Special Seminar
"Jose Rizal: Old Questions, New Answers"

Date: Thursday, July 17, 2003 15:00 - 18:00

Venue: Room E207, 2nd Floor, East Wing, The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University

By Prof. Lamberto R. Ocampo, CSEAS Visiting Fellow

Almost every town plaza or schoolyard in the Philippines today has a statue of Jose Rizal. His profile is etched on the most circulated and basic unit of currency---the one-peso coin. There are Rizal avenues and streets in every nook of the archipelago. Even commerce is not spared a reference to the historical: Rizal Cement, Rizal Bowling Lanes, Rizal Commercial and Banking Corporation, Rizal Matches, Rizal Bakery, Rizal College and even Rizal Funeral Homes.

Despite the growing bibliographical listing on Rizal, there is much that remains to be explored and uncovered in his life, his times, and his writings. This informal seminar will survey the present state of Rizal studies to illustrate how a return to the primary sources--25 volumes of Rizal's collected writings--- will prove that Rizal as "National Hero" is everywhere and nowhere in the Philippines today.