Asian Languages and Cultures Classes

An introduction to the study of Asian religious traditions in South and East Asia (India, China and Japan). Open to everyone but especially appropriate for first and second year students.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course contemplates the definition of Sacred Art and Sacred Space by focusing on religious visual culture in Asia and examining how intangible concepts of the divine have become tangible in art and architecture.  To better understand the multilayered functioning of devotional objects and spaces associated with religious doctrines such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shintoism, the class will explore foundations in iconography and then compare different religious objects and spaces through concepts such as gender, state power, the body, nature, ritual, the grotesque, and death.  To account for the shifting meaning of religious icons over time, the class also reflects on how the significance of religious objects changes in the space of a museum.  Ultimately, this course allows us to contemplate the multifaceted ways religious beliefs have been visualized and how these manifestations exemplify systems of cultural exchange in Asia.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

From notions of the "pure self" to teenage ganguro ("face-blackening"), Japanese culture is rife with instances of ideology and performance that reflect a deep complexity in its engagement with issues of identity and foreignness. This course traces the roots of this complexity back to Japan's beginnings as a modern nation and examines its cultural development into the present day. Works of fiction will be paired with readings in history and criticism to explore the meanings of identity, race, and ethnicity as they are expressed and contested in Japanese culture. The course will cover the literature of Korea and Taiwan, the experience of domestic minorities, and the contemporary cultures of cos-play ("costume-play") and hip-hop. No prior knowledge of Japanese required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course's main goal is to introduce evidence of the major crimes and atrocities during World War II in East Asia such as the Nanjing Massacre, biochemical warfare (Unit 731), the military sexual slavery ("comfort women") system, the forced labor system, and inhumane treatment of POWs. The course will also help students understand the contemporary geo-political and socio-economic forces that affect how East Asians and Westerners collectively remember and reconstruct World War II.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is to develop a critical awareness of the practice of Chinese-English translation as a cross-cultural dialogue. It will critically examine major concepts and issues such as translatability, equivalence, faithfulness and standard of good translation, etc. Students will learn to apply theories and skills to translating different genres and texts. Prerequisite: three years of Chinese.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The culture concept is the most important item in anthropology's theoretical tool kit; it is the organizing concept underlying the discipline's holistic approach, which seeks to understand the human condition in the broadest possible context. As a discipline, anthropology seeks to document and explain the innumerable ways in which it is possible to be human, and by to understanding other cultural logics to hold up a critical mirror to our own assumptions, beliefs and ways of acting. This course introduces students to Cultural Anthropology through a comparative study of Asian societies and cultures, with a particular emphasis on the three main regions of Asia that are currently taught at Macalester: India, China, and Japan. It also serves to introduce students to the study of Asia by grounding them in the essential features of Asian societies, cultures, and religions.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the art, architecture, and visual culture of Japan, spanning a broad temporal frame from the ancient Neolithic era to our own contemporary moment.  We will discuss a diverse array of art and architecture from ancient Jomon pottery, Shinto shrines, and print media to Buddhist sculpture, painting practices during World War II, anime (cartoons) and manga (comics). In addition to learning methods of formal visual analysis, students will gain insight into how these works articulated complex artistic, social, economic, political, and religious trends. Through this course, students will develop skills to reflect critically on the production of narratives of Japanese culture, while considering concepts such as tradition, hybridity, value, authority, authenticity, sexuality, commodity flows, nationalism, and militarism. This is a stand-alone course which does ot require ASIA 170 - Art of the East I: China as a prerequisite.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

