A Talk on Buddhist Modernism

"Embodying the Buddha, Authenticating the Dhamma: Ethics and Moral Representation in Cambodia": A lecture by Anne Hansen

Monday, April 28, 2008 4:00 PM Room 125 Nolte Center for Continuing Education

Professor Anne Hansen will examine the rise of Buddhist modernism in colonial Cambodia, a movement that introduced new rationalized Buddhist interpretations in the early decades of the twentieth century. Close readings of cremation volumes - a new genre of writing and funeral photography that emerged with the introduction of print culture in Cambodia in the 1920s - suggest new ways of understanding and representing Buddhist "ways of being" during this time period.

Anne Hansen is associate professor of History and Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where she researches and teaches the history and development of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia.

老鼠爱大米

Original Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozAUMq_LF4

R & B Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgLFuViTUPY

老 鼠 爱 大 米 Like Mice Love Rice

Wǒ tīngjiàn nǐde shēngyīn Yǒu zhǒng tèbié de gǎnjué
我 听见 你的 声音 有 种 特别 的 感觉
Ràng wǒ bùduàn xiǎng Bù gǎn zài wàngjì nǐ
让 我 不断 想 不 敢 再 忘记 你
Wǒ jìde yǒu yīgè rén Yǒngyuǎn liú zài wǒ xīnzhōng
我 记得 有 一个 人 永远 留 在 我 心中
Nǎpà zhǐ nénggòu zhèyàng de xiǎng nǐ
哪怕 只 能够 这样 的 想 你
Rúguǒ zhēnde yǒu yītiān Àiqíng lǐxiǎng huì shíxiàn
如果 真的 有 一天 爱情 理想 会 实现
Wǒ huì jiābèi nǔlì hǎohǎo duì nǐ Yǒngyuǎn bù gǎibiàn
我 会 加倍 努力 好好 对 你 永远 不 改变
Bùguǎn lù yǒu duōme yuǎn Yīdìng huì ràng tā shíxiàn
不管 路 有 多么 远 一定 会 让 它 实现
Wǒ huì qīngqīng zài nǐ ěrbiān duì nǐ shuō Duì nǐ shuō
我 会 轻轻 在 你 耳边 对 你 说 对 你 说
* Wǒ ài nǐ àizhe nǐ Jiù xiàng lǎoshǔ ài dàmǐ
我 爱 你 爱着 你 就 像 老鼠 爱 大米
Bùguǎn yǒu duōshǎo fēngyǔ Wǒ dōu huì yīrán péizhe nǐ
不管 有 多少 风雨 我 都 会 依然 陪着 你
Wǒ xiǎng nǐ xiǎngzhe nǐ Bùguǎn yǒu duōme de kǔ
我 想 你 想着 你 不管 有 多么 的 苦
Zhǐyào néng ràng nǐ kāixīn wǒ shénme dōu yuànyì Zhèyàng ài nǐ
只要 能 让 你 开心 我 什么 都 愿意 这样 爱 你

Glossary

1. 感觉 feelings 10. 改变 to change; to alter
2. 不断 constantly; incessantly 11. 不管 despite; regardless of
3. 永远 for ever; forever 12. 轻轻 in a whispering voice
4. 留 to stay 13. 耳边 by the ear
5. 哪怕 even if 14. 风雨 lit. winds and rain; hardships
6. 爱情 romantic love 15. 依然 still
7. 实现 to come true; to realize 16. 苦 bitter; bitterness
8. 加倍 to double the effort 17. 开心 happy
9. 努力 to make great efforts

PYNGO: An Online Chinese Learning Community

你好，刘老师今天向你介绍一个很有用的中文学习网站(wǎn zhàn, website) - PynGo. 许多学习中文的人都去PynGo，因为在那里你可以问问题、找朋友，里面还有Blogs、照片和录像等等。我建议你也去看看。 http://www.pyngo.com/

Presentation: "Made by China"

Please join us at the East Asian Library [April 8th, one week from today] for "Made by China," the second brown bag discussion of our China Today series.
Our speaker Seth Werner, lecturer of Marketing and Logistics Management, Carlson School, has given a well-received presentation named "Made in China" at Weisman Museum last October. This time Mr. Werner will discuss more on the transition from "Made in China" to "Made by China," and how China’s early policies regarding foreign investment have prepared China for future growth.
Mr. Werner will share with the audience basic information about recent trends in foreign investment in China and his thoughts on how Chinese firms are starting to grow into markets beyond China’s boarders.
A key thesis is that these firms are using important market tools well beyond the stereotypical “price advantage.” A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

The East Asian Library will provide fresh tea and light Chinese treats.

Date: Tuesday 4/08/2008 Time: 11:45 am - 1:00 pm
Place: East Asian Library, Wilson Library Subbasement, West Bank

Asian T-Shirt Design Contest

Do you have a hidden artistic talent? Would you like to see your work proudly displayed on the t-shirts of your fellow Asian Languages & Literatures students? Then this is the contest for you!

Guidelines? Your design must be related to the University of Minnesota 's Department of Asian Languages & Literatures. - Keep it clean. Sex and drugs are out, but Rock 'n Roll is alright as long as it is appropriate.

Who is this contest open to? All Asian Languages and Literatures graduate and undergraduate students The winning design will be printed on the new ALL t-shirt.

How to submit your design? Email an electronic image (. psd. jpg .gif .bmp, etc.) to http://us.f342.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=all@umn.edu by April 1st 2008. DEADLINE: April 1st 2008

For more information, please contact all@umn.edu, Phone: 612-625-6534, Fax: 612-624-5513.

Chinese Voices Project

The Chinese Voices Project is an ever-expanding free collection of short, accessible mini- essays on current topics having to do with life in today's China. Each brief essay is accompanied by an English introduction and an MP3 audio recording, so students can listen along as they practice reading the text.

Recent additions to the collection (which already features over 80 essays) include short pieces on these current topics: the recent snow storms in China and their effects on daily life, a review of the popular new Ang Lee movie "Lust, Caution," Valentine's Day and its traditional equivalents in China and Japan, a description of the Chinese New Year television performance show (Xinnian Wanhui).

The Chinese Voices Project can be accessed at http://www.clavisinica.com/voices.html.

介绍一本好书

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler写的这本书几年前我看过。非常精彩。如果你打算去中国教英文，或者你想更好地认识现在的中国文化，我建议你看一看。咱们明大的Wilson图书馆有这本书。

In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself.

"Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels,

You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.

Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people.

Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too.