2021 Activity Report
December Activity Report
31 December 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
While the HSE was doing distance learning, students from the School of Asian Studies took part in a city festival held at the Russian State Youth Library, supported by the Japanese Embassy in Moscow.
December 11: Kabuki on Japan Culture Day, Matryoshka comes to Comicia!
The Moscow International Comics Festival “Comicia” (ComMission) has been taking place since 2002. Initially only one exhibition was planned, but soon the project became a major annual event and over the years foreign guests began to participate. The mission of the festival is to develop the art of comics in Russia, to support domestic artists working in the field of illustrated stories and related professions (animation, illustration, film, design, etc.), and to promote generational change. At the festival, you can also meet famous cartoonists from all over the world.
The Matryoshka-san Festival is an organization that carries out projects of cultural exchange between Russia and Japan. The organization aims to foster intercultural ties between Russia and Japan. Its main task is to organize events such as performances by artists and martial artists and hold master classes by Russian and Japanese cultural leaders.
This year, for the first time, Matryoshka-san organized the Japanese Culture Day within the framework of Comicia, The event was held at the Russian State Youth Library with the support of the Japanese Embassy in Russia.
The program offered a wealth of events: Lectures on Japanese yokai and Japanese rock and roll, book presentations, demonstrations of Japanese martial arts (sumo, aikido, karate, kenjutsu, kendo), Japanese music and dance performances, a Lolita fashion show, and a cosplay competition. In addition, master classes in origami, temari, and sumi-e were held in the library. The centerpiece of this incredibly diverse and vibrant program was a Kabuki performance by students from the School of Asian Studies of “Benten Kozo”.
For the students, this was already their second performance of this play, so they were not so nervous. In this production, the students were able to perform almost all of the major Japanese performing arts, including shamisen playing, dancing, and singing. The students studying classical Japanese theatrical traditions tried to convey as much as possible the atmosphere of an authentic Kabuki performance with the help of music, costumes and makeup, acting, special props, and kuroko stagehands.
But most importantly, thanks to the special conditions granted by the city to the library, the students were able, despite the strict HSE restrictions, to participate in the city’s events, demonstrate their talents to the public, and let all the guests see the unique Japanese tradition of Kabuki. I wish the students all the best in their further development and look forward to their new performances!
The HSE will be back offline again next January. See you next time!
November Activity Report
30 November 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
On November 8, the School of Asian Studies hosted an online lecture by Dr. Alexander Dolin, a renowned contemporary scholar of Japanese culture, translator of classical Japanese poetry, author, poet, and professor in the School of Asian Studies. The theme of the lecture was, “Medieval Japanese Classical Poetry in Russia, and its Study and Translation in Modern Times—Conclusion and Prospects.”
In the introduction to his lecture, Professor Dolin talked about the characteristics of his research and translation activities.
Professor Dolin’s main area of expertise is in Japanese literature, especially Japanese classical poetry and modern classical poetry of the 20th century. He has also written articles on a variety of Japanese topics, including Japanese education and the problem of the socially reclusive (hikikomori) in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Professor Dolin is an extremely prolific translator and writer, having published over 50 collections of Japanese poetry. All of his publications over the years have been large-scale projects consisting of several series. For example, there are genre-specific series consisting of classical medieval haiku, modern haiku, contemporary tanka, modern poetry, and contemporary poetry. There are also poetry collections of Japanese travel poetry (from ancient to medieval), and a collection of religious poetry from the Nara period to the late Edo period, and Buddhist poetry published in 2020. The collections of Buddhist poetry present tanka poems, long poems, poems from the Heike Monogatari, rhymed poems, and Chinese poems. There is still nothing like this collection of poetry in the world.
In addition to translating Japanese poetry, in 2021 Professor Dolin published his own collection of poems written mainly during his stay in Japan, where he lived for over 20 years.
The professor also talked about what poems and which books of poetry published in Japan he would refer to in order to translate his own poetry collection.
When choosing works, the professor said he mainly relies on Japanese literary critics.