How do representations of bodies influence our perceptions of ourselves? How have bodies been represented in Japanese culture over the past thousand years? How does the “Japanese body” impact perceptions of Japan and Japanese people? These questions will become the guideposts for the course as we travel through a thousand years of representations and think through the work these representations do. In particular, we will examine how the body becomes a battleground subject to multiple and changing norms and ideals. Each new representation teaches viewers how we should interact with other bodies and how we should view our own bodies. Topics to be studied include: Sexuality and the Body; the Environment and the Body; Death, Dying, and the Body; and Technologies of the Body. No prior knowledge of Japanese required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Japan's rapid industrialization in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and its phenomenal rise as the number two economic power in the world after the devastation wrought by World War II, have led many scholars to declare Japan a model worthy of emulation by all "developing" nations. After an examination of feudal Japan, this course probes the nature and course of Japan's "amazing transformation" and analyzes the consequences of its strengths as a nation-state. Considerable study of Japanese art, literature, and religion will be undertaken and American attitudes toward the Japanese and their history will also be examined.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This discussion-based course is entirely focused on Bruce Lee, the actor and leading martial arts icon of the 20th century. Using American Studies and Critical Race Studies frames to examine the construction of racialized and gendered bodies, we will discuss Bruce Lee in terms of his biography, identities, politics, philosophy, and filmography. We will take time to appreciate the entertainment value and athleticism that Bruce Lee brought to his work, but we will also learn to distinguish the commercialized, commodified Bruce Lee (from t-shirts to posters to action figures) from the serious historical figure who symbolized the spirit of cultural independence and political sovereignty around the world. Among the required books and movies: The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and "Way of the Dragon" (1972).

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The modern Chinese experience has been marked and marred by warfare, violent revolution, and death on an unimaginable scale. For many, how to come to terms with the ubiquity of death and how to find meaning in the untold carnage and bloodshed were among the most excruciating and important questions. In this course, we will explore the manifold ways Chinese writers have confronted—and continue to confront—the trauma, violence, and death of China’s modern experience. We will examine fictional works written by canonical and emergent authors whose writings span a variety of genres. Through discussions and abbreviated lectures, we will analyze the texts themselves, situate them within their socio-cultural context, and connect their depictions of violence and death to notions of (post)modernity, self, gender, sexuality, history, and the nation.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Since the last century, Asia has experienced rapid urbanization. It is now home to over half of the world's most populated cities. By 2010, the urban population in the Asia-Pacific region has surpassed the population of the United States and the European Union combined. In this course, we will focus on cities in East, Southeast and South Asia. We will first contextualize the rapid urbanization in the region's changing political economy, and identify urban issues that are unique to this region. We will further explore different theoretical approaches to understand Asian cities; several of them challenge mainstream urban theories rooted in the experiences of West European and North American cities. Upon the completion of this course, students will acquire substantive knowledge on contemporary trends of urban development in Asia, and develop familiarity with related ongoing theoretical debates. In addition, students will conduct individual research projects to develop deeper and more concrete understanding of the contemporary urbanization processes in Asia.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This workshop for advanced students of Japanese explores the craft and cultural implications of Japanese-to-English literary translation. It aims to give students not only a facility and sophistication in translating Japanese, but also a closer familiarity with the Japanese language itself. Through weekly translation assignments, we will examine the expressive qualities of the Japanese language, tracing major developments of prose style in the modern period and studying the socio-historical context manifested in those linguistic innovations. Our work will be informed and enhanced by engagements with theories of translation as well as essays on Japanese-to-English translation specifically. We will cover a broad range of genres, including essays, poetry, manga, and film (subtitles). The course will culminate in an original project translating a Japanese work of one's choice. Prerequisite(s): JAPA 305 - Third Year Japanese I or higher.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A study of leading institutions and movements of nineteenth- and twentieth-century China. Major emphases include the impact of Western imperialism, the transformation of peasant society through revolution, the rise of Mao Tse-Tung, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Special attention will be given to U.S.-China relations.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhist Literature introduces students to the forms, style, and usages of Buddhist literatures, as well as considerations of their content as well as their histories of creation, commentary, and social use. We will examine the structure of Buddhist canonical literatures but will also be focused on non-canonical literatures such as stories of past-life memories, biographies, and narrative visual and physical arts. Texts from multiple traditions of Buddhism, including Theravāda and Mahāyāna, will be included. This course's primary activities will be reading, discussion, and reflective work.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An introduction to the study of Asian religious traditions in South and East Asia (India, China and Japan). Open to everyone but especially appropriate for first and second year students.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines the art and visual culture of China from the Neolithic era to the twenty-first century. Lectures and readings will teach methods of formal visual analysis as well as provide the opportunity for students to think critically about how scholars write the artistic history of the region. Through this class, students will engage with a broad array of media, from jade carvings, Buddhist cave painting, architecture, calligraphy and monumental landscape paintings to ceramics, imperial palaces, and contemporary installations. While examining the intended meanings and functions of these objects and spaces, we will discuss the varied contexts and value systems that have informed visual production in China.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This class is a survey of premodern Japanese literature in translation from the 8th century to the 18th century. We will investigate over one millennium of literary and cultural production and observe how literary and cultural histories are constructed and canonized. In this course, we will read of the love affairs of the court aristocracy, learn how to become enlightened through Buddhist tales of awakening, read the diary of a noblewoman, take a walk on the wild side in the red-light district, and become versed in the rules of traditional Japanese poetry. The main question we will explore in this course is, how did the social, cultural, religious and intellectual context of premodern Japan affect literary production. No previous knowledge of Japanese language or culture is required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Are you one of the 136 million fans (also known as A.R.M.Y) of the Korean boy band BTS? Are you a regular consumer of Japanese manga and its television counterpart anime? Do you enjoy watching Chinese Kung Fu movies? Or, are you someone who would just like to learn more about East Asian popular culture? If so, this is a class you should not miss! This course explores various forms of popular culture (such as popular music, fast food, television, comics, film, fashion, and sports), with a particular focus on Greater China. We will discover how popular culture not only entertains, but is also a site where meanings are produced, shared, and contested. No prior knowledge of Asia or Asian language is required.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A study of the traditional culture and society of China from earliest times to the eighteenth century, when the impact of the West was strongly felt. The course will be based on detailed study of selected significant themes in Chinese history. Lecture/discussion format.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

