The Asian Studies major at a university provides an interdisciplinary program focused on the humanistic study of East Asia. The major builds on critical thinking skills and requires coursework in Asian literature, history, and philosophy as well as advanced language study. It prepares students for graduate study or careers requiring global perspectives and strong communication skills. The major can lead to careers in government, non-profits, media, arts, business, or further academic study in areas like international relations or East Asian studies.

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The Asian Studies major is an interdisciplinary program founded on the Humanities and the
Social Sciences and dedicated to the humanistic study of East Asia. For some students the major
will provide the intellectual foundations for graduate study. For others, this course of study will
serve as springboard to professional careers boosted by cosmopolitan perspectives on the variety
of intellectual, literary, and political endeavors that give shape to modernity in East Asia. For
every student, this major provides opportunities for critical inquiry into questions and issues that
are of vital importance to knowing the interconnections between places and to capably engaging
the world.
The Asian Studies major builds on the Common Curriculum’s focus on critical thinking, writing,
and reading. As a gateway to the Asian Studies major, students take the Special Topics in Asian
Studies course in the first year. Starting in the second year, Asian Studies majors take courses
in the Asian Studies Literature-History-Philosophy series, and then continue on to major electives
taught by select University faculty. After their second year, students are encouraged to study
abroad for at least one semester. All students must complete advanced-level study of an Asian
language. Native and heritage speakers of Korean must study either Chinese or Japanese, while
non-heritage students study Korean.
Career
Knowledgeable about the histories and interconnections between places, able to think critically
and to speak and write persuasively, graduates of the ASD will be well positioned to pursue
careers in both the public and private sector. In government service, or working with NGOs and
international organizations, ASD graduates can pursue careers in fields as diverse as international
diplomacy or non-profit advocacy. With global corporations or with media and arts organizations,
with deep local knowledge along with confidence and capacity to engage the world, ASD
graduates can pursue professional and business careers helping to create thriving economies and
vibrant intellectual and cultural communities. ASD graduates will also be well prepared to pursue
graduate study in the humanities or the social sciences leading to careers in higher education for
a global audience
CLS COURSE TITLE CR
LEC
(LAB)
MR SPECIAL TOPICS IN ASIAN STUDIES 3 3(0)
AS LHP POLITICAL THOUGHT: CONFUCIANISM AND NEO-CONFUCIANISM 3 3(0)
AS LHP COLD WAR IN EAST ASIA 3 3(0)
AS LHP TOPICS IN EAST ASIAN FILM/VISUAL CULTURE 3 3(0)
AS LHP MODERNITY AND CHINESE LITERATURE 3 3(0)
AS LHP EAST ASIAN CITIES: LITERARY AND CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS 3 3(0)
AS LHP TOPICS IN MODERN JAPANESE HISTORY 3 3(0)
AS LHP WORLD WAR II IN ASIA 3 3(0)
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Major: 42 credit-hours must be fulfilled from Asian Studies major courses. The following courses
are mandatory: Special Topics in Asian Studies (3 credits) and ASP LHP Series (18 credits).
Asian Studies majors must also take 6 semesters of foreign language courses. Only 6 credits of
advanced level language courses will count toward major requirements. The remaining 15 credits
will count as electives.
Double major: 36 credit-hours are required. Double majors must complete the required courses of
Asian Studies majors and 6 semesters of foreign language courses. Only 6 credits of
advanced-level language courses will count toward major requirements. The remaining 12 credits
will count as electives.
Minor: 18 credit-hours are required. Special Topics in Asian Studies (3 credits) and ASP LHP
Series (15 credits) are required for Asian Studies minors. Those who wish to minor in Asian
Studies need to take 4 semesters of language courses in addition to the required 18 credits.
Language courses will not count as minor credits.
ASP1011 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ASIAN STUDIES
Required for all first-year ASD students, this course examines the political, social, and cultural
trajectories that constitute contemporary East Asia, focusing on select questions and issues that
are of key importance to understanding the region. The course is organized into three distinct
units focusing on China, Japan, and Korea, but with attention to texts, events, and flows that
have transnational, regional, or global resonance. As the gateway to the Asian Studies major,
students will be drawn into the practice of critical inquiry that is foundational to both the liberal
arts and the study of contemporary East Asia.