The professor’s academic and translation interests also include the study of inscription poetry, i.e., the poems of great Japanese poets inscribed on commemorative stone monuments. Apparently, no one in the Russian-speaking world has conducted research in this intellectual field. And the Japanese themselves are just beginning to do research in this field. Recently, in Japan, the first book dedicated solely to Basho’s poems on 3,500 stone monuments in Japan has been published. These monuments and poems are illustrated and catalogued. And it is a book of Basho’s poems only. But all the major poets had 500 to 2000 such monuments. In other words, this is a huge cultural heritage. Meanwhile, the professor began to study the poetry monuments of Masaoka Shiki, the greatest tanka poet and haiku poet of our time.
The professor also told us how he chose the illustrations and calligraphic works for the design of his books.
At present, the very famous and wonderful publishing house Nauka is preparing to publish an eight-volume work entitled, “The Great Library of Japanese Poetry”, translated by Professor Dolin. In it, various genres of Japanese poetry from the 7th to the 20th century are presented. It was interesting to hear the professor’s opinion about the gradual deterioration of Japanese poetry through the 21st century, and how it “declined” from great professional poetry to a kind of amateur practice poetry.
According to the professor, however, this decline does not only apply to Japanese poetry. The same sad trend can be observed in Russia. The professor believes that the history of true classical Japanese poetry came to a temporary halt in the 20th century, which is why he has not translated any 21st century poetry.
In the main part of the lecture, the professor talked about the history of the study of Japanese poetry in the world. Interestingly, the first lovers and researchers of Japanese culture at the beginning of the 20th century could not understand Japanese poetry, because the peculiarities of Japanese aesthetics were not yet known in Russia or in Europe. They could not appreciate the beauty of such poetic aesthetics as yugen, mono no aware, and wabi-sabi. However, as more and more aspects of Japanese became popular, Russian and European poets began to pay attention to Japanese poetry and made efforts to translate many of the Japanese classics.
Professor Dolin went on to talk about his own teacher’s first attempts at translating Japanese poetry, which did not always go well, and gave examples of translations. And he talked about the principles of Japanese poetry translation used in poetry work. It should be noted that in Soviet Russia there was the best school of poetry in the world, but unfortunately there were very few translators of Japanese poetry. Therefore, he says that the purpose of his work is to “revive” the imagry and aesthetics of Japanese poetry and improve translation techniques while maintaining the size of the poem as much as possible when translating it into Russian. May Russian readers fully enjoy his wonderful examples of Japanese poetic tradition.
Finally, the professor answered the audience’s questions.
October Activity Report
31 October 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
Unfortunately, the incidence of new coronaviruses continues to increase throughout Russia, especially in Moscow, and in connection with this, the mayor of Moscow has introduced some restrictions on the holding of large events, etc., starting on October 25. The president of the Higher School of Economics also signed an order to return classes to online mode from the same day, except for classes with programs that require special equipment. For example, in relatively new departments such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Biochemistry, students can study in laboratories in groups of no more than 15 students. Unfortunately, the School of Oriental Studies does not require any special facilities, so after the fall exam period, which took place from October 18 to 23, all classes and lectures in the Oriental Studies program returned to a fully online format.
Nevertheless, many events related to Japan were held in Moscow in October and HSE students and Japan fans were able to participate. The biggest one was J-FEST, a festival of contemporary Japanese culture that has been held in Moscow since 2009. This year's festival featured more than 100 events, including lectures, masterclasses and concerts, covering tourism, contemporary art, music, dance games, Japanese history and language, popular culture (Fashion, shows and advertising), martial arts, Japanese cuisine and traditional arts. The closing ceremony of the festival is scheduled for November 26.
Along with some of the most active students who are passionate about traditional Japanese arts, I participated in master classes on Kimono dressing and Japanese tea ceremony demonstration. In a short time, but thanks to the efforts of the festival organizers, we were able to dive into the wonderful spiritual world of traditional Japanese culture.
I hope that during this time all the restrictions will be effective and that one day we will be able to return to normal life.
September Activity Report
30 September 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
The school year has started at the HSE.
All seminars and workshops are offline, but many lectures remain online. It is also prohibited to hold large events with more than 50 people.
