NEW FILM - Maximum Choppage II

MEDIA RELEASE September 2008
TAKING IT BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL!
MAXIMUM CHOPPAGE: ROUND 2
A suburban Kung Fu film direct from the mean streets of Fairfield!

Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is Australia’s first locally made suburban Kung Fu film due to be launched this September.

Made by an artist collective called Rumble Pictures based in Cabramatta in Sydney’s West – Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is their offering to the recent explosion in popularity for Kung Fu Films.

Not since the cult 1975 film The Man From Hong Kong has Australia produced its own Kung Fu film. Tired of the solid foreign diet Rumble Pictures decided to produce their own tribute to the martial arts films of the 70’s and 80’s using the local Fairfield streets as their back drop.

Offering a reinvention of the Kung Fu genre but taking direct inspiration from the classic 70 and 80s narratives of Jackie Chan, Rumble Pictures are proud to present Australia’s first “no-budget, but epic ambition” action Kung Fu film.

Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is a 70 minute urban action adventure exploring the great story telling corner stones of love and pride. Two arch rivals fight with swords over a girl in down town Fairfield! Within a story line dedicated to accommodate as many kick ass kung fu show downs as possible, the result is fast, furious and funny.

The producers, Rumble Pictures, have ensured that the fundamental essence of Kung-Fu action is not lost nor compromised in their ploy to pay such homage. What results is a preservation of the slapstick fun and comedic notions of the earlier work of Jackie Chan highlighted with the animated cues of Steven Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle.

Writer and Director Craig Anderson from the ABC’s Double the Fist noted the film’s presence as an innovative montage of action and comedy. “Here’s a truly funny film that acknowledges its roots. An old school Kung Fu film in its purity!” he says.

Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is an independent film four years in the making. It makes no apologies for its ‘rough around-the-edges’ approach to cinematography that pushes the boundaries of guerilla-style filmmaking – action sequences at its most organic. In the project’s initial stages when resources were limited, camera dollies were replaced by skate boards and home mattresses dragged into the street to use as crash pads as people dove off council bins!

The cast and crew of the film comprise mainly of young Asian Australians from diverse backgrounds of Western Sydney. More significantly, these contemporary groups of filmmakers are either martial arts experts or have had a fondness towards the genre of films. All fights and stunts are performed by the cast themselves.

“Every week a group of us would meet up on a Friday night to watch old school kung fu films and develop ideas to somehow bring back the elements of what is now missing in contemporary Kung Fu films,” Director Timothy Ly says.

“Western Sydney has a lot of artistic potential. I hope if anything, Rumble Pictures can inspire some residents to pick up their own cameras and do it better than us. We get sick of all the negative profile that Cabramatta gets so we wanted to create an action film that used our local area as our set – we don’t hide from the urbanism of our surroundings we wanted to focus on it and high light it, we like the idea of two guys fighting over a girl with swords in suburban Fairfield!”

One of the main focuses of the film is to portray the 2nd generation migrant experience in Australia. The film’s fun and positive format does not emphasise its oriental roots as much but more its expression of cultural identity and diversity on home soil.

The film will be launching over 4 nights at the Fairfield School of Arts, 19 Harris St Fairfield NSW from the 25-28 Sept, 08. Screenings begin at 7pm.To RSVP, contact ICE on (02) 9897 5744.

WHEN: 7pm, 25-28 September, 2008

WHERE: Fairfield School of Arts, 16 Harris St, Fairfield, 2165.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES, PHOTOS AND INTERVIEWS: Contact Sarah Goodes on 0411 878 250 or email sarahgoodes@bigpond.com

MC2 TRAILER: http://www.mc2movie.com/

Official website: http://www.rumblepictures.com.au/

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Thursday 23 October 2008, 6.30-8.30pm
Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Swanston Street, University of Melbourne

With the Asia Institute, AASRN is co-sponsoring the Melbourne launch of Rumble Pictures' Maximum Choppage: Round 2 and a panel featuring producer Maria Tran and writer/director Timothy Ly.

For the full listing of Asia Week events, visit http://www.asiainstitute.unimelb.edu.au/

EVENT - Asia Week 2008 at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne (20-23 Oct 2008)

ASIA WEEK 2008 at the ASIA INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 20-23 October

Through four days of concerts, workshops, seminars, and lectures, Asia Week 2008 showcases the diversity of intellectual, artistic, and cultural activities of the Asia Institute and its partnering institutions, focusing primarily on the languages and cultures of China, Japan, Indonesia, and the Islamic world.

Artists, scholars, and dignitaries presenting, appearing, or performing during Asia Week include: Melbourne Lord Mayor John So; Mr. Susumu Hasegawa, Consul General of Japan; Stanley Adi Prasetyo, commissioner of the National Commission on Human Rights; Najwa Shihab, journalist/tv presenter; Wakako Asano, choreographer and dancer in the Australian Ballet; Mayu Kanamori, artist; Maria Tran, film producer, and Ben Hills, Walkley Award-winning freelance journalist and author.

