
About the Center
The Asia Center, a Title VI National Resource Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, serves as a hub for Asia-related activities at the University involving teaching, research, and outreach to K-12 schools and the broader community. With over one hundred affiliated faculty from 28 departments and 11 colleges, the Asia Center works with a network of units across the university to facilitate development of Asia-related curriculum, conferences, lectures, cultural events, learning abroad and internship opportunities, and community programs. The College of Humanities and the International & Area Studies program, in partnership with several collaborating departments across campus, retain primary responsibility for the management and administration of the curriculum in Asian Studies and other specific disciplinary areas.
Why Study Asia?
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Featured Article - Jessica DiCarlo
03/18/2026
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Spain in Sanmao and Sanmao in Spain
Professor Wan Sonya Tang will present a new research project on the Taiwanese author, Sanmao, who achieved Asian superstardom in the 1970s through her work chronicling her life in Madrid, Spanish Sahara, and the Canary Islands. However, Sanmao remained unknown in Spain (and the West in general) until her writing was translated into Spanish in 2016. Professor Tang’s project investigates how this oft-exoticized Asian woman in turn exoticized Spanish society, particularly from Spain’s peripheral territories. She also examines how the various Spanish lands she wrote about now claim Sanmao as part of their historical heritage. Ultimately, the study rethinks traditional models of Orientalization through an analysis of Sanmao’s work and Spain’s engagement with her.
03/13/2026
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