Japanese scholars of the new future
This year, 60 students were admitted to the faculty of Oriental Studies. I have been teaching Japanese in one of the four groups for several consecutive years. In my group there are 15 students from different cities in Russia. I always ask them a few questions in the first class. Why did you decide to choose Japanese? Have you studied Japanese before? And as always, the most common reason they wanted to learn Japanese was the anime they watched in elementary and middle school. More than half of the group answered that way. In addition, four of the students have already started learning Japanese, either on their own or with a tutor. Most of the time, such students are already so passionate about the language and culture that they seldom ask themselves if they have chosen the right department. They will actively follow the path they chose, even when their motivation wanes or difficulties arise that they need to overcome. Some people chose Japanese for no particular reason. They think it's cool to learn Japanese and Japanese culture, but they weren't particularly interested in before they enrolled. Now I am curious to see if they get hooked on the Japanese language and culture and motivated to learn. I try as instructors to keep them interested, discover new things on our own, and make sure there is no doubt about their choice of specialty. After all, when we learn foreign a language or culture, we come to know ourselves far better.
September 12: Japan-Russia Conversation Club "Hey! Say!" meeting
The first meeting of the Conversation Club "Hey! Say!" was held on September 12.
At first, the meeting was originally scheduled to meet on-site, and people expected to attend this long-awaited meeting on the campus of the Department of Oriental Studies.
Unfortunately, things had changed again and the organizers decided to hold it in remote format.
Nevertheless, the meeting had a very warm atmosphere. It was attended also by Japanese people. Since it was after the summer vacation, the theme of the first meeting was of course about "summer vacation". The organizers plan to hold a meeting every two weeks according to the schedule.
August Activity Report
5 September 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
As pandemic regulations continue, it remains difficult to visit Japan and the opportunity to participate in various online education programs is invaluable. This year again, HSE students participated in the online TUFS Japan-Russia summer school.
Impressions of Participants from Online TUFS Japan-Russia Summer School 2021: HSE
For two weeks, Russian students and Japanese students majoring in Russian language gathered and studied their language and culture with each other. Russian students are from Moscow State University (MGU), Higher School of Economics (HSE), Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), and Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU), and Japanese students are from TUFS and Kobe City University of Foreign Studies (KUFS). The course included a class on tandem learning of Russian and Japanese, a workshop on subtitle translation by Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy (JVTA), a video on Japanese business culture, a lecture on contemporary Japanese literature by Maria Prokhorova, a graduate student of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and a lecture by Denis Morozov, senior manager of JIC Travel Center. He also took students a virtual tour of Tokyo.
We asked the summer school participants from HSE to share their impressions.
Bogdan Dmiterko
The online school met my expectations. The tandem classes with native speakers had a great effect. The Japanese students did not hesitate to point out my mistakes in speaking and writing, which helped me to understand which aspects of my language skills needed to be improved. Discussions on topics such as literature, schooling, and ethnic music were a natural complement to language learning and allowed me to see how Japanese students perceive their own culture and society from the "inside".
Finally, the film and animation subtitling workshop was a good exercise in translating content with cultural elements. It was exciting to work together to translate a piece of work while discussing it in both languages.
I would recommend the summer school to Japanese language students.
Polina Kukhareva
The most interesting class of the summer school was the tandem class with Japanese students. It helped me to listen more carefully to my interlocutors as we had to discuss a given topic and write an essay based on the results.
The lecture on contemporary literature and the online tour of Tokyo were also very interesting. The movie subtitling workshop was a little long. It was difficult to understand the whole lecture in Japanese, and the films were not very well screened There was too much slang.
I think that participating in the summer school is a good opportunity to train both English and Japanese language and learn something new about Japanese culture.
Yury Samokhin
My first impression is about the atmosphere in class. The course curator, Prof. Arai, and the head of tandem training, Prof. Benjamin Larson, were more than happy to answer any questions and listen to all the comments, thoughts, and hopes from the students. In my opinion, working in pairs is an excellent way to do this because my partner and I were able to adapt to each other's characteristics. Some were more open in setting the direction of the dialogue, while others were less open and conformed to a set direction. But the most important thing for me was a frank environment where students could be more open and express their opinions about culture and language.