For complete schedule and event details as they become available, visit: www.asiainstitute.unimelb.edu.au

=====

Thursday 23 October 2008, 6.30-8.30pm
Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre, Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Swanston Street, University of Melbourne

With the Asia Institute, AASRN is co-sponsoring the Melbourne launch of Rumble Pictures' Maximum Choppage: Round 2 and a panel featuring producer Maria Tran and writer/director Timothy Ly.

For the full listing of Asia Week events, visit www.asiainstitute.unimelb.edu.au

NEW POSITION - Chair in Australian Literature, University of Western Australia (Deadline: 3 Oct 2008)

Chair in Australian Literature

The University of Western Australia invites applications for the tenurable position of Professor of Australian Literature, newly endowed by the Commonwealth Government and UWA. This Chair in Australian Literature has been established with the goal of benefiting and promoting Australian Literature nationally and internationally. The appointee will therefore be an academic leader in the broadest sense: a productive and original researcher, with a commitment to high-quality teaching, a passion for Australian Literature and the ability to communicate its value and vitality to the public. The Chair will join the Westerly Centre within the Discipline of English and Cultural Studies, which has an outstanding record of publication and study in Australian Literature.

For further information regarding the position, applicants are encouraged to direct enquiries to the Chair of English and Cultural Studies, Dr Kieran Dolin on +61 8 6488 2072 or kdolin@cyllene.uwa.edu.au, or Professor Dennis Haskell on +61 8 6488 2071 or dhaskell@cyllene.uwa.edu.au.An attractive remuneration package will be negotiated including generous superannuation, leave provisions and fares to Perth (if applicable) for the appointee and dependants along with a relocation allowance.

Closing date: Friday, 3 October 2008

The Information for Candidates brochure which includes details to assist with your application may be found at www.his.admin.uwa.edu.au/Advertising/2486CandidateInformation.pdf or via a link at jobs.uwa.edu.au/ or by contacting Ms Toni Pilgrim, email toni.pilgrim@uwa.edu.au. Written applications should be sent to Ms Toni Pilgrim, Human Resources, M350, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009. To lodge an application electronically please refer to the Information for Candidates brochure for details.

>> Visit this link - PDF - to see more information about the Chair of Australian Literature position at UWA.

CFP - Postcolonial Popular Cultures: A Symposium (U of Otago, NZ; deadline: 1 Oct 2008)

Postcolonial Popular Cultures: A Symposium
Organised by the Postcolonial Studies Research Network, University of Otago
December 14-16, 2008, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Keynote Speakers

• Grant Farred, Professor of Africana Studies and English, Cornell University. "For Our Time? Thinking the Popularity of the Postcolonial”: exploring the relevance of postcoloniality, and its historically difficult relationship to the popular, in our moment.
  
  
• Kalpana Ram, Anthropology, Macquarie University. To be confirmed
  
  
• Jo Smith, Media Studies Programme, Victoria University of Wellington. “Postcolonial Maori TV?”
  
  

Call for Papers

The field of postcolonial studies has recently been called on to redress its lack of sustained attention to, and engagement with, popular cultural practices and forms. A survey of the anthologies and major collections informing the field suggest the point is a legitimate one. While scholars such as Arjun Appadurai, Paul Gilroy, and Kobena Mercer engage with popular cultural practices of diasporic and migrant communities, the postcolonial field has shown less attention to popular cultural forms as productive sites for exploring the kinds of questions that animate it.

Taking on this challenge, we invite submissions from across disciplines to engage with the theme of postcolonial popular cultures. Theoretical and disciplinary inquiries may include the constitution of postcolonial popular cultures, the function, role of the postcolonial in postcolonial popular culture, and the critical perspective offered by postcolonial studies. What can postcolonial studies contribute to the study and understanding of popular culture that has not been addressed by cultural studies? How would an examination of contemporary popular cultural practices influence significant areas of postcolonial theorizing: hybridity, resistance, the politics of representation? How would it affect the field’s focus on a certain literary and theoretical canon, and its arguably textual orientation? What economies of value shape the relative exclusion of popular culture in postcolonial studies?

Beyond this, we are concerned to ask whether an emphasis on postcolonial popular culture challenges specific structures of power, or whether popular cultural forms and practices are complicit with the institutions and operations postcolonial studies seek to challenge? In a period of rapid commodification and intense consumerism, what is at stake when we speak of postcolonial popular cultures? What impact is made on postcolonial cultural expressions by the ‘global popular’?

These questions are by no means exhaustive; they are offered as a point of entry for further discussion on the theme of postcolonial popular culture. Postcolonial popular culture is defined in a broad and inclusive way to incorporate lived and textual cultures, the mass media, ways of life, and discursive modes of representation. Central to the formation of postcolonial popular cultures are articulations of the economic, social and political spheres and the conference welcomes contributions that will highlight these issues.

