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Harvard Asia Business Conference 2009: Asia in a Whole New World
Written by The HAQ Staff   

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During the weekend of February 14-15, roughly 700 students, academics, professionals, and entrepreneurs attended the 2009 Harvard Asia Business Conference at the Harvard Business School campus in Cambridge, MA. Now in its 18th year, the conference is an annual event organized by students at the Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard Law School. Over the course of the weekend, approximately ninety leaders from business, government and academia across Asia and the world shared their insights on the role of Asia in today’s world—one fraught with major financial, political, social, environmental, and economic challenges. In particular, the 2009 Harvard Asia Business Conference provided observers and participants an opportunity to reflect on the current global financial crisis and the role of Asia going forward. Despite constant reminders of the deteriorating business and economic environment, many panelists expressed cautious optimism. The conference—which attracted students and observers not only from the Boston area but from throughout the United States and Asia —was not only a venue for serious debate, but an opportunity to cultivate professional connections and make new friends.

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The Multiple Maos of Contemporary China
Written by Timothy Cheek   

Among the contemporary mythologies of founding political leaders in Asia today, the role of Mao Zedong in China is one of the most contradictory and portentous. No longer the political god king of the 1960s Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong, the charismatic leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), remains a volatile force in China’s political landscape more than three decades after his death in 1976.


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Cultural Politics of Remembering Park Chung Hee
Written by Seungsook Moon   
Since his assassination on October 26, 1979, Park Chung Hee has been transformed from a dead President into a cultural icon that animates polarized reactions from the public. Particularly during the past decade after the Asian economic crisis, popular publications on Park have increased as the public has dealt with the problem of profound disappointment with the civilian regimes in democratized Korea. Focusing on such popular genres of writings about Park as memoirs, biographies, biographical fictions, personal essays and comic strips, this article analyzes three distinct types of recollective representation of Park: glorification, demonization and humanization. It identifies recurring themes in these representations and discusses their implications for the popular visions of a desirable society in which the people wish to live.
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