A Report on the Conference “Corporeal Nationalisms: Dance and the State in East Asia,” September 10–12, 2010, University of California, Berkeley

CHINOPERL Papers No. 29 (2010)©2010 by the Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature A REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE ―CORPOREAL NATIONALISMS: DANCE AND THE STATE IN EAST ASIA,‖ SEPTEMBER 10–12, 2010, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ELIZABETH WICHMANN-WALCZAK University of Hawai‘i at Manoa A conference titled ―Corporeal Nationalisms: Dance and the State‖ was held at the University of California, Berkeley on September 10, 11 and 12, 2010. The conference was organized by Co-Chairs Emily Wilcox and Katherine Mezur, with the aim of convening ―an interdisciplinary and transnational community of scholars to investigate through analysis and practice the significance and power of dance and its relationship to the state and the nation in contemporary East Asia.‖ ―Following a practice as research approach,‖ the organizers set out to ―integrate scholarly/performative papers, roundtables, movement workshops, and dance-on-film screenings into a coherent intellectual event,‖ with the aim of facilitating and promoting ―critical conversations within and between the different cultural and political entities of contemporary East Asia, including Japan, the People‘s Republic of China, South and North Korea, and Taiwan‖ (quoted from the conference description used in publicity for the event). This prospectus seems exceptionally ambitious, but the conference indeed fulfilled these goals. At the primary conference venue in the University‘s Dwinelle Hall, fifteen scholars delivered papers and five presented prepared remarks in the opening roundtable; one-to-twosentence summaries of these twenty presentations are included below. Most of the conference participants, including presenters and more than a score of attendees, also observed or participated in the two-hour ―practice seminar‖ held in the University‘s Bancroft Dance Studio. This experience of actual East Asian dance practice involved four brief but intense and CHINOPERL Papers No. 29 252 often physically-demanding mini-workshops, each led by one or more experienced artist-teachers: Nihon Buyo, led by Leonard Pronko, Pomona College, Claremont, CA; Korean Dance, led by Dohee Lee, Independent Artist, Artistic Director of The Korean Youth Cultural Center, San Francisco, and Dongil Lee, Sogang University, Seoul (the latter also presented at the Opening Roundtable and on Panel I); Chinese Classical Dance, led by Jia Wu, St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA; and Butoh, led by Tamano Hiroko, Co‐Director of Harupin‐ha Butoh Company based in Berkeley, CA. Additionally, a number of presenters showed film and video clips related to their presentations in one two-hour evening screening session, and two presenters (Xiaomei Chen and I) introduced the 2005 film Yang Ban Xi: The Eight Model Works and fielded questions and observations afterward at another evening screening, this one held in the Pacific Film Archive Theatre. Both events included a larger audience from the Bay Area, and catalyzed discussions on our different ―knowledges‖ of dance, history, and politics in East Asia. Many opportunities for discussion were carefully included in the schedule. The four paper-presentation panels as well as the opening roundtable each concluded with approximately fifteen minutes for questions and comments, and most were followed by a coffee/tea break allowing further discussion in small groups. Additionally, only two papers were included in the fourth panel, which therefore had a much longer discussion session; it was opened by four scholars from East Asia: HyangJin Jung, Naomi Inata, Xiaozhen Liu, and Mariko Okada, who briefly reflected on the conference themes from their individual perspectives and raised questions for further discussion. After the highly-animated discussions held during the following coffee/tea break, the conference concluded with a closing roundtable where initial plans were made for publications including a dedicated journal volume and an edited book. The first ―next installment‖ of the conference is already planned; some of the scholars from this Berkeley conference will present papers incorporating the new material and perspectives gained through the conference at the March 31–April 3, 2011 Association for Asian Studies annual convention, to be held in Honolulu. I found this ―Corporeal Nationalisms‖ conference and the organization behind it unusual and valuable for two main reasons. The conference considered several East Asian cultures and nations/states together— primarily the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—rather than focusing on just one, and it brought together scholars of and from East Asia, scholars...