Year: 2010

Thursday, March 18 – 208N Munk Center @ 10:00

Speaker:
Marcus Noland (Deputy Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics)

Abstract:
Marcus Noland will speak about economic change in North Korea (including the failure of recent currency reforms) and the criminalization of economic activity in North Korea (including the expanded use of the penal system). His talk is based on two large scale refugee surveys conducted by Noland, who will also touch upon nascent dissent and political attitudes in North Korea based on his findings.

Bio:
Marcus Noland is the deputy director and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, where he has worked since 1985. His research encompasses a wide range of topics including the political economy of US trade policy and the Asian financial crisis. His areas of geographical knowledge and interest include Asia and Africa where he has lived and worked. In the past he has written extensively on the economies of Japan, Korea, and China, and is unique among American economists in having devoted serious scholarly effort to the problems of North Korea and the prospects for Korean unification. He won the 2000–01 Ohira Memorial Award for his book /Avoiding the Apocalypse: The Future of the Two Koreas/.

Noland was educated at Swarthmore College (BA) and the Johns Hopkins University (PhD). Noland has served as a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President of the United States and as a consultant to organizations such as the World Bank and National Intelligence Council.. He has held research or teaching positions at Yale University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, Tokyo University, Saitama University (now the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies), the University of Ghana, the Korea Development Institute, and the East-West Center. He has received fellowships sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, and the Pohang Iron and Steel Corporation (POSCO).

– Hosted by the North Korea Research Group

CONGRATULATIONS to OUR NEW EASSU Executive FOR 2010-2011!! It will be another great year!

President: Michel Marion
Vice-President: Luke Witzaney
Secretary: Julianne Kelso
Communications Co-ordinator: Sol Ramon
External Affairs Officer: Michael Sarty

However, we still have four positions open: Webmaster, Junior Executive, Treasurer and Class Representative Co-ordinator
If are you …interested, please check out for another General Meeting in September/October 2010!

Oh yeah, it’s that wonderful time of the year again. Warmer temperatures, longer days and… loads and loads of work.
Fortunately, EASSU comes to the rescue this week with warm noodles and other delicious treats! Look for us this Wednesday and Thursday at the Sydney Smith lobby from 11am to 3pm.

(Join us. We have Pocky.)

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=379593087003&ref=mf

University of Toronto FILM FESTIVAL

100 films, 15 countries, 12 rooms, 1 day

March 13^th, 2010

TORONTO, ON— The 2010 UofT Film Festival will be held on Saturday, March 13th entirely within Hart House. Multiple rooms throughout the House will be converted into screening venues and screenings will be staggered throughout the day. With the addition of installations, workshops and an ongoing-reception the entire House will serve as a full-fledged film carnival under one roof. Audiences will be invited to wander throughout the House, taking in all we have to offer.

This year’s festival will spotlight social justice issues with a special eye to current modes of censorship.  Our special guest director is Babak Payami (an alumni of the Hart House Film Board) who will present a rare double bill of his films Yek rouz bishtar (One More Day) and his controversial Sokoote beine do fekr (Silence Between Two Thoughts). Mr. Payami also joins the debate and panel discussions on freedom of speech and censorship.

Read more University of Toronto FILM FESTIVAL

Please see the attached poster and program.  For program details, visitwww.utoronto.ca/ai/asianfoodprints.
Register for the conference here.
Register for the dinner here.
Questions can be directed to asian.institute@utoronto.ca.

U of T’s Asian Institute has organized its third international Asian film conference, Taiwan Cinema Yesterday and Today. We invite you to the media launch on Tuesday, February 16, 10:00 a.m. at the Munk Centre for International Studies, 1 Devonshire Place. An announcement will be made of the line-up of films, lecture, and symposium.

Taiwan Cinema Yesterday and Today will run from February 26-28, building on the enthusiasm generated by our first two film conferences, this third one featuring Taiwan, is poised to be our most successful. We have invited scholars and specialists from around the world to contemplate varied aspects of Taiwanese cinema. The 3-day event will also feature several screenings of recent Taiwan cinema and more classic films.

Joseph Wong, director, Asian Institute and Ken Chiu, director, Information Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto will deliver opening remarks in English and Mandarin, respectively. Bart Testa, Professor of Cinema Studies, U of T and Colin Geddes, International Programmer, Toronto International Film Festival will discuss the films and the conference.

