Asian Languages and Cultures Classes

This course introduces the cultures and societies of China, Japan and Korea from the earliest times to the present day. Primarily an introductory course for beginners in East Asian civilization, this course considers a variety of significant themes in religious, political, economic, social and cultural developments in the region.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Japanese is considered to be a gendered language in the sense that women and men speak differently from each other. Male characters in Japanese animation often use "boku" or "ore" to refer to themselves, while female characters often use "watashi" or "atashi." When translated into Japanese, Hermione Granger (a female character in the Harry Potter series) ends sentences with soft-sounding forms, while Harry Potter and his best friend Ron use more assertive forms. Do these fictional representations reflect reality? How are certain forms associated with femininity or masculinity? Do speakers of Japanese conform to the norm or rebel against it? These are some of the questions discussed in this course. Students will have opportunities to learn about the history of gendered language, discover different methodologies in data collections, and find out about current discourse on language and gender.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces 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, modern graphic media, and contemporary installations. While examining the specific cultural, social, economic, and political functions of these spaces, images and objects, we will interrogate the multifaceted ways that shifting concepts of hybridity, ethnicity, authority, religion, militarism and politics have informed visual production.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

From the “Yellow Peril” of the late 19th Century to today’s “model minority,” the image of Chinese Americans has undergone dramatic shifts over the last few decades of the 20th Century. What happened during this period to account for the social and cultural ascension of Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans? How has the experience of being Chinese American changed over time? The past year has witnessed renewed hostility towards Chinese immigrants in the US, reflected in the Trump administration’s demand to limit the length of student visas, and amount of work visas, granted to Chinese nationals in the Tech industry. What does it mean to be Chinese American today? Through the close-reading of a range of literary and popular media texts, students will be guided through the history of Asian American racial formation, as well as thecommunity’s participation in, and contribution to, the diverse culture of the UnitedStates.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course examines Japanese film from the classics of Japanese cinema (Kurosawa Akira’s Ikiru, Mizoguchi Kenji’s Osaka Elegy) to the transnational genre of anime (Miyazaki Hayao’s Spirited Away and Anno Hideaki’s Evangelion) by tracing the archetypes of the white-collar worker and the adolescent girl. The course will be centered on weekly screenings, and class meetings will be focused on developing skills of film analysis. You will learn how to identify and analyze the structures and strategies that produce the narrative effects of the films we watch and learn how to develop arguments about how they engage society. You will also work on cultivating your critical voice and use writing as a means of developing your critical skills.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

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:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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 course will examine linguistic diversity in Japan as well as issues of identity and politics involved in the act of speaking Japanese in Japan and other parts of the world. Students will be engaged with questions such as the following: How do dialects become revitalized? How does the media portray dialect speakers? Does the Japanese government promote multilingualism? How do multilingual/multicultural individuals manage their identities? How do heritage speakers in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru deal with the politics of speaking Japanese? What does it mean to speak Japanese as a non-native speaker? No Japanese language ability is required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

After more than a millennium of dynastic rule, China’s last dynasty fell in 1911. In this period, Chinese intellectuals struggled to modernize their nation: proposed reforms included introduction of Western science, technology, and hygiene, promotion of public education, liberation of women, abolition of the rigid civil service examination, and abandonment of Chinese characters in favor of Western alphabetic script. This course examines Chinese intellectuals' ambivalent attitudes toward the West and toward its own imperial history at this critical juncture in Chinese history. Taught in English.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

