East Asian Languages
and Civilizations

Department Chair: Norma N. Field, Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Director of Undergraduate Studies: Xiaobing Tang, Wb 301J, 702-5802
Department Secretary: Carol Hennessy, Wb 301, 702-1255

Program of Study

The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations offers a Bachelor of Arts program in East Asian studies that introduces students to the traditional and modern civilizations of China and Japan and provides them with the opportunity to achieve a basic reading and speaking knowledge of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Although the program is located in the Humanities Collegiate Division, its approach is interdisciplinary, and students with social scientific interests have ample opportunities to take courses in the Social Sciences Collegiate Division and other appropriate areas of the University.

Program Requirements

Students enrolled in the concentration program normally fulfill the College's language requirement with courses in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean; the concentration further requires a second three-quarter sequence in the language elected. In addition, concentrators are directed to take East Asian Languages and Civilizations 108-109-110 (Introduction to the Civilizations of East Asia I, II, III) to satisfy the Common Core civilizational studies requirement. This course sequence is cross listed with Social Sciences 235-236-237. Beyond the basic language requirement, the concentration requires ten courses related to East Asia, three of which may be either a third year of the East Asian language used to satisfy the College language requirement, or a year of a second East Asian language. A maximum of six quarters of language counts toward concentration requirements. A minimum of three of the ten courses should be in the same discipline (for example, history, sociology, literature, or art history). A maximum of six approved courses taken while studying abroad may count toward concentration requirements.

Summary of Requirements

Bachelor's Thesis. The department does not require a bachelor's thesis for graduation except from students competing for honors. However, all students are eligible to write a bachelor's thesis upon submitting an acceptable proposal to the department early in the fourth year, usually by the fifth week of the autumn quarter. Interested students should consult the director of undergraduate studies for details concerning the proposal.

Grading. All courses taken to fulfill requirements in the concentration must be taken for letter grades. No P/N or R grades are offered in language courses.

Honors. Any student who has maintained an overall grade point average of 3.0 or better is eligible to be considered for honors. Students who wish to compete for honors must submit a bachelor's thesis. This paper is read by two members of the department and, if judged to be of superior quality, the student is recommended to the College for graduation with honors. The final decision on the award of honors rests with the College. With the consent of the departmental adviser, honors students may include a senior tutorial in their program in preparation for the thesis.

Faculty

GUY S. ALITTO, Associate Professor, Departments of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and History and the College

CHENG YANG BORCHERT, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

FANG-PEI CAI, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

CHIH-CH'AO CHAO, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

JAE-OHK CHO, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

PRASENJIT DUARA, Associate Professor, Departments of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and History

NORMA M. FIELD, Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations; Chair, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

JAMES KETELAAR, Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and History

HARUMI LORY, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

JAMES D. MCCAWLEY, Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and Linguistics

TETSUO NAJITA, Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and History and the College

HIROYOSHI NOTO, Senior Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

DAVID T. ROY, Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

EDWARD SHAUGHNESSY, Lorraine J. and Herrlee G. Creel Professor in Early Chineate Prose Studies, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

JAE-HOON SHIM, Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

WILLIAM F. SIBLEY, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

XIAOBING TANG, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

YOSHIKO UCHIDA, Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

WU HUNG, Harrie Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Professor, Departments of Art History and East Asian Languages & Civilizations

ANTHONY C. YU, Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities; Professor, Divinity School, Departments of East Asian Languages & Civilizations, English Language & Literature, and Comparative Literature; Committee on Social Thought

JUDITH T. ZEITLIN, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations

Courses

The courses listed below are open to students in the College, regardless of level, subject to the consent of the instructor where indicated. East Asian linguistic knowledge is not required for nonlanguage courses unless indicated. Transfer students who wish to enroll in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language courses beyond the first-year level must take the placement examination offered during Orientation in late September. Over the summer, information that describes these tests is sent to all incoming students, or students may consult Lewis Fortner (HM 286, 702-8613).

Chinese

101-102-103. Elementary Modern Chinese I, II, III. PQ: Consent of instructor. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement. Must be taken for a letter grade. No auditors permitted. One section is for "true beginners," and another section is for "partial beginners."("Partial beginners" are those who can speak Mandarin fluently with or without dialectal accent, but do not know how to read and write Chinese.) This course introduces the fundamentals of modern Chinese. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally emphasized. Accurate pronunciation is also stressed. Both classes meet for five eighty-minute periods a week. C. Chao, Autumn; C. Chao, F. Cai, Winter, Spring.

