Manga Symposium #6: Dr. Grace Ting, “Cats, Single Ladies, and Manga: Feminist Fantasies of Cohabitation in East Asian Discourses” (Thurs., 4/4, 2024)
Time: from 12:50 to 2:00 pm
Location: Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010
Venue: VC-4-165
Abstract:
My talk opens with an analysis of the 2023 anime series The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today (Dekiru neko wa kyō mo yūutsu), based on a manga by Yamada Hitsuji. The Masterful Cat depicts an incompetent protagonist who cannot cook and has an apartment full of trash before her new cat begins to manage her household. From a queer feminist perspective, how might we analyze the depiction of an utterly fulfilling lifestyle in which a cat prepares dinner everyday for an unmarried young woman?
This manga can be contextualized within Japanese popular cultural representations of platonic cohabitation as well as anthropomorphic cats functioning as charming figures. In particular, I read The Masterful Cat against recent manga discourses about women building everyday lives together, especially those LGBTQ-friendly in nature.
At the same time, these texts are linked to broader transnational discussions within East Asia concerning heteronormative pressures regarding marriage and reproduction. My talk touches upon Two Women Live Together (2019), a Korean essay collection by Kim Hana and Sunwoo Hwang that details the cohabitation of two women and four cats, as well as the term sheng nü (“leftover woman”) and struggles over reproduction in mainland China. Especially compared with so-called “radical” East Asian feminisms harshly denouncing heterosexual marriage and childbirth, what kind of critique does Japanese popular culture offer?
About the Lecturer:
Grace En-Yi Ting is an assistant professor of gender studies at the University of Hong Kong, specializing in queer feminist approaches to Japanese literature and popular culture, particularly women writers and girls’ culture. She also writes on race and gender in academia. Her recent work reorients Japanese literature through transnational encounters with the Sinophone and women of color feminisms, theorizing a queer feminist ethical praxis for marginalized readers in diasporic Asian contexts.
Co-organized by The Japanese Program in Modern Languages and Comparative Literatuer and Baruch Japan Club and sponsored by the Harman Writer-in-Residence Program.
Should you have any questions/concerns, please contact Professor Shige (CJ) Suzuki SHIGERU.SUZUKI@baruch.cuny.edu
Translation Workshop #2: Translating Manga in the Simulpub Age, featuring David Everlyn (April 14th, 2022)
The Japanese Program and Baruch Japan Club will be co-hosting an event about Japanese culture and translation. For the 2nd “Translation Workshop,” we have invited David Evelyn, a translator of manga, light novels, and video games. The first half of the event introduces how he became interested in Japanese culture, including manga, and has built his career in the industry. The latter half of the workshop is devoted to a hands-on translation exercise in which participants translate actual passages taken from manga with the knowledge of tanka, a form of Japanese classic poetry.
Date: Tuesday, April 26th, 2022
Times: 12:40 pm to 2:00 pm
Venue: Zoom
Organized by The Baruch Japanese Program in conjunction with Baruch Japan Club
Sponsored by The Sidney Harman Writer-In-Residence Program
https://weissman.baruch.cuny.edu/arts-and-culture-at-weissman/the-sidney-harman-writer-in-residence-program/
Translation Workshop #1: Translating Multimodal Texts, feat. Kristi Fernandez (November 19th, 2020)
The Japanese Program and Baruch Japan Club will be co-hostinh an event about Japanese culture and translation. We have invited Ms. Kristi Fernandez, a professional manga editor and translator. The event introduces how she turned her passion into the current job, followed by a mini-translation workshop.
Short Bio:
Kristi Fernandez is a professional manga editor and translator who has translated Japanese to English projects for HBO, Kodansha Comics, Yen Press, and more. Her most recent translations include the Granblue Fantasy manga series, as well as the manga Farming Life in Another World. She is also the founder of “Japanese Translators of NYC,” a group for aspiring and experienced translators who strive to hone their skills together. She has worked as a manga editor for Vertical Comics, and now works full-time as the Managing Translator at J-Novel Club.
Strange Weather in Translation: Allison Markin Powell on Translating Hiromi Kawakami (Tues., August 20th, 2019)
This event was organized by the Japanese Translators of New York City, hosted by the Japanese Program at Baruch College. Allison Marking Powell is a well-known Japanese literary translator who has translated Hiromi Kawakami’s The Briefcase, Osamu Dazai’s Schoolgirl, etc. In addition to translating, she works as an editor and publishing consultant, and currently serves as cochair of PEN America’s Translation Committee.
