Japan's Shrinking Regions

SEAS welcomes newHead of Department

Former and new Heads of Department: Professor Tim Wright (left) welcomes Professor Xiaowei Zang to SEAS.

EastAsia@Sheffield 1

ISSN 1472-6653 December 2008 Number 17

The arrival of a new Head of Department is one of many changes takingplace in the School of East Asian Studies.The School of East Asian Studies wasproud to welcome Professor XiaoweiZang as the new Head of Department andChair in Chinese Studies at the beginningof September 2008.

Professor Zang comes to Sheffield withexperience of having worked atuniversities in Singapore, Australia andHong Kong. He is a sociologist by trainingand was educated in China and the US,receiving MA and PhD degrees from theUniversity of California, Berkeley. Hisresearch interests lie in the fields ofethnicity, gender, social stratification andnetworks and have resulted in a numberof published books including Children ofthe Cultural Revolution, Elite Dualism andLeadership Selection in China andEthnicity and Urban Life in China. He also sits on the editorial boards of several international journals, such asSociological Focus and Asian Ethnicity.

Professor Zang has undertaken extensivefieldwork in China over the past ten yearsand is currently conducting researchprojects on ethnicity and urban life innorthwestern China, and inequalityamong members of ethnic minorities inChina. He is now in the process ofcompleting a book manuscript on Islam,family processes and gender inequalityamong Uyghur Muslims in theautonomous region of Xinjiang innorthwestern China. Professor Zang isdelighted to be joining the school at atime of considerable change and both theSchool and the University wish him everysuccess as he takes up his new post.

Professor Zang succeeds Professor TimWright, who was Head of Departmentfrom 2000 and oversaw the Schoolbecoming one of the UK’s leadingdepartments in East Asian Studies,

particularly with the establishment of theWhite Rose East Asia Centre in 2006.

Professor Wright will remain in SEAS forthe time being. He is currently on a year-long period of study leave during whichhe is working on two long-standingprojects. On the one hand, he is writing abook on the political economy of theChinese coal-mining industry; and on theother hand, he is also working on a studyof economic fluctuations in China duringthe 1920s and 1930s that focuses both onChina's relationship with the worldeconomy, particularly during the World

Depression of the 1930s, and on theimpact of natural disasters.

In addition, as the newly electedPresident of the British Association forChinese Studies, Professor Wright willcontinue to promote Chinese Studiesacross Sheffield and throughout the UK.

Staff and students in SEAS would like tothank him for all his hard work andencouragement during these past eightyears.

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2 EastAsia@Sheffield

Note on namesFollowing East Asian convention, thefamily name precedes the givenname/s in Chinese, Japanese andKorean names, unless the particularperson uses the Western nameorder (given name followed by familyname) in his/her publications and/oreveryday life.

Editor’s note

The views expressed in the articlesare those of the individual authorsand do not necessarily reflect thoseof the School and the University.

Certain images used in thisnewsletter are scaled-down, low-resolution images used to illustratefilms or books, or to provide criticalanalysis of the content or artwork ofthe image. It is believed that theseimages qualify as fair use undercopyright law.

The School of East Asian Studies wasproud to see almost fifty of itsundergraduate students graduate at aceremony held on 22 July 2008.

In Chinese Studies, Jodie Gardiner wasawarded both a first-class degree andthe Robert Sloss Prize for achievement,whilst in Japanese Studies, Jon Perrywas awarded the Margaret Daniels Prizefor his first-class performance.

Professor Tim Wright, who attended hislast graduation day as Head of

Department, commented that “we againhave two outstanding prize winners,with achievements both in and outsidethe academic field. Jon has excellentresults in language and non-languageunits, and has extended his ability fromJapanese to Chinese and Korean. Healso played a leading role in the fund-raising Oxfam Trailwalker hike in Japan.Jodie won the Sir Basil Blackwell Prizefor the best performance by a first-yearstudent in the whole faculty, and thenwent on to broaden her interests fromChinese to Arabic, enabling her to write

an excellent dissertation on Islam inChina. She has also played a prominentrole in the Confucius Institute, givingconfident speeches in both English andChinese at the Chinese Lantern FestivalShow in February.”

Since graduation, Jodie has continuedto use her Chinese as an informationanalyst at Futuresource, a consultingcompany, and Jon is currently workingas a coordinator for internationalrelations in Takaoka City, Japan as partof the Japan Exchange and Teaching(JET) programme.

At the same ceremony, Raymond Yeapwas awarded a PhD degree for a thesison the political thought of ChineseCommunist leader, Liu Shaoqi.

SEAS wishes all its graduates everysuccess in their chosen careers.

Florian Schneider, a PhDcandidate in the School ofEast Asian Studies, has justbeen appointed to theposition of Lecturer inChinese Studies at LeidenUniversity in the Netherlands.Florian is currently revisinghis PhD thesis, entitled VisualPolitical Communication inPopular Chinese TelevisionSeries, and aims to publish itwith Brill Publishers in thenear future.

Graduation day

Staff and students of the School of East Asian Studies on graduation day(photograph courtesy of Mark Rodgers).

Congratulations

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It was not what I had in mind eighteenyears ago. As I studied away in the ArtsTower, I thought I might become aprominent international businessmanor expert on East Asia. Struggling withthe Korean writing system, I neverthought that those Korean languageexercises would put me on the TV in apopular BBC hospital drama nearly twodecades later.

