CSEAS event this year, on Tuesday, May 5 at 6:30 pm. It is organized in collaboration with a SEALIVES Small Grants Program Year 2 grantee, Dr. Christopher LeBoa, and his interlocutors, and addresses topics that LeBoa focused on for his SEALIVES oral history project. "Beyond Displacement: The Rohingya Struggle forJustice" provides an introduction to Rohingya history, life in refugee camps, conditions for asylees in the US, and the politics of the long process towards peace. Please join us!

This is our last newsletter for the 2025-2026 academic year, and updates will resume in the Fall. To read the entire newsletter, please visit: https://conta.cc/3P2Dmtg.

Photo below: Street mural in Singapore.

05/01/2026

A talk by IMRE GALAMBROS, Zhejiang University, on the
The Production of Buddhist Scrolls in Dunhuang Through Collaboration on Thur (5/7) in 370 Dwinelle Hall.

The Dunhuang cave library yielded tens of thousands of Chinese Buddhist scriptures, mostly in the form of scrolls but also as small booklets, pothi and concertina volumes. Although we often imagine the production of these manuscripts as the result of someone sitting down and copying the sutra, in some cases there is evidence of the direct involvement of more than one person. This talk examines manuscripts in which the collaborative aspect is particularly apparent, with the aim to shed light on those aspects of manuscript production and use that are typically not visible to us today.

Learn more about our speaker and this 5pm talk at https://conta.cc/3YqR5eH.

04/28/2026

Next Tue (May 5) evening, join us for a look at BEYOND DISPLACEMENT: The Rohingya Struggle for Justice.

Since the colonial period, the Rohingya people have struggled for rights and recognition in Myanmar. While the Rohingya conflict has been protracted over decades, ethnic cleansing (under investigation as genocide by the International Court of Justice) perpetuated against the Rohingya in 2017 by the Myanmar Army caused nearly one million to flee across the border to Bangladesh. Here in Cox’s Bazaar is where they still live without legal permissions to pursue work, open a bank account, or enroll in higher education. Recently, US cuts to international humanitarian assistance have cut food aid in the camps by nearly 50% and shuttered many learning centers.

This event focuses on providing an understanding of the Rohingya history, life in the camps, asylees in the US, and the politics of the long process towards peace.

RSVP at https://conta.cc/4ul8pjf
to attend via Zoom or in-person.

04/27/2026

This Wed (4/29, 5:15pm) at IEAS
Archiving Slow Resistance:
Korean Popular Culture and Everyday Care

Join us for an evening of conversation and collective making as we explore how Korean pop culture, and the broader histories that have shaped it, can cultivate and sustain diverse social worlds. Explore this topic with our guests Yin Yuan (MENT Magazine), Andrea Acosta (MENT Magazine), Irene Bakola (critic/essayist), Aiyana Lapeyrolerie (video/visual artist), Anisa Khalifa (podcast producer/host), Rée (creative director/producer/learning designer), and Abigail De Kosnik (UC Berkeley).

See you at the Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS), 2111 Bancroft Way, 5th Floor Conference Room, Downtown Berkeley.

RSVP Required at:

In a moment marked by burnout, financial strain, and racialized precarity, what does Korean pop culture make possible? This event brings together scholars, artists, writers, and fans to explore how songs, dramas, and everyday fan practices can give form to struggle and resistance and help us imagine

04/27/2026

Abhidhamma as Oral Text with
EVIATAR SHULMAN, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Wednesday, April 29 at 5 pm in 370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley.

Abhidharma is commonly presented as a later layer of Buddhist doctrinal development, which made an effort to systematize the early Buddhist teachings, especially as these were preserved in the early Discourses (sūtra, sutta). However, we know that the latter probably took shape over a large span of time, while scholars have also pointed out that parts of Abhidharma return to earlier periods. Focusing on the oral nature of the Pāli Abhidhamma collections allows us problematize this issue further.

04/27/2026

TODAY (4/27) at 3pm.
Film Screening Edhi Alice: Take and Edhi Alice: Reverse with
- Ilrhan Kim (Director),
- Ohyeon Kwon (Assistant Director/Associate Producer),
- Edhi (actor)
- Alice (actor)
- Ran Kim (PINKS)
- Ju Hui Judy Han (UCLA)

Join us in Sutardja Dai Hall, Banatao Auditorium
2594 Hearst Ave, Berkeley

Edhi Alice is a film project consisting of two feature-length documentaries that are both the same and yet different: Edhi Alice: Take and Edhi Alice: Reverse. Conceived under the proposition “Transgender is Cinematic,” the project aims to offer audiences a distinctive cinematic experience while fostering dialogue across the community.

Co-Sponsored with the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture, the Gender & Women's Studies Department, and the Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program.

04/16/2026

BOOK LAUNCH on APRIL 22
Reprimands and Admonitions: Reflections on the Japanese Invasions of Korea, 1592-1598 (Chingbirok 懲毖錄)

5 p.m. at the Alumni House, Toll Room, UC Berkeley campus.

Reprimands and Admonitions (Chingbirok 懲毖錄) is a record of the events surrounding the Japanese invasion of Korea later known as the Imjin War (1592–1598). The author, government minister Ryu Sŏngnyong, vividly portrays all the major developments of the crisis, as well as the men who were involved in it. This revised and well-annotated translation by Professor Choi Byonghyon brings to the modern reader the author’s seasoned wisdom and sincere efforts to overcome serious national crises.

See the schedule, the speakers' bios and RSVP at: https://tinyurl.com/2s4bdnwu.

Learn more about the book here: https://ieas.directfrompublisher.com/catalog/book/reprimands-and-admonitions

04/16/2026

Lunchtime Talk Next Wed (4/22) on "Human Rights and Democracy in Cambodia: Its Past, Present, and Future"

This event will feature MU SOCHUA (via Zoom), a Renew Democracy Initiative Frontline Fellow, and longtime Cambodian opposition leader and human rights activist, alongside SOKNIN CHHOEUN, a youth leader and advocate for gender equality, civic engagement, and social justice in Cambodia. The discussion will be moderated by Jessica Onley, Executive Director of IIS.

Please join us in Philosophy Hall, Room 223 at 12:30pm.
Lunch will be provided!

Please RSVP at https://callink.berkeley.edu/event/12386778.

04/15/2026

FLORINA CAPISREONO-BAKER takes a look at "Reframing Philippine Art History" next Wed (4/22 at 5pm) in 370 Dwenille.

Taking a page from the late historian William Henry Scott’s groundbreaking Cracks in the Parchment Paper (1982) which exposes misrepresented historical documents, this lecture focuses on the previously unknown practice of Chinese replication of nineteenth-century Philippine export paintings called tipos del pais.

04/15/2026

TOMORROW (4/16) at 4pm: Japanese Media 1970s and Beyond ~
Part 4: Video and Media Theory

Speaker NINA HORISAKI-CHRISTENS, UCLA, explores how video emerged on the art scene in the late 1960s, positioned as a grassroots medium that could counter the centralized structure of broadcast television through person-to-person networks facilitated by air travel and mail systems. Yet just as central to early video’s identity was its supposed international transmissibility: video’s use of moving images and ability to capture environments and processes promised communications that exceeded linguistic and cultural barriers.

Join us in 3401 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley.
Moderated by Miryam Sas, UC Berkeley

Against Japanese Video: Process, Discourse, and Translation in 1970s Tokyo