Asian Studies

This course focuses on the business development under China’s digital economy. With the fast development of technology infrastructure in China, emerging and disruptive digital technologies have profoundly reshaped the business and the economy. Plus, unique consumer behavior, organizational management, and market competition have made China’s market innovative and dynamic. As a result, new businesses keep coming and the business management has been digitally transformed. We will analyze these new Chinese management in this course. Specifically, this course will cover topics such as China’s digital economy and growth, platform and ecosystem, digital platforms including e-commerce and social media, sharing economy and business model innovation, practices regarding recruitment, performance management, training and development, turnover, as well as management phenomena that are indigenously Chinese. 

Centered on the theme of "Rebuilding the Coordinates," this course explores how China, since the crisis of 1840, has sought to rediscover its place in the modern world through revolution, reform, and innovation. Combining Shanghai's "Walking Classroom" with advanced "AI Academic Dialogue," you will traverse from the late Qing transformations to the digital future. 

This course is based on Mr. Yuan Ke's theory of general mythology, collectively refering to narrative broad supernatural beings and phenomena (including gods, ghosts, monsters, strange phenomena, etc.), and various types of literary works with mythological elements as mythological literature. This course selects classic storylines from ancient Japanese mythology, teaches their main content and cultural significance, and then sorts out the derivatives and changes of these stories from medieval Japan to modern times, as well as the mythological stories that appeared after the Middle Ages and their evolving forms in later generations, such as the folklore of bronze mirrors, fox legends, etc.; it showcases the dissemination and variation of Chinese mythological legends and bizarre literature in Japan, and deeply analyzes the influence between mythological literature in China and Japan. The texts involved in this course are diverse, including literary works, historical documents, theater images such as Jyoururi plays, Kabuki, and artworks. Through fascinating and interesting stories, students are guided to think about the relationship between mythological literature and social evolution, and the changes in ideological concepts, to grasp the characteristics of Japanese culture, and to understand the important influence of Chinese culture on Japanese mythological literature.

This course covers Noh, a traditional Japanese performing art. Noh has been performed for nearly 650 years, from the 14th century during the Muromachi period to the present day. Based on literary works from the 10th and 11th centuries, the plays were created in the 14th century, and its language is more difficult than modern Japanese. However, Noh has continued until today because it has always possessed an appeal that captivates people, and its content is not outdated, depicting universal human emotions and beauty. Furthermore, its expressive techniques are highly sophisticated, the result of many years of refinement.

This course aims to enable students to analyze the social background of the operation of Chinese law from the perspective of the sociology of law, the influence and role of various social factors on the operation of law, understand the basic system of Chinese law, and master the ability and methods to use law to solve problems. 

This course covers both major theoretical and practical perspectives of exploring Chinese Political Economy. It utilize theoretical perspectives from political science, economics to systematically analyze the key theoretical and practical issues of China's reform. It will clarify the core logic and mechanisms of China's development and governance. 

In this course, we will give a brief overview of series of imaginations of so called "ancient Japan" on mass media, how the imaginations were made, and the difference between the imaginations and reality. The examples mainly come from movies, including animation, video games.etc.

This seminar prepares students for the field trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki (KCSEM 209), which involves spending a week traveling together to Hiroshima and Nagasaki while earning credit. The latter involves experiencing the enduring impact and evolving memories of the atomic bombings of these two cities more than 80 years later. This seminar culminates in attending and studying the Memorial Services held in Hiroshima on August 6th and Nagasaki on August 9th. Both courses aim to reflect on how memories and commemoration of the atomic bombings have changed over time and their impact in the current international environment. 

This course is taught by two instructors - one instructor connects Senryu with Japanese culture. Senryu is a short form of poetry based on the same 5-7-5 syllable structure as the haiku, and has been widely enjoyed in Japan since the Edo period. This course introduces Edo-period senryu, explaining its differences from haiku, and then explores modern senryu. Many of the everyday vocabulary, colloquial expressions, slang, and company jargon found in senryu are not found in Japanese textbooks. 

The second instructor clarifies the characteristics of kami worship (so-called Shinto), Buddhism, the Emperor, festivals, and traditional culture (tea ceremony, flower arrangement, etc.) through history. The course can include field trips to temples, shrines, and festivals to allow the class to experience Japanese culture firsthand and further their understanding.　

This course examines the foreign relations between the People’s Republic of China’s and the Third World during the Cold War. The course will place a particular emphasis on the following topics: China’s position in the Cold War, the role of ideology, decolonization and the response of the Cold War powers, and the political economy of the Third World during the Cold War. A particular emphasis will be placed on Sino-African relations and less so on Latin America.