What is the "Great Firewall of China?" What does it say on the symbolic power of the state, the civilians, as well as censorship and resistance politics? The Internet has played an increasingly important role in shaping contemporary Chinese life in many ways. The technology-enabled spaces have expanded to encompass a vast array of cultural forms. They have become an arena of intense contention and contestation among multiple political forces. This senior capstone course explores various aspects of the Internet culture in mainland China, combining close examination of up-to-date online content in original Chinese language with evaluation of scholarly discourse on the Chinese internet. The goal of the seminar is to look at different ways of conceptualizing Chinese internet culture. It will also consider the implications of online communication and cultural production both for contemporary Chinese culture in general, and students' own research in particular. Prerequisite(s): CHIN 204, the equivalent language proficiency, or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course introduces students to foundational legends, epics, novels, and poetry from across Asia. Studying core texts from the Arab World, India, China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan will provide windows into the ancient cultures, philosophies, and religious systems that produced these works. We will also examine these tales' enduring power today. We will analyze the many changes these tales underwent as they spread across Asia and appeared in diverse media including theater and visual arts. Texts include: The Journey to the West, The Arabian Nights, The Tale of Genji, The Ramayana, and The Tale of Kieu. Frequent writing assignments.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course introduces students to masterpieces of Chinese poetry, drama, philosophy, and history. We begin with ancient folk songs and poems and progress historically to the twentieth century. The Chinese word for "literature" - "wenxue" -  literally means "the study (xue) of patterns (wen)." In class we will search for thematic, rhythmic, stylistic, and philosophical patterns that structure individual texts. We will also discover broader social patterns that transcend individual works and bind the tradition together. All texts will be read in English translation; no knowledge of Chinese language or literature is expected. There will be frequent writing assignments.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course will introduce students to some of the philosophical and religious thinkers in classical India and China. We will read primary and secondary texts to understand ideas like the Buddha’s four noble truths, Nagarjuna’s emptiness (śunyatā, “zero-ness”), Śankara’s non-dualism (advaita), Confucius’s understanding of ritual (li), Zhuangzi and Hui Neng on the “mirror mind.” We will try and see the ways these ideas either parallel or challenge dominant patterns of European and American thought.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

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.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course supplements “Masterpieces of Chinese Literature” (CHIN 123). We will read and translate works of Chinese philosophy, poetry, and fiction from ancient times to the present. Most texts are in classical Chinese, but no prior study of classical Chinese is required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course is an overview of China on the silver screen. Adopting the "nation" as its primary structuring device, the course examines how Chinese films represented the national identity, national issues, and the national past. The topics under discussion include how women's virtues became the emblems of a nation that strived for modernity in the early 20th century; how films were politically appropriated for the socialist construction; how the revolutionary past had been cinematically constructed, remembered and critiqued in the post-Mao era; how the national legacy and tradition were consciously or unconsciously re-created and revised as a spectacle to meet the curious gaze from the global market; and how Taiwan and Hong Kong cinema constantly reflected the issue of cultural and national identities. The course starts from the silent film period and extends to the fifth generation directors, underground filmmaking, and the revival of martial arts genre in the greater China area. Feature films from mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be screened and discussed. Secondary articles and books are also assigned in conjunction with the films. The course is organized thematically and moves chronologically. No prior knowledge of China or Chinese is required.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

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:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

"Cross-listed with ART 294-01* Coined in the late 19th century by the German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthoven (1833-1905), “the Silk Road” was neither a singular road nor strictly occupied with silk. Rather, it was a complex web of overland and maritime trade of multifarious luxury goods including jade, porcelain, prints, paintings, metalwork, sculpture, furniture, and (of course) textiles; these goods moved along routes extending geographically from the Far East through Central, North, and South Asia to the Mediterranean. This course examines art and artifacts that moved along these trade routes from around the 2nd c. BCE to the 19th c. CE, inspiring the evolution of culture and taste in many regions. We will also discuss how religions such as Buddhism and Islam contributed to shifts in material practices during this dynamic time. Through a study of the art and treasure associated with the "Silk Road", we will learn about the muddy, complicated, and fascinating nature of ancient, pre-modern, and early modern trade and the formative role it has played in shaping cultures we see and understand today.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

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:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this discussion-based seminar, we will examine U.S. Global presence through the lenses of empire, diaspora, and transnationalism. We will look specifically at U.S. involvement in the Philippines and Viet Nam from 1898 to 1975 as moments of military occupation and cultural domination, as well as turning points for U.S. nation-building. What is "imperialism" and how is it different from "hegemony"? How did U.S. imperial adventures in Asia help to recreate a Western geographic imaginary of the "East"? How did they reshape or reconfigure "American" positions and identities? Under what circumstances were former imperial subjects allowed to generate racialized communities? To what extent are memories of U.S. conflicts in Asia cultivated, proliferated, twisted, or suppressed? What lessons can be garnered for the contemporary historical moment? Other topics for exploration include: internment, transracial adoption, commemorations of war, and anti-imperialist/anti-war movements.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

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:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials