Asian Studies

This course introduces Asian, European, and American material from the late nineteenth century to nearly the present day, concentrating on social and cultural themes such as industrialization, colonialism, science and race, technology and war, computers and global telecommunications and biotechnology and the human genome project. It is taught as a series of cases illustrating important events and multiple themes. The proposition that modern science and technology have been 'socially constructed', reflecting political and cultural values as well as the state of nature, is examined closely. The course includes theoretical material and an empirical focus.

This course explores an appreciation of the unique aesthetics of fiction and non-fiction film from a holistic perspective.  The course looks at works from author-directors; documentaries, and anthropological films (also known as visual ethnography), which are categorized into different themes; the course them aims to see different expressions of the same theme in different films with a comparative discussion of films from other cultures.

The selected films are all Chinese language films, which means the class will enter the context of Chinese culture through the film text. It is not only the lines told in Chinese and the scenes taken on the ground in China, but the “the Chinese emotional presentation” and "the Chinese way of viewing.” 

The course also discusses a range of possibilities arising from the collision of film as an art form with the Chinese context.

This course provides a general introduction to Chinese archaeology and Chinese history. It explores the origin and development of Chinese civilization through the investigation of material culture and historical texts. Students will learn about the methods and theories of archaeology as applied to the studies of Chinese history and culture.

This course examines various historical networks that flow across the Malay world from the 11th to the 21st centuries. It introduces students to the evolution, characteristics, and impact of commercial, diasporic, political, religious, educational, and media networks on the lives of Malays and other communities in the region. The three themes that recur throughout the course are: how networks are formed and sustained; how they interact with one another; how insights from different disciplines can aid in a more holistic study of these networks.

This course covers contemporary issues of international relations, politics, and political economy in Northeast Asia, with an emphasis on the role of the United States in the international relations, politics, and economy of Northeast Asian countries as an ‘informal empire’. 

This course will use Chalmers Johnson’s Blowback as a textbook to analyze various interpretations of the U.S's roles affecting Korean, Japanese, and Chinese politics, economy, and society. 

Through the study of this course, international students can go from scattered knowledge to targeted "liking" of Chinese films, and even through appreciating representative Chinese film masterpieces, they can have a deeper understanding of the direction and characteristics of Chinese history and culture, and the artistic achievements of Chinese films, thereby gaining a deeper understanding of China, the Chinese people and Chinese culture.

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.