https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GohZo59InVYEU3E5cPgSw4dg1WU5LxmU/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uzoYGXRpzM5xYEUkhcyKzdrld3EvnCiv/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105775447281122203523&rtpof=true&sd=true

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May 2020

Chaos ruled and all compass points were lost in the onslaught of the newly arrived worldwide COVID pandemic. In April, as all university classes moved to Zoom, Patricia Yarrow was gazing blankly from her Ryogoku (Tokyo) veranda. Bereft of meeting companions, academically informative monthly lectures, and friendly discussions, inspiration struck on that spring day. “We could do this on Zoom!”

A flurry of messaging later, a core group of eight castaways met (safely on Zoom) on 25 May 2020 to toss ideas around. Alex Byrne dreamed up the name “Informasia”, and the vision began coming into focus. Our Informasia ship cast off with an stalwart crew for shores unknown. Since then, our mailing list has grown from 10 to nearly 400. Our Facebook page counts some 280 friends.

Thanks to all the friends and colleagues of Informasia in Japan, Asia, Singapore, Maylasia, Australia, New Zealand, throughout the UK and Europe, and the hardy east coast of the USA, our Zoom community, launched June 2020. It has grown steadily ever since. Presentations in 2022 ranged from deeply academic translations of Korea, Japan, China, to research in progress, alarming lockdowns in Shanghai, to tranquil musings on cherry blossoms and ethereal meditations on life between death, with a helping of the foreign politics between China and Japan. If lectures were flowers, our Informasia bouquet would create quite the splashy ikebana display.

The Informasia logo comes to us from designer Ritsuko Lynch, upon the recommendation of Alex Byrne. She is based in Santa Monica, California, and can be reached at: https://en.99designs.jp/profiles/2313262