Papers from across disciplines are invited to address aspects of Postcolonial Popular Culture, including:

• Popular culture and resistance
• Everyday popular cultural practices
• Sport
• Music
• Dance
• Body cultures
• Fashion/clothing
• Food
• Television and other broadcast media
• Online games, computer and other technologies
• Street and community theatre
• Shopping

To maintain the integrity of discussions, we ask that submissions address the question of popular culture in relation to some aspect of the field of postcolonial studies. We invite abstracts of 250-300 words and a short bio of 100 words to be sent to Dr Brendan Hokowhitu (Brendan.hokowhitu@stonebow.otago.ac.nz) by 1 October, 2008.

FELLOWSHIPS - Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore (Deadline: 1 Nov 2008)

Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore is inviting applications for (Senior) Research Fellowships, One-Year Visiting (Senior) Research Fellowships and Postdoctoral Fellowships for commencement between May 2009 and September 2009.

Open to outstanding active researchers to work on an important piece of research in the social sciences and humanities. Interdisciplinary interests are encouraged. A majority of the positions will be allocated to the more specific areas listed on our website. Some will be reserved for outstanding projects in any area. Applications linking two specific fields are also welcome. Applicants should mention which category they are applying to or if none, write open category. Applicants should possess a minimum of a PhD.

Closing date for applications is 1 November 2008.

For more on the positions and application procedure, see http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg or email joinari@nus.edu.sg for more information.

NEW BOOK - Ouyang Yu - The Kingsbury Tales: A Novel (Brandl and Schlesinger)

The Kingsbury Tales: a Novel A collection of poetry by Ouyang Yu 80 pages pb - ＄24.95 – ISBN 978-1-876040-82-6

In this book of poetry, Kingsbury is where the poet has been based since he came from the People’s Republic of China in 1991, the first time he came into extensive contact, and conflict with a very different culture and multi-culture.

Covering a period of about 160 years from the First Opium War (1840) to the beginnings of the 21st century, THE KINGSBURY TALES serves up a poetic plate of multi-taste choice foods with choice tales, each tale represented by a poem, not longer than one A-4 page, told by people from all walks of life, including wives, concubines, lawyers, diplomats, students, professors, factory workers, mental patients and visitors, from a colonial and postcolonial point of view.

The book explores and depicts poetic characters in a similar way that Geoffrey Chaucer did many hundreds years ago in The Canterbury Tales. The stories in THE KINGSBURY TALES are also arranged in sections, such as ‘Historical Tales’, ‘Women’s Tales’, ‘Men’s Tales’, ‘Professors’ Tales’, and ‘The Empire Tales’. Some of the poems have already been published in literary journals such as Eureka Street, Griffith Review, Cordite, Westerly, Island, Antipodes and Southerly.

“Ouyang Yu’s poetry—acerbic, funny, wickedly political—is unremittingly concerned with the strangeness, multiplicity and horror of the real. The Kingsbury Tales is a major new work that shows Yu’s brilliance and range. The tales make up a rich and sprawling account of the complex interactions between China and Australia, between selves and the world. Filled with stories from history, memory and everyday conversation, The Kingsbury Tales is both a profoundly shocking and deeply entertaining work of poetry.” David McCooey
Ouyang Yu graduated from La Trobe University with a doctoral degree in Australian literature and has had 43 Chinese and English books published in the field of fiction poetry, literary translation and literary criticism since his arrival in Australia in 1991. His first novel in English, The Eastern Slope Chronicle (Brandl & Schlesinger, Sydney 2002) was shortlisted for the 2003 NSW Premier’s Awards and won the SA Festival Award for Innovation in Writing in 2004. His fifth book of English poetry, Foreign Matter (Otherland Publishing, Melbourne, 2003) won the 2003 Fast Books Prize for Best Poetry in the self-published category in NSW.

His other published translations (18 of them) in Chinese include The Female Eunuch (1991; 2001) and The Whole Woman (2002) by Germaine Greer, The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes (2002) and Capricornia by Xavier Herbert (2004).

Ouyang Yu has been invited to a number of literary festivals, including the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, Sydney Writers Festival, Hong Kong International Writers’ Festival, the International Chinese Poetry Festival in Denmark and the Singapore Writers’ Festival.

For an autographed copy, please contact Ouyang Yu at P. O. Box 200, Kingsbury 3083, VIC, Australia or email: youyang2@bigpond.com

$24.95/copy plus $3.00 postage/handling for Victoria and $3.50 for interstate and $5.50 for overseas.

NEW ISSUE - Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies Vol. 2

Volume 2 of Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies is now available on-line.

The volume focuses on Chinese diaspora in Australasia and the SW Pacific, and is dedicated to the memory of the late Henry Chan, an important figure in this field.

The volume contains contributions by a number of eminent scholars in their fields (professors and emeritus professors) as well as by some newer researchers.

It can be accessed HERE (http://csds.anu.edu.au/volume_2_2008).

This volume includes researchers Barry McGowan, Mei-Fen Kuo, Benjamin Penny, Graeme Hugo, James Chin, Lucille Ngan, and Sophie Couchman.

EOI - Future Fellowships at ANU

Future Fellowships is an exciting new grants scheme created by the Australian Government, to be administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The purpose of this scheme is to promote research in areas of critical national importance. Further information on the scheme is available at the following website: http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/futurefel/future_default.htm

• Future Fellows, with salaries up to $140,000 pa, will help build the future of Australia's top research university.
• Fellowships are open to Australian and International mid-career researchers who promote excellence in their field.
• The current round of Fellowships begins in 2009 and runs for 4 years.

