East Asian Studies

"I originally chose the EAS department for its superbly strong Japanese language program. My desire was to go into international business or relations between the US and Japan. My journey was greatly affected by my thesis work on Japanese management techniques, which drew my interest toward management methodologies.

However, my thesis work went on the backburner for a few years, until I found myself working at a software firm that was implementing a balanced scorecard management system -- roughly based on hoshin kanri principles. We made a run for the Malcolm Baldrige award, and then the dot com bubble burst.

It was then that I broke out on my own and founded my current software and consulting company, ActiveStrategy. Today, we are the only firm focused on what is now labeled 'strategy execution' management methodologies. We work almost exclusively with healthcare, government and military organizations, and for the last year, I have spent my time implementing this system within NATO.

The tie to EAS is that everything I do today originally has its roots in the Japanese quality management movement, which was a major portion of my thesis research."

Following my junior year at Princeton University, I studied Chinese in Taiwan for two years, and was exposed to the magnificent ceramic legacy of China. It was then that I was first “moved” by a piece of pottery; it was a kind of soft drowning into the calmness in the center of a remarkable celadon bowl. Something there attracted me on a very basic level - a form, a texture and a color which created in me a sense of calm, of groundedness, that was very fundamental and soothing for me. Appreciation of ceramics was as far as it went until a few years later. I was in Japan to study Japanese, and frequented a coffee shop near my apartment where the manager and I often spoke English/Japanese with each other. One day, he casually mentioned that he was teaching a pottery class in the culture center in the same building and asked me if I wanted to study. Without really thinking too much about it, I agreed. That was in 1976. In the two years that I studied the basics of pottery with Nishimura Eijiro, I discovered that several aspects of pottery appealed to me very much: the magic transformation of clay on the potter’s wheel; the exciting unpredictability of the final product; the physicality (it can be hard and dirty work, especially in a Tokyo summer); the fact that I could use my products in my daily life; and the satisfaction of creating something beautiful out of a lump of clay.

For the next eight years, however, much of my time was taken up with establishing DLD Inc. (we design and implement corporate language-training programs). In my free time, I dabbled in pottery on and off, trying to solve the problem of giving myself some kind of workplace in Tokyo, where spaces are small and expensive. I went from a one-tatami-mat nook to a corner of a room to a “studio” on my apartment balcony, and finally in 1988 to a house where I could build a “real” studio - still only about eight tatami mats, crowded but fully equipped - and where I could begin a serious exploration of ceramics.  I was very fortunate at that time to become acquainted with Richard Accardi, an American who had studied pottery in the United States before coming to live in Japan. For ten years we carried on a stimulating collaboration, experimenting with clay and glaze formulation, techniques of forming and firing, design and aesthetics. This cross-sharing in the creative process was extremely valuable in my development as a craftsman/artist.

I have spent many years and countless hours attempting to master the craft of pottery, and certainly there’s always more to learn. Up to the present, my main goal has been to create beautiful things that evoke that sense of calmness and quietude that affects me so deeply. And while that will always be a part of my work, I feel that I am only at the beginning of a long exploration of the expressive possibilities of clay. Future projects include: continuing exploration of functional pottery, clays & glazes; developing new lines of ceramic lamps; creating sculptural ceramics; visiting more kilns in Japan.

Tarryn Li-Min Chun is currently an A.M. candidate in Regional Studies - East Asia at Harvard University. She first set foot in Jones Hall as a high school senior visiting colleges and was awed by the amazing spread of sushi at the East Asian Studies open house (and, of course, the brilliant faculty and wide array of courses offered by the department). Thrilled to finally have the chance to study Chinese, she began her freshman year with Chinese 101. Fascination with language led to literature courses and a major in East Asian Studies. When not memorizing Chinese vocabulary, Tarryn worked on many campus theatre productions and served as president of the Princeton Triangle Club. Her senior thesis, advised by Professor Perry Link, combined her loves of theatre and Chinese literature in a study of avant-garde Chinese drama.

After graduating from Princeton in 2006, Tarryn spent two years as a Princeton-in-Asia fellow in Taiwan, where she taught English at the Affiliated High School of Tunghai University and continued her study of Chinese at Tunghai's Chinese Language Center. Highlights of her experience ranged widely, from dressing up as a ladybug for her seventh-grade class's Halloween party to biking in Yunnan province during summer break to attending modern dance performances by Taiwan's Cloudgate Dance Theatre. 

Inspired by her studies at Princeton and her time in Taiwan, Tarryn hopes to pursue a PhD in Chinese literature with a focus on modern Taiwanese literature, drama, and culture.