Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
Hua Hu Jing is an ancient Taoist scripture that was written in China in the fourth century. The book stated that Lao Tzu, after having finished the Tao Te Ching and discovering Tao (the way with nature), left China for India, where he taught a disciple named Sakyamuni. This disciple founded a religion called Buddhism, … Read more
In the background of the war in Iraq is an invisible army. It is an army that numbers more than 30,000, yet few Americans have ever seen or heard them. They are low wage workers imported from South and Southeast Asia to cook food, wash laundry, and deliver fuel. They are what the military calls … Read more
The film chronicles the ongoing struggles of passengers who were aboard the Golden Venture, an immigrant smuggling ship that ran aground near New York City in 1993. Passengers had paid at least $30,000 to be brought to the U.S. from China’s Fujian Province, expecting to arrive indebted but unnoticed. But a seemingly golden opportunity quickly … Read more
About 10 percent of the world’s population (~360 million people) live on or near potentially dangerous volcanoes. Many of the processes that take place on active volcanoes are potentially hazardous to local populations. Emergence of volcanology as a modern multidisciplinary science was largely a result of volcanic catastrophes that occurred at Krakatau Volcano in Indonesia … Read more
Flying a sensor on a plane or satellite and taking “photos” of the earth is a remarkably useful way for scientists to explore our dynamic planet. This process, called remote sensing, is one of the most efficient ways to detect large scale surface cover changes. My research demonstrates that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a very … Read more
Film professor Zhenhai Tang will introduce and discuss mainland Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s Still Life (aka Sanxia Haoren), a last minute entry into the 2006 Venice Film Festival, that won the Golden Lion award thanks to its top-notch cinematography and wonderful storytelling. Still Life interweaves the story of a miner (Han Sanming) who travels thousands … Read more