The Australian National University (ANU) is calling for Expressions of Interest for this scheme.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THIS LINK.

CONFERENCE - Popular culture in Indonesia and Malaysia (U of Pittsburgh, USA; 10-12 Oct 2008)

ISLAM AND POPULAR CULTURE IN INDONESIA AND MALAYSIA
An interdisciplinary conference

10-12 Oct 2008
U of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Home to approximately one-fifth of the world¹s Muslim population, Indonesia and Malaysia are often overlooked or misrepresented in media discourses about Islam. Ideas, sounds, images, gestures, and meanings about Islam abound in contemporary popular cultural forms including film, music, television, radio, comics, fashion, magazines, and cyberculture. By focusing on popular culture, we will emphasize the dynamic, contested, and performative nature of Islam in contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia.

>> Conference website: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc/conference/

EXHIBITION - Van Rudd - 'One week in September' (McCulloch Gallery, Melbourne)

== ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT ==

September 15th till September 20th

VAN RUDD at McCulloch Gallery
http://www.mccullochgallery.com.au/


Text from McCulloch Gallery website:

"Sensitivity to the plight of the oppressed peoples in situations of exploitation and war interested Rudd from the outset of his artistic career. Many of his early paintings and drawings show an inner, psychological questioning of the effects of displacement caused by war and the alienating effects of living in large cities. This has led the artist to enthusiastically explore the pictorial effects of paint within the rich context of popular culture – an ongoing inspiration of his to this day.

By the turn of the 21st Century, Rudd’s political persuasions became much more clearly discernible in his music and visual art. In his visual art in particular, he became much more dedicated to exposing the contradictions and injustices within the current, global system of neo-liberalism. This has led to a growing multi-disciplinary approach to his art including the development of The Carriers Project. His simple objective was to expose his paintings to very large audiences by carrying them on foot through busy city streets, shopping malls, major art museums and fairs to inspire debate about art and politics. As expected by the artist, there have been many confrontations with authorities.

Rudd currently continues to enthusiastically explore the potential of painting’s role in society while planning many other projects involving public installations, interventions and experimental videos in Latin America and South-East Asia . He truly believes that art is a weapon and that in today’s current global climate, should not only be relegated to the matching of somebody’s couch."

CFP EXTENDED - New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies (26-28 Nov 2008; Brisbane, Qld) Deadline: 10 Oct

New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian Identities and Legacies
26-28 Nov 2008
QUT, Brisbane

As you are probably already aware, the InASA Conference 2008, New Voices, New Visions: Challenging Australian identities and legacies, will be held from 26-28 November 2008, at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. This interdisciplinary conference will explore the ways in which ideas, representations, narratives of Australia, Australians and Australian experiences have been challenged in the new millennium.

Important dates to note: Early bird registrations for this conference close on 25 September 2008, and the Call for Papers for has recently been extended to 10 October 2008.

The downloadable flyer provides general conference information, or you may wish to refer to the detailed conference website, http://www.inasa.org/conference.

InASA Conference Contact: Dr Keith Moore, Humanities Program, Queensland University of Technology, k.moore@qut.edu.au

>> Download CFP flyer HERE (pdf).

EXHIBITIONS - William Yang - Melbourne

TWO EXHIBITIONS BY WILLIAM YANG
== Melbourne ==


PORTRAITS
Sofitel Lounge
Sofitel Melbourne on Collins
25 Collins St, Melbourne.
==> 6.00pm Tuesday 2 Sept 2008


CLAIMING CHINA
Monash Gallery of Art
860 ferntree Gully Road
Wheelers Hill Vic 3150
==> 6.30 Wednesday 3 Sept 2008

William will be at both openings.

-------------

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: 

Born William Young in North Queensland in 1943, he changed his name to William Yang in 1983.  His grandparents migrated from China to Northern Australia in the 1880's. He worked as a playwright  from 1969 to 1974, and since then as a freelance photographer. His first solo exhibition in 1977, Sydneyphiles, caused a sensation because of its frank depiction of the Sydney gay and party scene.  Later these photographs became part of a larger exhibition, Sydney Diary, which was published as a book of the same title in 1984. In the mid–eighties, William Yang began to explore his Chinese heritage which had hitherto been lost to him by his complete assimilation into the Australian way of life. His photographic themes expanded to include landscapes and the Chinese in Australia. During this period he made visits to China.

William Yang integrated his skills as a writer and a visual artist in 1989. He began to perform monologues with slide projection in the theatre. These slide shows were a form of performance theatre and have become his favourite way of showing his work. The third one, Sadness, wove together two themes: the discovery of his Chinese heritage, and the rituals of dying and death in Sydney. The piece has toured successfully nationally and internationally as has all his subsequent pieces. William has done seven full length monologues in all, including Shadows, Blood links, and Objects For Meditation.

