Asian Ethnology Podcast

Interviewer: Thomas David DuBois In this episode, we speak with China historians David Faure and He Xi of the Chinese University of Hong Kong about historical anthropology. Faure discusses the university's Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society AOE, and assesses what it accomplished in its eight-year run. He Xi explains how fieldwork shaped her perspective on China's boat communities and her recent book on lineages in Jiangxi. Publications discussed in this episode He Xi, Lineage and Community in China, 1100-1500: Genealogical Innovation in Jiangxi, London: Routledge, 2020. The Fisher Folk of Late Imperial and Modern China: An Historical Anthropology of Boat-and-Shed Living, Xi He & David Faure eds., London: Routledge, 2016. Music used with kind permission of guqin performer Yan Yiqiao.

In this episode, we speak with Jin Feng, Professor of literature at Grinnell College, Iowa, and author of a new book on Chinese foodways. Jin discusses how the experience of leading a study trip to China and Russia helped shape her personal interest in food into a research program, how she expanded her circle of foodie friends into a professional network of chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs, and how themes of gender and nostalgia recur across centuries of writing about food. Publications discussed in this episode: Feng, Jin. Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways (University of Washington Press, 2019). Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth. The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class (Princeton University Press, 2017) Music used with kind permission of guqin performer Yan Yiqiao. Copyright 2020 by Asian Ethnology Podcast

This episode features historian Thomas David DuBois, who is currently Professor of Humanities at Beijing Normal University. Thomas discusses his original reasons for studying China, the application of historical anthropology in his work, his interest and work in Chinese food, the effect of the death of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain had on his thinking about human relations and food, and finally thoughts on living under the current circumstances of coronavirus and quarantine in Beijing. Publications discussed in this episode: DuBois, Thomas David. Empire and the Meaning of Religion in Northeast Asia: Manchuria 1900–1945 (Cambridge, 2017). DuBois, Thomas David, and Jan Kiely, eds. Fieldwork in Modern Chinese History: A Research Guide (Routledge, 2019). Feng, Jin. Tasting Paradise on Earth: Jiangnan Foodways (University of Washington Press, 2019).

This Asian Ethnology Podcast episode features Roald Maliangkay of the Korea Institute at the ANU College of Asia & the Pacific. In this episode, Roald talks about his interest in anti-Japanese folksongs in Korea during the colonial period as well as K-Pop and the contemporary scene. He discusses about his monograph, Broken Voices: Postcolonial Entanglements and the Preservation of Korea's Central Folksong Traditions (University of Hawai'i Press, 2017), and how Japanese colonial rule affected cultural policy, the system of preservation, and the way in which music is conceived and performed. He also talks about how he applies the concept of "cultural cringe" in the context of Korean society.

Originally recorded as a video interview (Dec 5, 2019). In this conversation, Robert Campbell discusses the National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL), its vision for archiving and preserving Japan's literary heritage, and the institute's involvement in media and public outreach.

Intro :35 Religion in contemporary Japan since the publication of Religion in Contemporary Japan (1991) 4:15 Lack of evidence concerning "new spirituality movements"; the importance of considering decline in popularity of religion 5:45 Revisiting Agonshū since the death of the founder; work with religious studies scholar Erica Baffelli 11:39 Transformation of Agonshū founder and leader Kiriyama into "the second Buddha"; the aging of Agonshū 13:40 Problems with the category of Japanese "new religions" 15:15 Issues related to succession after the death of the founder; commemoration, veneration, and implicit nationalism in Agonshū 19:50 Work on Aum Shinrikyō and the impact of the Aum affair of 1995; religion and violence 25:05 Religions, mind control, and the "anti-cult" movement in Japan 28:08 Outro 28:36

This episode's guest is Erica Baffelli, senior lecturer in Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester. Erica's research interests include religion in contemporary Japan, new religions, religion and media, and religion, women and violence. She discusses her work interviewing members of Japanese new religions and the issues researchers face while producing research on these groups.