BY LIANA KATZ

In print | Published March 6, 2008

The Seventh International Junior Scholars’ Conference on Sinology will make its United States debut this Friday, March 6. Over the weekend, Swarthmore College will welcome a host of students and faculty from around the globe to discuss issues pertaining to the study of Chinese culture. The conference, entitled “Self and Society: Perspectives on Chinese Cultural Studies,” will give young scholars a chance to present their own research over the course of two panel-packed days in the Kohlberg Scheuer Room.

Swarthmore’s hosting of the International Junior Scholars Conference is an event many years in the making. The initiative began several years ago when David Wang, Harvard University’s Edward C. Henderson Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, came to Swarthmore to give a lecture on modern Chinese literature.

According to Professor Haili Kong, Wang was “very impressed with Swarthmore students’ enthusiasm [for] Chinese studies.” Wang had previously organized six conferences in Asia for “junior professors, post-doctorate researchers, and graduate students.” His visit to Swarthmore, however, gave him the idea of hosting a similar conference not only in the United States but also aimed at undergraduate students. Wang believed that such an event would give professors the ability to “cultivate interests among college students and then pave the path for [students] to further develop in the future,” Kong said. With this goal in mind, Wang approached Kong about organizing the conference at Swarthmore.

Although the formative influences in the arrangement of the conference originated with Wang and Kong, Swarthmore students have been intimately involved in the planning of almost every aspect of the event. George Yin ’09, despite claims that he “actually did not do that much, compared to other people,” had a large role in organizing post-conference activities for the visiting students.

Yin worked with Kong to come up with social events such as a movie night and a tea party so that the students can “have fun” while at Swarthmore. During the conference itself, Yin and 14 other Swarthmore students will also help with welcoming the conference’s guest speakers.

These guest speakers, whose arrival Yin and others eagerly anticipate, form quite a diverse group. The conference will feature 36 students representing 24 different schools that range from the University of Hawaii to the Fudan University in China. Presentation topics are similarly varied, with some students discussing literary analysis and others choosing to focus on cultural issues.

Like their guests, Swarthmore students will also be presenting research on a broad range of topics. Ali Flamm ‘09 unknowingly began work on her presentation when she took Contemporary Chinese Fiction last semester. For the conference, she revised her final paper on Chu T’ien-Hsin’s “The Old Capital,” a novella that explores “how a woman relates to the places she has lived.” Flamm will be examining how the author inserts “excerpts from a couple of different works” and how the themes of those works parallel the themes of the novella.

On the other end of the spectrum, Fletcher Coleman ‘09 will be discussing his research on contemporary Chinese tattoo artists. While in Beijing this past fall semester, Coleman interviewed tattoo artists in addition to “regular people” about how tattoo art is viewed in Chinese society. "In China, there is about a 4,000 year history of tattooing meaning that you’re a criminal," said Coleman. While there are currently “unspoken bans” on tattoos in the business world, many still contemplate getting tattoos. Thus, Coleman’s presentation will focus not only on contemporary negative views of tattooing but also on why people choose to get tattoos or become tattoo artists.

On the whole, Kang hopes that the conference will “further promote and cultivate the academic interests in Chinese studies at [the] college level world wide.” On a smaller scale, Coleman believes that the conference will be an opportunity to “increase awareness about a lot of different issues in relation to modern and traditional Chinese culture.” With such a diverse group of student presenters making the trip to Swarthmore, the conference is guaranteed to make for an illuminating weekend for both participants and observers alike.

The Seventh International Junior Scholars’ Conference on Sinology will be held in the Scheuer Room beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, March 7, and ending at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. All of the panels are open to the public.

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