Nourishment for the Mind and Body

CHINA’S ELDERLY—“EMBERS FOR SOCIETY” Daisy Yang (pictured, above), a Ph.D. candidate in Pitt’s Department of Anthropology, presented an Asia Over Lunch lecture last fall based on her dissertation research in Wuhan, China, titled “Actively Aging in China: University for the Aged and Healthy Aging.” Yang revealed one of the secrets of why Chinese men and women tend to age well—education provided by the University for the Aged (UFA). The UFA is a nonprofit, noncertificate educational program, subsidized by local Chinese governments, that serves the educational and health needs of China’s growing retiree population. “In tandem with the breakdown of the life-tenure cadre system in the mid-1980s, large numbers of urban retirees suddenly found themselves short of accurate knowledge about, and reliable channels to get information on, maintaining and improving health,” Yang explained. In China, the elderly are encouraged to be an “ember for society,” burning until its last glowing (fa hui yu re). According to Yang, UFA promotes learning among the elderly so as to encourage social contributions from them. The UFA, as its motto indicates, is a place where the elderly can “enrich knowledge, mold temperament, cultivate good health, and live as a glowing ember.” For a tuition of about 40 yuan per semester (less than five American dollars), seniors can take courses incorporating tai-chi, qigong (a self-healing art that combines movement and meditation), and traditional Chinese medicine, among other subjects. These courses embrace physical, mental, psychological, and emotional aspects of life on both the individual and social levels. “To most people who take courses at UFA, the happiness they bought with 40 yuan is priceless,” Yang says.

For the last three and a half years, Pitt’s Asian Studies Center (ASC) has been serving up cultural edification with a side of pizza on Thursdays at noon.

Pizza may not sound like an ethnically appropriate meal for lunchtime discussions of Chinese cinema, Japanese identity in the 20th century, job security in South Korea, or contemporary Muslim music in Indonesia, but the combination nonetheless draws a potpourri of faculty, staff, and students to ASC’s Asia Over Lunch series.

Asia Over Lunch is the brainchild of ASC Director and Professor of Music Bell Yung, who devised the weekly series to promote cohesion among faculty, staff, and graduate students with diverse research specialties but a common interest in the world’s largest continent.

Yung’s vision was to include a variety of speakers in the Asia Over Lunch lineup, including junior and senior faculty members, as well as speakers from outside the University. Asia Over Lunch also provides a means for the broader community of Pitt Asian studies programs—focusing on countries from India and Indonesia to Mongolia and Korea—to bring in speakers to compliment or augment their curricula.

“Asia Over Lunch offers a broad range of talks, in a forum that expands beyond the boundaries of a single country or field of inquiry,” says Brenda Jordan, ASC’s assistant director of educational outreach and Japanese Studies coordinator.

Jordan takes the lead in defining the schedule for the lecture series but credits Dorota Krysinska, a graduate student in the Interdisciplinary Masters program, offered through Pitt’s Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and ASC, as the series’ “nuts and bolts operator.”

According to Jordan, faculty members appreciate Asia Over Lunch as a low-key forum for presenting research and fieldwork. “It’s a really good venue for sharing ideas with other scholars and students who can give them feedback that Western specialists can’t give,” she explains.

Jordan knows the value of Asia Over Lunch from personal experience. An adjunct assistant professor of history of art and architecture, Jordan has presented her own research on censorship in 19th-century Japanese art at Asia Over Lunch.

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Each fall and spring, Pitt’s Asian Studies Center offers eight Asia Over Lunch lectures, balanced in terms of speakers’ seniority and academic disciplines.

Spring Semester 2006 Schedule

Feb. 2 Christian Gerlach, Pitt assistant professor of history, “An Alliance for Violence: The Slaughter of Indonesian Communists, 1965-66”;

Feb. 9 Brian Yoder, a Ph.D. candidate in Pitt’s School of Education, “Globalization of Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Four Different Types of Higher Education Institutions in Mainland China”;

Feb. 16 Helen Hopper, adjunct professor of history, “Japanese and Western Travelers Invent the Ainu”;

Feb. 23 Rachael Hutchinson, an assistant professor of Japanese, East Asian Languages & Literatures at Colgate University, “Writing the Other, Defining the Self: Japanese Identity in the 20th Century”;

March 2 Linda Penkower, associate professor and chair of Pitt’s Department of Religious Studies, “Shared Sacrality:The Debate Over Stone and Vegetal Buddhas”;

March 16 Jyoti Vidhani, visiting Heinz Fellow in Pitt’s University Center for International Studies and a disability development professional, “Nothing About Us Without Us. Disability Culture in Developing Countries—An Indian Perspective”;

March 23 Dorcinda Knauth, Ph.D. candidate in the Pitt Department of Music, “Praising Allah With Three Chords: Contemporary Muslim Music in Indonesia”; and

March 30 Kia-Jacquelyn N. Omotalade, a dual degree student in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health and Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, “The Ugly American? Cultural Competency and International NGOs Working in Indonesia—A Pilot Study of Mercy Corps’ Food Nutritional Program.”

All lectures take place in 4130 Posvar Hall. A complimentary lunch is provided, but attendees are asked to bring their own beverage. For more information, call 412-648-7370 or visit www.ucis.pitt.edu/asc/.