Every summer, ten middle school students from Nihonmatsu, Japan, file into New Haven’s Grove Street Cemetery with their chaperones and a dignitary or two from their town—sometimes the mayor. They find the grave marker they’re looking for, lay flowers in front of it, and observe a reverent moment of silence. This ritual has been going on since 1991, except for an interruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. The students, chosen for the trip by a competitive process, are there to pay tribute to Kan-ichi Asakawa 1902PhD (1873–1948), a native of Nihonmatsu who spent his last 42 years in New Haven.
Hosted by Yale sociologist Grace Kao, the IBM Professor of Sociology and professor of ethnicity, race, and migration in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Wonseok Lee, a postdoctoral associate at the Council on East Asian Studies (CEAS) at Yale’s Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, the gathering featured scholars studying K-pop’s production, sound, and fans as well as established figures from within the K-pop industry, who offered insights into how the music is made and how the idols are trained.
The Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University invites applications for Postdoctoral Associate positions in East Asian Studies, Central Asian Studies, Modern Chinese History, and Tibetan Buddhist Studies.
Applications are open until 11:59 PM EST, Friday, January 3rd, 2025.
Most Venerable Jinwoo and other leaders of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism together with leaders from Dongguk University visited Yale to present a $1 million gift for Buddhist Studies in a visit organized by the Council on East Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center.