There were just four of us studyingKorean in those days as part of ourdegrees in Japanese Studies. I remembervisiting Yonsei University on a summerstudy course and I even backpacked myway to Ullung-do, a glorious volcanicisland in the middle of the Japan Sea.But that was really my last connectionwith Korea – until this year.

I became a professional actor ten yearsago and it has been predictably tough.However, when my agent called me andsaid that the producers of Holby Citywere looking for a “Korean interpreter”,I thought I was in with a chance. Afterall, I am probably the only Caucasianactor in the UK who has any knowledgeof the Korean language.

Although my Korean was a bit rusty, Icould still remember the sound andrhythm of the language and could stillread it. My Korean co-star, Seok-HaHwang, helped me out greatly but itwas quite daunting having to learn bigchunks of Korean dialogue about anoperation to divide asylum-seeking

conjoined baby twins! To be frank, the story was somewhat implausibleand once or twice my dialogue wasmis-edited but overall I was pleasedwith the result; especially as I earnedmore from this job than in the previousnine years!

From Steel City to Holby CityLittle did John Gorick (BA in Japanese Studies, 1991) expect, but his Korean languageskills recently landed him a job on the BBC’s drama series Holby City.

Beyond the Blossoming FieldsBy Junichi Watanabe and translated by Anna Isozaki and Deborah IwabuchiAlma Books, 2008

Beyond the Blossoming Fields by Junichi Watanabe tells the real-lifestory of Ogino Ginko (1851-1913), Japan’s first female doctor, and thevarious challenges she faced. When originally published in Japan, it washugely popular and sold over three million copies. It is now available inEnglish, having been translated by Anna Isozaki and Deborah Iwabuchi.

Anna was awarded her MA in Advanced Japanese Studies by DistanceLearning from the University of Sheffield in 2004. This is her secondmajor translation project, the first being a translation of MiyabeMiyuki’s novel Crossfire, published by Ko–dansha International andfeatured in Number 12 of EastAsia@Sheffield.

New book by SEAS alumni

John Gorick in Holby City as a Korean interpreter (image courtesy of BBC Motion Gallery).

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The School of East Asian Studies is delighted to announce theappointment of two new members of staff in Chinese Studies.

Welcome to Sheffield

The University of Sheffield’s ConfuciusInstitute, officially opened in January2007, was delighted to welcome twonew deputy directors, Professor LiangYanmin of Beijing Language and CultureUniversity and Professor WangTianxing of Nanjing University.

Although only just arrived, they havethrown themselves into the work ofthe Institute and are currently planningan exhibition of photographs from theBeijing Olympics, a series of talks aboutcontemporary China and a series ofworkshops designed to introduce localbusiness people to the Chineselanguage and also to Chinese businesspractices and conventions.

Professors Liang and Wang replace theoutgoing deputy directors, ProfessorZhang Hailin of Nanjing University andMrs Hai Cong of Beijing Language andCulture University, who played aninvaluable role in getting the Instituteoff the ground.

New Confucius Institute staff

Dr Lucy Xia Zhao has joined the Schoolas a Lecturer in Chinese Studies with manyyears of experience in teaching languagesand cultural studies at university level. She has an MPhil degree in Linguistics and Bilingual First Language Acquisitionand a PhD in Linguistics and SecondLanguage Acquisition from the Universityof Cambridge. She also has degrees from East China University of Science and Technology and Qingdao University in China.

Lucy’s research interests are in languageacquisition, comparative syntax and

intercultural communication. She is currently working on articles thatexplore the syntax and interpretation of overt and covert argumentsin Chinese and their acquisition by second language learners.

In SEAS, she is teaching across a range of Chinese language modules at various levels.

From left to right: Caterina Weber of the Confucius Institute, Professor Wang Tianxing, Consul ZhangYihua of the Chinese Consulate in Manchester and Professor Liang Yanmin.

Dr Meng Ji has beenappointed as aTeaching and ResearchFellow. Meng has a BAdegree from BeijingForeign StudiesUniversity, an MA fromUniversity CollegeLondon and a PhD inCorpus/ComputationalLinguistics fromImperial CollegeLondon.

Her research aims todevelop an interdisciplinary framework forcomparative literature and empirical literarystudies and to this end she has already published anumber of articles in leading academic journals.

She is currently teaching Chinese vocabulary,unseen translation and interpreting.

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Japan’s miraculous economic expansionis often presented as the first exampleof a successfully developed non-Western society and an example tofollow for other countries in Asia andbeyond wishing to escape poverty anddeprivation. However, little is said ofthe effects that this expansion has hadon Japan’s regions, and the almostcontinuous vicious cycle ofdepopulation and decline that hasoccurred there since the start ofJapan’s modern industrialization.

In recent times, this cycle appears tobe accelerating as the nationalpopulation begins to decline andeconomic and political activitiesbecome further concentrated aroundTokyo and the Pacific seaboard ofJapan. Some of the difficulties thatregional communities are facing as they

seek to sustain themselves includebreakdowns in familial and communityrelations; reductions in local taxrevenues and redistributed incomefrom metropolitan regions; obsoletepublic infrastructure and reducedinvestment in the regional economyand society; the casualization ofemployment; reductions in visitornumbers; abandonment of residentialand business properties as part of ageneral decline in the quality of thebuilt environment; and severe damageto the natural environment.

