Asian Studies

This course covers topics including the evolution of modern China's political and economic system, the Chinese state in comparative perspective, and issues and problems of China's political and economic development. Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to explain the Chinese political system and state administration, explain the characteristics of China's socialist market economy, analyze the role of the Communist Party of China, critically assess different theoretical approaches used in current research on modern China, and develop and present individual research interests on China's political system.

This course provides an overview of the development of art in Hong Kong from the colonial days to the early 21st century, including traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy and seal carving, modern ink painting, and various art forms in western media. It examines the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s art in the context of its economic growth, cultural integration of east and west, and freedom in artistic creation, towards an evaluation of the achievements of Hong Kong’s art in the twentieth century.

This course explores Asian cinema from its beginning to the introduction of talkies in the 1930s. Topics include the advent of cinema in Asia and how it transformed entertainment across the continent and provided a novel means of popular expression. Students examine how cinema is closely tied to modernity and understand how different societies and cultures in Asia responded to the modern transformation and how they appropriated it for their own ends. The course focuses on China, Japan, and India and their film culture.

This course covers approaches and patterns of economic development in East Asian countries (including ASEAN member countries, China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan), East Asian development model, policies and roles of state in development, multinational corporation (MNCs) and East Asian production networks, and characteristics and problems of East Asian development model.

This course offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the politics, economics, and foreign policy that constitute international politics of the Korean Peninsula. It explores how Korea dealt with its first encounters with imperialism and tackled the complex task of modernization, to understand how these prewar historical legacies continue to affect the domestic politics, society and international relations of South Korea today. 

Topics include ethnic nationalism in Korea, imperial Japan, territorial disputes in Asia, the Comfort Women issue, South Korea’s industrialization, the LGBTQ movement in Korea, feminist and anti-feminist movement in Korea, North Korea and its nuclear weapons, to name a few. 

Prerequisites: A course in political science or in Asian Studies 

This course gives an overview of the status, features, and use of Hong Kong English (HKE), the variety of English commonly used in Hong Kong. It introduces to the concept of ‘world Englishes’ and examines different theoretical frameworks for conceptualizing the evolution of new varieties of English. The course also examines the relationship between Hong Kong English and Hong Kong culture from cultural, social, historical, and educational perspectives, particularly in relation to and juxtaposition from Cantonese and Putonghua. The second part of the course examines both spoken and written features of HKE, including grammar, discourse particles, vocabulary, and pronunciation, as well as the practices of code-mixing and code-switching. This section of the course also focuses on the social impact of the use of these features in Hong Kong culture. In the third part of the course, language attitudes and ideologies towards ‘standard’ language varieties (for example American and British English) in relation to HKE are explored. The course also examines the relationship between the use of HKE and social identity as well as gender in Hong Kong culture.

This course is a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) course in English and Korean to explore Korean history in the 20th century with a focus on disasters, accidents, and crises. In the 20th century, the world, including Korea, experienced imperialism, colonization and war, and after many countries were liberated, experienced the Cold War. This course covers various disasters, accidents and crises in Korea before achieving rapid capitalist industrialization and democratization. Class lectures and communication are in Korean, with readings in both English and Korean to achieve the goal of the CLIL course.

Students are required to master the basic concept of Chinese art archaeology, understand the discovery history of Chinese art archaeology, and understand the role and significance of art archaeology in the study of Chinese culture and history.

This course uses a historical narrative—with an introductory text and lectures—to survey the history of Buddhism from the origin to the rise of major forms of Buddhism in India and further developments in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Tibetan cultural regions. Reading assignment will balance primary sources from the key moments of Buddhist history and thought and secondary scholarship. A major theme that we keep coming back to will be the development of Buddhist philosophy and theology as represented by major schools of In- dian, Chinese, and Tibetan Buddhism. The course will also introduce students to wider facets of Asian Buddhist cultures by looking at aspects of Buddhist scriptures, literature, art, ritual and meditation, translation, and other cultural practices. The course is designed to help students sharpen their academic skills in reading, critical thinking, and creative writing and to prepare them for more advanced work in Buddhist studies, Buddhist philosophy, and religious studies.

Course Requirements: • Finishing assigned readings before meetings, regular attendance, and active contribution to discussion •  A paper presentation (30 minutes) on an assigned topic (voluntary) • Essay ("Take-Home-Exam"). Teaching Methods: Lecture will be combined with prepared discussion of assigned readings and paper presentations

This course explores various social and cultural issues in Korea through reading and discussing Korean-language books and articles published in contemporary Korea. The course focuses on literature, essays,and academic texts on topics such as overseas Koreans; social and cultural discrimination; modern history, and the daily lives of workers in Korea. The course also aims to improve Korean language skills at the academic level. 

All course materials are in Korean.