Manga Symposium #5
Untold History of Japanese Comics: Prewar and LGBTQ+ Manga (Thursday, April 18th, 2019)
In this 5th installment of the manga symposium series, we have invited two professionals who are active in the field of manga studies and manga translation: Dr. Andrea Horbinski (scholar and historian) and Anne Ishii (writer, translator, and critic). See their bios and talk titles below.
Benjamin Boas Talk Event: “How I Published My Own Manga in Japan.” (Thursday, September 6th, 2018)
In conjunction with Baruch Japan Club and Anime Asylum at Baruch, the Japanese Program invited Mr. Benjamin Boas, the author/translator/speaker and the Tourism Ambassador for Nakano Ward, Tokyo on campus.
Manga Symposium #4
Manga/Comics against Human Trafficking (Thursday, April 12th 2018)
The Japanese Program at Baruch College and Baruch Japan Club presents an Art-A-Thon event this Thursday. We have invited Ms. Natsuko Utsumi, found of Cause Vision, a NGO that creates and distributes comics for ares across the globe to raise awareness of the human trafficking menaces among young people. The event was held in conjunction with the Art-A-Thon event at Baruch College, organized by the WSAS dean’s office.
communication/education medium. Two students Maria E Garcia and Vanessa M Almonte presented their experiences of translating “Where is Delyan?” and create a Spanish version: “¿Dónde está Dylan?”
Ms. Natsuko Utsumi discussed the mission and her experience of creating and distributing manga/comics that inform the danger of human trafficking in different parts of the globe.
Manga/Comics and Translation Symposium at Baruch College (April 6th, 2017)
Manga Symposium #3: Manga/Comics and Translation
This symposium invites scholars, translators, and professionals to discuss various processes and challenges of translating Japanese-language comics (manga) into English. It will illuminate the relatively invisible “work” of manga/comics translators, including their skills and challenges. In addition, the symposium will also highlight the specific nature of comics/manga medium. Unlike translation of text-based literary works, the translation of comics (manga) involved its media specific elements, including comics publishing conventions, reading orders, its formal nature (i.e. the image-word hybrid form), etc.
*The photos above are the covers of the manga titles translated by the invited guest lecturers/translators.
The invited guest lecturers/translators are:
– Dr. Mari Morimoto (DVM), a NYC-based translator of Japanese comics
– Dr. Ryan Holmberg, an art historian/translator (Duke University)
– Professor George Touris, an instructor (CUNY)
– Dr. Shige (CJ) Suzuki, Baruch College (Baruch College, CUNY)
Date: April 6th, 2017
Time: 12:40 to 2:05 pm (club hours)
Place: VC7-150 (Vertical Campus 7th floor #150)
The Vertical Campus is the “B” building of the map on the following website. Enter from the door located at the corner of East 24th and Lexington Avenue.
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/map.html
Please go to the following page and complete the registration. *Due to the limited availability of the seats, all attendees must register.
https://goo.gl/forms/dRIH9FdqelYrBqNg2
The event is open to all. Individuals who are not affiliated with Baruch College needs to present your ID to the security officer at the entrance.
Main Guest Speakers:
(1) Dr. Mari Morimoto
Osaka-born and Manhattan-raised, Mari never strayed far from urbanity until she spent nine years at Cornell. Actually, it’s Dr. Morimoto, whose “real job” as a big city veterinarian often wars with her “moonlighting” as a freelance manga translator. She got her foot in the door with VIZ Media through luck and circumstance, and since then has expanded her resume to include panelist, panel leader, Guest of Honor personal assistant and interpreter, and Guest of Honor at several northeast conventions. She has also contributed several articles to the English edition of SHONEN JUMP. A highlight of her translating career was meeting and rubbing elbows with Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama. As a child, she had the honor of meeting the late Osamu Tezuka. Her current titles are Naruto, Inuyasha, and Dragon Eye, but she has also previously translated Dragonball, Maison Ikkoku, One Pound Gospel, Knights of the Zodiac, and the DiGi Charat anthology.
(2) Dr. Ryan Holmberg
Dr. Ryan Holmberg is a Visiting Lecturer at Duke University, and an Academic Associate of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. As a freelance art historian and critic, he is a frequent contributor to The Comics Journal, Artforum International, and Art in America. As an editor and translator of manga, he has worked with Breakdown Press, Drawn & Quarterly, Retrofit Comics, and PictureBox Inc. His edition of Tezuka Osamu’s The Mysterious Underground Men (PictureBox) won the 2014 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material: Asia. He is also the author of Garo Manga: The First Decade, 1964–1973 (Center for Book Arts, 2010).