166. Reading Contemporary Chinese Culture (=Chin 166, EALC 166, Hist 142). PQ: EALC 109, Hist 152, and SocSci 236. This introductory course covers the literary and visual culture in contemporary China. We read fiction, study artwork, examine public posters, and watch films in order to understand the historical transformation that takes place in the late twentieth century. Students have the opportunity to develop their analytical skills and conduct small-scale research. Texts in English. X. Tang. Spring.

171. Art in Context: The First Emperor in Chinese History (=ArtH 171, Chin 171, EALC 171). This course focuses on the art and architecture of the Qin dynasty, one of the most important eras in Chinese history and art history. The basic materials come from a series of recent archaeological dis-coveries that often resulted from the First Emperor's direct patronage and reflected important changes in Chinese religion, politics, and society. Students contextualize the First Emperor in Chinese history and think about how he responded to the past and how later politicians and artists responded to him. This second focus leads to analyzing the portrayals of the First Emperor in later Chinese art and includes recent films made in China and Hong Kong. H. Wu. Winter.

201-202-203. Intermediate Modern Chinese I, II, III. PQ: Chin 103 or consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. No auditors permitted. This course emphasizes drills and the discussion of readings in a variety of source materials, including contemporary Chinese short stories, lectures, newspapers, and some original academic articles. Simplified characters and cursive script are also introduced. Classes conducted in Chinese. Classes meet for five eighty-minute periods a week. C. Borchert, Autumn; C. Borchert, C. Chao, Winter, Spring.

208-209-210. Elementary Literary Chinese I, II, III. PQ: Chin 203 or consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. This course provides an introduction to the grammatical foundations of the classical language or wenyan. It includes supplementary readings from Mencius, Zhuangzi, Sima Qian's Records of the Historian, and other texts. E. Shaughnessy, Autumn; J. Zeitlin, Winter; Staff, Spring.

245/345. Literary Chinese: Qing Documents (=Chin 245/345, GendSt 294/394, Hist 245/345). PQ: Chin 214 or equivalent. We read and discuss nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historical political documents, including such forms as memorials, decrees, local gazetteers, diplomatic communications, essays, and the like. G. Alitto. Winter.

251/351. "Feminine Space" in Traditional Chinese Art (=ArtH 294/394, Chin 251/351, GendSt 294/394). PQ: Any 100-level ArtH or COVA course, or consent of instructor. "Feminine space" denotes an architectural or pictorial space that is perceived, imagined, and represented as a woman. Unlike an isolated female portrait or an individual female symbol, a "feminine space" is a spatial entity: an artificial world composed of landscape, vegetation, architecture, atmosphere, climate, color, fragrance, light, and sound, as well as selected human occupants and their activities. This course traces the construction of this space in traditional Chinese art (from the second to the eighteenth centuries) and the social/political implications of this constructive process. H. Wu. Winter.

271. Topics in Western Zhou History. PQ: EALC 108-109-110 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. This course focuses on the cultural history of China's Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.). Through examinations of both the literary record (both traditional and newly discovered) and the material remains of the period, we consider such questions as the nature of the state, the interplay between politics and ritual, and the development of literature. Texts in English. E. Shaughnessy. Spring.

279. Civilization and Popular Culture in China (=Chin 279, EALC 279, Hist 239/339). PQ: Knowledge of Chinese history. This course focuses on relations of popular, especially peasant, culture to elites and state. We also discuss issues of cultural unity, hegemony, and representations of the social order and groups like state, gentry, women, and peasants during the late imperial and republican period. P. Duara, X. Tang. Winter.

281/381. History and Literature in Twentieth-Century China (=Chin 281/381, Hist 248/348). This course examines basic questions underlying both historical and literary representations: their modes, their sources, the traffic between them, and their circulation in other cultural and political practices. Readings include theoretical works, historical accounts, and lit-erary texts. P. Duara, X. Tang. Autumn.