Another important aspect was the mini-essay we wrote based on our 20 minutes of dialogue. Checking the essays helped us both understand which phrases sounded most natural to native speakers. However, I found that reading out the checked essays in front of other students was the same as practicing reading the textbook during our own university classes, both for us and the Japanese students. And since the essays took less than 30 minutes to write and did not contain any particularly difficult words or phrases, reading them did not present any particular problems.
In short, the 20-minute session was the most useful for me. In this session, Japanese students and I talked about various topics in an informal atmosphere. This was a really good opportunity for me to practice conversational Japanese, because lately I have been dealing with more serious materials such as official texts and newspaper articles at the university, and sometimes I am not able to have simple conversations on everyday topics.
Maria Shalyakina
The online TUFS Japan-Russia Summer School 2021 was a very valuable experience for me. I learned about tandem language learning for the first time here. In particular, I think this method is very good for overcoming language barriers. Even if you are from another country, when you see the same students all the time, you can get over your confusion and start talking without fear of making mistakes. The lectures opened up new aspects of Japan for me, namely the world of modern literature and some of the tourist attractions in Tokyo. The workshop on subtitle translation was very interesting. Not only did we have to deal with the peculiarities of subtitling, such as character limits, but we also had to deal with the problem of translating slang.
July Activity Report
31 July 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
In July, HSE students take summer holidays and teachers take vacations. It's time to look back over the past year and see what has worked and what can be improved and plan for next year. And for our students, it's time for high school students to apply for their favorite university.
Sometimes students enter the School of Asian Studies without studying for special entrance exams. After a year, it will be clear whether they want to continue their studies in the challenging program of the Oriental Studies Department and continue to learn Oriental languages and the culture of the country whose language they are studying. So I ask two students of Japanese language who have successfully completed their first year and are now entering their second year how the 2020-2021 school year went and what their hopes are for the future.
"Oriental Studies, Japanese, HSE"
Dmitry Kolesnikov
I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I was in high school, but at that time my English teacher gave me a unique opportunity to learn Japanese. To my surprise, I dedicated my summer vacation to the textbook "Minna no Nihongo" instead of playing with my friends. For a long time, I had not been able to choose my field of expertise until I found Oriental Studies at HSE. As soon as the class started, I realized that I had made the right choice. I was able to dive into the rich world of Japanese culture. I was pleasantly surprised to find that HSE offers many opportunities for self-realization. I am confident that after graduation, I will have acquired not only the theoretical knowledge but also the necessary skills. During my freshman year, one of my passions was participating in Japanese theater projects. I even got to play the role of an Edo period antique merchant on stage. The advantage of HSE is that it is not only a theoretical development of the field, but also a thriving variety of activities. Over the course of a year, my stereotypical view of Japan has faded and I now have a strong desire to learn Japanese and the culture of the "Land of the Rising Sun".
I'm looking forward to next year's class. First of all, I want to improve my knowledge of Japanese so that I can continue to have conversations with Japanese people on any topic. I would also like to gain a better understanding of Japanese culture and clarify the areas in which I will study in the future. We will continue to participate in the Kabuki theater project. I am also thinking about participating in other projects and clubs related to Japan.
Yana Burkhovetskaya
Oriental studies, Japanese and HSE were not my first specialties. I lived in Vladivostok for two years, where I majored in International Conflict Studies. But by the middle of my second year, I began to realize that neither my field nor my university gave me the future I wanted. I had learned Japanese since high school, albeit only intermittently. When I was interested in Japanese literature before, I was confronted with the unfortunate fact that many works have not yet been translated into Russian. There have been many crises in my language learning. It was the lack of time, and what I initially called "disappointment in the Japanese people," but it is a complicated Japanese psyche. But in 2020 I finally decided to come back to the West and enroll in HSE. This time I didn't have any doubts about which specialization I would study. Oriental Studies completely satisfied my academic and creative needs, and HSE gave me hope for my future self-realization.