POLITICAL THOUGHT: CONFUCIANISM AND NEO-CONFUCIANISM
This course presents a general survey of Chinese thought from the earliest period to the 20th
century. Readings and discussion focus on politics in the broad sense in Confucianism, Taoism,
and Buddhism, ending with debates over modernity during the May Fourth period. Readings will
AS LHP POSTWAR JAPAN (3) 3 3(0)
AS LHP READING COLONIAL JAPAN: EMPIRE AND CULTURE (3) 3 3(0)
AS LHP HISTORY OF MODERN KOREA, 1860-1948 (3) 3 3(0)
AS LHP KOREAN WAR (3) 3 3(0)
AS LHP HUMAN RIGHTS IN DIVIDED KOREA (3) 3 3(0)
ME STATE AND ECONOMY IN MODERN KOREA AND JAPAN (3) 3 3(0)
ME TRANSLATING ASIA THROUGH FILM(3) 3 3(0)
ME CHINESE POLITICS AND SOCIETY (3) 3 3(0)
ME TOPICS IN CHINESE THOUGHT(3) 3 3(0)
ME TOPICS IN MODERN KOREAN LITERATURE (3) 3 3(0)
ME KOREAN SOCIETY AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS (3) 3 3(0)
ME VIOLENCE IN MODERN SOUTH ASIA 3 3(0)
ME SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORAS 3 3(0)
ME ASIAN STUDIES SENIOR COLLOQUIUM (3) 3 3(0)
ME HONORS SENIOR THESIS (3) 3 3(0)

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encompass basic philosophical texts such as The Analects of Confucius, Tao-te Ching, and The
Diamond Sutra with emphasis on those religious and ethical doctrines most essential to the
various Asian traditions.
COLD WAR IN EAST ASIA
In our study of the Cold War in East Asia we will examine its historical origins, its ideas, and
its culture, and also explore its political, institutional, and cultural legacies in the present. While
keeping in mind that the Cold War was a global conflict that created mutually hostile, politically
and culturally divided zones, our focus will be on the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and American
experience in East Asia. As our point of departure we will think about the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the last act of the Pacific War and also the first act of the Cold
War in East Asia, as American interventions following World War II collided with anti-colonial
movements throughout Asia. Keeping in mind the specific historical situations in which
communist and anti-communist regimes came to be established, we will pay special attention to
Cold War culture. With critical attention to representations of family, race, gender, and private
and public vigilance in relation to the omnipresent gaze of the national security state, students
will be encouraged to write a final paper that closely examines some representative text, such as
a film, speech, poster, monument, short story, or comic book.
TOPICS IN EAST ASIAN FILM / VISUAL CULTURE
This course may be taught as a general introduction to East Asian cinema, or to modes of
visual experience in East Asia. As a film course, it may be taught as thematic explorations of
auteurism, genre (comedy, melodrama, horror, action, and epic), national cinemas, or border
crossings that highlight issues such as normativity and nationhood. As a study of visual culture,
it may introduce students to modes of visual experience and the ways in which these inform the
understanding and narration of the self in relation to East Asia and the world, focusing on
exhibitions, urban architecture, antiquity, and the like. The aim of this course, then, is to
facilitate an understanding of how film and visuality play a key role in mediating the flow of
ideas, commodities, and practices, in narrating vulnerabilities and desires, and in producing
temporalities and spaces.
MODERNITY AND CHINESE LITERATURE
This course examines modern Chinese literature starting in the 1910s through the post-Mao
period as literary texts and as political and intellectual interventions in the dramatic and at times
dangerous context of enormous political and social contestation. Organized along specific topics
and periods and focusing on major Chinese writers, we will approach modern Chinese literature
both as an aesthetic form and as political discourse. Students will be asked to write
well-reasoned responses based on close readings of literary as well as critical writings.
EAST ASIAN CITIES: LITERARY AND CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS
The city has served as the main stage for the interplay between modern subjectivity and national
identity. In the early 20thcentury,as East Asian economies industrialized and populations became
concentrated in urban centers, novels and films of the city both recorded and helped to
constitute the experiences of modern life. This course will examine the aesthetics, affect, and
narrative strategies that animate works of fiction and films of East Asian cities, in order to
better understand how urban spaces, social relations, competition and status/gender hierarchies,
and the pleasures of consumption and play were imagined and represented in those
literary/cinematic works.
TOPICS IN MODERN JAPANESE HISTORY
This course examines a number of issues fundamental to events and historical processes in the
formation of modern Japan. Starting in the late nineteenth century, as the Japanese state pursued
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national strength and imperial expansion, this course explores how Japanese intellectuals, artists,
factory girls, and right wing activists shaped and contested Japan’s political trajectory and
cultural practices. Primary documents, historical scholarship, film, literature, and popular culture
will aid in examination of themes such as Japan’s relationship with Asia and the West before
and/or after World War II, and modern/contemporary discourses on history, race, economy, and
culture.
