Asian Studies

The course consists of lectures, activities, and field trips regarding the environmental, historical, and sociocultural facets of Taiwan. The field trips supplement the lecture content. The course explores how Taiwan's past has shaped its modern state, and the subtle ways Taiwan incorporates foreign culture with its local culture. Course topics include: agricultural history and transformation; Taiwanese fold custom, ecology and nature, the national palace museum. Field trips locations include Jinguashi and Gold Museum, Taipei Guest House and National Taiwan Museum, and Longshan Temple and Huaxi District. Cultural activities include traditional craft, calligraphy, and Chinese mask. This course requires UCEAP students to complete an additional independent research paper on a topic of their choice.

This course examines the impact of Buddhism on East Asia by examining some of the key visual legacies of this tradition, including Buddhist imaginings of the afterlife, the development of the stupa, and the art of Zen Buddhism. The main focus is on the pre-modern era, but the course also covers the current manifestations of Buddhism in China, Korea, and Japan.

This course examines Chinese traditional culture. Topics include origin and context, social background, historical influence, core elements, and future developments.

This course examines the impact of Zen thought and practice on Japanese culture. It covers proto-Zen from India to China; the transmission and development of Zen in Japan; and Zen’s influence on the aesthetics of everyday objects, experience, and judgments including architecture, landscaping, arts, literature, spirituality, and lifestyle.

Is Chinese philosophy incommensurable with Western philosophy, or is there a philosophy in general? There are stereotypes (opinions) about Chinese philosophy, and this course examines the truth of Chinese philosophy in particular and the truth of philosophy in general. This course introduces classical (pre-Qin) Confucianism and Legalism; investigates the problems the pre-Qin Confucian and Legalist philosophers try to answer, what their answers are, whether the answers are coherent within one text and how these answers are related to each other; and examines how these philosophical texts address philosophical problems, that is, problems that transcend a particular people, a particular time, and a particular locale. By comparing these philosophers' answers to those by other philosophers (Chinese or non-Chinese), students see the merits and problems of these answers that are still relevant today.