However, population shrinkage is at thecentre of this complex set of inter-relationships. The national populationdecline, which began in 2005, alongwith the continued agglomeration ofeconomic and political activities in thecapital region, will accelerate regional

depopulation and it is inevitable thatsome communities will collapsealtogether. As depopulation spreads toprovincial cities and larger urban areas,the Japanese government predicts thatby 2020 the only areas of Japan thatwill not be registering populationshrinkage will be the cities of Tokyo andYokohama, and the main island ofOkinawa.

Starting with a workshop held inSheffield in July 2008, this project,entitled Japan’s Shrinking Regions,explores the issue of regionaldepopulation and its accompanyingsocio-economic outcomes with a viewto publishing a book and a special issueof an academic journal. The workshopwas held at the Yorkshire Art Space incentral Sheffield, itself a structure thatwas built in part as a response to theindustrial decline of Sheffield and aspart of Sheffield’s revitalization.Eighteen scholars from the UK,Germany, Japan and the US gathered topresent papers and to exchange theirdiffering perspectives. In addition, theBerlin-based “Shrinking Cities Project”put on an exhibition of their research,which included statistics, photographsand maps from the cities of Detroit,Hakodate, Liverpool and elsewhere. Onthe last day of the workshop,representatives of local authorities gavevaluable insights from the perspectiveof the practitioner. These includedAndrew Skelton of Sheffield CityCouncil, Nawaz Khan of DerbyshireCounty Council, and Shunsuke Mutai,Director of the Japan LocalGovernment Centre in London.

Regional depopulation and ageing areshaping up to be amongst the mostserious problems the Japanesegovernment will face in the comingdecades. By disseminating its findings,this project aims to assist in thedevelopment of policies and strategiesfor mitigating the effects of communitydecline and collapse on local residentsand their descendents.

Dr Peter Matanle, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, is heading aproject on depopulation and decline in Japan’s regions thatresulted in an international workshop this summer.

Japan’s shrinking regions

A poignant image from a dying community:an elderly lady steers her cart past amemorial to dead children and miscarriedor aborted fetuses.

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The annual China in Photographscompetition, which is now in its thirdyear, once again received a largenumber of excellent submissions.Congratulations to everybody involvedbut in particular Rob Neal, a student inthe Advanced Mandarin Chineselanguage evening class at theConfucius Institute who also teachesmodern languages at Silverdale Schoolin Sheffield. Rob’s photograph(featured above), entitled MiaoCouple and depicting an elderlycouple of the Miao ethnic minority,won both the “Chinese People”category and “Best in Show”.

This is the first year that thecompetition has been open to membersof the general public and winners inother categories included (from topleft to right) Stefan Innerhofer’sphotograph entitled Friendship in the“Famous Sites” category, AdrianFreeman’s Bagou Packhorse Trail inthe “Everyday Life” category, ColinMcCulloch’s ‘A Monkey Gazing Out overthe Sea’, Huangshan in the “ChineseLandscapes” category, David Grieve’sMorning Exercise in the “Artistic Images”category, and Amanda Pateman’sBackstage at the Opera, No. 4 in the“Customs and Culture” category.

China in Photographs 2008

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Congratulations to Miryam Prasetyo(right), currently a second-yearstudent in Management and JapaneseStudies, who has been awarded anEde and Ravenscroft Prize for thebest overall performances in theFaculty of Social Sciences in her first-year examinations.

These prizes were establishedthrough the generosity of Ede and

Ravenscroft Ltd, robe makers to the University of Sheffield, tocommemorate the 300th anniversaryof the company in 1989. Two prizesare awarded annually in each facultyof the University on a rotational basisand this year was the turn of theFaculty of Social Sciences. Miryamwas delighted to be recognized in this way and was very grateful toreceive her prize of £500.

Faculty prize for outstanding performance

Guests were welcomed by the currentBritish Ambassador to Japan, Mr DavidWarren, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor forExternal Affairs Professor DominicShellard updated the audience aboutsome of the University’s most recentnews, achievements anddevelopments including the opening ofthe new high-tech InformationCommons building. Professor Shellardsaid that he was particularly pleasedto be launching this first alumni eventin Japan, as the University currentlyworks with twenty-two partnerinstitutions in Japan.

“I am delighted that our first alumnievent in Japan has been such anoverwhelming success,” said ProfessorShellard. “We are extremely grateful toHis Excellency the Ambassador for sogenerously opening his home to theUniversity. We hope that this event willbe one of the first of many to bringtogether the University’s alumni andfriends who live and work in Japan.”

Dr Mika Ko, Lecturer in JapaneseStudies in the School of East AsianStudies and currently on a researchfellowship in Tokyo, spoke aboutrecent news and developments atSEAS including the opening of the newWhite Rose East Asia Centre in 2006,the record number of studentsregistered in the Japanese Studiesprogramme this year, and theforthcoming opening of the University

of Sheffield Do_shisha Centre at

Do_shisha University in Kyoto.

Finally, guests heard from Ben Ahmady,a Sheffield student currently on hisyear abroad in Japan, about what the Sheffield student experience islike today.

