Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far
and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver

UP Asian Center Alumna Kickstarts Murakami Festival with Opening Night Lecture

Details

Photo: Murakami Festival poster. Grabbed from the website of the Japan Foundation Manila.

The Opening Night of the Haruki Murakami Festival will feature a lecture by Dr. Alona Gueverra, alumna of the UP Asian Center’s Japanese graduate studies program. Her lecture, along with other presentations and performances, will be held on 27 February 2018, 5 pm to 7 pm at the Leong Hall Auditorium, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City.

Dr. Guevarra is faculty member of the Ateneo de Manila University. She finished her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines Diliman, with a dissertation on the works of Haruki Murakami.

Organized by The Japan Foundation, Manila, the Haruki Murakami Festival will run from 27 February to 24 March 2018 in various venues in Manila. The Festival features concerts, lectures, and film showings that help audiences discover and appreciate the work of Haruki Murakami.

Below are the subsequent events:

  • Screening of ‘Norwegian Wood’ (15 March 2018, 7 pm, UP Film Institute)
  • Screening of ‘Tony Takitani’ (16 March 2018, 7 pm, UP Film Institute)
  • Talking About Murakami (17 March 2 pm to 4 pm, Fully Booked Fort Bonifacio)
  • Murakami: Running and Writing (18 March 2 pm to 4 pm, Fully Booked, Fort Bonifacio Global City)
  • Listen to Haruki Murakami: Jazz, Classical Music, and the Beatles (23–24 March, Globe Auditorium, Maybank Performing Art Theatre, Bonifacio Global City Arts Center)

Admission to all the events is free. Registration is highly encouraged, but walk-ins welcome at a first-come, first-served basis.

The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Get an overview of these programs. The Asian Center also houses a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia. It has published several books and monographs, and hosts or organizes various lectures and conferences.