In addition to his famed monologues, William Yang has presented over twenty individual exhibitions across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America.  He is represented by Stills Gallery, Sydney.

>> Visit William Yang's official site HERE.

RESOURCES - WCILCOS

World Confederation of Institutes and Libraries for Chinese Overseas Studies

New website and heaps of information on diasporic Chinese studies.

View the official site HERE.

These sections, in particular, are of interest to those in Chinese Australian Studies, and diasporic Asian Studies in general:

>> New publications and audiovisual resources

>> Directories - of Centres and Institutes AND of Scholars (you can Search their database for the most up-to-date information)

WORKSHOP - "The Beijing Olympics in Transnational China: Politics, economic reforms and the media game" (Curtin University, WA; 2 Oct 2008)

The Media-Asia Research Group (MARG) and the Centre for Advance Studies in Australia, Asia and the Pacific (CASAAP) present a workshop on:

The Beijing Olympics in Transnational China: Politics, economic reforms and the media game.

The international media’s focus in 2008 has been very much on Beijing as the host of the Olympic Games. While most of the reporting is on sports and the athletes, the Olympic Games is more than just a sporting event. In this workshop the connections between sports, media, nationhood and politics will be examined, with a focus on both the Chinese and international coverage of the games.

Venue: Bank West Theatre, Curtin University of Technology
Date and time: Thursday 2 October 2008, 10am to 12pm
Catered lunch: 12 noon – 1.30pm, Level 3, Building 100, Curtin University (RSVP essential)

Discussant:
Professor Mobo Gao is the Director of the Confucius Institute and Professor of Chinese Studies at The University of Adelaide. Professor Gao has published widely in the areas of contemporary Chinese politics &
culture, Chinese migration to Australia and Chinese language.

Speakers:
Dr Anne-Marie Brady is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Communication in the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is a fluent Chinese language speaker whose research focuses on the Chinese Communist Party, China’s international relations and domestic politics, nationalism, and New Zealand’s past and present relations with China.

Associate Professor Wanning Sun is the Director of the Media-Asia Research Group (MARG) in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University of Technology. She is also a Management Member of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Asia, Australia and the Pacific (CASAAP). Associate Professor Sun’s research interests include transnational Chinese migration and internal migration in China, transnational and diasporic media, gender, and social change.

For further information, and to RSVP to both the event and catered lunch, please contact:

Dr Denise Woods
Phone: 9266 3934
Email: Denise.Woods@curtin.edu.au

NEW ISSUE - Peril #5 "Drama" is now online! ALSO - CFP - "passing, failing" (Deadline: 31 Oct 2008)

The new issue of Asian-Australian arts and culture magazine, Peril, is now online!

Issue #5 includes:

• an excerpt from Dom Golding's Shrimp,
  
• interviews with writer Simone Lazaroo (i'viewed by Paul Giffard-Foret), actor HaiHa Le (i'viewed by Hoa Pham), and artist Van Rudd (i'viewed by Lucy Van), and
  
• poems by Adam Aitken and Kit Kelen.

=============

Peril, the magazine of Asian-Australian arts and culture, is seeking your work for Issue #6...

Call for Submissions - Peril #6 - "passing, failing"

So much of life is about feeling like you've passed or failed, as a friend, student, lover, artist, parent, child or sibling. Or as Asian. Or a bloke. Or Australian. Or a writer. What does it mean to 'pass'? Can failing be a good thing?

Passing and failing have many meanings, and this Call for Submissions only begins to play with the terms. We encourage you to interpret the theme broadly.

You might want to explore topics such as:

* racial, gender or cultural 'passing'

* failing/faking authenticity: in film, fashion, food or whatever else takes your fancy

* who's judging?

* moving on, staying put, giving way: 'passing on' as an end, 'passing on' as a bequest or inheritance, etc.

We accept submissions of any kind of text, sound or visual art. If it can be presented online, we're interested in looking at it (e.g. essays, blog entries, reflections, poetry, fiction, memoir, spoken word tracks, photos, etc.). The text limit is 1000 words, preferably submitted in .txt format.

The due date is 31 OCTOBER 2008, to be published online in December 2008.

Please send your submissions and queries to peril@asianaustralian.org. Feel free to run any ideas for submissions past us too.

And check us out at http://www.asianaustralian.org

FESTIVAL - OzAsia 2008 (Adelaide; 14-28 Sept 2008)

OzAsia Festival 2008
14-28 September 2008

ADELAIDE, SA

This event celebrates cultural exchange with our regional neighbours through an array of moving and personal stories of cross cultural journeys, collaborations and friendships.

From the multi-dimensional documentary performance based on the true story of Chika Honda, an inspirational Indonesian journey with Jan Cornall, Daorum, a rare opportunity to see traditional Korean Pansori to Once Upon a Midnight – a new rock musical.

Film, food and design are new inclusions in the festival with the stunning OzAsia on Screen, divine Australian/Asian cuisine from Cheong Liew and Simon Bryant and Ikebana demonstrations.