The British Council has very kindlyagreed to host a University ofSheffield alumni reception in Tokyo on3 July 2009. All Sheffield graduatesliving in Japan are welcome to attendand to ensure you receive an invitationplease update your contact details at:http://www.shef.ac.uk/alumni/keepintouch

Sheffield alumni gather in TokyoOver a hundred alumni and friends came together in October for the first-ever University ofSheffield alumni event in Japan – an evening of drinks, canapés and Sheffield nostalgia in anexclusive and elegant setting, the British Embassy in Tokyo.

From left to right: Professor Dominic Shellard, HM Ambassador to Japan Mr David Warren,current Sheffield student Ben Ahmady and SEAS lecturer Dr Mika Ko.

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Annika Corbijn Van Willenswaard(centre).

A Year in An integral part of all language degree programmes in Chinese, Japanese and Korean is thyear at one of Sheffield’s partner institutions in East Asia. Three final-year students from emost memorable experiences.

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ChinaThe University of Sheffieldmaintains a strong and activerelationship with the University ofNanjing – one of the top universitiesin China. SEAS has been sending itsstudents to Nanjing University foralmost ten years now and this yearthere are currently fifteen ChineseStudies students undertaking theiryear abroad in Nanjing, all of themrecipients of scholarships fromChina’s Ministry of Education.

Noises, smells and a crush of peoplegreeted me as I stepped off the train atShanghai’s Central Station. Myclassmate Holly and I had been luckyenough to be met on the high-speedrailway line from the airport by one ofour friends who was living in Shanghai.But this merely meant that ourintroduction to China and all itsconfusion had only been postponed.

Left at the train station by ourselvesand clutching our tickets to Nanjing, wetried to make sense of the chaos andfind the right train. The Chinese signswere unintelligible. I was suddenlycompletely unable to access the year ofChinese language in my mind that I hadcompleted before arriving. The Englishsigns were not much help either.Panicking that we might miss our train,Holly and I clamped onto the firstbusinessman we could see who, oddlyenough, spoke no English but fluentGerman instead. He seemed used tothe habits of foreigners experiencingtheir first taste of China, and verykindly took us under his wing. Heturned out to be on the same train asus, led us to the right platform, took usto our seats and even offered toarrange a taxi at the other end.

This first experience in China wasindicative of what was to come. Chinais never clear, simple orstraightforward, but eventually youalways find your way. So, in the end, wemade it to Nanjing, our businessman

friend arranged a taxi that only over-charged us by five yuan instead of thefifty yuan the cabby was no doubtangling for, and soon we were safelyensconced in our new dormitory at

Nanjing University looking forward withanticipation and excitement to the yearahead.

Annika Corbijn Van Willenswaard (BA in ChineseStudies and Management).

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KoreaSEAS students receive intensivetuition in the Korean language at theKorean Language Institute (KLI) ofYonsei University in Seoul. Yonsei isone of the top three universities inSouth Korea and the KLI has theoldest and most establishedprogramme of Korean languageeducation. Over the course of theyear abroad, students achieve a highlevel of proficiency in the spokenand written language, whilst alsocompleting an ethnographic projecton an aspect of Korean culture.

Being in Korea for year hasundoubtedly been the highlight of my

degree so far. As I had not visited Asiabefore there was a certain amount ofculture shock involved, such as askingquestions like “what is this that I ameating?” (answer: spam fritters) and“why is this old lady shouting at me?”(answer: she was just saying hello).However, being based at YonseiUniversity meant that I quickly foundmy feet and attending the KLI allowedme to be able to improve my spokenKorean language skills.

Outside of classes everyday broughtsomething new and interesting,whether that was getting my black beltin Taekwondo or pretending to be anactor and playing the part of a criminalEnglish teacher on the national news.

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East Asias the year abroad that allows students from the School of East Asian Studies to spend a

m each of these programmes tell EastAsia@Sheffield about their first impressions and

Paddy Ellen (centre).

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JapanThe study abroad programme inJapan is currently expandingsignificantly as the number ofstudents studying Japanese at SEASincreases. Thus, SEAS currentlymaintains links with twenty-twopartner institutions across Japan.These universities are carefullychosen to offer the best learningenvironments for our diverse groupof students and over the years SEAShas built a good workingrelationship with them all.

The first day of September 2007 sawme drag my huge suitcase over thethreshold of the all-male dormitory atInternational Christian University(ICU). So began a year-abroadexperience in which I went throughdorm initiations, completed intensivelanguage classes and successfully setup a life for myself in suburban Tokyo.

ICU has a reputation for languagestudy and four hours of Japaneselanguage classes everyday meant Icould not fail to build upon the solidbase two years at Sheffield had givenme. Luckily I was able to offset thestress of daily homework and weekly

tests by fulfilling the dorm motto of“let’s have a crazy fun time”. My dormmates became my family and I was ableto practice my Japanese and becometrue friends with them all. Thecommunal lifestyle, along with theshared dorm bath gave me an insightinto Japan which few other universitiescan provide. The fantastic support theuniversity gave to me as a deaf student

also allowed me to both access and get the most out of my year abroadexperience. As an ex-student I receivethe ICU alumni newsletter. Every time I read it I remember not only thechallenges the university posed for me but also all the fun I hadovercoming them.

