Asian Studies

This course will critically approach tradition as encompassing the plural “Asian traditions” and the notion of modernization or modernity, as they relate to transformational experiences of nation-making, identity-formation and self and communal actualization. Debates and critiques on Asian traditions and modernity are examined in relation to nation, gender, intellectualism, spirituality, heritage, visual arts, architecture and aesthetics in the Malay world in comparison to other Asian and global experiences.

This course explores Japanese contemporary film in the context of socio-political change since the 1980s. Attention is paid to locating cinema within the debate on the many social issues that have emerged since the 1980s, including but not limited to: Japanese national identity, the family, economic restructuring, tradition and aesthetics, consumption and the virtual, history and memory, and depictions of disaster. Therefore, as well as developing a critical appreciation of contemporary Japanese cinema, the course acts as an approach to thinking about more general issues facing Japanese society. Students are expected to draw upon the wide literature in English on both Japanese cinema and contemporary Japanese society, and demonstrate this knowledge through discussion, debate presentations, and written work.