Conversation with Mei Nan

Busy as a bee with her doctoral studies, Mei Nan, a graduate of UofA’s Department of East Asian Studies, who is currently a PhD student in Comparative Literature at Harvard University and an Asiatic Society of Japan 2022 Young Scholars’ Program winner shared with us her thoughts about the Program and reflects on the experiences that led to it. 

Encouraged to apply by the Director of PTJC, Professor Aya Fujiwara, Mei almost missed the deadline and was pleasantly surprised when she was selected as one of the winners.  

“I guess I'm just in shock because I didn't really expect to come through this highly selective process as a winner. They were going to choose only four people, two of whom would be Japanese citizens and the other two – non-Japanese. So, it feels special to be chosen.”, Mei said. 

As a part of the 2022 Young Scholars’ Program, Mei is set to write an article of her choosing that will be published in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, the Society’s annual journal in 2024. While there is still time, Mei says it would be new and challenging to her as she is used to writing academic papers, not expert journalism. However, she is not daunted by it and is gathering her idea to dig into the experiences of Taiwanese and Japanese people after World War II, and how memory and trauma is reflected in literature, media and history. 

One of the most thrilling parts of being a winner of the 2022 Program for Mei is meeting HIH Princess Takamado. In Mei’s own words, 

“I used to work for Prince Takamado Japan Centre for Teaching and Research and soon I will be able to see HIH Princess Takamado and just feel the connection”. 

Her work for PTJC is not the only thing Mei is grateful for. Never receiving formal training in Japanese, Mei won the 2018 Japanese Speech Contest which impacted her life in many ways. 

“Doing my Masters at the Department of East Asian Studies, I met so many people who helped me prepare for the Speech Contest, including Isaka Yukiko, Junko Davis, Hiromi Aoki, Anne Commons, Walter Davis, Aya Fujiwara and many others. They really fine-tuned everything. It significantly changed my relationship with the language. Their help made me feel a lot more confident and comfortable using Japanese in more formal situations. The supportive presence of all the Japanese sanseis definitely was a huge factor,” Mei says.