Joseph Rees (BA in Japanese Studies).

Joseph Rees (centre).

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Moreover, I managed to save up enoughmoney to fund a trip for two months toChina and Mongolia during my summervacation. The following summer Ireturned to Korea to work in a travelagency as part of an internshipprogramme designed normally for thoseat the end of their year abroad. Duringthis time I managed not only to greatlyimprove my Korean ability but also takeguided tours for various dignitaries,including the Lord Chief Justice ofEngland and Wales. I would quitehappily do it all again in an instant andhave no doubt that my Korean abilitywould not have improved as muchwithout the year abroad programme.

Paddy Ellen (BA in Korean Studies).

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In 2004 I decided to leave my job as atranslator with the European Union inBrussels and move to Rio de Janeiro,Brazil. At the same time, I hadrecently completed an MA inAdvanced Japanese Studies byDistance Learning and was waiting forthe results of my final exams. I wasintending to return to a career inbilingual lexicography, which I hadspecialized in before taking the job inBrussels. I contacted Longman,among other publishers, to enquireabout work. When they told me theywere very busy with a Japaneseproject, I mentioned my Master’sdegree from Sheffield. They weresceptical at first as I had neverworked on a Japanese project beforeso it took a second phone call toconvince them at least to give me atest. It was on the very day that I wasleaving Brussels to start a new life inBrazil that I received an e-mailmessage telling me the Japaneseteam had approved my test andwanted me to join the project as afreelance editor.

My first job was to comment on theaccuracy of the Japanese translationsof English example sentences forwhat was later to become theLongman Eiwa Jiten (LongmanEnglish-Japanese Dictionary).Thereafter, I was asked to take onmore duties, acting as intermediarybetween the Japanese editors inTokyo and the English team in the UK.This culminated in the first of mymany trips to Tokyo to givelexicography training and support tothe Japanese editors, and eventualpromotion to English managingeditor. My somewhat bizarre positionof managing lexicographers in Britainand Japan from my home in Brazil istestimony to globalization and thepower of the internet.

Our objective at Longman was toproduce a totally new English-Japanese dictionary, primarily for theJapanese senior high school market,in anticipation of the new,communicative approach to Englishteaching being adopted in Japan. We

faced stiff competition fromJapanese publishers, who had longhad the market to themselves. Ourunique selling point was that all theEnglish material in the dictionarywould be compiled by nativespeakers, with all the associatedinformation and example sentencesdrawn from Longman’s 330 million-word corpus of contemporaryEnglish. The existing English-Japanesedictionaries were full of quaint andold-fashioned English, with stilted andunnatural-sounding examples. Inaddition, the Japanese translationstended to be as literal as possible,obscuring the real differences andequivalences between the twolanguages. Longman had alsodeveloped a unique, 50 million-wordcorpus of Japanese to assist theJapanese editors in producing naturalJapanese translations in language thathigh-school students could identifywith. The final result was published inlate 2006 and has attracted a loyalfollowing, despite some lingeringresistance from the “old school”.

For me, the process of seeing thedictionary through from conceptionto publication was an extraordinaryexperience. My understanding of howJapanese really works increasedimmeasurably, and I also met a largenumber of fascinating and talentedpeople along the way. One of themost memorable moments washaving to give a presentation inJapanese on the merits of ourdictionary to a hard-boiled Japanesesales team. I had never imagined thatthose oral presentation sessions atSheffield summer school would oneday stand me in such good stead.

For more information on the newLongman English-Japanese Dictionary,please visit:http://www.kirihara.co.jp/longman-eiwa


What’s in a word?John Whitlam (MA in Advanced Japanese Studies by Distance Learning, 2004) tellsEastAsia@Sheffield about his role in producing a new English-Japanese dictionary forLongman Publishing.

John Whitlam and the newLongman English-JapaneseDictionary.

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Chinese Economic DevelopmentBy Chris BramallRoutledge, 2008

Professor Chris Bramall’s latest book outlines andanalyzes the economic development of China between1949 and 2007. Far from being narrowly economic, thebook addresses many of the broader aspects ofdevelopment, including literacy, morality, demographicsand the environment.

Whilst having a broad sweep, the book does not shy awayfrom controversial issues. For example, there is noquestion that aspects of Maoism were disastrous butProfessor Bramall argues that there was another side tothe whole programme – the Maoist era was one duringwhich rural literacy, rural health care, rural industry andinfrastructure all expanded rapidly. Since 1978, China'sneo-authoritarian state has dismantled the institutions ofsocialism. However, and whilst there is no doubt that thisprocess has helped to spur China’s extraordinary pace ofeconomic growth over the last three decades, thatgrowth could not have occurred without the foundationslaid during the late Maoist era. Moreover, as this bookdemonstrates, China’s breakneck growth has come at thecost of spiralling inequality and devastatingenvironmental damage. Ultimately, it becomes clear thatunless radical change takes place, Chinese growth willnot be sustainable.

This comprehensive text will be of interest to all thosestudying the economic history of China as well as itscontemporary economy.

