Bringing India to the University: Philippine-Indian Bilateral Relations

- April 1, 2016, Friday.

- The Embassy of India in Manila, in cooperation with the Ateneo de Manila University (Department of History,) hosted a special talk on Philippine-Indian bilateral relations on April 1, 2016, 5-6:30pm, at the university's Escaler Hall. It was the first ever major Indian event that the university had in the recent years (at least, as far back as I can remember.) The best part about this event was that it was completely sponsored by the Indian Embassy. This was also my first major event in school; I served as the main point person for this event. Dr. Suresh Kumar, the first secretary of the Political; Press, Information, and Culture Section of the Indian Embassy contacted me and proposed this event to me, and I was given a go signal by the university. Of course, I could not have done it without the help, support, and guidance of the professors and staff of Ateneo's Department of History.

- On the day of the event, Dr. Coo and I welcomed Dr. Suresh and led him to the hall. Dr. Suresh came with Ms. Angelique from the embassy, and other embassy staff. They also brought Indian snacks and tourism pamphlets, so the students can have first hand experience of some aspects of Indian culture, as well as more information on the tourist spots (both historical and natural) of India. Apart from Dr. Suresh, I also met Mrs. Shanti Sreedhar of Natya Mandala; Mrs. Sreedhar is a multi-awarded dancer who now resides in the Philippines, and opened the first ever Bharatanatyam dance school in the country. Mrs. Sreedhar is also affiliated with the University of the Philippines - Diliman's School of Music, as she teaches Bharatanatyam to ethnomusicology majors. Bharatanatyam is a South-Indian dance (from Tamil Nadu to be specific) and is one of the popular classical dances of India. For the event, Mrs. Sreedhar assigned her daughter-and-student Sparsha to dance for the crowd.

- Students later filled the lecture hall, some of them my students, and the others by other history professors. History professors and some interested professors from the other departments also attended the talk.

Registration.

Indian snacks and traditional sweets waiting to be eaten.

- Dr. Suresh commenced his talk by telling the students on the different ways that India and the Philippines are fostering good relations, such as encouraging people-to-people connectivity, importing Indian companies, sending Filipinos to study in India and vice versa, and other schemes. Connecting with the Philippines is part of India's "Look-East Policy," which made India engage with the east (i.e. the rest of Asia) apart from the west (i.e. UK, the rest of Europe, and America.) After all, India has established relations with the different Asian countries even during ancient world history.

Full house!! Yes, that's me emcee-ing.

Dr. Coo introducing Dr. Kumar.

Dr. Kumar doing the first part of his talk on Philippine-Indian Bilateral Relations.

- Sparsha performed her short Bharatanatyam piece for the intermission. Her specific piece is called "Vandana," which is an invocation piece, which makes it some sort of prayer in the form of dance. Bharatanatyam, generally, is also a classical dance based on the element of fire, since the dance requires some jumps and sharp movements, making the dance look like a dancing flame. The whole audience loved Sparsha, not only because of her rainbow-colored costume, but also her impeccable dance technique. I was very happy in choosing Natya Mandala to perform for the event; I know I did not make a mistake in asking them to perform after seeing the quality of their performances twice in the past (click here for Swami Vivekananda's Birthday in 2013, and here for Utsav: UP's Festival of India 2015.)

It was hard to take a photo of her; well actually Ms. Shayne Garcia, lecturer of the History  Dept., took the photos using my camera as I was busy emcee-ing for the evening.

That's the Indian flag at the side.

I've actually seen Sparsha dance before, during the 150th Birthday Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

- After the dance, Dr. Kumar proceeded to the second part of his talk, which is about Indian influences in Philippine culture and society. For instance, many people do not know that many names of Philippine places came from Sanskrit roots (ex. Visayas - from [Sri]vijaya), or that 25% of the Filipino langauge came from Sanskrit (ex. diwa - from jivan [meaning "life"], bahagi - from bhagi [meaning "part/segment"] etc.) He also talked about different aspects of Indian culture and society such as the different languages of India, the festivals of India (particularly Diwali or the Festival of Lights, and Holi or the Spring Festival.)