Orientalism, Japanese and HSE were not my first decisions. I lived and studied in Vladivostok for two years, majoring in international conflict management. By the middle of my second year, however, I began to realize that neither my field nor my university offered me a desirable future. The degree of success varies, but I study Japanese from school. A long time ago, I was interested in Japanese literature and faced the unpleasant fact that there were many works that had not yet been translated into Russian. There were many crises in my language study. This is a lack of time, and it is a complicated Japanese spirit that was first called "Japanese Disappointment". But in 2020, I finally decided to go back to the west of the country and join the HSE. This time, I didn't hesitate which field to study. Orientalism fully met my academic and creative needs, and the Faculty of Higher Economics gave me hope for my future realization.
My first year at HSE has not been easy, but it has been interesting. There was definitely a shift in my consciousness and understanding of the Japanese and their culture. The Japanese no longer seemed incomprehensible and cold to me, and I understood why they couldn't say "no" or why they started ignoring me. My own Japanese studies changed me a lot, and I was happily writing kanji day and night. It became a kind of meditation for me. While I was writing the kanji, I was able to think about many things, deal with my problems, and find solutions while maintaining a peaceful mind.
What do you expect from the new semester? Of course, new knowledge, and I hope to improve my Japanese and learn more about Japanese history and culture. I am looking forward to my Japanese film class. I also hope to learn about color in Japanese and participate in an internship at the Museum of Oriental Art to get an insider's view of how museums work and organize exhibitions.
June Activity Report
30 June 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
At the beginning of June, the School of Young Orientalists (SYO) was finished. It was a special program for students, especially high school students, to help understand what orientalism is and decide whether or not to make it their profession in the future. This is the main purpose of this school, but in addition, the program provides opportunities to learn cultures and languages from countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, and Middle Eastern countries where Arabic is the official language. This year, due to restrictions imposed on the HSE to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the SYO has moved completely online. We decided to speak with the new director, Ilya Buturlin, a graduate of the Oriental Department at HSE and now a teacher at the school. He told me about the changes in this year's SYO, how the online format affected the work of SYO, and of course what interesting things happened to young Japanese enthusiasts.
"School of Young Orientalists: The Year of Challenging Online"
Q: Mr. Ilya, thank you for taking the time for this interview. The first question. How have SYO participants changed with the full online migration?
A: Because the recruitment was done online, I don't know exactly who applied. We received 927 applications throughout the year. (In FY 2019 – 2020, we received approximately 300 applications.) While the main participants remain unchanged, the overwhelming majority are high school students in grades 10, 11, and 9. The second largest participant is junior high school students from fifth to eighth grade. Sometimes parents send us emails instead, and it's interesting to interact with the students. They are very active in asking questions to the lecturer. We also received applications from students from other fields after the second half of this year. They were interested in oriental studies, so we allowed them to attend the lecture. The percentage of adults has increased a little, but it is still small.
Q: It's interesting to see a growing trend towards early career guidance. Middle and high school students are already thinking about what they want to study at university at least in our Oriental Department. Did anything change in the program?
A: We tried not to deviate from the format already created. Also, it was my first year at SYO and I made some changes. There were two lectures on history in each region of China, South Korea, Japan, and Middle East, and one lecture on culture and art, one on religion and philosophy, and one "Introduction to Language" conducted by students. There was one interactive class, also conducted by students, where they gave quizzes. Of course, the online format is harder to attract participants to the class than offline, but the class was still impressive for many participants. Finally, the final exam was held and a diploma was issued. 99 people took the exam. Those who did not take the exam but attended more than 60% of the lectures were awarded certificates of participation.
Q: What kind of lectures or classes were offered for young learners of Japanese?
A: This year's Japanese Studies class was quite irregular. About 40% of the teachers are the people who had lectured at the SYO before, but 60% were new teachers who had never taught at the SYO or who had just started working at our Faculty. Thanks to the new teacher, the lecture on Japanese history, for example, changed into a whole new one. One is about the Japanese emperor, and the other is about the history of Japan-Russia relations. Another very interesting lecture was given by our professor, the famous art critic Eugeny Shteiner, who talked about his recent research on the practice of superstition in Japan, citing examples of plagues and battles. This is a practical theme in this difficult time and everyone looked having a good time. The Japanese class was taught by two girls of our first year students. Originally we were going to ask senior students, but these girls were very active in teaching the students about learning Japanese. One of the girls had taken the SYO program twice. The interactive classes were very interesting. The students created quizzes based on the lecture material and conducted them on a platform called Kahoot.
