Tea For Harmony Xinyang Maojian Tea Cultural Fair (at the China Institute, NYC, May 23, 2024)

In celebration of International Tea Day, join us at China Institute in America with your friends and family at our Tea For Harmony — Xinyang Maojian Tea Cultural Fair! We will be bringing you an assortment of specialty teas and festivities flown in specifically for this event from Xinyang, Henan, China, where the origin of tea is often traced back to! Tea connoisseurs will share the ritual of tea and invite you to sample tea selections hailed as the “King of Teas”. Master artisans from China will perform Guzheng and lead experiential stations including rice dough sculpturing, paper cutting, VR experience and so much more. Enjoy this special tea-themed sensory experience with music and cultural performances presented by intangible culture inheritors from China!

Tea For Harmony Xinyang Maojian Tea Cultural Fair

Artist Biographies

Huang Xia, representative intangible cultural heritage tea art inheritor (municipal level), Xinyang City

Liu Yuwei, representative intangible cultural heritage face molding inheritor (provincial level), Henan Province

Meng Zhaodong, representative intangible cultural heritage shadow puppetry inheritor (county level), Gushi County

Xiao Junjing, representative intangible cultural heritage Xinyang Maojian tea roasting skills inheritor (district level), Xi River District

Xu Xu, representative intangible cultural heritage inheritor of Henan Province

Taiko Creation! (Thurs. May 2, 2024)

You're invited to a unique creative experience that you don't want to miss!

Taiko describes a range of traditional Japanese barrel-shaped drums that are an important part of Japanese music.

At Taiko Creation, experts will demonstrate how to make these amazing drums and give insights into the history, construction, and sound that makes these drums special. Come to The Howard Thurman Center and learn what it takes to make Taiko and listen to a group from Hiroshima, Japan, that is creating a new genre of music with Taiko and western drums.

This event is sponsored by The Howard Thurman Center, The Boston Japanese Association, Japanese Language School, and JBBB.

REGISTER HERE!

More about Garyu:

Garyu is a wadaiko performance group from Hiroshima, Japan established in 2005. They blend traditional Japanese drums with contemporary Western drums, creating a unique musical style that transcends conventional genres. Their performances start by crafting wadaiko hides themselves and innovating modern instruments using traditional methods. Garyu's original music, materials, costumes, and instruments carry a message of peace from Hiroshima to the world, by actively preserving and promoting traditional culture.

The Howard Thurman Center

808 Commonwealth Ave, Brookline, MA 02446

The Rise of China in the Eyes of the US and Japan: Divergence and Convergence in Threat Perceptions, with Chikako Ueki (Apr. 23, 2024)

Register here.

Abstract:

The United States and Japan identified China as its primary threat in their respective National Security Strategy in 2017 and 2022. It seems they are reacting to the same China threat. However, they have come to view China as a threat via quite different paths.

Perceptions of a China threat emerged at different times among the allies, and the nature of the perceived threat was different. The United States feared China’s rise as a global peer competitor more than did the weaker powers that are geographically closer to China? And why did the United States and Japan identify China as the main security threat in their national security strategies in the late-2010s? In other words: What factors shape threat perception?

The talk will trace U.S. and Japanese perceptions towards China in the last 30 years and explain why the China threat they see differs in content, intensity, and in the timing they began to see China as a threat. It will also explain what accounts for the seeming convergence of threat perceptions in recent years.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Chikako Kawakatsu Ueki is Professor of International Relations at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS), Waseda University. She is currently A Visiting Scholar at the Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her areas of expertise include International Relations and Security in East Asia, with a special focus on U.S.-Japan-China relations. Her publications include: “Is Japan Back? Measuring Nationalism and Military Assertiveness in Asia’s Other Great Power” (co-author, 2021); “Japan’s China Strategy: The End of Liberal Deterrence?” (2020); War Studies for Peace (2015); The “Long Peace” in Northeast Asia: War Avoided (2012); and The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance: Regional Multilateralism (2011). Prior to joining GSAPS, Dr. Ueki was Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies, Japan Ministry of Defense; Visiting Scholar at Peking University; and Staff Writer for Asahi Shimbun. She served as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Security and Defense Capabilities (2009). She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and M.A. in International Relations and B.A. in French Studies from Sophia University.

The House of Caravans, a conversation with BU author Shilpi Suneja (Apr. 25, 2024)

AAPI Heritage Month Kickoff Social (May 1, 2024)

Wednesday, May 1, 4 PM-6 PM
College of Arts and Sciences Diversity and Inclusion Office
AAPI Heritage Month Kickoff Social 
Howard Thurman Center
The Commons, Room 205, 808 Commonwealth Ave, Brookline, MA
Register here. 

State-Building in the Shadow of Counterterrorism: A Gendered Perspective, with Dipali Mukhopadhyay (May 1, 2024)