A better shot of me.

Second part of the talk.

- Before ending the talk, Dr. Kumar had a Q&A game, with twenty questions. Each student who could give the right answer would get a t-shirt from the Indian Embassy. Dr. Suresh was impressed with the students since all the questions were answered correctly; some students were also quite competitive. Of course, all the teachers (including me) were proud since we knew that out students really listened to the talk. Some of my students got prizes as well.

Presenting, my 3 students who were able to get prizes (and 17 others from the other professors.) Please ignore my face in the middle photo, I don't know what I was doing/saying.

- To end the event, tokens of appreciation to Dr. Suresh and Natya Mandala were presented by the chair of the Department of History, Dr. Lianne Habana. Dr. Suresh had surprises up his sleeve as he presented some tokens of appreciation to us as well. He gave us a coffee table book on Indian wildlife, with the nature photos taken by some of India's good-eyed nature photographers.

Dr. Habana giving the token of appreciation to Dr. Suresh.

Dr. Suresh giving me his token of appreciation to me. (Thank you Dr. Suresh!!)

Dr. Habana giving Sparsha her token.

Dr. Habana giving Mrs. Sreedhar her token of appreciation.

Dr. Suresh, Sparsha, Mrs. Sreedhar, with Dr. Coo, Dr. Habama, and Ms. Garcia

- Finally, just before everyone left, it was time for them to have a taste of Indian snacks. I was only able to eat a bit since I was busy accommodating Dr. Suresh, Mrs. Sreedhar and Sparsha, the other professors, and the students. Also, since I was able to eat those delicious snacks before, I wanted to give more chances to the attendees who just had their first try of Indian snacks that day. I was elated to hear that they liked and appreciated the Indian snacks that they had. By the way, they had samosas, jalebi, among others. I also knew that the Indian Embassy's caterer made good food since I was able to enjoy them during the flag-hoisting ceremony last year in the Indian Ambassdor's House (click here to see my visit to/awarding in the Indian Ambassador's house;) I also met Dr. Suresh for the first time during that event.

Students lining up to get food. I was lucky to have some for myself too, but it's OK, I wanted them to have more since some of them haven't even tasted Indian food before.

Photo by Dr. Coo.

- After everyone left, I left school with a heavy bag and a happy heart. I knew it was a big shot to serve as a point person for a diplomatic event like this, and I definitely learned a lot not only from Dr. Suresh, but also through the guidance of the Department of History (especially Dr. Stephanie Coo, Dr. Lianna Habana, and Ms. Shayne Garcia) in organizing this event. I hope that more Indian events will take place in our university, especially since India is an emerging nation as it is excelling and greatly contributing to different important fields. Dr. Suresh and Mrs. Sreedhar were, likewise, happy that they were finally able to show their country's culture to the Ateneo community.

With Dr. Suresh, just before we left school.

Korean Stuff on a Rainy Day: Korea Beyond Hallyu

- December 15, 2015, Tuesday.

- When thinking about Korea, the first thing that pops into anyone's mind would most likely be some form of "hallyu" (i.e."Korean Wave,") such as Korean television series, or K-Pop (Korean popular music,) cosmetic products, tourism, or Korean food. If not this, probably the North-South Korean conflicts. Because of these, other topics that involve Korea are usually overlooked by the masses, as they are not sensationalized and hyped by the media. However, I attended an intriguing lecture this morning in Ateneo de Manila University.

- The Ateneo Initiative for Korean Studies (AIKS) organized a small talk, and was held at the Window on Korea section of the Rizal Library this morning at 9:30am. AIKS invited Dr. Changzoo Song from the University of Auckland to talk about "Nation-State in a Transnational World: South's Korea's Effort to Create De-territorialised Nation." The event was attended by a "cozy" audience from various departments of the Ateneo and University of Santo Tomas' Asian Studies Department

Dr. Changzoo Song from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The title of his talk.

