Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Study of Chinese painting and practice from the earliest pictorial representation through the late twentieth century. Painting styles are analyzed, but themes such as landscape and narrative are considered with regard to larger social, cultural, and historical issues. The class will pay particular attention to the construction of the concepts of the "artist" and "art criticism" and their impact on the field into the present. Visits to study paintings at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Continuation of CHIN491 EALC221/621, which is the only prerequisite for this course. Upon completion of Shadick, readings in a wide selection of texts with Chinese commentaries may be taken up. These readings are in part chosen to reflect student interest. This is the second half of a year-long course. Those who enroll must take both semesters.

This is a seminar about Tang China and Nara Japan, and Early Heian Japan, Unified Silla Korea, Northeast Asia under Parhae, and Uyghur Inner Asia through their cities, palaces, monasteries, Buddhist art, and painting. We begin by studying material remains of the two best-documented civilizations of East Asian in the seventh-ninth centuries. Using painting, sculpture, ceramics, and architecture of Tang China and Nara Japan, we investigate the validity of the frequent assessment of an international Tang through material remains in China and Japan. We then move to Korea, Mongolia, and Central Asia. Students will have a wide range of topics to work on. They will be encouraged to find comparative topics. This seminar is an opportunity for students to use Chinese, Japanese, or Korean in research papers. There are no exams. Readings will be assigned to the whole group and to individual students for short presentations every week. Graduate students will write and present research papers.

This course deals with the empire built by the Mongols in the 13th century - the largest land empire in the world. Most readings will be from translated primary sources of the 13th and 14th centuries, written by the Mongols themselves and also by Persians, Chinese, Eastern Christians, Europeans, and other peoples that fought, surrendered to, or traded with the Mongol conquerors. The course will explore the Mongols, the most spectacular example of the nomadic conquerors who played such a large role in all Eurasian history, and survey how their empire affected themselves and the peoples they conquered. By using primary sources, the course will also provide a survey of civilizations in Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries, and give a hands-on example of how historians build historical knowledge from varied sources. Graduate students will receive training in more advanced source critical methodologies for dealing with these sources and for beginning research in this topic.

This course explores Romance of Three Kingdoms the most popular classica l novel in East Asia and an important source for understanding Chinese culture, politics, history, and military strategy. We propose to read this work not only as a textbook of Chinese literature and culture, but also as a guidebook for career development and risk assessment. Why didn't t Pangtong have a career as successful as Zhuge Liang? Why did Ma Su volunteer in a project that he is not good at? If Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Quan run for presidency in the U.S., who would you vote for and why? These are some of the questions that we will explore alongside our inquiry into the the historical development of various genres of Chinese fiction. In addition to Romance of Three Kingdoms, this course introduces Sun Tsu's The Art of War and other classical Chinese novels such as Dream of the Red Chamber and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, as well as classical literary criticism such as Cao Pi's On the Standard of Literature (Dian lun), Lu Ji's Essays on Literature (Wen lun), and Liu Xie's The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons.

This survey course introduces students to major trends, genres, directors, and issues in the cinemas of East Asian countries/regions, including Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Charting key developments over more than a hundred years from the early twentieth century to the present, this course examines films as aesthetic objects, asking questions about film form, narrative, and style. It also pays attention to the evolution of cinema as an institution (e.g. modes of production, circulation, and exhibition) in different cultural and political contexts. Weekly course materials will include both films (primary sources) and analytical readings (secondary sources). By the end of the course, students are expected to gain broad knowledge of East Asian cinema, develop skills of film analysis, and apply these skills to perform historically informed and culturally sensitive analysis of cinema. Prior knowledge of East Asian languages is NOT required.

Continuation of EALC293/693, which is the only prerequisite for this course. Upon completion of the basic introduction to grammar, spelling rules, and diachronic levels (pre-classical, classical, post-classical), readings in a wide selection of texts with Mongolian commentaries may be taken up. These readings are in part chosen to reflect student interest. This is the second half of a year-long course. Those who enroll should take both semesters.