Month: April 2014

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Dr. Bert Scruggs, an expert in modern Taiwanese literature and film, concludes this year’s Creative Intelligence lecture series with “Rusticated Memories and Consuming Environments: Zhiqing Fiction and Film,” an examination of the effects of China’s Cultural Revolution. Scruggs, assistant professor of East Asian languages and literature at the University of California, Irvine, will speak Thursday, May 8, at 4:15 p.m. in the Cowgill Center, room 102, on Transylvania University’s campus. The talk is free and open to the public. Beginning in the 1950s, and until the end of the Cultural Revolution, educated youth in the People’s Republic of China willingly, or under coercion, left the densely populated urban areas and moved to the countryside where they worked as farmers or manual laborers as part of their revolutionary education. Despite having been “sent-down youth” or “rusticated” over 30 years ago, memories of rustication continue to garner critical and artistic attention, as evidenced in contemporary Chinese literature and film. “Due to the massive nature of the rustication program—17 million people—few lives or families in contemporary China have not been directly influenced by the program that sent a generation to the hinterlands to educate, re-educate, reclaim and tend to the land,” explains Scruggs. For his presentation, Scruggs compares Liang Xiaosheng’s 2009 short story “A Land of Wonder and Mystery,” a rusticated-youth narrative, to Sean Penn’s film adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s book “Into the Wild,” among other texts. He posits that

Read “Cultural Revolution still significant in contemporary Chinese culture”

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University will bring the world to Lexington on Thursday, May 1, from 5-8 p.m., and we’d like you to join us. Transylvania’s historic campus in downtown Lexington will be the scene of the university’s first World Culture Fair. This lively event will offer an opportunity to sample foods indigenous to China, Ireland, Mexico and Brazil. Entertainment will include a salsa performance and a concert by the Kentucky Refugee Children’s Choir. Those in attendance can participate in a salsa class or join in the Brazilian drumming experience presented by Trio Ginga at 7 p.m., when more than 50 instruments will be available for fair-goers to learn to play as a group. The fair will also include exhibits by international students, faculty and staff representing their native cultures or places where they have spent a significant amount of time. Other exhibits will focus on African American history, world religions and international non-profit service organizations. The public is invited. The admission fee is $8.48, which covers the entertainment as well as all the diverse foods you want to sample. Cash and debit cards will be accepted, and group rates are available. Dinner will be served until 7 p.m., but visitors will want to come early to enjoy the full experience. “Shows will be spread out over the course of the evening, but it’s best to come at 5 p.m. if you want to see it all,” said Serenity Wright, Transylvania’s international

Read “Transylvania to host World Culture Fair”

  Joanna Manring Dominique Bellon Thomas Couvillon LEXINGTON, Ky.—Can you name the four periods of classical music? Music faculty from Transylvania University and Eastern Kentucky University present “Bach to Now,” a melodic journey through 400 years of classical music, broadly defined by four eras: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Contemporary. Organized by Transylvania University pianist Loren Tice and music faculty member and soprano Joanna Manring, together with Eastern Kentucky University oboist Dominique Bellon and composer and baritone Thomas Couvillon, the classical concert will be performed on April 24 at Transylvania University and on April 30 at Eastern Kentucky University. Both performances are free and open to the public. Couvillon and Manring are veterans of Musick’s Company, the Lexington-based early music group directed by Tice, which presents authentic performances of early music (medieval through baroque eras) to central Kentucky audiences. Bellon teaches Literature and Performance Practice of Baroque Music and coaches Baroque chamber ensembles at EKU. She was an active performer in the Montreal region before moving to Kentucky this past fall and holds a doctorate in oboe performance from Arizona State University. The program includes two movements from Bach cantatas, a Mozart concert aria arranged for oboe and piano, “Three Romances” by Robert Schumann, and compositions by Thomas Couvillon and Transylvania music professor Timothy Polashek. EKU faculty cellist, Nathan Jasinski, will join in to provide the continuo bass line for the Bach cantata movements. If you go— Thursday, April 24, 7:30

Read “Time travel never sounded so good; local faculty perform classical concerts”