UPCIS Students Participate in the 2nd Ferris University Short Stay Visit/Exchange Program

Six students enrolled in the UPCIS-offered Global Studies 197 (GS 197) Special Topics Course on Japanese Traditional Performance Practice (JTPP) went in November last year to Yokohama and Tokyo to participate in the Ferris University Short Stay Visit/Exchange Program.

The Ferris University Short Stay Visit/Exchange Program — a brainchild of Assoc. Prof. Amparo Adelina C. Umali, III, PhD, UPCIS coordinator for East and Southeast Asian Studies, and Prof. Chiho Ogaya, of Ferris University’s Faculty of Arts and Letters – is modelled after the Global Studies Tour organized by the UPCIS and the Yokohama National University (YNU), which the two professors had also initiated.

This year, the Ferris University Short Stay Visit/Exchange Program was organized in cooperation with the UPCIS European Studies Division and the Yokohama National University (YNU). Student-participants participated in discussions, attended lectures by professors, underwent intensive training rehearsals with Noh grandmasters, and visited iconic Japanese sites.

The students discussed with their counterparts from Ferris University “Representation of People of Mixed Ethnicity in Media” and “Territorial Conflict: The Case of Philippine-China Relations and Japan-China Relations.“ With YNU students, they discussed the Philippine economic divide.

Dr. Umali lectured on Filipinos Performing Noh and Bunraku: Approaching Performance Traditions from the Outside Looking In to students of Prof. Takahashi Kyoko of Ferris University. UPCIS students, who are eventually invited to become members of the UPCIS Noh Ensemble and the UPCIS Bunraku Ensemble, performed Kiri of Hagoromo (Utai) and Chu no Mai (Hayashi) after the lecture.

Prof. Wystan de la Peña, coordinator of the European Studies of UPCIS, delivered a lecture entitled “Ilustrados Enamorados del Japón, or La Tierra del Sol Naciente (Imitating the Rising Sun) in the Filipino Hispanic Elite’s Imagining of a Post-Colonial Philippines” to the students, faculty, and alumni of Ferris University, Yokohama National University (YNU), Japan Women’s University, and the UP Center for International Studies. The lecture was organized by Dr. Umali and Prof. Ogaya as part of the Ferris University Short Stay Visit/Exchange Program.

The lecture used data obtained from the research entitled, Images of Japan in Filipino Spanish Language Newspapers, 1900-1910, funded by the Sumitomo Foundation.

The students underwent a seven-hour intensive-training rehearsal with three Noh masters: Noh Grandmaster Osamu Toda, Noh Master for Shite of the Kanze School, Noh Grandmaster Naohiko Umewaka, Noh Master for Shite of the Kanze School and Noh Grandmaster Chozaemon Umewaka, Noh Master for Shite of the Kanze School.

The participants also visited: Hibiya Park, Ginza, Harajuku, and Yamashita Park, China Town, and Minato Mirai.

The students, who received Japan’s Ministry of Education Culture and Science’s Japan Student Services (JASSO) Short Stay Scholarship for International Students for the program were: Nyle Mikhail Cauli (4th Year BS Computer Engineering), Anna Maria Lourdes Geli (3rd Year BA Comparative Literature), Jacqueline Giron (1st Year BA European Languages), Jesse Leigh Morales (3rd Year BA Comparative Literature), Chelsey Jan Perez (3rd Year BS Economics), and Xaika Nadine Saldivar (3^rd Year BA Broadcast Communication), and Laureen Lioanag (2nd Year MA Anthropology).

Margie Tamayao, a UP Statistics major currently on a one-year exchange program in Tsuda College in Tokyo, also participated in the said program.

Acting as faculty advisers for the group were Prof. Ogaya, Dr. Umali, and Prof. de la Peña. (Paul Alcala, UPD CIS)