East Asian Studies

Kaoru Hayashi was born and raised in Gifu, Japan, and worked at TV broadcasting for six years before I finally realized my dream to study in the United States, and to be the first in my family to go to college. During my early study, I focused on mass media, film, and theatre and first received an A.A at LaGuardia Community College in NY. I worked for a theatre /film production before entering Smith College where my longharbored love for Japanese classic literature was reignited. In 2008 I completed a B.A in East Asian Languages and Cultures, concentrating in Japanese pre-modern literature, during which time I also studied Chinese and went to Beijing. After graduated from Smith, I taught theatre in the Humanities department of LaGuardia Community College.  My current research interests include the evolution of the reception of Japanese classics in the construction of national and cultural identity. I am interested in reexamining gender issues, mapping the construction of the classical canon, and exploring the role of classic war-tales, especially the Tale of the Heike, in the identity- and nation-building process. I am drawn to examine the use of classics in textbooks and propaganda in Japan and Japanese colonies during modernization programs and times of war.