WORLD WAR II IN ASIA
The Allied forces understood World War II in Asia as a war against expansionist, fascist Japan.
On the other hand, the Japanese empire articulated its wartime objectives as a war to liberate
Asia and Asians from Western domination and colonial rule. This course will examine the
historical processes that led to World War II in Asia with focus on the impact of
Euro-American and Japanese imperialism and colonialism on the peoples of Asia. We will
explore various experiences of those who were mobilized to fight and die in that war, including
victims of atrocities, “comfort women,” Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Southeast
Asia nationalists who seized the opportunity to advance independence movements. We will also
look at the ways in which the experience of World War II has been constructed and
reconstructed in political discourse and popular memory.
POSTWAR JAPAN
What kinds of political, social, and cultural shifts accompanied Japan’s surrender on August 15,
1945, when the past presumably ended and the present began? What were the competing
American and Japanese visions for postwar Japan, and how did they play out during the
American occupation? Keeping in our field of vision the Cold War in East Asia that involved
massive American intervention in two major wars (Korea and Vietnam), this course will explore
key themes and issues in the political, social, and cultural reconstitution of Japan as a
nation-state following its defeat in World War II, including issues relating to the emergence (and
disappearance) of a progressive intellectual community, the formation of mass culture,
consumerism, and (myths of) middle class life, and certain continuities in Japan’s political
economy from the 1930s and the war era.
READING COLONIAL JAPAN: EMPIRE AND CULTURE
This course examines Japan’s modern empire from the late nineteenth century to 1945. The
course readings consist of scholarly works in a number of disciplines including anthropology,
history and literature as well as a variety of primary sources in English translation. We will
look at how Japan’s modern empire extended from Sakhalin Island north of the Japanese
archipelago to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific and expanded into Manchuria, areas of
China, Korea, and much of Southeast Asia and Micronesia and investigate how colonial
processes intrinsically demanded a political, economic, and cultural exchange through negotiation,
struggle, collaboration, and resistance.
HISTORY OF MODERN KOREA, 1860-1948
In this course we will consider the various dimensions of the “modern” and “Korea” by
focusing on ideas about civilization, national sovereignty, and individual agency, as interrelated
issues that preoccupied Korean writers from the latter half of the nineteenth century through the
end of the colonial period and the establishment of two Koreas. Starting in the late nineteenth
century and proceeding through the colonial period, followed by national partition, and the
establishment of a “division system,” we will look at how Korean writers thought about Korea’s
past and present, about Japan and the “West” as the fountainhead of both imperialism and
modernity, and how they mobilized around issues of national sovereignty and liberation.
KOREAN WAR

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The Korean War (1950-1953) was horrific in its violence and profoundly consequential for
Korea, East Asia, and the global order. In the United States, and to some extent in South
Korea, this war is remembered as an instance of American rescue that subsequently enabled
South Korea’s ascendancy. But what events and situations come to be erased by such a
perspective? What are some of the other ways of narrating this war? To what degree was the
Korean War a denouement of conflicts stemming from Japanese colonial rule? What happened
between 1945 and 1948 when U.S. forces occupied southern Korea and the Soviet Army
occupied northern Korea? Through an examination of both primary documents and secondary
sources, we will consider the historiography on the origins, conduct, and impact of the Korean
War.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN DIVIDED KOREA
This course will examine the political and discursive context within which violations of human
rights in Korea, both in the North and the South, become visible within South Korea and in
international relations. We will critically examine both the theory and practice of human rights
as they relate to Korea against the historical backdrop of the Korean War, the Cold War, and in
more recent times neoliberal values and government-led celebrations of multiculturalism. Our
study of contemporary human rights practices will require some amount of fieldwork, including
interviews with individuals or groups identified by the students themselves as socially,
economically, or politically excluded or marginalized. We will explore the assumptions as well
as legal justifications that permit certain forms of violence and exclusion to escape definition as
violations of human rights.
STATE AND ECONOMY IN MODERN KOREA AND JAPAN
This course is an introductory survey of the state and economy of modern Korea and Japan,
beginning with late Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan in the 1600’s and ending with the
Pacific War. The class will examine the history and processes of transitions within an East
Asian context, focusing on the unique historical, political, and economic contexts of Korea and
Japan as they entered the modern age. Specifically, students will examine the evolution of Korea
and Japan through internally and externally imposed changes as the rise of the modern
nation-state converged with the penetration of foreign political influence, the global world
economy, the rise of a modern regional East Asian economy, capitalism, and imperialism.