- To simplify the topic, Dr. Song talked about the case of Korean migrants, and how Korea sees them, and reaches out to them. While other countries seem to have a more prominent/well-known scheme or set of policies that have something to do with their diasporic communities (India being one of those countries,) South Korea has also been catching up with the other countries in terms of policies regarding identity, rights and privileges, and the introduction of the Korean language and culture (i.e. via cultural institutes) to the Korean diasporic communities. Moreover, according to Dr. Song, the Korean government has proclaimed recognition of Koreans born abroad (even mixed Koreans) as Koreans, regardless of citizenship, as long as either parent is a Korean citizen or of Korean descent. However, as with the case of other diasporic communities (like the Brazilian-Japanese of Brazil,) the society of the country of origin of the diasporic community (i.e. Korea in this case, or Japan or the Brazilian-Japanese) do not fully accept, or do not accept them at all as part of the country of origin's society, despite inclusive policies and efforts by the Korean government. One member from the audience even raised during the Q-and-A portion that even though this was said by the Korean government, Korean embassies have released statements saying that the Korean transnationals holding foreign citizenship (particularly subsequent mixed-heritage Korean transnationals) are considered as part of the host country (for example, the Philippines,) and not Korean anymore. This point also surprised Dr. Song, and says that the Korean government and the embassies should be clear about this matter.

During the lecture.

Prof. Sarah D. Lipura, director of AIKS.

Dr. Diane Mendoza, professor of political science in the Ateneo, and the paper discussant of the morning.

Tadaaaaa.

- After the great and cozy lecture, we all gathered to have photographs taken. We had a catered lunch with Dr. Song, and had a casual chat with him. After lunch, Prof. Sarah and Prof. Capili took Dr. Song for a brief sightseeing trip around Manila. I can't believe Dr. Song is only staying in the country for only one day, and considering it's his first time in the Philippines too. Well, he did say that he had always wanted to come to the Philippines, and at least he had the opportunity to do so this time.

Dr. Song receiving the token from the Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Dr. Aldaba.

Photo of Dr. Song and professors/lecturers/instructors of Ateneo de Manila University.

- Ateneo was quiet today since it the semestral/Christmas break has just started; both students and most faculty members have started enjoying their vacation. A storm also decided to visit the country and made me wet. However, I had no regrets in attending this lecture; I feel that as there are plenty of Korean diasporic communities around the world, this matter should be studied further by scholars.

The 2nd Junior Chinese Studies Conference: Chinese in the Southeast Asian Countries

- Nov. 16, 2015, Monday.

- The Ateneo de Manila University's Ricardo Leong Center for Chinese Studies held its second Junior Chinese Studies Conference in the Ateneo de Manila University. This kind of conference was initiated last year as a chance for student-presenters to be exposed to the world of academic conferences, and for the students to learn from their panel reactors in order to improve or develop their current/future research papers

Conference program and my golden Chinese fan as the background.

- Since this was a junior conference, the participants are all undergraduate (college-level) students. Most of the presenters were students from Ateneo de Manila University who are currently in the AB Chinese Studies program, taking a minor in Chinese Studies, or taking a Chinese/China-related class for the semester. Other schools such as the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University - Manila, University of Santo Tomas, and the University of the Asia and the Pacific also sent paper presenters to support the event. The number of papers this year totaled 45, a bit more than double of last year's conference. All papers submitted were more or less about the contemporary Chinese communities/societies in the Philippines, or about preserving the Chinese heritage in the contemporary age. Most papers were backed up with conceptual frameworks from Chinese philosophies, usually, Confucianism. After all, Confucianism is one of the backbones of Chinese and sinicized societies (i.e. Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese) today.

- I was invited by the Chinese Studies Program (via Prof. Sidney Bata, director of the Ricardo Leong Chinese Studies Program) to be a panel reactor for some panels in the conference. This excited me a lot because I've never been a panel reactor before; I mostly present in academic conferences, and I have also moderated (but not reacted) in one panel in Hong Kong last year (click here to see). In addition to this, this is also the first time that I attended a purely Chinese Studies conference; I've mostly attended Asian-Studies conferences (general Asian Studies, usually multidisciplinary,) and a few on Korean Studies (particularly on "hallyu" or the "Korean Wave.") However, the experience and feeling of taking part in this junior conference was "not new" to me, since all academic conferences on Asian Studies that I've been in are almost always concentrated on China, Japan, Korea, in that particular order. Papers on Southeast Asia (usually on ASEAN affairs) are sometimes noticeable (or papers on the Philippines in case of local conferences,) while papers on Indian Studies, West Asia, and Central Asia are usually rare. I'm usually one of the rare beings to present papers on India, particularly Indian popular culture (i.e. Bollywood.) Hopefully, more academic papers on other Asian geocultural regions will be written and presented, to add diversity to "Asian Studies" conferences everywhere.

