Asian Studies

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.

This course examines contemporary Japanese politics. It looks closely at the relationship between institutions (electoral systems, regulatory frameworks, administrative systems) and political actors such as politicians, political parties, bureaucracies and bureaucrats, business and civic groups, and citizens. It introduces some of the most important debates and issues in Japanese politics such as the emergence and evolution of conservative rule, the role of industrial policy in economic development, the relationship between bureaucrats and politicians, the legal system and politics, security policy and foreign relations, civil society and civic engagement, and state-interest group dynamics. The course will also address critical issues in contemporary Japanese politics such as demographic change, energy policy, the environment, natural disaster, constitutional revision, territorial and historical disputes in East Asia, women’s participation, and initiatives for economic revitalization. 

This course discusses Taiwan's popular culture, reviews relevant literatures of Taiwan's popular culture, explores how identity is produced and consumed through ensuing cultural commodities develop its own critical understanding of (Taiwan's) popular culture (in particular the production and consumption of popular culture as cultural, political, economic, social, and historical practices and processes), and teaches approaches, concepts, and issues in the study of production and consumption of popular culture. The course goes through Taiwan's rapid development of both consumer society and democracy hybrid cultural characteristics based on 400 years of hybrid colonial history some representative examples in popular culture, for example, Popular Literature, Popular Music and Cinema, Betel-Nuts Beauties and Electronic-Fancy-Float Girls, Shopping and Queuing, Wedding and Portrait Photography, Adult Films, ACG and Trendy Dramas, Being Kawaii, Baseball, A-Bian Doll, Call-in Show and Red-Shirt Army, and finally Night Market and Food Culture. It discusses the following questions: What is "Taiwaneseness"? How are "Japaneseness" and "Taiwaneseness" (re-)presented in Taiwan's cinema? How is "Taiwaneseness" (re-)produced, circulated, and consumed in Taiwan's popular culture?