The symposium is organized by the Japanese program with assistance of Baruch Japan Club. It is sponsored by the Center for Global Partnership, the Globus Lecture Series and the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature, and Baruch Japan Club.
Manga Calligraphy Workshop w/ Baruch Japan Club (Thursday, 17th, 2016)
The Baruch Japanese Program in conjunction with Baruch Japan Club will host a calligraphy workshop on Thursday, November 17th during the club hours. You will learn and practice calligraphy in the session! Bring your favorite Japanese words/kanji in order to demonstrate them in calligraphy! 
The Alt-Manga Symposium (Thursday, April 7th, 2016 at Baruch College)
The Japanese Program at Baruch College and Baruch Japan Club will present the “Alt-Manga Symposium” on April 7th (Thursday) at Baruch College.
The “Alt-Manga Symposium” invites scholars, professionals, and artists in and around the city of New York to give lectures and conversations about Japanese comics known as manga. One of the primary objectives of the symposium is to show the rich and diverse world of Japanese comics with a focus on Japanese alternative and non-mainstream manga, and their development in both domestic and transnational contexts. The invited guest lecturers/artists are Akino Kondoh (NY-based manga/visual artist), Erica Friedman (the Founder of Yuricon, ALC Publishing), George Tsouris (professor of Japanese literature and philosophy), and Professor Shige (CJ) Suzuki (organizer). The planned symposium is the successor of last year’s “Shōjo Manga Symposium” held at CUNY, Baruch College, and the “Shōjo Manga Exhibition” (Feb. 7 – Feb 27, 2015).
![2016 Spring - Alt-Manga Symposium [Web]](https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/japanese/files/2016/03/2016-Spring-Alt-Manga-Symposium-Web.png)
Shojo Manga Exhibit and Mini-Symposium “Globalized Manga Culture and Fandom”
Symposium: Globalized Manga Culture and Fandom: Thursday, February 19, 12:40 to 2:20 p.m. Call Gallery for location. Speakers: Dr. Masami Toku, Professor at California State University, Chico; Dr. Kathryn Hemmann, Assistant Professor at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA; and Mr. Ed Chavez, Marketing Director at Vertical, Inc. The symposium is sponsored by the Japan Foundation, New York.
In collaboration with Baruch’s Sidney Mishkin Gallery, the Japanese Program in the Department of Modern Languages, and the Japan Foundation in New York, we will be hosting a Shōjo Manga Symposium.
Guest speakers include Dr. Masami Toku a Professor of Art Education from the California State University, Chico, Mr. Ed Chavez the Marketing Director at Vertical, Inc., and Dr. Kathryn Hemmann an Assistant Professor at George Mason University will be coming to discuss Japanese Visual Culture through the medium of manga (graphic novels or comics). This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition World of Shōjo Manga: Mirrors of Girls’ Desires happening at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery from February 4 – February 27th, 2015.
Hokuzan High School Students Visited Baruch College (March 3rd, 2015).
As the part of the Kakehashi Project, students from Hokuzan High School (Okinawa, Japan) visited Baruch College in Spring 2015 semester!
This Middle and High School Dispatch Program was part of the the KAKEHASHI project (see below). There were several presentations and Okinawan karate and dance performances. Baruch students were asked to use the Japanese language in interacting with Japanese students.
The program was funded and organized by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Tokyo-based Japan Foundation Youth Exchange Bureau (YEB). The Laurasian Institution (TLI), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization,was responsible for preparation and post-program aspects for all US participants. Additionally, TLI facilitated and led the US programs for student groups coming from Japan.
Schools who participated in the Kakehashi trips to Japan agreed to host a group of high school students from Japan for four days and three nights. These groups visited the United States between October 2013 and March 2015. Their trip involved a study tour in major cities, as well as a homestay with one of the participating American high schools.
