2024 East Asian Languages and Literatures Newsletter
Message from the Chair
Department Spotlights
Department Kudos
Alumni Class Notes
Message from the Chair
Greetings from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL)! Having replaced Professor Emeritus Shoko Hamano’s long and successful career as chair, I have big shoes to fill. I’m excited to be part of such a vibrant and collegial group of EALL faculty. We have many events throughout the year, and we would be thrilled to have you participate in them. I hope you can join us!
In this newsletter, you’ll read about a few of the exciting things happening in the department, including the achievements of our EALL community and news from across Columbian College and the university. There are also some fabulous alumni events on the docket, and I hope you have the opportunity to attend one of them and engage with fellow graduates.
Thank you so much for your support and involvement. Please stay in touch.
Sincerely,
Immanuel Kim
Department Chair
Department Spotlights
Shoko Hamano Receives Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation
Professor Emeritus Shoko Hamano received the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation in a ceremony held in December 2023 at the Embassy of Japan, honoring her remarkable dedication to promoting the Japanese language in the United States!
The Foreign Minister’s Commendations are awarded to individuals and groups with outstanding achievements in international fields, in order to acknowledge their contributions to the promotion of friendship between Japan and other countries and areas. The commendations also aim to promote the understanding and support of the Japanese public for the activities of the recipients. Professor Hamano was joined at the event by EALL faculty members to celebrate her long and distinguished career.
J.LIVE and Mid-Atlantic Korean Speech Contest Winners!
GW seniors Nicholas Bird (International Affairs, Japanese) and Rachel Kwon (Asian Studies) won the Bronze Award in Category II and III, respectively, at the 9th Japanese Learning Inspired Vision and Engagement Talk (J.LIVE) in November 2023.
Organized by the GW Japanese Program annually, J.LIVE Talk provides a platform to celebrate the unique perspectives of Japanese language learners. This year, the competition returned to fully in-person, and the 12 finalists chosen from 11 states and the District of Columbia made dynamic presentations in front of the five-judge panel, as well as more than 100-person live audience. J.LIVE Talk was awarded the John and Hiroko Malott Leadership Award by the Japan America Society of Washington, D.C., for “making a significant contribution to the future of U.S.-Japan relations by increasing mutual understanding and cooperation between the next generation of Americans and Japanese.”
Similarly, the Mid-Atlantic Korean Speech Contest (MAKSC) is a regional online speech contest for learners of Korean at higher institutions in the Mid-Atlantic area. Founded by our own Korean faculty at GW in 2022, this contest has 12 participating universities in the region: GW, American University, Drexel University, George Mason University, Georgetown University, James Madison University, John Hopkins University, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and University of Virginia. MAKSC provides a great opportunity for Korean learners to get together, network and be encouraged by each other to enhance their motivation to continue on the path of learning Korean.
This year, our own GW student sophomore Avia Solomon won Second Place in her division. Congratulations!
Department Kudos
- Alumni Easton Weizer, BS, BA ’24, and Nicolas Gangi-Saroukhanioff, BA ’24, were awarded memberships for the 2024 National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society by the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA, in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements in learning Chinese as a second language. Additionally, Easton Weizer is the first recipient of the Kim-Renaud Student Award for his high academic achievement and unparalleled commitment to his undergraduate degrees.
- Jonathan Chaves published the first book in any Western language on an important quartet of poet-friends from the Southern Song Dynasty, the Four Lings, titled What Painter Could Ever Capture This? (Floating World Editions, 2023). He also published his first volume of his own poetry, Surfing the Torrent (Resource Publications, 2023).
- Liana Chen published “Managing Failures in the Qing Court Theatre” in Nanyang Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, No. 4 (May 2023): 179-202.
- Hongyuan Dong co-authored a paper on the relationship between tones and tunes in Chinese rap music. The paper is: J. Liu, H. Dong, J. Yuan, H. Ma & A. She. 2024. “Linguistic tone in Chinese rap: an interdisciplinary approach.” Journal of New Music Research.
- Immanuel Kim published a book chapter called “North Korean Cultural Revolution: Reading Culture in the 1972 Constitution” in Asian Comparative Constitutional Law (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023), edited by Ngoc Son Bui and Mara Malagodi.
- Brendan Morley published “Traces of Truth: Chūgan Engetsu’s Konhōron,” which examines a 14th century allegorical interpretation of two enigmatic characters from the Chinese classic Zhuangzi. Monumenta Nipponica 78.2 (2023), pp. 189-221.
- Hang Zhang published the book Introducing Chinese Linguistics: A Handbook for Chinese Language Teachers and Learners (co-authored with Lan Zhang) through John Benjamins. This comprehensive volume offers an in-depth exploration of Chinese linguistics, covering core components such as phonology, morphology, syntax, the writing system and socio-cultural aspects of the language. Additionally, she contributed nine entries on tonology to the “Language and Linguistics” volume (third edition) of the Encyclopedia of China. She was invited to deliver lectures on the second language acquisition of Chinese tones as part of the Sinofon Project, sponsored by the European Union, at Palacky University in the Czech Republic.
Alumni Class Notes
- Maegan Burkhart, BA ’16, moved to Hong Kong, after living in Shenzhen for the past 7 years. She is beginning a new role as creative strategy manager at the Financial Times.
- Tyler DiMicco, BA ’11, moved from Beijing to London where he has taken on the role of senior manager of engagement and chief of staff to the Amazon Web Services Vice President of Europe, Middle East and Africa.
- Richard Pegg, BA ’83, edited the book The MacLean Collection: Early to Medieval Chinese Pottery (Weldon Owen, 2023) and guest curated the exhibition Heaven and Earth: The Blue Maps of China at the Leventhal Map and Education Center in Boston.
- Erika Pioch, BA ’22, works at the U.S. Department of State on the Fulbright program. She is enjoying learning about the financial and budgetary aspects of the program.
- Lorenz Vargas, BA ‘21, is serving as an air combat intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps, forward deployed to Okinawa, Japan, where he uses the Japanese he learned at GW every day.
- Katie Yarber, BA ’22, is a defense analyst at Janes, tracking China’s geoeconomic influence. She recently moved to Nanjing, China, to matriculate at Johns Hopkins SAIS with a master’s of arts in international relations.
- Hannah Zerphey, BA ’05, joined GW Law as a MSL candidate in their Government Procurement and Cybersecurity program with an expected graduation date of fall 2025.