Other highlights include performances suitable for families with Shaolin In Wind, The Tale of Haruk, the traditional Moon Lantern Festival, a wide-ranging visual arts program and full day symposium – an opportunity to discuss Australia’s vital relationship with Asia and the importance of cultural engagement.

OFFICIAL FESTIVAL SITE:
www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/ozasia

A downloadable PDF version of the OzAsia SYMPOSIUM Programme can be found HERE.

CFP - After Effects: Trauma, Memory, Performativity symposium (UNSW; 29 Nov 2008) Deadline: 15 Sept

AFTER EFFECTS: TRAUMA, MEMORY, PERFORMATIVITY
Symposium
Friday, November 29
School of English, Media and Performing Arts 
UNSW

http://aftereffects-symposium.blogspot.com/

After Effects investigates the role of performance and performativity within contemporary trauma culture. In the field of memory and trauma studies there is now a substantial discourse on how to represent absence and violence and how to respond to these representations. Theories of performance and performativity supplement this discussion by foregrounding models of witnessing, embodiment and rehearsal to examine why and how artists represent memory and trauma and what these representations do in the world. For some, performance provides a social space in which to act out as well as work through personal memory and trauma. For others, performance facilitates processes of surrogacy and substitution: it is a place to create prosthetic memories and to produce proxy witnesses. We invite scholars to think through these issues across a wide range of performative, cinematic, visual, literary or architectural media.

As a symposium-masterclass, After Effects seeks to assemble both leading and emerging thinkers in trauma and memory studies for a day of discussion and debate. Panellists will be asked to present 10 minute versions of pre-submitted papers, to aid a workshop and dialogue process. We invite contributors to consider the performative effects of:

- national apologies;
- post-colonial and post-post-colonial perspectives;
- ceremonies of reparation and public memorials;
- documentary, verbatim, and testimonial aesthetics;
- ‘trauma porn’ and the memory rituals of popular culture;
- false memory, false witness, postmemory and perjury;
- fictocritical writing practices and prosthetic voices;
- witnessing in/as/through performance;
- states and sites of re-enactment;
- mediatised witnessing and global performance;
- archival remains, hidden histories;
- new modes of perception and spectatorship;
- posttraumatic modes of narration, narratives of terror;
- human rights theatre, communities of memory;
- narratives of trauma in the Global South;
- affective engagements;
- the contaminated logics of the postmodern and posttraumatic;
- the parallel fortunes of performance studies and trauma studies.


KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS WILL BE GIVEN BY:
* Dr Helena Grehan (Murdoch University, WA)
* Associate Professor Paula Hamilton (University of Technology Sydney)


PERFORMANCE PARADIGM
Participants are also encouraged to submit article proposals for the forthcoming issue of Performance Paradigm (No 5) 'After Effects: Performing the Ends of Memory' http://www.performanceparadigm.net/call-for-papers/


PLEASE SEND ABSTRACTS OF 250 WORDS BY EMAIL TO:
Bryoni Trezise b.trezise@unsw.edu.au
Caroline Wake cwake@hotmail.com

School of English, Media and Performing Arts,
University of New South Wales,
Sydney NSW 2052


DEADLINES
Symposium 28 November (University of New South Wales, Robert Webster Building)

Abstracts due 15 September

Papers due 15 November


REGISTRATION
There is no registration fee for this event.

See http://aftereffects-symposium.blogspot.com/

FELLOWSHIPS and GRAD CERT PROGRAM - East-West Center (U of Hawai'i) Deadline: 1 Dec 2008

EWC Graduate Degree Study Fellowships, and Graduate Certificate Program

The East-West Center has just announced its Graduate Degree Study Fellowships, and Graduate Certificate Program for the upcoming academic year.

Graduate Degree Study Fellowships:
These fellowships are administered by the EWC for students from Asia, the Pacific and the U.S. to participate in educational and research program in residence at the EWC while pursuing graduate study at the University of Hawaii.

Eligibility and deadlines vary by each fellowship competition. Application materials for these international degree fellowship competitions are available at http://www.eastwestcenter.org/studentprograms

Graduate Certificate Program:
Applications are invited for participation in the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP), the center of excellence for leadership education in the Asia Pacific Region. The APLP is a graduate certificate program combining the development of regional expertise with the enhancement of individual leadership capacity.

Application Deadline: December 1, 2008.

Visit http://www.eastwestcenter.org/education/aplp/ for more information.

Visit http://www.eastwestcenter.org/education/aplp/aplp-documents/ to download the required application documents.

GRADUATE SUMMER SCHOOL - Asia Pacific Week 2009 (ANU)

Asia Pacific Week 2009
Date: 27 Jan 2009 to 30 Jan 2009

Applications are now open!

Asia-Pacific Week brings together hundreds of PhD candidates from Australia and overseas to workshop projects, to benefit from master classes and form networks committed to understanding the world's most dynamic region.

Since its inception in 2004, Asia-Pacific Week has become a signature event for postgraduates in Australia and for scholars of the region. In 2008, 200 doctoral candidates took part, along with three dozen senior scholars.