WHAT: Asian Institute’s film conference media launch

WHERE: Munk Centre for International Studies
North House – Room 208N
1 Devonshire Place

WHEN: Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 10:00 am – 12:00pm
(A light lunch will be available)

CONTACT: Eileen Lam
Asian Institute at the University of Toronto
Munk Centre for International Studies
t: 416-946-8997
f: eileen.lam@utoronto.ca
url: www.utoronto.ca/ai

Date: Thursday, February 25th 2010
Time: 8:00PM
Place: Sidney Smith, Room 2135

INFERNAL AFFAIRS, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. THE DEPARTED was based on this blockbuster hit! From the very best of Hong Kong cinema.

It tells the story of a police officer who infiltrates the Triads, and a police officer secretly working for the same gang. The movie focuses on a police officer named Chan Wing-Yan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who goes deep undercover into the Triad society, and Triad member Lau Kin-Ming (Andy Lau), who infiltrates the police department. Each mole was planted by the rival organization to gain an advantage in intelligence over the other side. The more the moles become involved in their undercover lives, the more issues they have to cope with.

CANTONESE with English Subtitles

TRAILER HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO4RLrNVbd4

Date: Thursday 11th March 2010
Place: TBA
Time: 3:00 – 4:30PM
(Elections begin at 3:15PM)

GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR EDUCATION! We are now accepting applications for the East Asian Studies Students’ Union executive body for the 2010-11 year. In order to be elected, you MUST be enrolled (or intend to enrol) in an EAS Post.

Positions available: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, External Affairs Officer, Communications Officer, Junior Officer, Class Representative Coordinator (Total: 9 positions available)

MORE INFORMATION

Date: February 11, 2010
Time: 4:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Venue: 208N – Seminar Room, North House, Munk Centre for International Studies, 1 Devonshire Place
Register Online at: http://webaoo.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=8706

Sponsors:

The Munk Centre for International Studies | Asian Institute
John Chan (University of Toronto Trinity College alumnus, 1986), an authority on best business practices in China, will share insights with students interested in working or setting up businesses in China. With 16 years of corporate experience in Mainland China and the region, he will share his expertise and open the floor to questions from students who want to learn more about Chinese business practices.

Chan’s background is a contrast of East/West and rural/urban, which has given him a unique perspective when explaining China. His parents were born in China, but he was born and raised in Saint John, New Brunswick. Currently based in Shanghai, Chan has lived and worked full time in Mainland China since 1993. He is the Vice Chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the Yangzi River Delta Region, and special advisor to the United Nations. Chan owns and operates Streetsmart International Inc., a boutique management consulting firm which designs & executes high level strategies and business missions for executives coming to China. In 2003 his book “China Streetsmart: What You Must Know to be Effective and Profitable in China” was published and became the #1 business book on Amazon.

– Dong-Choon Kim, Associate Professor of Sociology, Sung Kong Hoe University, and former Standing Commissioner, Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Date: February 8, 2010
Time: 12:00 pm- 2:00 pm
Venue: 208N – Seminar Room, North House, Munk Centre for International Studies, 1 Devonshire Place

Register Online at: http://webaoo.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=8563

Sponsors:

The Munk Centre for International Studies | Asian Institute
Centre for the Study of Korea

In 2005, the government of the Republic of Korea established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an effort to address the silences embedded within Korean society for the past sixty years. The commission became a project that would eventually encompass anti-Japanese movements from the colonial period to the mass violence from 1945 through the Korean War and the authoritarian regimes. Professor Dong-choon Kim, a former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, will give his reflections upon the work achieved and limitations encountered by the commission during his tenure, and the consequences of the Commission’s work on the current socio-political landscape. What kind of legal and social limitations surrounded the beginning of the commission? Was this commission able to break the structuralized silences within Korean society? What kind of “truth” was the commission able to attain? And what kind of obstacles has the commission had to overcome in order to continue its work?

***

Dong-Choon Kim is Associate Professor of Sociology at Sung Kong Hoe University in Seoul, Korea, and formerly served as a Standing Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea.

Professor Kim received his PhD in Sociology from Seoul National University in 1993. The main areas of Professor Kim’s research have been historical sociology of Korean politics, working class formation, and the Korean War. As an activist, Professor Kim has been at the center of progressive academic movements since the 1980s. Since 1999 he has been writing about Korean War Massacres and working with victims’ families. In 2004, Hankyoreh, South Korea’s progressive newspaper, nominated him as one of “100 people who will lead Korean society.” He was also awarded the 20th DanJe Prize in 2005 for his academic achievements and activism. His books include Social Movements in 1960s Korea (1991), A Study of Korea’s Working Class (1995), Shadow of Modernity (2000), War and Society (2000), Engine of America-Market and War (2004). War and Society has been translated into German, Japanese, and English (The English language title is The Unending Korean War.)