A survey of the major political, social, religious, intellectual, economic and artistic developments in Japan from earliest times to the opening of Japan in the 1850s. It also examines Japan's relations with its close neighbors, Korea and China.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course aims to investigate the complex relationship between language and identity. Language plays a significant role in conveying one’s identity along with other semiotic means such as clothing. By exploring scholarship that considers language as it relates to identity, students will discover how speakers/writers use their agency in expressing their identity and how identity emerges as a social and cultural phenomenon. They will learn about multiple interrelated factors that affect how speakers/writers view and use language such as race, ethnicity, gender, and multilingualism in Japanese, Asian American, and other communities, and conduct research using authentic linguistic data. No knowledge of Japanese is required.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

How can marginalized voices in literature enrich our understanding of modern Chinese society, culture, and history? What are the standards of inclusion and exclusion for individual authors and works to enter “the canon” of modern Chinese literature? This course examines fictional works written by canonical, emergent, and marginalized writers from mainland China, focusing on how political choices determined their inclusion in or exclusion from “the canon.” We will not only read and analyze a wide variety of texts and genres (including experimental modernism, popular entertainment fiction, science fiction, avant-garde poetry, martial arts fiction, etc.), but also situate them within their social, cultural, and political context. No previous knowledge of China or Chinese is required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The course will critically analyze the history and politics of the seven original member states of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC): India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, and Bhutan. The course has several broad goals. First, to introduce the history of colonialism and nationalism in South Asia through the eyes of marginalized women, peasants, and workers. Subaltern readings of history will reveal how the colonial experience has shaped political institutions. Second, to analyze social cleavages—ethnicity, religion, caste, language— in relation to ethnic nationalist movements like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, religious extremist groups like Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami in Pakistan and Bangladesh, Maoist movements in Nepal, and separatist movements in India. Third, to understand the rise of populist leaders and parties in the region and its impact on liberal democracy and bilateral relations between countries. We will also examine regional innovations focused on sharing natural resources and common river water, addressing climate change, and regulating migration, and critique SAARC’s potential to help implement these innovations. The course concludes with a discussion of South Asia’s relationships with extra-regional powers like China and the United States.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course aims to give students the opportunity to find the joy of analyzing Japanese language by enhancing their understanding of its complex and rich sociocultural meanings. In Japanese language courses, students learn the norms (i.e., what is considered to be correct and proper) regarding honorifics, speech levels, orthography, the so-called gendered language, and other linguistic forms. In this linguistics course, they will find out how actual speakers/writers observe or deviate from the norms to create sociocultural meanings and how the adherence to or subversion from the norm often reflects language ideologies. In the process they will reflect on their own as well as others’ speech and writing, and learn how to critically evaluate and analyze language in the media. In addition to reading and discussing academic articles in English, students will collect and analyze authentic Japanese data such as anime, TV drama, films, manga, novels, and blogs. Japanese Language and Culture majors who are juniors and seniors may count this course as their capstone experience. Prerequisite: JAPA 305 or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials