Speakers: Ryuko TANIGUCHI,
Tsutomu TOMOTSUNE,TUFS
Date: Thursday, 30 October 2014
The Sociolinguistics Dept. of ICJS has represented the Kaken project "Japanese as a Bond" with their findings.
Ryuko TANIGUCHI showed the historical and social background of Japanese in Taiwan and the responses of Japanese women in the families to a survey about Taipei Japanese Supplementary School.
The school not only passes on the Japanese language, but also provides support for these mothers and their children.
The presentation did not simply underline the necessity of language inheritance, but also featured interviews with those who had left the school.
Tsutomu TOMOTSUNE presented fieldwork conducted in California which reveals the symbolism of Japanese.
The image of Americans of Japanese descent can be romanticized, focusing on their internment during WW2, but they are by no means "preserving Japan in a foreign land".The third generation of Japanese-Americans have adapted religion and traditional culture to reflect their own interpretations and needs.
Their spiritual foundations appear to stem from participation in the civil rights movement and the experience of realizing their "Asian" identity. (Tatsuro MAEDA)
Poster ( PDF )