Human Resource Management in AgeingSocieties: perspectives from Japan andGermanyEdited by Harald Conrad, Viktoria Heindorf andFranz WaldenbergerPalgrave Macmillan, 2008

The Demographic Challenge: a handbookabout JapanEdited by Florian Coulmas, Harald Conrad, AnnetteSchad-Seifert and Gabriele VogtBrill, 2008

Dr Harald Conrad, Sasakawa Lecturer in Japan’s Economyand Management in SEAS, has recently co-edited twonew books.

On the one hand, Human Resource Management inAgeing Societies brings together leading experts in thefield from Japan and Germany to present and discusshow the challenges of an ageing workforce are beingaddressed in their respective country. Individual chaptersdescribe employment trends at market and firm levels,investigate the impact of employment practices, labourmarket policies and pension systems, and make policyrecommendations. As Japan and Germany experiencethe fastest demographic change among industrializedeconomies, this analysis may well serve as reference forother countries.

On the other hand, The Demographic Challenge exploresthe challenges demographic change poses tocontemporary Japan. This extensive handbook comprisessixty-three articles and brings together a group ofinternational scholars of various disciplinary backgroundsto explore a range of issues related to the world’s fastestdemographic transition. Topics include the dynamics ofgender roles, images of age, policy formation, labourmarket structures, the pension system, livingarrangements and ethical values to name but a few.


New books by SEAS staff

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Congratulations to Ben Jackson (BA inKorean Studies with Japanese, 2004)who has just been awarded an Anglo-Korean Society Bursary for aforthcoming research project on“protected trees” in the Seoul area.This project also includes aninvestigation into famous historical andliterary trees. Ben’s goal is to producea paper on the subject and also set acourse for further research on and

translation of material concerningnatural history and literature.

After graduation, Ben remained inSheffield and worked on twodocumentary films about North Korea,before moving to South Korea in 2006.Ben Jackson is now studying for an MAin Korean Literature at the Universityof London and is also working as atranslator in Seoul.

Branching out

When I heard on a news bulletin in early 2007 that theLondon Stock Exchange (LSE) had signed a memorandum ofunderstanding with the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) myears pricked up. Having graduated from Sheffield inJapanese and Business Studies back in 1996, I have alwaystried to keep eyes and ears open for opportunities to usemy Japanese at work. I looked into these developments alittle further, and by the end of the year I had joined the LSEto work on the project. I am the Business DevelopmentManager for the new Tokyo market that we are launching inearly 2009, called Tokyo Alternative Investment Market (AIM),which is based upon a similar regulatory structure to theLondon AIM. As the nature of a joint venture requires closecontact with both parties, I am currently splitting my timebetween Tokyo and London.

My role includes developing a network and taking feedbackfrom a wide range of stakeholders in Japan, from investorsand advisors to brokers, accountants and lawyers. Only afew people predicted the recent credit crunch and thefinancial crisis that has deeply shaken global confidence.Statistics echo the sentiment that companies are finding itmore difficult to raise funds and are delaying publicflotations. The crisis means that now, more than ever, ourstakeholders are on the look out for new opportunities andventures to develop business and create value. With the TSEwe are working to ensure that the new market will be builtin an appropriate way for all the market participants tobenefit. Joint ventures are a long-term commitment,requiring time for both sides to understand each other andwork on joint objectives. Taking the long-term view alsomeans that we will all be ready for the upturn.

Having Japanese language as a key skill has always openeddoors for me. It catches the attention. I realized this back atUniversity when I was applying for summer workplacements. Since then, I spent seven years as a freelancer,working with computer games and mobile phone firms thatwere developing business between the UK and Japan andwould never have been able to secure contracts without myJapanese language background. Being involved with Japanesebusiness groups both in London and Tokyo means that Ihave met many top decision-makers in UK-Japan businesscircles. Contacts matter a lot, and meeting them throughhigh level introductions underlines credibility even more.

The communication skills I have learnt through speakingJapanese have further underlined a key belief of mine:enthusiasm counts just as much, if not more, than expertise.

Despite the current economic downturn,Anna Dingley (BA in Japanese andBusiness Studies, 1996) explains why it isnot all doom and gloom out there withJapanese under your belt.

Career opportunities

Anna outside the London Stock Exchange.

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An ancestor of mine, William Edward Williams (1844-1912), went by the penname Gwilym Alltwen and was aWelsh bard. He won a number of bardic chairs in theWelsh Eisteddfod during the 1870s, and was fairly well-known in his day. Around the same time, on the otherside of the world, another respected poet was penninglines of Chinese poetry in Japan. His name was NakaiHiromu (1838-1894), although he went by the pennameO– shu– Sanjin. It is the life of Nakai Hiromu that I havechosen to explore for my doctoral research at KyotoUniversity because without him the history of Anglo-Japanese relations might have been radically different.

Nakai was a samurai who travelled around Britain from1866-7. He tells us of this adventure in his publishedjournal, A Travel Sketch of the West: A New Account of

Crossing the Seas. Upon his return to Japan, Nakai wasappointed to the government’s new Foreign Departmentwhere it was his job to accompany foreign dignitaries ontheir visits in Japan. One of these visits proved to be agreat turning point for Anglo-Japanese relations.