Q: Mr. Ilya, what do you think about online classes? What are the pros and cons of this format? And what prospects do you see for SYO?
A: Of course, live communication is very important and necessary because participants can be near their teachers or receive their diplomas at the end of the school year and have their pictures taken together. I've seen pictures of previous diploma ceremonies and graduation celebrations at restaurants, it was amazing and it's a shame we couldn't do that this year. But even at the graduation ceremony we held online this year, many people expressed their gratitude for the friends and like-minded people they had made at SYO. There was a chat group created not by the school, but by the participants themselves, where communication took place. It was a surprise and a great pleasure to know that the participants made friends despite being online. Regarding pros and cons of online classes, one of the cons was probably that the participants were not fully immersed in SYO as a professional education. Also, on teachers’ side, some teachers found it difficult to deliver lectures online. However, the participants found its positive aspects. When asked what they thought at the end of the program, many said, "I don't live in Moscow, but I appreciate the online program because it gave me the opportunity to listen to this class. I was able to take the course and receive my diploma". Therefore, we need to make use of this experience next year and implement a hybrid format, if the situation permits. This means recruiting for both kinds of students; the students who attend classes and the students who cannot or do not want even if they are in Moscow. It is possible to do that.
Q: Thank you, Mr. Ilya! Best wishes for the further development and prosperity of the SYO!!
May Activity Report
31 May 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
The National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and the School of Asian Studies actively hold offline events. Let's see what we've done in the past month.
Offline meeting of Japan-Russia Conversation Club "Hey! Say!"
On May 14, the long-awaited offline meeting of club members took place for the first time in a year.
Meetings like this leave us with pleasant memories. Last year, we did not stop the conversation club activities, and actively worked online to improve the conversation skills of the participants, but I realized the importance of communicating in person. People can communicate through the phone or computer screen, but it is difficult to perceive all the warmth and feelings of the spoken words at such a distance. The participants were so happy and excited to see each other after so many years that they went off the topic of the meeting and tell their stories.
This was the last Conversation Club meeting of the year. However, in September, the club will continue its activities. Hopefully there will be no more serious upheavals that will interfere with our plans.
https://www.instagram.com/heysay_hse/
Oriental Crazy Day 2021
On May 23, Oriental Crazy Day, a long-awaited major event for the School of Asian Studies, was held on the campus of Staraya Basmannaya, where the School of Asian Studies is located. Last year, the event was cancelled due to quarantine measures, so although the preparation period was shorter than ever, the organizers tried to hold this event with two years' worth of content. This seventh event was unforgettable.
Students from various departments designed various games and entertainment for guests. At the table where the hall activities were held, we were able to play mahjong, solve quizzes on Japanese movies and Korean culture, and make origami. Teachers and graduates from the School of Asian Studies held calligraphy master classes in Chinese, Korean and Arabic. We could tell our future with the Chinese "Yi Jing" and write our most important wishes on the "Ema" and ask the Japanese gods to fulfill them. Especially for the students and their parents, there was a consultation table where the students discussed about the entrance and research in the School of Asian Studies. We enjoyed Oriental light meals, sweets, spiced Turkish coffee, Chinese tea ceremony and authentic Japanese green tea.
This was the first time that an "Oriental Crazy Day " was held in the building where students study, so we took this opportunity to offer a tour of the building for prospective students and others interested in learning more about the building.
The climax of the event was an annual concert by students. The welcome speech by Prof. Alexey Maslov, founder and first principal of the School of Asian Studies, was a pleasant surprise for all the guests. The professor talked about the history of the establishment of the School of Asian Studies (this year marks 10 years since its establishment), the difficulty of learning in this specialized field, and the peculiarities of Orientalism, and prayed to the students for their success in their future careers.
