CAS Newsletter
December 2023
Director's Message
THRESHOLDS, CHANGE AND TOMORROW
Thresholds and change are the domain of the Roman god Janus, who gives January its name. He is often depicted as having two faces, one looking back and the other forward – a symbolic reminder that today is always poised between yesterday and tomorrow, between what has been and what could be.
The immediate future brings two extraordinary events in the realm of the creative arts:
On Thursday, January 18, the Center for Asian Studies is honored to welcome the internationally renowned author, educator, and women’s advocate Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni to deliver a major lecture on “Independence.”
On January 26: Dragon Eye, sponsored by the Bass School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology and Center for Asian Studies opens:
SP/N Gallery
3020 Stewart Dr
Richardson, TX 75080
A new multi-channel exhibition by artist–scholar Thomas Riccio, whose work spans video, installation, social practice, and performance, Dragon Eye is based on his twenty years of ethnographic documentation of the Miao people living in southwest China.
Our past is relatively brief. UTD established the Center for Asian Studies (CAS) in 2019, the same year that the Crow Museum of Asian Art became part of the university; and from the beginning, our past and our possible futures have been closely connected. We look back with special pride at the collaboration with the Crow Museum and UTD Department of Geosciences to produce the interdisciplinary exhibition Rare Earth: The Art and Science of Chinese Stone [March 26, 2022, through February 2, 2023] that integrated science, art, and philosophy.
The Mission of CAS is to promote knowledge, understanding and productive engagement with the cultures of Asian and Asian America. In its four years, CAS has sponsored academic programs addressing issues related to China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, as well as to multiple Asian American communities. Our outreach efforts have included concerts, dance recitals, art exhibitions, festivals, a summer camp for children, and courses in Chinese, Korean, and Hindi for the community. We have formed international research partnerships with institutions in China, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Among our regional partner institutions are the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Asian American Historical Society, the US-China Chamber of Commerce, the Japan-America Society of DFW, the US-India Chamber of Commerce, the NiHao Food Bank Initiative, and the Dallas Literary Society.
I am pleased to provide the following highlights of the Center’s educational, research and cultural outreach activities during 2023:
2023 Annual Report
EVENTS
Reflecting our Pan-Asian mission, the 2023 educational, research, and public outreach activities of the Center of Asian Studies (CAS) spanned geographically from Japan to the Indian sub-continent and beyond, in time from antiquity to the present, and in topics from Buddhism to the unlikely performance of a play by Rabindranath Tagore by orphans in the Warsaw Ghetto, from life in Japan during World War II to geopolitical tensions associated with the relationship of China with Taiwan. Cultural events included a recital by the University’s Rangam Indian Dance Ensemble; a symphonic/choral concert by the Hua Yun Orchestra, inspired in part by the Chinese literary masterpiece Dream of Red Mansions; and presentations by internationally respected scholars and artists. Prof. Bernard Faure (Columbia University) delivered the eleventh annual Anlin Ku Lecture – a fascinating discussion based on his provocative book The 1,001 Faces of the Buddha. CAS also hosted a presentation by the Japanese author Michiko Yoshikawa Johnson and supported the presentation by the literary phenomenon R. F. Kuang as part of the Dallas Museum of Art “Arts and Letters Live” series. Finally, a new initiative related to our ongoing Asian American Narratives project featured readings by three award-winning Indian American writers: Jai Chakrabarti, Sindya Bhanoo, and Nina McConigley.
CAS also welcomed two Visiting Research Scholars:
Dr. Xuejing (Estelle) Bai
Dr. Tirtha Mukhopadhyay
Our continuing public education programming included the hugely popular Gong Fu Panda Summer Camp that enrolled more than 200 students; community language classes in Chinese, Hindi, and Korean; and CAS hosted the first annual Japan Bowl. CAS also sponsored two vastly different art exhibitions. In April we supported an exhibition of artwork by young artists from Taiwan who are on the Autism Spectrum. Finally, the successful eleven-month run of the multi-disciplinary exhibition Rare Earth: The Art and Science of Chinese Stone concluded. (You can read an excellent article about the process of creating the exhibition that appeared in the journal Athenaeum Review attached at the end of the Newsletter):
2023 Lunar New Year
January 21, 2023
The Red Paper
February 21, 2023
Dallas Asian American Youth Orchestra Winter Concert
February 26, 2023
2023 Texas Guitar Competition and Festival
March 2 - 4, 2023
Vietnamese Student Association Night Market
March 25, 2023
China, Taiwan, and US Foreign Policy
March 29, 2023
Taiwan Autism Artists Celebration
April 1, 2023
DMA Arts & Letters Live with R.F. Kuang
May 18, 2023
2023 Gong Fu Panda Camp
June 12 - 30, 2023
Musical Dreams of the Red Mansion
September 24, 2023
Writing Into Our Many Bodies: Narratives of Diaspora and Home
October 11, 2023
Anlin Ku Lecture: New Perspectives on the Life of the Buddha
October 19, 2023
Asian American Authors with Texas Connections
November 8, 2023
2023 Inaugural North Texas Japan Bowl
November 11, 2023
UTD Rangam Fall Showcase
November 16, 2023
The successful programs listed above that CAS sponsored or co-sponsored, the growth of interest in Asian Studies, and especially the approaching completion of the stunning building that will house the Crow Museum, are among the reasons that CAS approaches the threshold of 2024 with confidence. Another reason for optimism arises from a new initiative that we are developing and plan to announce early in 2024. I can offer this hint. The initiative reflects a lesson learned from the Rare Earth exhibition and subsequent discussions with our Advisory Councils. That lesson: CAS is uniquely situated to emphasize issues related to advances in technology and engineering. By adding this dimension, we would have the opportunity to achieve our Mission more completely by building on UTD’s historical dedication to excellence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) research/education and more recently in the creative fusion of the arts with technology. I hope to have piqued your interest and look forward to sharing our future with you.
In the meantime, on behalf of the Center for Asian Studies staff, affiliated faculty and advisory councils, I wish you a happy, healthy, intellectually provocative, and imaginatively rich New Year. We appreciate your support and pledge to continue even more energetically to foster understanding, appreciation, and harmony between Asia and Texas.
Dennis M. Kratz
Founding Director
Upcoming 2024 Events
- January 18 - "Walking Together, Walking Alone: Timeless Models of Independence" featuring Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- January 26 - Dragon Eye Exhibition
- February 10 - Lunar New Year Festival with Texas Cultural Exchange Center (TCEC)
- March 6 - No-No Boy Concert