294/394. Ghosts and the Chinese Literary Imagination (=Chin 294/394, GendSt 293/393). Ghosts figure importantly through a spectrum of Chinese genres from third-century ghost tales to the contemporary Hong Kong cinema. This course considers the complex meanings, both literal and figurative, of the ghost in Chinese literature and culture, not only in the story, but in poetry, drama, medical cases, and the visual arts. We concentrate on the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and read selections from masterpieces such as the Peony Pavilion, Liaozhai's Records of the Strange, and Palace of Lasting Life, as well as lesser known works. Texts in English and the original; EALC students specializing in Chinese literature work with original texts and sources. J. Zeitlin. Winter.

301-302-303. Advanced Modern Chinese I, II, III. PQ: Chin 203 or consent of instructor. This course emphasizes drills for more advanced sentence structures and requires discussions in Chinese on academic and scholarly subject matter. It provides exercises designed to increase reading comprehension and the ability to translate accurately original Chinese source materials, ranging over various topics, authors, and styles, to broaden students' experience, and to enhance their capacity for independent study. F. Cai. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

318. Introduction to Classical Chinese Poetry. PQ: One year of literary Chinese or consent of instructor. A reading course designed to introduce the students to the major poetic styles including in this eariest anthology of Chinese Poetry. E. Shaughnessy. Autumn.

365. Self-Representation and Autobiography in Pre-Modern Chinese Literature. PQ: Two years of classical Chinese or consent of instructor. This course considers the problem of autobiographical self-presentation and self-fashioning in a tradition not dominated by first-person narrative models. We survey a wide range of forms, including poetry, letters, memoirs, auto necrologies, year-by-year chronicles, plays, and visual materials, as well as contemporary western theories of autobiography. Questions to be explored include public vs. private selves, imagining death, nostalgia and place, fictional doubles and self-portraiture, and new paradigms of modernity. Texts in English and the original; EALC students work with original texts and sources. J. Zeitlin. Spring.

369. The Shijing, Classic of Poetry. PQ: Chin 203 or equivalent. This course introduces students to the Yijing or Book of Changes, the first of China's classics. The first half of the course focuses on how the text first came to be composed towards the end of the Western Zhou dynasty, while the second half of the course surveys the later commentarial tradition. E. Shaughnessy. Autumn.

401-402-403. Fourth-Year Rapid Readings and Discussion I, II, III. PQ: Chin 303 or equivalent, and consent of instructor. C. Borchert. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

408-409-410. Readings in Literary Chinese I, II, III. PQ: Chin 203 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. D. Roy, Autumn; Staff, Winter; Staff, Spring.

431. The Mawangdui Tombs (=ArtH 402, Chin 431). PQ: Reading knowledge of Chinese. H. Wu. Winter.

432. Luoyang ca. 500 (=ArtH 406, Chin 431). PQ: Reading knowledge of Chinese. H. Wu. Spring.

456. Eastern Zhou Paleography. E. Shaughnessy. Spring.

523. History and Theory (=Chin 523, Hist 656). P. Duara. Spring.

524. Seminar: Writing Shanghai (Zhang Ailing and Wang Any). PQ: Consent of instructor. Texts in Chinese. X. Tang. Spring.

531. Theories of the Avant Garde (=Chin 531, ComLit 427). PQ: Knowledge of Chinese not required. X. Tang. Winter.

561-562. Seminar on the Chin P'ing Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase) I, II. Texts in English and the original. D. Roy. Autumn, Winter.

564. Document Source for Modern Chinese History, I, II (=Hist 760). G. Alitto. Autumn, Sphing.

East Asian Languages and Civilizations

108-109-110. Introduction to the Civilizations of East Asia I, II, III (=EALC 108-109-110, Hist 151-152-153, SocSci 235-236-237). PQ: Must be taken in sequence. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core requirement in civilizational studies. This is a three-quarter sequence on the civilizations of Japan, Vietnam, and China, with emphasis on major transformation in these cultures and societies from the Middle Ages to the present. This year's sequence focuses on Japan from 1600 to the present, China from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and Vietnam from the tenth century to the present. T. Najita, Autumn; M. Bradley, Winter; G. Alitto, Spring.

166. Reading Contemporary Chinese Culture (=Chin 166, EALC 166, Hist 142). PQ: EALC 109, Hist 152, and SocSci 236. This introductory course covers the literary and visual culture in contemporary China. We read fiction, study artwork, examine public posters, and watch films in order to understand the historical transformation that takes place in the late twentieth century. Students have the opportunity to develop their analytical skills and conduct small-scale research. Texts in English. X. Tang. Spring.