World of Shojo Manga: Mirrors of Girls’ Desires At the Mishkin Gallery, February 4th – 27th, 2015
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/news/shojo-manga-baruch.htm
NEW YORK, NY- February 5, 2015- Baruch College will present the exhibition World of ShÅjo Manga: Mirrors of Girls’ Desires at the Mishkin Gallery from Wednesday, February 4 to Friday, February 27, 2014. An opening reception will take place on Tuesday, February 3, from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Japanese manga (graphic novels or comics) have assumed an increasingly important role not only in Japanese pop culture, but also on the worldwide stage in the twenty-first century. This exhibition of shōjo (girls’) manga is the first to focus on this unique genre. The show also highlights the specific phenomenon of women’s changing roles and expectations in Japan, thus facilitating a significant discussion of gender in manga and in Japanese culture as a whole.
Modern manga developed in Japan during the Occupation and the post-Occupation years (from 1945 to the early 1960s) as entertainment for children. It is comprised of themes ranging from historical drama, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and horror. Japanese manga has split into boys’ (shōnen) and girls’ (shõjo) manga, each developing in its own way, with its own specific themes. Regardless of the subject, the main theme in boy’s manga is competitive fighting. It shows how the boy-heroes become men by protecting women, family, country, or the earth from enemies.
Shōjo, or girls’, manga, on the other hand, contends that the most important goal for girls is to find love through the process of overcoming obstacles. Over time, the topics in shÅjo manga have changed and diversified in response to girls’ expectations in the years since World War II. They now reflect a broad range of female desires and concerns for individual identity.
Manga uses a complex visual grammar that has developed in response to the increasing number of mature adult readers who expect sophisticated plots and character development. The depiction of three elements: pictures, words, and panels, changes according to the characters’ emotions, interior psychological states, external voices or silent thoughts. The variations in use of the pictures, words, and panels also reveal shifts in time between the past, present, and future.
The exhibition features 12 artists and includes 59 drawings, watercolors, and reprinted illustrations, as well as shÅjo manga books and magazines. Dr. Masami Toku, curator of the show, has selected artists who represent the three periods in the development of shÅjo manga: the dawn of shÅjo manga around World War II; the diversification of shÅjo manga in the 1970s; and a new direction in the 21st century as shÅjo manga incorporates the influences of the global comic market.
For information about this exhibition or symposium, please call Gallery Director, Sandra Kraskin, at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery (646) 660-6652.
Monkey Business Vol.4 Launch Event: Japanese Contemporary Writers Coming to Baruch! (May 5th, 2014)
What and How We Are Writing: Two Japanese Authors Talk About Their Work
EnJoe and Furukawa will discuss and read their work with Kelts as a commentator.
Baruch College VC 14-280 14th floor #280
One Bernard Baruch Way (55 Lexington Ave at 24th St) New York, NY 10010
*This is a special class open to the public. Please tell the security at the entrance that you are here for the event. Free.
Date: Monday, May 5th
Time: 12:50 – 2:15
Place: Baruch College VC14-280
To celebrate the 4th issue launch, the magazine’s contributing authors Toh EnJoe, Hideo Furukawa, Laird Hunt, Matthew Sharpe, founding editors Motoyuki Shibata and Ted Goossen, contributing editor, Roland Kelts will be coming to New York and have discussion events in various locations. Please come meet us!
Monkey Business International is the in-translation offspring of the Tokyo-based magazine Monkey Business, which was founded in 2008 by Motoyuki Shibata, one of Japan’s most highly regarded men of letters. MBI aims to translate and present a wide array of established and emerging authors, showcasing the best of contemporary Japanese literature. http://monkeybusinessmag.tumblr.com/
Kakehashi Project – The Bridge for Tomorrow
The Japan Foundation presents the “KAKEHASHI Project – The Bridge for Tomorrow” as part of the Youth Exchange Program with North America promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA).
Students from CUNY campuses joined this program in May, 2013. From Baruch College, 5 students join in the program! Check out the clip made by Brian Caraveo, participant of the program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3132Ej3UBks
A group of student from Chiba University, Japan visited Baruch College (March 5th, 2013)
The KAKEHASHI Project aims to heighten potential interest in Japan and increase the number of overseas visitors to the country, as well as enhance international understanding of the “Japan brand,” or the nation’s strengths and attractiveness, such as Japanese-style values and “Cool Japan.” The project is also anticipated to revitalize and boost the Japanese economy.
Okinawan Music & Dance Workshop at Resobox (December 12th, 2012)
Professor Suzuki invited Baruch students to Resobox, a Japanese cultural spot/gallery, for learning Okinawan Music and Dance in Queens, NY. This is also part of the culture course in the Japanese program at Baruch College.