On 23 March 1868, British Ambassador Harry Parkes andhis entourage, including famed Japanophiles, ErnestSatow and Algernon Mitford, were on their way to anaudience with the Emperor Meiji. As the processionmoved along the streets of Kyoto, two rogue samuraibrandishing swords charged into the line hacking atwhoever they could. Nakai managed to stop and beheadone of the men and the other was later caught andexecuted. Should these men have succeeded in killing theBritish ambassador the fate of Anglo-Japanese relationswould have taken quite a different path. Would therehave been an Anglo-Japanese Alliance? Would there havebeen British cooperation in the development of theJapanese navy?

For his heroics, Nakai was presented with a decorativesword and a letter of thanks from Queen Victoria’sgovernment (these items are now housed in the KyotoNational Museum along with a number of letters andother artefacts). However, Nakai has largely beenforgotten by the history books both in Japan andelsewhere. Despite his close personal contacts with theJapanese government elites, he only rose to the level ofprefectural governor, in both Shiga and then Kyotoprefectures. I have thus made it my task to inform theworld about Nakai Hiromu. As governor of Shiga, he wasinvolved in the construction of the Sosui Canal whichbrings Kyoto its water from Lake Biwa. As governor ofKyoto, he also assisted in the building of Kyoto’s famousHeian Shrine.

My poet ancestor was a civil engineer. He worked on theconstruction of the Betws-y-Coed to Ffestiniog railway,the Caernarvon to Llanberis railway, the Manchester ShipCanal and some of the Cheshire railways. I sometimeswonder whether Nakai Hiromu, on his travels aroundBritain, ever took a steam train on one of those lines.Although Gwilym was not quite the public hero Hiromuwas, I like to think of these two men as my personalheroes.

Nakai Hiromu (1838-1894).

Eleanor Robinson (BA in Japanese Studies, 1999) is currentlyconducting doctoral research at Kyoto University on an oftenoverlooked, but important, hero in Anglo-Japanese relations.

A forgotten hero

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Introducing the general public tovarious aspects of Chinese languageand culture is an important part of theConfucius Institute’s remit. The Instituteis often approached by local schoolsand enterprises to organize workshops,from Chinese calligraphy to traditionalfolk dancing and cookery. Last year, itreceived a less common, but all themore interesting, opportunity to teacha Chinese calligraphy workshop –literally behind bars. Wakefield Prison,one of the largest high-security prisonsin the UK, approached the ConfuciusInstitute with the idea of includingcalligraphy into the institution’s annualDiversity Week.

“Diversity Week has been held withinthe Prison Estate for approximately fiveyears now,” according to SimonMcDonnell, Diversity Manager atWakefield Prison. “This event is aboutraising awareness and education, andhelps to integrate individuals frommany backgrounds and abilities wholive in a confined and sometimestesting environment. It builds bothoffender and staff interaction,promoting dynamic security and in turncreating a safer environment for all tolive in.”

Teaching calligraphy at Wakefieldproved to be a new and excitingexperience. The Chinese language

instructors met their first group ofstudents, accompanied by prison staff,early in the morning. There was littletalk beyond the workshop content,after all the instructors were not thereto ask questions – this was a task left tothe students.

And ask they most certainly did. Howmany characters does MandarinChinese have? Could you think of aChinese name for my daughter? Howpopular is calligraphy in China

nowadays? And how about Confucius –was he a good calligrapher? Mrs DaiXiaolin, one of the Chinese teachers,was impressed, “Some students evenattended the same class twice. I wasmoved by their passionate interest inChinese culture.” In terms ofattendance, the calligraphy workshopwas one of the most popular activitiesof Diversity Week.

Everyone involved certainly learned alot from the day spent at WakefieldPrison. The Chinese language teacherswere kindly shown around the prisonand all their questions were patientlyanswered by staff members. Whatmost impressed them was the generalapproach towards inmates – firm, andyet communicative. The strict dailyroutine within the prison supportstalents and interests that could developinto a regular activity, perhaps into anew beginning. In line with this system,Diversity Week is one of severaleducational and informative events heldat Wakefield Prison during the year.

Feedback has been very positive andthe Confucius Institute has been invitedto deliver the workshop again duringDiversity Week this year – an invitationaccepted with great pleasure.

Calligraphy behind bars

Two of the Chinese language instructors, Caterina Weber (left) and Dai Xiaolin.

In November 2007, staff members of the Confucius Institute at the University ofSheffield visited Wakefield Prison to teach a Chinese calligraphy workshop – a newdimension for the Institute in its outreach to the local community.

Wakefield prison.

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Over the last few decades, questions of gender andsexuality have become an increasingly important area ofinquiry in many academic disciplines, including film studies.In the case of Japanese cinema, however, this topic hasattracted relatively little attention. Although some workexists on sexual representations, this has largely beenrestricted to a consideration of conventional gender rolesand the representation of masculinity and femininity.

Although I am certainly interested in these areas, myproject also aims to investigate a range of sexualities,including homosexuality and transvestivism. I amparticularly interested in how subversive sexual imageryand taboo-breaking are utilized for the purpose of socialand political criticism. For example, the film Pig ChickenSuicide (1981), directed by the cult filmmaker MatsuiYoshihiko, displays a range of “grotesque” bodies, bothhuman and animal, and “perverse” sexualities in order tochallenge prevailing views of what is “normal” andquestion the Japanese “Emperor system”.

