Asian Studies

This course provides students with an understanding of important issues that have shaped contemporary Korean culture and society since the late 20th century. Students examine the country's historical background before attempting to get an overall picture of everyday life in contemporary Korea. The course discusses Korean life as diversely manifest in literature, movies, television, newspapers, magazines, advertising, sports, shopping centers, theme parks, and other forms of popular culture. It emphasizes discovering the ways in which Koreans have responded and adapted to the rapidly changing world. As a part of the course, students visit cultural sites and events relevant to the course content.

This course examines the food experiences and practices and their ideological effects that shape diners and their city. It also traces the crystallization of a conscious distinction of Hong Kong food and their influences among the residents of the city and overseas.

This course applies political risk analysis to explain the linkage between luxury consumption and the anti-corruption movement in China. It cultivates students’ understanding about how economic behavior and commercial market are affected by political dynamics in a one-party regime like China. The course analyzes the anti-corruption campaigns during the two decades under the Hu-Wen and Xi-Li regime from 2003 to 2022, and the varieties of luxury goods that are commonly used to capitalize illegal gains. Quantitative, analytical tools, such as game theory and regression methods, are introduced.

This course resituates Japan in a global context from a transcultural perspective to consider how popular culture emerges, whose interests it serves, how it is disseminated, and what messages it communicates. It aims to identify Japan’s major historical and cultural developments; understand the long history of popular culture in Japan and analyze cultural products considering the contexts in which they emerged and the audiences towards which they are targeted. The course provides opportunities to acquire methodological and theoretical skills necessary to analyze and critique primary sources and construct a logical argument. 

The course offers a general introduction to the history, literature, and cultures of China. Emphasis is placed on the modern period from the nineteenth century onwards. Students develop basic knowledge on modern Chinese history, from the last empire to the republic to the current age of the socialist market economy. The course pays special attention to literature as a key expression of culture but also addresses Chinese linguistics as well as other cultural expressions such as film and philosophy. Throughout the course, theoretical and methodological questions are addressed concerning the study of China in a postcolonial and globalizing world.

One of the most important questions in studying international politics is how to promote cooperation under anarchy. This course studies different perspectives of international relations including realism, neorealism, liberalism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism, and strategic perspective and discusses global and regional governance for peace and stability of the East Asian region. Issues reviewed during include the North Korean nuclear issues, nuclear proliferation, the rise of China and the US-China hegemonic competition, South Korea`s foreign and security policies, Korea-Japan relations, Korea-Russia relations, and Korea`s national security and its middle power role in the region. Assessments: Class attendance, quiz, class participation (15%); group paper, presentation and Q&A participation (35%); final exam (50%).

Course may be offered in English or Korean as the language of instruction.

This course examines Postcolonial Studies in dialogue with local voices of critique across fields and disciplines to reexamine (post)colonial experiences of Hong Kong and their legacy and imprints expressed in cultural, literary, cinematic, historical texts. By unpacking the anomality of the case of Hong Kong and organizing local critical scholarship on cultural production, this course also seeks to “reconfigure postcolonial discourse as a critical mode of imagination in a world altered now by global capitalism”.

This course examines the cultural, religious, and philosophical significance of yoga in premodern South Asia. It looks at both the classical foundations of yoga, as well as the modern/global perspective of yoga. 

This seminar addresses how specific historical events are commemorated in Southeast Asia and beyond (China, Japan, Korea). Students learn how historical memory is shaped by textbooks, museums, memorial sites, and debated in film, television and other forms of cultural production. This courses offers a n overview of the country's history at the beginning of each session.

This course studies the major political and social transformations that have affected China, Japan and Korea from the 19th century and the present day. The survey begins with an overview of these societies respective histories prior to 1800, and then shifts to looking at the impact of western imperialism on east Asia. The class then examines Japanese imperialism, and cultural interactions between Asia and Europe/North America, WWII, and the emergence of east Asian economic and political influence up to the 1980s.