Sponsored by the Center for Philippine Studies, , Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Wednesday, March 10 at 3:30 pm in Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Dr. Pia Arboleda, Assistant Professor – Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

This presentation will examine the challenges encountered in translating and subtitling Filipino director Raymond Red’s Sakay in an effort to make it accessible to Filipino heritage language learners and non-Filipino language students in a classroom environment. In translating and subtitling Sakay, Dr. Arboleda will try to “[reproduce] in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source-language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style.”

The major challenge in translation is that many language equivalents are available because of variations of possible meaning in the dialogue. In a number of cases, the equivalents may be accurate in meaning, but unnatural in colloquial delivery. In this regard, certain choices are made in order to ensure that the subtitles produce the same understanding for non-Filipino viewers as they would for native speakers.

Sakay is set in the early 1900s in the Philippines, when the Philippines changed colonial masters from the Spanish to the Americans. It was necessary to consider the historical and cultural context of the period, and include these important contextual elements in the final English subtitles.

This presentation will include video clips of scenes in support of issues discussed in the presentation.

Dr. Pia Arboleda is assistant professor of Filipino and Philippine Literature at the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures where she teaches Translation Theory and Practice, Philippine History and Culture, and Philippine Folklore. She received her doctorate degree in Language and Literature from De La Salle University, Manila. She has taught Philippine Literature, Language and History at Osaka University for four and a half years.She is also a poet and creative writer. Her works have appeared in Forbidden Fruit: Women Write the Erotic, Kung Ibig Mo: Love Poetry by Women and Essays on Women, among others.

more info at +1 808 956 6086 or cps@hawaii.edu | Center for Philippine Studies | Sakay

Wednesday, 24 February
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Philippines, 2006 (135 min)
Filipino w/ English subtitles
Dir: Brillante Mendoza
Cast: Johnny Delgado, Cherry Pie Picache, Angel Aquino, Juliana Palermo, Allan Paule, Criselda Volks, Lauren Novero

Pampanga in Brillante Mendoza’s first full-length feature, Masahista, is parched and metallic in its visual aftertaste, here in Kàleldo, it is magic realistic, the landscape and the elements anchored to the passion and secrets of three women. Set ten years after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo which buried the province of Pampanga under lahar, Kàleldo (Summer Heat) follows the lives of sisters Jesusa (Picache), Lourdes (Aquino) and Grace (Palermo) under the watchful eyes of patriarch Mang Rudy (Delgado) who is struggling to revive the family’s woodcarving business. The names of the sisters establish the kind of religiosity that Mang Rudy observes, reflected in the way he demands obedience from his children who are ruled by emotional motivations which the movie reveals through snippets spanning three summers, pinned down by three elements as metaphors: Wind, Fire, Water.

Kàleldo continues Mendoza’s ode to Pampanga and the families struggling within its dying soil. His love for the culture is palpable, the language and the food, the industries and the deeply-rooted cultural tics are framed against wildly vibrant skies, tangible worship at its most picturesque. On the surface, Kàleldo is a beautifully-shot family drama. Mendoza’s storytelling can be confusing at first as he purposely veers away from conventional melodrama, and his visual metaphors have the tendency to distract. But once you get used to the movie’s rhythm, then, just like the change of seasons, you’ll welcome the varying textures and colors of the passing of time.
-Thanks to Thor @ http://thorsings.blogspot.com.

Download Poster

Deadline: Monday, 22 February 2010 – EXTENDED
Instructions: Apply via UH star system; type “Moscotti” in key word search

Description: To assist full-time, classified graduate students in a degree program at UHM in any department or program in the arts, humanities or social sciences whose area of focus is Southeast Asia.

Purpose: This endowment is established by Albert D. Moscotti to fund the Moscotti Fellowship for Graduate Studies of Southeast Asia in honor of his parents, Anthony and Amy Moscotti.

This fellowship may be used for any of the following purposes:
a. to attend a professional meeting at which the graduate student will present a scholarly paper or participate in the meeting as a discussant of a scholarly paper;
b. to provide travel expenses for Southeast Asia graduate students so that they can conduct research which will contribute to the preparation of a scholarly paper by the student or other appropriate research purposes.