The concert team also worked hard. The moderator gradually filled the hall with the cheerful and captivating atmosphere of the Orient. Students sang, danced, recited poetry, and presented classic Yemeni costumes from the Middle Eastern Studies teacher's personal collection. Short films from Tsubaki, a Japanese film club based on Hayao Miyazaki's animation, were also screened. We also talked on Zoom with international students currently studying in Japan. And the highlight of the program was undoubtedly the students' kabuki performance. The acting and the music were unique, and everything from the movements to the intonation was perfect. The stage scenery and the stage set harmonized well, making the production impeccable. The audience was delighted with the spectacular closing of the event with the kabuki play Bentenkozo.
Here are the comments from participants and visitors.
Concert Moderator: Ekaterina Kushlyanskaya
Everything was impressive. From preparation, to the event itself, to the fatigue that followed. The event itself was busy, so I couldn't try out all the activities, but it was very interesting that everyone went with enthusiasm and love for their area of expertise. I like the quiz at the Korean table! And of course, concerts. I was surprised to see kabuki with my mouth wide open, and it made me so happy that I couldn't say anything when I got on the stage. I didn't know they had such a high level of preparation. Everything else: I enjoyed the songs, interviews, and fashion shows! All the performers were great! I couldn't have done such a wonderful concert without them!
Participant: Karina Kayumova
I really like the atmosphere of the event! We’re learning different languages, but this day was like a big family! I was at my table, but I found time to go to another table and had a good time. Everyone was very friendly and fun, and I got sad when the event was over. The concert was also high-level! Kabuki is the best I've seen recently! It was also very good that not only HSE students but also other people could participate. Thanks to this, I could invite my parents and brothers and show them where I am studying and the wonderful community. They liked it too! I am very grateful to all those who participated in this wonderful "Oriental Crazy Day"!
Graduate of School of Asian Studies: Elena Zakharova
I had heard of this event, but this is the first time I visited it. This time, the ethnic costume demonstration and Kabuki performance were especially good. And with so much new entertainment being added to the tables in each region, it's fun to see how your favorite events evolve each year!
Despite the COVID-19 situation, more than 100 people attended the event, excluding teachers and students from HSE. More than 60 people participated in activities and concert preparation. I can say with confidence that this event was a success.
See you next year!
April Activity Report
30 April 2021
Global Japan Office Coordinator
Yulia Korovina
Hello everyone!
HSE is gradually getting back to offline.
April 11 "University Open Campus"
On April 11, all HSE open campuses took place offline for the first time since the pandemic started. Usually anyone can participate in the open campus, but this time the number of participants was limited due to the Covid-19 restrictions. It was relayed online for those who could not participate due to the limited number of people or who did not live in Moscow.
The event itself was held at the Atrium (glass-walled hall) on the Pokrovsky Avenue Campus, which opened in September 2019 after extensive renovation. There are 13 historic buildings on the campus, carefully restored and connected by glass roofs. This is the largest campus of HSE.
The students of the School of Asian Studies were happy to participate in the open campus and present their bachelor's program "orientalism" cheerfully and vigorously after a year of no active events. A calligraphy master class and examinee's quest game were held, and a life-size stuffed panda walked around the atrium and hugged everyone.
April 17 - 18 "the anniversary of the founding of a faculty"
A week later, the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs hosted a celebration of the school's founding with various student groups. This time, "Tsubaki", the Japanese film club of the School of Asian Studies was active.
They prepared various programs. There was a Japanese culture and movie zone, a master class of origami, and several movie screenings. There were also many interesting lectures on topics such as Japanese economic culture, the history of "Japan's rapid economic growth" and the history of cooperation between the Soviet Union and Japan in the film field, as well as on Japanese vocaloids, which are rare for Russians. Also, Yulia Korovina, a Japanese teacher in the School of Asian Studies, held a small master class in Japanese that allowed participants to learn how to celebrate birthdays in Japanese.
Due to restrictions, we were not able to accept many of the participants this time, but during the infection situation in Moscow, we hope that such events will be held and more and more people can participate.