171. Art in Context: The First Emperor in Chinese History (=ArtH 171, Chin 171, EALC 171). This course focuses on the art and architecture of the Qin dynasty, one of the most important eras in Chinese history and art history. The basic materials come from a series of recent archaeological discoveries that often resulted from the First Emperor's direct patronage and reflected important changes in Chinese religion, politics, and society. Students contextualize the First Emperor in Chinese history and think about how he responded to the past and how later politicians and artists responded to him. This second focus leads to analyzing the portrayals of the First Emperor in later Chinese art and includes recent films made in China and Hong Kong. H. Wu. Winter.

223. Japanese Society and Culture (=Anthro 217, EALC 223, Japan 223, SocSci 223). This course deals with various topics related to the anthropology of Japan. The goal is not only to provide students with knowledge and analytical tools to understand Japan, but also to examine how Japan has been portrayed by Western anthropologists and sociologists. Dominant concepts and framework used in the past to analyze Japanese culture and behavior are first reviewed. Then specific topics are covered, such as self and identity, the family and socialization processes, social organizations and the work place, the position of women, ethnic minorities, immigration, and nationalism and transnationalism in Japan. Dominant analytical approaches are discussed in conjunction with detailed ethnographic works. T. Tsuda. Spring.

238. Popular Music in Modern Japan (=Japan 238, Music 238). PQ: Knowledge of Japanese not required. This course investigates the position of popular music in modern Japan, moving historically from Meiji period military music to contemporary Japanese urban popular musics. We examine genres of popular music with a specific interest in interrogating the process of modernization, and the relationship with Western music and musical practice. A portion of each class is devoted to examining the lyrics, visual imagery, and music itself as reflections of the continued modernization process in Japan. Class discussion is encouraged. J. Milioto. Spring.

279. Civilization and Popular Culture in China (=Chin 279, EALC 279, Hist 239/339). PQ: Knowledge of Chinese history. This course focuses on relations of popular, especially peasant, culture to elites and state. We also discuss issues of cultural unity, hegemony, and representations of the social order and groups like state, gentry, women, and peasants during the late imperial and republican period. P. Duara, X. Tang. Winter.

281/381. History and Literature in Twentieth-Century China (=Chin 281/381, Hist 248/348). This course examines basic questions underlying both historical and literary representations: their modes, their sources, the traffic between them, and their circulation in other cultural and political practices. Readings include theoretical works, historical accounts, and literary texts. P. Duara, X. Tang. Autumn.

297-298-299. Senior Tutorial I, II, III. PQ: Consent of instructor and EALC director of undergraduate studies. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This course may substitute for one of the courses in the concentration. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

550. New Works in East Asian History. P. Duara. Winter.

Japanese

101-102-103. Elementary Modern Japanese I, II, III. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement. Must be taken for a letter grade. No auditors permitted. This is the first year of a three-year program designed to provide students with a thorough grounding in modern Japanese. Grammar, idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary are learned through oral work, reading, and writing in and outside of class. Daily practice in speaking, listening, reading, and writing is crucial. Students should plan to continue their language study through at least the second-year level to make their skills practical. The class meets for five fifty-minute periods a week. H. Lory, Y. Uchida, Autumn; H. Lory, Y. Uchida, Winter, Spring.

201-202-203. Intermediate Modern Japanese I, II, III. PQ: Japan 103 or equivalent, and consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. No auditors permitted. The emphasis on spoken language in the first half of the course gradually shifts toward reading and writing in the latter half. Classes conducted mostly in Japanese. The class meets for five fifty-minute periods a week. H. Noto, Y. Uchida, Autumn, Winter; Y. Uchida, Spring.

223. Japanese Society and Culture (=Anthro 217, EALC 223, Japan 223, SocSci 223). This course deals with various topics related to the anthropology of Japan. The concern is not only to provide students with knowledge and analytical tools to understand Japan, but also to examine how Japan has been portrayed by Western anthropologists and sociologists. Dominant concepts and frameworks used in the past to analyze Japanese culture and behavior are first reviewed. Then specific topics are covered, such as self and identity, the family and socialization processes, social organizations and the work place, the position of women, ethnic minorities, immigration, and nationalism and transnationalism in Japan. Dominant analytical approaches are discussed in conjunction with detailed ethnographic works. A serious attempt will also be made to relate the specific ethnographic and desctiptive matierials covered in this course to more general theoretical and analytical issues in anthropology and social science.T. Tsuda. Spring.