I am also interested in how issues of sexuality areexpressed through the language of cinema and howsexual radicalism has made use of avant-garde aesthetics.For example, I am currently looking at MatsumotoToshio’s ground-breaking film, Funeral Parade of Roses(1969). This is a modern and twisted version of the Greektragedy Oedipus Rex that features a young transvestiteworking in a gay bar in Tokyo. My research not onlyexplores the ways in which gays and transvestites areportrayed but how these representations subvert theconventional divide between “men” and “women”. Indoing so, I also examine how the treatment of cross-dressers in the film is linked to the director’s attempts toquestion objective reality and suggest alternatives.

My project also involves an examination of therelationship between avant-garde aesthetics and feministpolitics in the films of Idemitsu Mako, a Japanesefilmmaker based in New York. This includes anassessment of how her films question the ideologicalconstruction of “motherhood” and “family” and give voiceto the contradictory experiences of women.

This is only a brief overview of my current research andsome of the films in which I am interested. My hostinstitution, Waseda University, is proving to be anexcellent place to be based given its extensive holdings ofarchival materials on cinema and theatre. And, of course,Tokyo is a terrific place for any cinephile as there arealways interesting, and often rare, films to catch up on inthe numerous cinemas.

Matsumoto Toshio’s Funeral Parade of Roses (1969).

Whilst on special study leave in Japan from 2008 to 2010, Dr Mika Ko, Lecturer in Japanese Studies, has been expanding her researchinterests in Japanese cinema.

New directions incontemporaryJapanese cinema

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East Asian Studies degrees The School of East Asian Studies offers a wide range of single anddual honours degrees, as well as postgraduate taught and researchdegrees. For further information, contact [email protected], orsee the School’s webpages: http://www.shef.ac.uk/seas

School of East Asian StudiesThe University of SheffieldWestern BankSheffieldS10 2TN, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 8437Email: [email protected]

is published by the School of East AsianStudies at the University of Sheffield.

Enquiries to:Dr Hugo Dobson Editor

EASTASIA@SHEFFIELD

EASTASIA@SHEFFIELD

Copyright © 2008 The University of Sheffield

Design and Print: Northend Creative Print Solutions, Sheffield

BA degrees

Most degrees involve four years of study.Those marked with an asterisk take threeyears.

Single honoursChinese StudiesJapanese StudiesKorean StudiesEast Asian Studies*

Dual honoursChinese Studies and/History,Management, MusicChinese Studies with/French, German,Japanese, Russian, SpanishJapanese Studies and/History, Linguistics,Management, Politics, SociologyJapanese Studies with/German, Russian,SpanishFrench/Germanic/Hispanic/RussianStudies with JapaneseKorean Studies and/Linguistics,Management, MusicKorean Studies with JapaneseEast Asian Studies and/Management,Music, Russian Studies*International Politics and East AsianStudies*

Postgraduate taught degrees

In-houseMA/Diploma/Certificate in ChineseStudiesMSc/Diploma/Certificate in ChineseBusiness and International RelationsMSc/Diploma/Certificate in ChineseLanguage, Business and InternationalRelationsMA/Diploma/Certificate in JapaneseStudiesMA/Diploma/Certificate in AdvancedJapanese StudiesMA/Diploma/Certificate in AdvancedJapanese Studies (Research Methods)MA/Diploma/Certificate in ModernKorean StudiesMSc/Diploma/Certificate in East AsianPolitical EconomyMSc/Diploma/Certificate in East AsianBusiness

Distance learningMA/Diploma in Japanese Language andSocietyMA in Advanced Japanese StudiesMA in Advanced Japanese Studies(Japanese to English Translation)MA in Advanced Japanese Studies(Gender, Diversity and Citizenship)MSc in Chinese Business and InternationalRelationsMSc/Diploma in Chinese Language,Business and International Relations

Postgraduate research degrees

PhD supervision is available in a wide range of subject areas on China, Japan, Korea andintra-regional studies. In addition, a number of scholarships are available through the WhiteRose East Asia Centre.

The White Rose East Asia Centre(WREAC), established by theUniversities of Sheffield and Leeds in2006, has concluded an agreementwith the German Institute forJapanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo topromote academic and researchcollaboration.

All of these institutions have acommon interest in advancingknowledge of Japan and from now onwill begin to pursue joint researchprojects of mutual interest, welcomeeach other’s staff members asvisitors, and organize seminars,workshops and conferencestogether. As a first step in thisdirection, the DIJ’s Dr Axel Kleinvisited SEAS in November andDecember to assist in teaching andscreen a documentary he hasproduced on Japanese elections.

Collaborationwith partnersin Japan

Both staff and students weresaddened to say goodbye to Dr Hyangjin Lee, Lecturer inKorean Studies, who leftSheffield over the summer of2008 to take up a new positionas Professor of InterculturalCommunication at Rikkyo–

University in Tokyo, Japan.Hyangjin first came to SEAS in1991 and since then has builtup an international reputationas a leading scholar of Koreanand East Asian cinema.Everybody at SEAS wishes herthe best of luck with her newposition in Japan.Dr Hyangjin Lee (right) with Professor James Grayson,

Head of Korean Studies.

Farewell to SEAS

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Japan's Shrinking Regions

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Transcript of Japan's Shrinking Regions