Discussion to feature films, panels and special guests

By Alex Roman
Daily Forty Niner

Discussion panels, films and special guests will highlight the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies 2000 on Friday and Saturday.

The Cal State Long Beach department of Asian and Asian American Studies is hosting the event at the Long Beach Airport Marriott Hotel.

"This will certainly be the largest regional conference in the country this year," said Arnold P. Kaminsky, program chairman. "The turnout reflects both the reputation of the university and the quality of people that have been working on it."

The conference, which kicks off Thursday evening with a poolside reception at the hotel, returns to CSULB after 11 years. The campus previously hosted the event in 1985 and 1989.

Among the attractions for this year's conference are the 67 panel discussions that will be taking place over two days.

"There's a little something for everybody," Kaminsky said. "We received tons of proposals and were very selective. We didn't accept anything that didn't fit."

Topics of the panels will range from discussions on Japanese Buddhism (with Jeffrey Broughton, a CSULB religious studies professor), to nuclear and security issues in Asia (with six different representatives from Pakistan, India, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia), to gender and sexuality in East Asia (with panel chair Linda Pomerantz, from Cal State Dominguez Hills).

In addition to the litany of Asian Studies scholars who will be presenting panels, the conference is also sponsoring 30 graduate students, allowing them to lead panels for what is their first time.

"It will be a good opportunity for people to interact with each other and discuss certain issues," Kaminsky said.

"We have community oriented panels and the cost for students is $5 a day, so we hope a lot of people will be able to come out and enjoy everything that's going on," he said.