Viewing the Washington Cherry Blossoms

Library Debuts Video Series for 2021 National Cherry Blossom Festival

The Library of Congress celebrates the 2021 National Cherry Blossom Festival by debuting a new video series that highlights both historic and contemporary traditions of springtime flower viewing.

Developed to support the festival’s 2021 efforts to “blossom safely,” the four-to-five-minute videos can be enjoyed by viewers everywhere during the festival March 20-April 12 and beyond through the Library's YouTube site and on the Library of Congress website.

There are three videos in the series:

• “Cherry Blossoms in Japanese Culture” explores Japan’s centuries-old blossom viewing traditions. SEE ABOVE.
• “Tokyo’s Gift of Friendship” recounts the origins and events surrounding the 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees to the city of Washington.
• “Fleeting Beauty, Enduring Traditions” highlights the Library’s National Cherry Blossom Festival collection, which includes posters from 1987 to the present and Cherry Blossom Princess programs from 1949 to the present.

Monday Asia Events, March 22, 2021

BUILDING BACK DIPLOMACY: THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION STRIDES INTO ASIA. 3/22, 9:30-11:30am, LIVE WEBCAST. Sponsors: Wilson Center; Hyundai Motor-korea Foundation Center For Korean History And Public Policy; Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. Speakers: J. Stapleton Roy, Distinguished Fellow, Founding Director Emeritus, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States; Abraham Denmark, Director, Asia Program; Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States; Shihoko Goto, Deputy Director for Geoeconomics and Senior Associate for Northeast Asia, Asia Program; Michael Kugelman, Deputy Director and Senior Associate for South Asia; Jean H. Lee, Director, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Journalist and former Pyongyang Bureau Chief, Associated Press; Charles Edel, Global Fellow, Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney; Rui Zhong, Program Associate.

ISIS AND THE FUTURE OF VIOLENT EXTREMISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 3/22, 10:30am-Noon (EDT). WEBCAST. Sponsors: United States Institute of Peace (USIP); Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: James F. Jeffrey, Chair, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Former Ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS; Ali Soufan, Chairman and CEO, Soufan Group; Robin Wright, USIP-Wilson Center Distinguished Fellow, Author and Columnist, The New Yorker.

CSIS COMMISSION ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE U.S.-KOREA ALLIANCE. 3/22, 11:00am-12:15pm, ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Vincent Brooks, Former Commander, UNC/CFC/USFK; Wendy Cutler, Vice President, Asia Society Policy Institute; Former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative; Randall Schriver, Chairman, Project 2049 Institute; Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense; Kathleen Stephens, President & CEO, Korea Economic Institute of America; Former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea; John J. Hamre, CSIS President and CEO, and Langone Chair in American Leadership; Joseph S. Nye Jr., CSIS Trustee; Victor Cha, Senior Adviser and Korea Chair; Michael J. Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair; Sue Mi Terry, Senior Fellow, Korea Chair; Katrin Fraser Katz, Adjunct Fellow (Non-resident), Korea Chair.

SENATOR DEB FISCHER ON THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR MODERNIZATION. 3/22, 11:30am-Noon (EDT). VIRTUAL EVENT. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speaker: The Honorable Deb Fischer (R-NE), United States Senator; Moderator: Patty-Jane Geller, Policy Analyst, Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense, Heritage Foundation.

TIME FOR A NEW NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM FOR DEFENSE AND COMPETITIVENESS. 3/22, 1:00-2:30pm (EDT). WEBINAR. Sponsor: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Speakers: Adam Smith, US Representative (D-WA); Michael Brown, Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), United States Department of Defense; Scott Stapp, Corporate Vice President & CTO, Northrop Grumman; Matt Turpin, Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, and Senior Advisor, Palantir Technologies; General Stephen Wilson, Former Vice Chief of Staff, United States Air Force; Moderator: Robert D. Atkinson, President, ITIF.

CHINA’S NEW LEGISLATIVE AGENDA: UNPACKING CHINA’S “TWO MEETINGS”. 3/22, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), LIVE WEBCAST. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Bonnie S. Glaser, Senior Adviser for Asia; Director, China Power Project; Scott Kennedy, Senior Adviser and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics; Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies.