Asia Pacific Week is a container for a number of "Graduate Summer Schools" focusing on different areas of the Asia-Pacific region (the Pacific Islands, China, Japan, Indonesia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia and East Timor).

During a week of activities, graduate students have a chance to present their research interests, meet other students and academics, participate in a wide range of training activities, be introduced to the rich holdings on Asia and the Pacific at the ANU Library and the National Library of Australia and participate in a stimulating program of events including cross-area workshops, keynote speeches, seminars and master classes, film screenings, cultural performances and social events.

Web Link: rspas.anu.edu.au/asiapacificweek

CFP - Cultural Histories of Sociability, Spaces and Mobility (York U, UK; 9-11 July 2009) Deadline: 28 Nov 2008

University of York Department of History Cultural History Conference 2009
Cultural Histories of Sociability, Spaces and Mobility
9-11 July 2009

Deadline 28 November 2008

Spatial mobility has moved to the centre of lively debates in a number of key areas of social inquiry. Terms such as `travel', `mobility', `displacement', `diaspora', `frontier', `transience', `dislocation', `fluidity' and `permeability' are central to thinking about the nature of subjectivity and hence the formation of identity on any number of geographical scales and social dimensions. In particular, some scholars argue that the contemporary meaning and practice of what it is to belong is changing as new technologies of transport, along with communications, help to reduce the power of traditional places to define personal and communal identities. Some commentators even suggest that unparalleled
levels of mobility are shaping a `post-societal' world of extreme individualization in which nation-states and civil societies are being replaced by global `citizens' moving endlessly through worldwide `networks and flows'. Critics argue that this assumption of unbounded movement and geographically fluid identities is unwarranted, and that what matters is understanding how inequalities of mobility arise and with what consequences for social equity and ecological sustainability. But without a sure grasp of the historical precedents to these scenarios, it is all too easy to misconstrue the significance of the changes that are taking place.

>> FOR MORE CONFERENCE INFORMATION, the full Call for Papers is HERE.

NEW RESOURCE - Kem Lee Photograph Archive Now Available

One of Two Major Asian American Photograph Collections Recently Processed and Made Available for Research

The Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley has recently completed the processing of a major archive of San Francisco Chinatown photographs. This is one of two significant photograph collections that the library owns. These two collections are most likely the two largest Asian American photograph collections held in a public institution. The Kem Lee Photograph Archive project received funding for two years from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to process approximately 200,000 images. The images document San Francisco’s Chinatown from the 1940s to the 1980s. The electronic finding aid for these images is in the Online Archive of California, which is maintained by the California Digital Library. The second major photograph archive contains over 240,000 images and was produced by Henry Woon, who documented Asian Americans in San Francisco and the East Bay from the 1950s to about 2000.

Mr. Kem Lee was an artist, a freelance professional photographer and a photojournalist for several Chinese community newspapers, such as Chinese World, Chinese Times and Young China, and official photographer for the Miss Chinatown U.S.A. and New Year pageant parades in San Francisco. Because he was also the owner of a photograph studio in Chinatown, he had an unparalleled opportunity to capture all aspects of the Chinese American experience in San Francisco, including beauty contests, businesses and businesspeople, family association events, festivals, movie stars, political and student organizations, prominent Chinese Americans, and wedding and family portraits. In particular, he captured one of the most important historical events for the Chinese American community, the naming of China as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Mr. Henry Woon was an amateur and freelance photographer and photojournalist for East West newspaper and Asian Week. In 1956, he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, having majored in political science with a minor in art. After graduating from Technical High School, Mr. Woon joined the Army during World War II. During the Korean War, he re-entered the Army again as an Army Chinese interpreter. He experienced the harsh realities of racial prejudice and war in the army. The prejudice made him realize the importance of documenting the Asian American community and the people of color of the Bay area and how they contributed to the richness of the country they loved. In contrast to the Kem Lee archive, the Woon archive includes a broad coverage of various ethnic groups and topics in the Bay Area, including book talks at libraries, community street fairs, war protests, family association events, prominent people and politician visits, and UC Berkeley student and alumni activities among other topics.

Together the Lee and Woon photographic archives record the history of Asian American life in the Bay Area for a period of over sixty years. They also constitute a public record of events in this unique ethnic American community, whose history, though reminiscent of the history of many other groups in our nation of immigrants, has not yet been well-documented. Kem Lee and Henry Woon documented their struggles, their political growth, their changing culture, and their vanishing generations. They also preserved their accomplishments, their milestones, their faces, their family relationships, and their collective pride in their community.

There is a growing demand for Asian American primary documents, such as photographs, in university courses and among worldwide researchers. The completion of the project to process the Kem Lee photographs goes a long way to meet that need. However, the Ethnic Studies Library is actively seeking funding to process and preserve its second major photograph collection, the Henry Woon archive.

Please contact the Asian American Studies Librarian, Wei Chi Poon at wcpoon@library.berkeley.edu or 510-642-2000 for more information on how you can help the Ethnic Studies Library tell “the rest of the story.”