The travel may be to locations in the United States or abroad and can be used for library research etc., or for field research. The prospective recipient must be working on a degree with a focus on Southeast Asia. Graduate students in any department or program in the arts, humanities or social sciences are eligible.

apply now | more SEA funding opportunities

Segueing from this month’s featured NPR series on the Mekong River, CSEAS came across two museums that explore Northern Thailand’s historic association with the opium trade. Interestingly, although these museums share a regional and topical focus, they exhibit the area’s opium-related past in their own distinct way.

Founded by the Princess Mother, the nationally-run Hall of Opium educates the public about the “social, economic and physical costs of drug abuse, and the crime and corruption that surrounds it and efforts to control it.” After learning about the Opium War, the Hall of Opium also serves the community through exhibits on drug control, case studies, and victim/excuse gallery. After trekking through nearly 9,000 years of opium in the Golden Triangle, the exhibition ends in the aptly named “Hall of Reflection” – where visitors can reflect upon their experience in the presence of “[q]uotations from famous individuals… on the value of leading a life of moderation.” In addition to guiding the museum’s “Just Say No” narrative, HRH The Princess also enacted several crop substitution initiatives to help villagers transition away from opium cultivation for sustenance.

The House of Opium, on the other hand, is a private institution that appears more interpretive of the opium trade’s cultural effects. Owner Mrs. Patcharee Srimattayakul, who used to run a souvenir shop in Sob Ruak Village, was inspired to establish the museum when her knack for acquiring small antiques and curios led to felt disappointment at losing these culturally significant artifacts in the tourist trade. Alongside more standard information about opium history and practice, the House of Opium also includes a fascinating collection of anatomically bead pipes from the Srikasetra Period and contemporary art and photography. Appropriate given the owner’s former business, visitors can even “take back home with them their own collection of effigies, masks, opium pipes scales and boxes… and much more from the gift shop.”

Hall of Opium
Moo 1 Ban Sop Ruak, Tambon Wiang, Amphoe Chiang Saen,
Chiang Rai 57150
Tel: +66 (0) 5378 4444-6
Fax: +66 (0) 5365 2133
E-mail: hallofopium@doitung.org
more info

House of Opium
212 Moo.1 (Sobruak Village)
Tumbon Wiang, Umpoe Chinag Sean,
Chiang Rai Province
Thailand 57150
Tel: (+66) 53-784-060
FAX: (+66) 63-784-062
Email: bangkoktequila999@hotmail.com
more info

This month, NPR Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Sullivan introduces a five-part series focusing on the Mekong River. Beginning part at the river’s source in the central highlands of China, “Sullivan journeys the length of the river and tells the story of the people who live along its banks.” This part-travelogue/part-ethnography is also available via podcast and includes interactive maps, stunning visuals, and Sullivan’s award-winning reporting. Read on for summaries of parts 2 – 4 that chronicle Sullivan’s experience through Southeast Asia; part 5 coming soon!

Part 2: Sullivan reports from east-central Myanmar’s Shan state, which borders the Mekong. It’s a remote area that, like the river itself, has an often troubling past, in a country where reporters aren’t welcome. podcast | full article

Part 3: Sullivan travels to Thailand and Laos, which are on opposite sides of the river known in their local languages as Mae Nam Khong. The two countries found themselves in different camps after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975. Now, they face different challenges. | podcast | full article

Part 4: Sullivan reports from Cambodia, where the river has been central to the lives and livelihoods of many in a country that has seen its share of conflict | podcast – coming soon | full article

Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, CA, USA
8:00 pm, Thursday, 25 February 2010

Zee Avi uses very few ingredients to cook her food, but she chooses her flavors carefully. Sometimes it’s ukelele and words. Often, it’s just her guitar and her warm, unaffected voice. For rhythm, it’s brushes on a snare, and that’s about it.

Avi’s is a story of overnight success, and it shows the upside of quick discovery: she made it to our ears before anyone got in the way and encouraged her to sully the stew by adding more instruments. Growing up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, young Izyan Alirahman listened to music from the 1920s, and the straightforward, unadorned lyricism of those songs appealed to her. At that time, her aspirations were in the fashion world, so she moved to London and pursued a design degree.