THE POLITICS OF MASS VIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 3/22, 4:00-5:30pm (EDT). WEBCAST. Sponsors: Wilson Center (WWC); National History Center (NHC). Speakers: Laura Robson, Oliver-McCourtney Professor of History, Penn State University; Laila Parsons, Professor of Modern Middle East History, McGill University; Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies, Rice University; Moderators: Christian F. Ostermann, Director, History and Public Policy Program, Cold War International History Project, North Korea Documentation Project, and Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, WWC; Eric Arnesen, Professor of History, George Washington University, and Director, National History Center of the American Historical Association.

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DONIA HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER DISCUSSION. SHARED SOVEREIGNTY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN FRAGILE STATES. 3/22, 4:30-5:30pm, (EDT) ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan. Speakers: John D. Ciorciari, Associate Professor, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; Susanna Campbell, Assistant Professor, School of International Service, American University. 

TECHNICAL ISSUES OF FUTENMA REPLACEMENT FACILITY. 3/22, 5:00-5:45 (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Okinawa Prefecture Washington, DC Office. Speaker: Dr. Shoji Kamao, Associate Professor, Nihon University. 

MOTOSHIGE ITOH (GAKUSHUIN UNIVERSITY), "JAPAN’S GROWTH STRATEGY IN THE 2020S: DEMAND- AND SUPPLY-SIDE DIMENSIONS". 3/22, 8:00-9:00pm (EDT), ONLINE ONLY. Sponsors: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School. Speakers: Motoshige Itoh, Professor, the Faculty of International Social Sciences, Gakushuin University; Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo. Moderator: Christina Davis, Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; Professor of Government; and Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Monday Asia Events, March 15, 2021

PAST AND PRESENT: THAILAND’S DARK PROTEST HISTORIES. 3/15, 9:00-11:15am (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI), Columbia University. Speakers: Thongchai Winichakul, Professor Emeritus of Southeast Asian History, University of Wisconsin Madison; Duncan McCargo, Professor, Political Science, University of Copenhagen; Tyrell Haberkorn, Professor, Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison; Prajak Kongkirati, Lecturer, Faculty of Political Science, and Head of Southeast Asian Studies Center, East Asian Institute, Thammasat University.

A CONVERSATION WITH AMBASSADOR TARANJIT SINGH SANDHU. 3/15, 10:00-11:00am (EST). WEBCAST. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speaker: Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Ambassador of India to the United States; Moderator: Walter Russell Mead, Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship, Hudson Institute.

NEW ERAS, OLD STORIES: FROM MAY FOURTH AND MEIJI TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY “NEW ERA” – DEFINING EAST ASIA IN THE AGE OF NOVELTY, EMOTION AND PURPOSE. 3/15, Noon-1:30pm (EDT). ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University. Speaker: Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China, St. Cross College, University of Oxford; Moderator: Odd Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University.

THE FUTURE OF THE U.S. NAVY: A CONVERSATION WITH REPRESENTATIVE ELAINE LURIA. 3/15, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), WEBCAST. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Representative Elaine Luria, U.S. Representative, Virginia's 2nd District, and Vice Chair, House Armed Services Committee; Bryan Clark, Senior Fellow & Director, Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, Hudson.

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MASTER NEGOTIATOR: THE ROLE OF JAMES A. BAKER III AT THE END OF THE COLD WAR. 3/15, 1:00-1:45pm (EST). ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG). Speaker: Author,
Diana Villiers Negroponte, Public Policy Scholar, Wilson Center; Moderator: Frances G. Burwell, Distinguished Fellow, Atlantic Council and Senior Director, McLarty Associates. 

DIGITAL TECH & OPERATIONAL CONCEPTS IN INDOPAC. 3/15, 2:00pm (EDT), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). Speaker: Major General Richard Coffman, USA, Director of the Army Futures Command's Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) Cross-Functional Team. 

DETERRENCE AND DIPLOMACY WITH IRAN. 3/15, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), WEBCAST. Sponsor: Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA). Speakers: Hon. Elliott Abrams, former U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela, U.S. Department of State; Michael Makovsky, President & CEO, JINSA.