UPCOMING EVENTS - Mayu Kanamori

Upcoming events and shows for artist/photographer Mayu Kanamori


AUGUST

1. The Island of Ancients - Photographic Exhibition
SEE: http://www.mayu.com.au/folio/islandOfTheAncients/index.html

2. "In Repose" in Broome - Multi arts project - Performance, visual art, music and soundscape
SEE: http://www.mayu.com.au/folio/inRepose/index.html



SEPTEMBER 

1. Public Lecture at the University of Melbourne

'Growing Roots' in the land of Australia: The perspective of a migrant Japanese artist 

As a first generation migrant in Australia, Mayu believes it is vital to hold dialogues with the indigenous peoples of this land and deepen our connection with Australia's land and it's spaces. Through the interplay of images and stories, she uncovers similarities between Japanese and Indigenous spiritualities.

Thursday, 4 September, 6-7pm
J.H. Mitchell Theatre, Richard Berry Building (Building 160)
Parkville Campus, University of Melbourne

2. Mayu's documentary CHIKA screened as part of OzAsia Festival
SEE: http://chika.asia/index.html



NOVEMBER

1. In Repose in Thursday Island - dates yet to be finalised 
SEE: http://www.mayu.com.au for updates

NEW EXHIBITION - Yin-Yang: China in Australia (National Trust, Sydney; 8 Aug - 28 Sept 08)

Yin-Yang: China in Australia is an exhibition examining the cross-cultural interaction between China and Australia. Presented by the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery and curated by Dr Zeny Edwards and Joanna Capon, the exhibition explores the important contribution of the Chinese people in the shaping of Australia. It is a timely examination of the engagement between the two cultures and coincides with the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The exhibition features works by renowned artists Ian Fairweather, Margaret Preston, Mortimer Menpes & William Hardy Wilson.

The work of contemporary artists from both Chinese and Australian backgrounds demonstrates the development of the creative discourse between these two countries up to the present. Works by Tim Johnson, Jiawei Shen, William Yang, Lindy Lee and Narelle Jubelin will be presented.

A full colour exhibition catalogue featuring essays by James Broadbent, Joanna Capon, Zeny Edwards, Kylie Kwong, Helen O’Neill, Peter Valder & Jane Watters is available for purchase.

For full information and program of attendant cultural events, see the official Yin-Yang: China in Australia site.

FESTIVAL - 25th Anniversary of Multicultural Arts Victoria - 9 Oct 2008 (Federation Sq)

Multicultural Arts Victoria presents

MULTICULTURAL ARTS VICTORIA 25th BIRTHDAY - Melbourne International Arts Festival Opening (the Birthday Party)

Thursday 9 October 2008, from 6.00pm
Federation Square (free entry)

The year 2008 marks two significant occasions, the 25th anniversary of the unique cultural organisation Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) and the opening of 23rd Melbourne International Arts Festival.

As part of the 25th anniversary, Multicultural Arts Victoria and the Melbourne International Arts Festival have combined forces to present, a massive free concert at Federation Square on Thursday October 9th from 6pm.

Details: http://www.multiculturalarts.com.au/

Proudly supported by the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC).

Enquiries: Multicultural Arts Victoria, eo@multiculturalarts.com.au, Tel: (03) 9417 6777

CFP - EMPA's Annual Postgrad Symposium (16-17 Oct 2008; UNSW) Deadline: 1 Sept 2008

CFP

EMPA’S Annual Postgraduate Symposium
16th and 17th October 2008

Living Memory: Remembering, Reinventing and Forgetting

Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre. It is the medium of past experience, as the ground is the medium in which dead cities lie interred.
– Walter Benjamin

One of the most significant and exciting recent developments in the contemporary humanities has been the rapidly expanding preoccupation with the study of memory. Memory has the capacity to challenge the idea of truth and to rewrite empirical histories. In an age of digital reproduction, globalization, trans-nationalism and increasing challenges to the metanarratives of history, memory has the potential to destabilize the past and reshape the present. In one way or another Literature, Music, Visual Art and Performance have always traded in the tensions between memory and history, truth and falsehood, the objective and subjective. But is memory more than a deconstructive tool? What is memory itself? How do we write, dance, figure, or perform memory? What is the relation between memory and history, and what role do art, music performance and the body play in preserving or re-writing the past?

The School of English, Media and Performing Arts at UNSW welcomes proposals from postgraduate students and encourages engagement with an array of critical and creative approaches to this year’s theme. Key words that may inform your proposal include:

Affect Image Simulacram

Amnesia Mnemonics Simulation

Aural Memory Monument Sound

Cognition Nation Temporality

Creative Process Nostalgia Time

Delusion Oral Memory Unconscious

Dementia Preservation Vision

Diaspora Prosthetic Memory Visual Memory

Embodiment Reparation Waste

Hearing Representation Wound

Identity Sexual Memory Youth

To register your interest, please email a 250 word abstract, as a Word document, to Chiara Gamboz at unsw.empa.pg@gmail.com no later than 1 September 2008.

Please include a title of your work, your name, institution, email address and contact details. Proposals for academic papers, creative works and performance pieces all welcome. Presentations are for 20 minutes.

Registration is free.