- Going back to the junior conference, the event started with a keynote lecture by Dr. Diana Mendoza on the (political) influences of China in Southeast Asia. Dr. Mendoza is a professor in the Political Science Department of the Ateneo de Manila University, and is also the director of the Southeast Asian Studies program of the same university.

Mr. Charles Joseph de Guzman, Chinese Studies instuctor and my friend. 

Dr. Fernando Aldaba, dean of the School of Social Sciences, and his welcoming remarks.

Dr. Diana Mendoza and her keynote lecture.

- Throughout the day, four major panels on different themes were held - philosophies and ideologies; tourism, migration, and social mobility; culture and family life; and emerging trends: technology, social media, and education. I was assigned to be a reactor on three succeeding afternoon panels - one on culture and family life, and two panels on technology, social media, and education.

Tarp.

My friend Kat as a panel reactor in one of the morning panels.

Charles, Kat, and me: 2 China Studies majors, and a misplaced Indian Studies major (wearing a Mongolian top.)

Before having lunch.

Mr. Harold Diokno, history teacher from La Salle Greenhills and a China Studies major as well. 

Paul Yiu and his paper on the mixing of Chinese philosophies and Filipino traits among Fil-Chi adolescents. 

Paul's paper, according to his reactors, was one of the "most developed" in the conference; I thought so too. Paul's also a friend of mind by the way.

- The presenters in my panels had really relevant topics ranging from changing language pedagogy in Chinese schools in the Philippines, exploring the Fil-Chi senior society, to the proposing the change Chinese words connoting gender inequality, and presenting the different uses of the Chinese cleaver. Though the students had a long way to go in terms of presenting and writing proper academic papers, they were still able to present a lot of interesting facts on contemporary Chinese, and diasporic Chinese issues that I may not have known or didn't notice before. This is the reason why I strongly feel that schools and universities should continue to push their students to think more, and to participate (not just as a spectator/observer) in mind-feeding activities like this conference.

With Dr. Yugioksing.

Trying to sound professional but I end up saying my comments with a lighter, comedic tone. Well, that's me.

My first panel. I didn't have more photos of the succeeding panels since my "photographer," Eugene Andojoyan, had to leave.

- After surviving three succeeding panels (and I was able to since they were all fun to listen to,) Prof. Daisy See of the Chinese Studies Program formally closed the conference. The bonus of the day was getting to hitch a ride with the Chiang Kai Shek College school bus on the way home (way better than taking the LRT of course.) The bus was there since a lot of Chinese Education majors from the college department went as observers in the whole-day event. I enjoyed the conference very much, and I hope that I'd get to serve as a panel reactor again in the future junior conferences. I also hope that more junior conferences will be held, not only by the Chinese Studies Program, but also in other fields, to allow more students and potential experts to "go out there and shine." Perhaps, later on, a junior conference on Indian or South Asian Studies can be held, to boost this important-but-"forgotten" field in the Philippines.

Prof. Daisy See.

With Chiang Kai Shek alumni (high school) Paul and Austin, and Ryan in the middle is currently taking his Chinese Education degree in the college department of Chiang Kai Shek College. 

Me.

With yet another China-Studies-major friend, Ivy, who also happened to be with me in my recent Asian Studies conference in New York (click here to read.)

"The Hallyu Mosaic in the Philippines: Framing Perceptions and Praxis": The 2014 AIKS Conference on Korean Studies

- June 19, 2014, Thursday.

