On December 6, 2024, the Center for Japanese Studies and the Center for Korean Studies co-sponsored a talk and book launch for Passing, Posing, Persuasion: Cultural Production and Coloniality in Japan’s East Asian Empire. The talk was held in the Center for Korean Studies Auditorium, and featured co-editors Christine Yi (Associate Professor, University of British Columbia) and Andre Haag (Associate Professor, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa). The book, also co-edited by Catherine Ryu, examines the interactions between cultural production, identity, and persuasive messaging within Japan’s East Asian empire (1895–1945).

 The event began with an introduction by Professor Christina Yi, discussing the publication journey of the book and its place within the filed of Japanese (-language) studies. Professor Andre Haag also shared his contribution to the volume. The talk addressed the cultural artifacts ranging from Meiji adaptations of Shakespeare and interwar mass media to wartime propaganda films, the collected chapters work together to emphasize the plurality and heterogeneity of empire, together with the contradictions and tensions of its ideologies of race, nation, and ethnicity. The discussion was moderated by David Krolikoski, Assistant Professor of Korean Literature.