Avi passed through listening phases, at times enjoying British indie pop, dance music, and hard rock, but kept returning to that older music’s honesty and simplicity. After falling out of love with the fashion world, she returned to Malaysia and began songwriting. First up was “Poppy,” a beautiful and vivid song about heroin addiction. The night after her first public performance as a singer, she flipped on her webcam and strapped on a call-center headset to record “Poppy,” intending to share it with a writer friend for feedback.

That recording was not intended as a star-making vehicle, but the editors at YouTube found this home recording and featured it on the site’s front page. The next day, admirers and record company reps started flooding her inbox. Soon thereafter, she changed her stage name to Zee Avi and went out on tour opening for Pete Yorn. The 23-year-old played at the Outside Lands Festival this past summer, and her new Bay Area fans have been awaiting her return ever since. (From NoisePop.com)

2010 NoisePop schedule | music | website

Wednesday, 17 February
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Australia, 2009, 111 min
English, Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian
Director: Robert Connolly
Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Oscar Isaac, Nathan Phillips, Damon Gameau, Gyton Grantley, Tom Wright, Mark Leonard Winter, Bea Viegas

Distributor: Madman Entertainment Inc, www.madman.com.au

Based on the book “Cover-Up” by Jill Jolliffe (2001), Balibo is the story of five Australian journalists who went missing just weeks prior to Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975, and the efforts of one man determined to find out what happened to them. Balibo is a momentous piece of storytelling, driven by powerhouse performances and sublime direction.

Traditional Timorese songs form a powerful part of the soundtrack and include a children’s choir from Timor opening the film with the powerful O HELE HO, the Fretilin military anthem FOHO RAMELAU, and the political song KOLELE MAI. The film concludes with Ego Lemo’s BALIBO, a Tetum language song composed for the film describing the experiences of the Balibo Five journalists the night before they were to die.

Emotionally engaging from start to end, this is a profound cinematic experience that sheds damning light on a 35 year old blind-spot in Australasian history.

-Courtesy Anders Wotzke in cutprintreview.com

BALIBO Official Film Trailer from Footprint Films.

IMDB Website | Official Movie Website | Variety Review | Download Poster

From all of us at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii, we wish you a wonderful Valentine’s day full of Aloha.

The Center’s office will be closed on Monday in observance of President’s Day.  We will resume normal hours of operation on Tuesday, February 16.

Click play to listen to this mp3. Please note sound files are not playable on mobile devices.

Friday, February 19 at 12:00 pm in Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
Presented by Ronald Gilliam, Online Development Coordinator – Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

In the past five years social networking sites have drastically gained in popularity, but many users have yet to discover the true power behind effectual social networking. Surprisingly, few academics and educational administrators use free social networking sites despite the fact that online communities such as Facebook.com originated with an academic focus. This presentation aims to showcase various social networking technologies and how they may be applied in an academic setting. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies social networking tools―Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, and Vimeo―will be used as a guide for our exploration and we will discuss examples of good/bad social networking habits. In addition, advice will be given on various online sources to aid academics and educational administrators in adapting to new online methods of communication.

Ronald Gilliam is currently a doctoral student in Asian theatre at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a Graduate Degree Fellow of the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. He previously received his MA from the Department of Performance Studies at New York University and his BA in Theatre and Chinese Language from Butler University. As a Graduate Assistant in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Ronald is responsible for the continuing online development of the Center’s web presence(s). Since joining the center in Fall 2009, Ronald has redesigned the SEA website and incorporated numerous social networking strategies in order to create a dynamic community on the web. He freelances as a graphic designer and marketing consultant through Colordrop.

Download Poster | Survey

Please send us your critical feedback by participating in these brief surveys to help assess our SEA Film Series, SEA Speaker Series, and the weekly announcement. Mahalo for your support and we look forward to receiving your responses! Please send us your critical feedback by participating in these brief surveys to help assess our programs, like the SEA Film Series , SEA Speaker Series, and weekly announcements. Mahalo for your support and we look forward to your responses!

SEA Film Series Survey | Weekly E-Announcements Survey