TRANSLATING ASIA THROUGH FILM
In Western films, Asia has often been portrayed as a mysterious locale of romance, labyrinthine
landscapes, and inscrutable natives concealing secrets that are irretrievably lost in translation.
This course will explore the ways in which Asia has been portrayed in Western cinema in
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juxtaposition with films produced in Asian countries themselves. How is the Orient constructed
through Western eyes? What does this construct reveal about the Western spectator’s capacity to
be tricked both by film and by things “Oriental”? To what degree does Asian cinema itself
imitate the Occidental construct? What are the cultural themes explored by Asian filmmakers
themselves? Through close analysis of a variety of films, we will explore the processes of visual
translation from reality to fantasy in both the international and “national” contexts. In doing so,
we hope to develop a process of de-translation aimed at untangling and deconstructing the
long-standing monolithic notions of East and West.
CHINESE POLITICS AND SOCIETY
This course is an introductory survey of political and social changes of the People’s Republic of
China, including background information on pre-1949 revolution processes, the era of Mao
(1949-1976) and the reform period since 1978. The lectures offer a historical and thematic
survey of Chinese politics, with emphases on the patterns and dynamics of political and social
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development, state-society relations, the prospects for democracy, the interactions between
ideology and politics.
TOPICS IN CHINESE THOUGHT
This course explores a number of problems and issues in Chinese thought from the earliest
period to the 20th century. Through a close engagement with texts like the I Ching, one of the
oldest of Chinese classic texts, and texts drawn from Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, we will
explore topics such as the eight trigrams, two hexagrams, the concept of transcendence,
noumenal vs. phenomenal nirvana, and the extinction of desire and philosophical meaning of
‘knowing.’
TOPICS IN MODERN KOREAN LITERATURE
This course may be taught as a general introduction to modern Korean literature, or as thematic
explorations of key texts that gave expression to new concepts of subjectivity, to assimilatory or
resistant practices, or to reconfiguration of notions of self and place. As a general introduction,
this course may give particular attention to literary representations of the colonial past, national
division and war, gender and authoritarianism, desire and contemporary consumer culture. In so
doing, students will become familiar with the works of key twentieth-century Korean writers, be
able to situate literary texts within a sociopolitical history and probe various facets of the
relationship between texts and contexts, and improve skills necessary for close reading and
critical analysis of literature. As thematic explorations, this course may examine issues like
censorship and practices of reading, enlightenment and nostalgia, major literary debates, or
aesthetics of (political) commitment.
KOREAN SOCIETY AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS
This course intends to survey the modern transformation of Korean society from traditional to
modern. It covers some important historical events that contributed to the formation of modern
Korean society, including colonization, the Korean War, division of Korea, economic development
and crisis, and political democratization. Special attention will be given to the questions of how
the main characteristics of Korean society have been molded through these processes, and how
they are depicted in cultural representations, like novels, films, etc.
VIOLENCE IN MODERN SOUTH ASIA
In recent years, ‘violence’ has emerged as a key theme in the study of modern south Asia.
Researchers in disciplines ranging from history to literature, sociology, anthropology, political
science, psychology, and post-colonial studies, have adopted ‘violence’ as a lens through which
to observe and analyze south Asian societies. Perhaps because of this growth in interest,
however, there has also been considerable debate both over the use of the term and its
applicability to south Asia, e.g. Does violence always have to involve action, or can it also be
said to take place in other ways? Does violence have the same meaning everywhere, or should
its meaning be determined according to culture? Besides introducing students to the various
debates and theories concerning violence in modern South Asia, this course is also designed to
help you to think with difficult, often abstract concepts and to become accustomed to writing
about such ideas in a reasoned and analytical way.
SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORAS
The importance of south Asian diasporas is marked by the growing global political, social and
economic impact of people originating from the Indian subcontinent. The spread of their
influence extends to the information technology industry in California, religious institutions in
Europe, North America and Australasia, and the manufacturing and service industries in Saudi
Arabia and the Far East. This scope can also lead to ambiguity, however: how do we begin to
grasp the dynamics of such an amorphous grouping? In this course we will begin to respond to

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this by introducing theories and debates concerning the modern study of diaspora and then
applying them to the history of South Asian diasporas. We will explore variations between
groups and regions of emigration, the impact of differences in class, caste, family structure, and
motivation, patterns of settlement and interaction with local communities, and changes among
succeeding generations. The course will consist of readings, discussions, observations and
analysis, and will train students in conducting their own diaspora research project.