2024-2025

By Chloe Jung '27 ‘mono no aware.’ From December 23, 2024 to January 13, 2025, as I traveled the expanse of mainland Japan and the small island of Okinawa, I employed this nebulous yet poignant Japanese aesthetic philosophy as a lens through which to explore the cultural, urban, and natural landscape that I saw before me. Roughly translated to “the pathos of things,” mono no aware essentially refers to the transience of nature that mirrors the transience of all things, including humanity. First coined by literary critic Motoori Norinaga (1730 – 1801), it became a way to express that, despite the finite lifespan of all things, there is true beauty in the ephemeral and impermanent. In order to make my own artistic understanding of mono no aware digestible, I utilized the resources pro...

By Gina Jeong '25 Can you recall some of basic life skill lessons that your school provided you in your elementary school? During the discussions of scenarios where we see somebody in need of help, we are always taught to offer help by asking ‘may I’ instead of ‘can I’ Why is that so? This is to prioritize the interest of the aid-receiver over the aid-giver. If the action is performed under a reversed interest, unnecessary or even actions that could worsen the recipient’s situation may be performed. Hence, education emphasizes the prevention of unintended consequences by the aid-giver.   The field of humanitarianism is a profession greatly driven by the human capacity for empathy. It is within our nature to desire to help alleviate the suffering of others, when we see others in a sit...

By Gina Jeong '25 Sabah is a state in East Malaysia, located on the northern part of Borneo island. From the early historic accounts of this region, Sabah, with its old name as Barune, was once ruled by Java in the 14th century. Towards the end of the 14th century going over to the 15th century, the Sultanate of Brunei, and the Sultanate of Sulu took over the power of the Northern Borneo region. Their territorial extent stretched along the northern coast of Borneo, and into the land of the north. The regime held political and economic power until the 18th century, when Sabah became a British protectorate. Alfred Dent, the leader of the British North Borneo Company made a treaty with the Sultan of Brunei and Sulu. During this period, BNBC was given full authority to the development of te...

 By Gina Jeong '25 Living as an international student CC, I had to go through many trial and error to find the perfect Asian restaurant to my taste. Having spent a good chunk of my childhood in Laos, my family’s Sunday brunch was always Vietnamese Pho. Turns out that such family tradition has led me to crave Pho no matter where I am.  Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup that consists of meat broth – usually beef, sometimes chicken – and rice noodles of different widths. Today, Pho has become a very popular dish worldwide. Pho is often served with a plate of fresh veggies that contains bean sprouts, coriander, lime, and Thai basil. Sometimes, you can add fried bread on the side to soak up all the good stuff from the soup. Pho restaurants will always have a tray of different sauces: ch...

By Gina Jeong 25' When I was a freshman, which was when I had just arrived in the US specifically in Colorado Springs, I quickly learned that the city does not have good Asian restaurants. Hence shortly after my class with Pak in Block 6, I joined the ensemble because Ibu – CC’s Balinese dance instructor and Pak’s wife – cooks amazing Balinese food, every time we perform at Music at Midday. Since then, I have been part of CC’s Gamelan Ensemble – Gamelan Tunjung Sari – until now, my last senior semester at CC. Gamelan has been very special for me, for it created a homely space, a human environment, and fun rehearsals. Although not all songs were easy to pick up, and there would be days when Pak would give me the ‘glare,’ it was always worth all the time put into practice when our show wa...

By Chloe Jung '27 This year’s Pacific Area Studies Annual Lecture, organized by the Asian Studies Department Program at Colorado College, hosted esteemed scholar and teacher of Japanese literature, as Reginald Jackson from the University of Michigan. Dr. Jackson earned his B.A. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Amherst University in 2001 and his P.h.D in East Asian Studies from Princeton University in 2007 before joining the Asian Languages faculty at Yale University and University of Chicago. In 2015, he entered the University of Michigan as a scholar of ancient Japanese literature and has since expanded his studies into areas such as performance, race, and queerness. He is now the Associate Professor of Premodern Japanese Literature and Performance at the University o...