225. Tokugawa Intellectual History (=Hist 148, Japan 225). T. Najita. Spring.

226/326. Osugi Sakae and the First Twenty Years of the Century in Japan. PQ: Reading knowledge of modern Japanese. N. Field. Spring.

246/346. Japanese History through Film (=Hist 246, Japan 246/346). This course examines the intersections between cinematic and historical interpretations of Japan's past. J. Ketelaar. Winter.

250/350. Asian Wars of the Twentieth Century (=Hist 279/379) B. Cummings. Spring.

285/385. Fetishism, Gender, Sexuality, and Capitalism (=GendSt 295, Hist 289/389, Japan 285/385). PQ: Open to students with third- and fourth-year standing and consent of instructor. This course analyzes transformations in the cultural construction of gendered and sexed identities in Japan, Europe, and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Starting with the readings from Marx and Freud on the commodity form and fetish, we read critiques and re-uses of these concepts from feminist and queer theory. We then analyze a series of case studies from our three geographic areas. Possible cases include advertising and display strategies; kleptomania as a diagnosis and theft as a political gesture; and style and political mobilization in feminist, gay, lesbian, and queer politics. N. Field, L. Auslander. Autumn.

301-302-303. Advanced Modern Japanese I, II, III. PQ: Japan 203 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. The third year marks the end of the basic modern language study. The purpose of the course is to help students learn to understand authentic written and spoken materials with reasonable ease. The texts are all authentic materials with some study aids. All work in Japanese. The class meets for three ninety-minute periods a week. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

348-349-351. Pre-Modern Japanese I, II. PQ: Japan 313 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. This course is designed to help students whose research includes materials before World War II. The materials used in class cover biography, newspaper articles, governmental documents, journals, and essays. Most are written in Kanbun Kundoku Style from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. W. Sibley, Autumn; Staff, Winter; N. Field, Spring.

360. Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki Revisited at Century's End. PQ: Knowledge of Japanese not required. This course centers on the writings, both fiction and nonfiction, of the two traditionally acknowledged "greats" (taika) of early twentieth-century Japanese literature: Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki. Beyond their legacies of belletristic fiction and poetry, they exercised large roles as shapers of the modern written language, introducers, and translators of western literature. N. Field. Spring.

401-402-403. Readings in Japanese Culture, Politics, and Society I, II, III. PQ: Japan 303 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. N. Field, Autumn; W. Sibley, Winter; H. Lory, Spring.

480. Public Intellectuals in Japan, 1945 to the Present. PQ: Fourth-year standing, advanced reading knowledge of Japanese, and consent of instructor. W. Sibley. Autumn.

523-524. Seminar: Modern Japanese History I, II (=Hist 756-766, Japan 523-524). T. Najita. Autumn, Winter.

Korean

101-102-103. Introduction to the Korean Language I, II, III. PQ: Consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement. The first year is devoted to acquiring the basic skills for speaking and listening comprehension and the beginnings of literacy through reading and writing. In addition to the Korean script, some of the most commonly used Chinese characters are introduced. J. Cho, Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

201-202-203. Intermediate Korean I, II, III. PQ: Korean 103 or equivalent, and consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. The goals of this course include the comprehension and production of more complex spoken constructions and an ability to read somewhat complex materials. Videotapes are used in a supplementary fashion and enough new Chinese characters are introduced for the achievement of basic literacy. J.-H. Shim. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

301-302-303. Advanced Korean I, II, III. PQ: Korean 203 or equivalent and consent of instructor. Must be taken for a letter grade. Along with continued work on spoken Korean, the emphasis shifts to readings in a wide selection of written styles, including journalistic pieces, college-level textbooks, and literary prose. An effort is made to accommodate the specialized interests of individual students. Also, some audio and videotapes are used. Students are expected to increase their knowledge of Chinese characters to a total of roughly nine hundred. J. Cho. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

401-402-403. Fourth-Year Rapid Reading of Modern Texts I, II, III. PQ: Korean 303 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. J.-H. Shim. Autumn, Winter, Spring.