Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements.

Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements.

Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements.

Home to four of the five most populous states and four of the five largest economies, the Asia/Pacific is arguably the most dynamic region in the twenty-first century. At the same time, Cold War remnants (a divided Korea and China) and major geopolitical shifts (the rise of China and India, decline of the US and Japan) contribute significantly to the volatility of our world. This course will examine the political, economic, and geopolitical dynamism of the region through a survey of relations among the great powers in Asia from the sixteenth century to the present. Special emphasis will be given to regional and global developments from the perspective of the three principal East Asian states--China, Japan and Korea. We will explore the many informal, as well as formal, means of intercourse that have made East Asia what it is today. Graduate students should consult graduate syllabus for graduate reading list, special recitation time and graduate requirements.

The Chinese writing system is the only major surviving script in the world that is partially picto-ideographic, Egyptian hieroglyphic and Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform having passed out of use about two millennia ago. Partly because it is so unique, a tremendous number of myths have grown up around the Chinese script. In an attempt to understand how they really function, this seminar will examine the nature of the sinographs and their relationship to spoken Sinitic languages, as well as their implications for society and culture. We will also discuss the artistic and technological aspects of the Chinese characters and the ongoing efforts to reform and simplify them. The use of sinographs in other East Asian countries than China will be taken into account.

Do science and technology come to mind when you think of Korean popular culture?
This course examines how science and technology are portrayed within Korean popular culture. We will analyze their depiction across different media and explore the many ways in which popular culture, and by extension everyday lives in Korea, are connected to science and technology. By uncovering science and technology elements in unexpected moments and formats, students will explore questions such as: How are science and technology used for political purposes, or are they political by nature? How does using science and technology contribute to or help solve social injustice? Why and how do people resist certain advances in science and technology? How do we define the boundary between what is natural and what is artificial? How do science, technology, and culture influence each other?
Expanding our study to film, novel, tv series, and K-pop, students will gain insights into how the representation of science and technology reflects aspects of Korean society. Throughout the semester, we will also have chances to compare these representations with the case studies from other East Asian countries. By the end of this course, students will have a better understanding of the relationship between science, technology, and society in the modern world.

This class examines queer phenomena in and around China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the queer Sinophone world more generally. Beyond seeking to understand sexual subcultures and sites of queer intimacies on their own terms, the course examines their relationship to political economy and geopolitics. In addition to filmic and literary texts, the course includes readings that are theoretical, anthropological, sociological, and comparative. While the focus is largely on modern China, the class also attends to historical reference points both inside and outside the Sinophone world. From a macro perspective, this course examines China’s place in discourses of development, focusing on the role of desire in constituting the sexual and political subject of modernity. The overall goal of this class is to develop alternative frameworks for understanding the relationship between sexuality and politics. The course does not require specialized knowledge of China.

This course is a survey of Japanese cinema from the silent period to the present. Students will learn about different Japanese film genres and histories, including (but not limited to) the benshi tradition, jidaigeki (period films), yakuza films, Pink Film, experimental/arthouse, J-horror, and anime. Although the course will introduce several key Japanese auteurs (Mizoguchi, Ozu, Kurosawa, Oshima, Suzuki, etc), it will emphasize lesser known directors and movements in the history of Japanese film, especially in the experimental, arthouse, and documentary productions of the 1960s and 1970s. Finally, in addition to providing background knowledge in the history of Japanese cinema, one of the central goals of the course will be to interrogate the concept of "national" cinema, and to place Japanese film history within a international context.

This course is a survey of Chinese and Sinophone cinemas from the silent era to the present. The Sinophone refers to Sinitic film cultures both inside and outside the People’s Republic of China that have been in relatively marginalized positions against the Han-Chinese mainstream, such as Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Tibetan, and transpacific cinemas. One major goal of the course is to interrogate the national cinema framework and to show how the meaning of “Chineseness” has been problematized by filmmakers and critics throughout modern history. Students will learn about important film movements and trends such as leftist cinema from the 1930s, socialist cinema, Taiwanese and Hong Kong New Waves, the Fifth and Sixth Generation filmmakers, and contemporary transnational productions. Attention will be paid to both films known for awards and artistic achievements and popular genres including thrillers, horror, and wuxia (martial art).

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.