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The Center for Asian Studies is sponsoring several events this Friday. 

The Cement-Steel-Infrastructure Interface: China’s Export and Investment Boom in the Philippines

Alvin Camba,
Korbel School of International Studies
Denver University 

In Person:
GUGG 205
Jan 21, 2022, 3:30 PM

Or Join Zoom Meeting:

In the Global South, the population’s demand for economic involvement has been met by an infrastructure drive. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China has financed a variety of infrastructure projects, particularly roads, bridges, railway projects, dams, and many others. However, alongside infrastructures, cement and steel imports and investments have also been expanding at alarming rates alongside. I ask: how important is China to the expansion of cement and steel imports and investments? By examining Chinese cement and steel imports and investments in the Philippines, I argue that there is an emerging cement-steel-infrastructure interface in the Global South, a product of a political settlement between Chinese firms and domestic business elites. The affinity between host country elites and Chinese firms has created a surge in both imports and investments in steel and cement. Taking advantage of this expansion, host country business elites, who are often campaign contributors or family members of host country leaders, are building cement and steel factories to provide inputs to ongoing foreign-funded infrastructure projects in their countries. Chinese firms and their host country business partners are also importing steel and cement products. I build this paper by combining host country databases on import and shareholder data on cement and steel alongside several detailed case studies derived from several Philippine provinces.

Can a culture be cute? Japan’s kawaii aesthetic
Fri, Jan 21
12:20 PM - 01:20 PM

Dr. Laura Miller 
Ei’ichi Shibusawa-Seigo Arai Endowed Professor of Japanese Studies and Professor of History, University of Missouri-St. Louis  

Japan’s cute aesthetic has spread beyond girl culture and into politics, conduct literature, history textbooks, and elsewhere. Cute serves important social and cultural functions: It is a clever way to inform us, admonish us, and convince us. Cute also provides an outlet for creativity and humor. This presentation surveys the history of kawaii and a spectrum of cute (and warped cute) found in diverse cultural domains, emphasizing the critical role of this aesthetic in contemporary society. 
 

Tang Global Seminar Information Session: Excavating Taiwanese History 
Excavating Taiwanese History
Info Session: January 21st 10am
Zoom:
Attend this new summer Global Seminar in Taiwan, conducted by History Professor Timothy B. Weston and offered by Education Abroad, the Center For Asian Studies and the Tang Fund. Explore the island's uniquely important role in history to understand the nature of and reasons for the great tension that exists over its status in our own time. Selected participants will receive a generous scholarship funded by the Tang Fund and the Center for Asian Studies that covers most programs costs.
More info and program dates: