This course explores Chinese medicine and healing culture, its diversity, and its change over time. We will discuss topics including the establishment of canonical medicine, Daoist approaches to healing and longevity, diverse views of the body and disease, the emergence of treatments for women, medical construction of sex difference and imagination of female sexuality, the thriving and decline of female healers, the identity of scholar physicians, the transmission of medical knowledge, domestic and cross-regional drug market, healer-patient relations, and new visions of traditional Chinese medicine in modern China.

In 2019, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. This event marked the apex of South Korean cinematic renaissance, having steadily become a tour de force in the international film festival scene since 1997 onwards. This course explores the major auteurs, styles, themes, and currents of the so-called "New Korean Cinema" that emerged in the mid-to-late 1990s to continue to this day. Drawing from texts on critical film and Korean studies, we will pay particular attention to how the selected works re-present, resist, and interweave the sociopolitical climate they concern and are born out of. Using cinema as a lens with which to see the society, we will touch upon major events of the twentieth century including national division, military dictatorship and democratization movements, IMF economic crisis, youth culture, hallyu (the Korean wave), and more. In so doing, we will closely examine how each cinematic medium addresses the societal power structure and the role of the "Other" it represents in terms of class, race, gender, and sexuality in the construction of contemporary Korean society. No prior experience of Korean studies courses necessary; all films will be screened with English subtitles.

This class is an opportunity to work closely with the Chinese sculpture, paintings, bronzes and other works of art in the collection of the Penn Museum. Some of the objects are well-known and on permanent display. Others have hardly been researched since they were acquired, and rarely leave storage. The class will meet in small groups at the museum. Students will work on research papers and collaborative in-class presentations on objects of their choice. A variety of approaches will be encouraged and students may choose to focus on iconography, historical and religious context, materials and manufacturing techniques, collectors and patronage, or inscriptions. There are no prerequisites for this course.

Who (or what) where the samurai? What does it mean to say that Japan had an "Age of the Samurai"? In popular imagination, pre-modern Japan has long been associated with its hereditary warrior class. Countless movies have explored the character and martial prowess of these men. Yet warriors constituted but a tiny portion of the societies they inhabited and ruled, and historians researching medieval Japan have turned their attentions to a great range of subjects and to other classes (elite and commoner alike). This class is designed to acquaint students with the complex and diverse centuries that have been called the "Age of the Samurai"-roughly, the years between ca. 1110 and 1850. In the course of the semester, we will explore the central themes in the historiography of warrior society, while introducing some of the defining texts that have shaped our imagination of this age (from laws to epic poems, from codes of conduct to autobiographies).

How do people make sense of the multiple experiences that the simple words "love" and "loss" imply? How do they express their thoughts and feelings to one another? In this course, we will explore some means Japanese culture has found to grapple with these events and sensations. We will also see how these culturally sanctioned frameworks have shaped the ways Japanese view love and loss. Our materials will sample the literary tradition of Japan from earliest times to the early modern and even modern periods. Close readings of a diverse group of texts, including poetry, narrative, theater, and the related arts of calligraphy, painting, and music will structure our inquiry. The class will take an expedition to nearby Woodlands Cemetery to experience poetry in nature. By the end of the course, you should be able to appreciate texts that differ slightly in their value systems, linguistic expressions, and aesthetic sensibilities from those that you may already know. Among the available project work that you may select, if you have basic Japanese, is learning to read a literary manga. All shared class material is in English translation.

This course offers a thematic introduction to the history of martial arts in China. Throughout the semester, we will explore the social, political, and cultural contexts of martial arts practice, from the classical period to the 21st century. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach to situating martial arts practices in history through an examination of religious, literary, and visual sources, against the backdrop of theoretical approaches from across gender studies, anthropology, and cultural theory. The course will be divided into three units. The first unit will focus on the cultural background that led to the emergence of martial arts practices in the pre-modern period. We will examine classical discourses on the human body and its cultivation and the role of medical practices and religious institutions, such as the Shaolin Temple, in the development of martial arts regimens. In the second unit, we will discuss the spread and popularization of martial arts practices in late imperial and modern Chinese society through a close reading of literary sources, such as wuxia novels and other works of fiction. In addition, we will explore the modernization and re-invention of martial arts in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when China attempts to re-establish itself as a modern nation. The third and final unit will be devoted to the global impact of Chinese martial arts in contemporary popular culture. Through a discussion and analysis of Kung Fu films, as well as video games, we will explore the role of martial arts narratives and practices in the construction of gender, cultural, and national identity and the various ways in which they are used by the current Chinese regime to assert its influence in the global arena. No knowledge of Chinese is presumed, and all readings will be available in English on the Canvas website in PDF form. Graduate students may take this course as EALC 6926 and should see the instructor to discuss requirements for graduate credit.

A site by site investigation of Buddhist and non-Buddhist ruins in Central Asia. Included are Nisa, Khwarezm, Pyandzhikent, Khalchayan, Ay-Khanum, Bamiyan, Miran, Tumshuk, Kizil, Kucha, Khotan, Adzhina-Tepe, Khocho, Khara-Khoto, and Bezeklik.

This seminar will introduce graduate students to current scholarship on the Song dynasty (960-1276) by surveying both classic and recent work in the field. Students will gain a foundation in how historians have interpreted the Song period and learn the major debates within the field. Readings will be principally in English, and no background in Chinese studies is required.

This seminar is designed to acquaint graduate students with the basic methods and resources of Sino logical research. The course will begin with an overview of essential reference works and aids to study, such as dictionaries and concordances, and continue with a survey of the major primary sources for the study of traditional Chinese history. Students are required to demonstrate the use of the methods learned in the course in a research paper, to be presented to the class in the form of a brief lecture at the end of the semester. Only graduate students may enroll in this course. The prerequisites are reading knowledge of modern Chinese and two years of the classical language. Familiarity with Japanese, though not required, would prove helpful.

This course explores Chinese medicine and healing culture, its diversity, and its change over time. We will discuss topics including the establishment of canonical medicine, Daoist approaches to healing and longevity, diverse views of the body and disease, the emergence of treatments for women, medical construction of sex difference and imagination of female sexuality, the thriving and decline of female healers, the identity of scholar physicians, the transmission of medical knowledge, domestic and cross-regional drug market, healer-patient relations, and new visions of traditional Chinese medicine in modern China.