Asian Studies

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Korean culture from the "opening" of Korea in the 19th century up to today. It travels chronologically through Korean history with a changing disciplinary focus. The course builds a robust knowledge fundament of Korean culture, including insights into multiple disciplines, including history, literature, film, historiography, geography, anthropology, and sociology.

This course studies important economic problems that emerged in Japan in the last few decades as well as their causes. The goal of the class is to deepen an understanding of contemporary Japanese economy and its relations to the world economy.

This course examines traditional Chinese history. It will give a brief account of the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties and the political crises that are cataclysmic to the empires. It covers the period from ancient to late Imperial China. The main theme will focus on the characteristic portrayals of Chinese emperors as well as the political influences of eunuchs, empresses, and their family members, etc.

Chinese political economy covers both major theoretical and practical perspectives of exploring Chinese political economy. This course will focus on the political and economic reforms in China since the beginning of the reform and opening-up. It will utilize theoretical perspectives from political science, economics and sociology to systematically analyze the key theoretical and practical issues of China's reform. These issues include the party-state relationship, state capacity, cadre selection and promotion, fiscal and taxation reforms, central-local relations, digital political economy, and government responsiveness. The course aims to clarify the core logic and operational mechanisms of China's reform，and clarify the key advantages of Chinese political economy institutions. The design, content and format of this course are aimed optimally to benefit students in both knowledge accumulation and practical orientation.

This is a knowledge-based course introducing the Chinese language and culture. Contents include theories and applications concerning the Chinese language and culture; theories, practices, and situations of teaching and learning Chinese as a second language (including Putonghua and Cantonese learning); the importance of culture in Chinese as a second language; and the language policies and its use in Hong Kong and in Mainland China.

This course looks at the evolution of modern China's political and economic system; the Chinese state in comparative perspective; issues and problems of China's political and economic development. This course explains the Chinese political system and state administration, the characteristics of China's socialist market economy, and analyses the role of the Communist Party of China. Students 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 adopts multi-disciplinary perspectives to examine significant and complex issues of China in the past and present. With a general survey of China, this course discusses China’s historical development, revolutionary past, cultural traditions, formal political structure, the market-oriented economic reform, and geographic, demographic and linguistic diversity, as well as contemporary issues of environment, resistance and mass media. Central themes throughout the course include China’s cultural identity, ethnicity, state-society relations, continuities and changes in China’s socio-political values, and China’s role in the global order. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a base of knowledge of China’s historical and contemporary experiences and contexts. 

This course examines an aspect of Thai social life often overlooked although central to the everyday practical lives and visual experiences of Thais. The Buddha image presiding over the Vihara, or Ubosot of a temple, almost always has a name and a story connected to it. The belief and ritual practices surrounding the image make it a practically central component of the life of a Buddhist community.  

And yet such images have scarcely excited much interest beyond the descriptive art historical approach. This selected topic explores the Buddha Images of Thailand and evaluates the power that these images have over what it means to be a member of a community, of what it means to be Thai and what it means to exert power, how they connect the faithful not only with a Buddhist past in northern India but with histories of local communities and great kingdoms alike.  

Above all, Buddha Images of Thailand offers another way to view the landscape of Thailand as sacred geography or Buddhascape. Although an art historical approach is utilized, this course foregrounds and examines the social and political aspects of the image, placing it in its wider historical context. 

This course examines tombs from the Neolithic period to the Yuan dynasty with a focus on the period between the 2nd and the 14th century to examine their artistic, religious, and social significance.

This course examines Chinese literature from the Song Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty. The course will help students gain an understanding of cultural history and the internal development of literary history. Students will gain basic knowledge about Chinese literary works in this course knowledge and understanding of the relationship between historical conditions and literary production.