- The Ateneo Initiative for Korean Studies (AIKS,) which serves as the office of the World Association for Hallyu Studies (WAHS) (Philippines,) organized its first hallyu conference in the Escaler Hall of the Ateneo de Manila University - my college alma mater. It was a local conference, but there were a handful of foreign participants who presented their papers on hallyu, also known as the "Korean Wave." For those not familiar, the Korean Wave, or hallyu, is the influx of Korean culture in other places, mostly through mass media (i.e. K-Pop and Korean dramas.) My former professor on Korean language and current president/director of AIKS/WAHS Philippines, Prof. Sarah Domingo Lipura, encouraged me to write a paper for the conference during this burning-hot summer. Fortunately, the paper-readers thought my paper was good enough, and so I was given the chance to talk about my topic.

- My paper's topic was about the Filpino stagnant fans and retired fans of hallyu. The stagnant fans refer to those who have lain low from the fandom, but are still fans, and may still engage in fan activities like attending concerts or conventions. Retired fans on the other hand, are people who have completely gone out of the fandom and are generally apathetic. I presented many factors as to why these people have gone out of the fandom. Some of these include personal reasons, loss of people to spazz with, the current state of hallyu in the Philippines (too mainstream, not as exciting as before, the "jejefication" of hallyu, etc.) among others. Despite all these things in my paper, the study had a "happy ending" by showing that even though many fans became stagnant or retired, their experience with hallyu has allowed them to have a better appreciation and tolerance for other cultures (not limited to Korean,) they trusted Korean products more, and that they were able to have a good impression on Korea as a whole. Because of this, hallyu is still an effective or relevant soft power/cultural diplomacy tool by South Korea.

- Today's conference was packed with VIPs. Dr. John Paul Vergara, vice president of the Loyola Schools did his opening remarks, His Excellency Hyuk Lee, ambassador of South Korea to the Philippines, gave his his warm greetings, and Dr. Ingyu Oh, director for general affairs of WAHS, shared his keynote speech. Distinguished professors from other universities were also present.

Hey look that's for me. Haha.

Prof Sarah, and Dr. Vergara.

Prof Sarah and the Korean ambassador.

Prof Sarah. Haha.

Prof Sarah and Dr. Oh.

Some members from the Ateneo Blue Symphony.

- I presented in the morning panel entitled "Dissecting the Filipino Content in Hallyu Fandom" with Dr. Catherine Deen of the De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, who presented an exploratory study of hallyu fan clubs in the country, and Prof. Patrick Capili of the Ateneo Modern Languages Department, who painted an image of the colorful Philippine KPop fan culture. (Prof. Capili teaches Spanish and Portuguese in the Ateneo, and I was fortunate to have sat in in his Portuguese class some years ago.) Our chair-critic was Mr. Herdy Yumul from the Mariano Marcos State University.

Dr. Deen.

Prof. Capili.

And me!!

Awarding of certificates.

- We had a nice cozy lunch in CTC, and I had fun meeting some of the other scholars/professors who presented in today's conference. The afternoon panels talked about identity and representation in film and television, gender issues and their connection to hallyu. The last panel was a special panel that talked about the hallyu experiences in Southeast Asia (outside the Philippines.)

Prof Sanchez.

With Prof. Sarah.

Special panel.

Sir Beaver.

- The conference ended around 6pm, after Prof. Beaver Flores of my undergraduate home department, the Communication Department, gave his closing remarks. Although I'm still tired after the long day, I still can't believe that I had the chance to talk in the Escaler Hall even after graduating from the Ateneo, and I'm probably feeling this excitement/hangover from the experience because I spoke inside the Escaler Hall for a formal event. (The last time I spoke inside that hall, I think, was for a theology report during second term junior year.) Probably the best feeling I had today was being approached by some students and scholars after my panel, who wanted to see my paper or who wanted to ask some follow up questions because my topic intrigued them. (After all studies about people going out of a certain fandom/interest are rare compared to studies about people going into a fandom or subculture.) As a young scholar who's still finding his niche in the scholarly world, this experience made me feel that my academic endeavors are able to reach out to other people after all. (Again I'd like to thank AIKS/WAHS for giving me the opportunity to present in this conference - and for giving me an excuse to visit (the) Ateneo again.)