Courses

EALC B110 Intro to Chinese Literature (in English)

Fall 2024

Students will study a wide range of texts from the beginnings through the Qing dynasty. The course focuses on the genres of poetry, prose, fiction and drama, and considers how both the forms and their content overlap and interact. Taught in English.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

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EALC B115 Introduction to Korean Culture and Society

Fall 2024

This course offers an introductory survey of Korean culture and society, focusing on major transformations and continuities during the modern period. Students will investigate various themes essential to comprehending Korea, such as Confucianism, modernization, colonialism, nationalism, industrialization, democratization, gender relations, US-Korea relations, and contemporary popular culture. In addition to class lectures, the course utilizes audio-visual materials, films, and slides to enhance the learning experience. No prior knowledge of Korea or Korean language is required.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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EALC B131 Chinese Civilization

Spring 2025

A broad chronological survey of Chinese culture and society from the Bronze Age to the 1800s, with special reference to such topics as belief, family, language, the arts and sociopolitical organization. Readings include primary sources in English translation and secondary studies.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward East Asian Languages & Culture

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EALC B200 Major Seminar: Methods and Approaches

Spring 2025

This course is a writing intensive course for EALC majors and minors to introduce some foundational ideas and concepts in the study of East Asia. Beginning with close readings of primary source texts, students are introduced to the philosophy and culture of China, and its subsequent transmission and adaptation across the vast geographical area that is commonly referred to as "East Asia." Students will gain familiarity with methods in this interdisciplinary field and develop skills in the practice of close critical analysis, bibliography, and the formulation of a research topic. Required of EALC majors and minors. Majors should take this course before the senior year. Prerequisite: One year of Chinese or Japanese.

Writing Intensive

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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EALC B210 K-Pop and The Korean Wave

Not offered 2024-25

This course provides an introduction to the globalization of K Pop and Hallyu, the recent cultural phenomenon from Korea. To fully understand this phenomenon, the course will delve into the diverse contexts that have shaped K - Pop and other Korean media products, including their historical, political, economic, social, and cultural backgrounds. Additionally, the course offers an opportunity to explore key aspects of Korean culture that are reflected in K - Pop and other Korean media products. Students will have the chance to listen to K - Pop songs, watch Korean films, excerpts from K - Drama, Korean documentaries, and more, making the course both informative and enjoyable. No prior knowledge of the Korean language is required

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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EALC B218 K-Drama: Identity in Uncertain Worlds

Spring 2025

This course delves into the complexities of identity within the uncertain worlds of K-Drama. Through analysis of popular Korean dramas, students explore themes of personal reflection and resilience. Dynamic discussions uncover the nuances of character development and societal pressures portrayed in these narratives. Experience a captivating journey of self-discovery as K-Drama storytelling is examined through a reflective lens.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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EALC B240 Topics in Chinese Film

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

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EALC B263 The Chinese Revolution

Fall 2024

Places the causes and consequences of the 20th century revolutions in historical perspective, by examining its late-imperial antecedents and tracing how the revolution has (and has not) transformed China, including the lives of such key revolutionary supporters as the peasantry, women, and intellectuals.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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EALC B264 Human Rights in China

Not offered 2024-25

This course will examine China's human rights issues from a historical perspective. The topics include diverse perspectives on human rights, historical background, civil rights, religious practice, justice system, education, as well as the problems concerning some social groups such as migrant laborers, women, ethnic minorities and peasants.

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EALC B270 Topics in Chinese History

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Rural Society/Contemp China

Not offered 2024-25

This is a topics course, course content varies.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

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EALC B281 Food in Translation: Theory and Practice

Spring 2025

This semester we will explore the connections between what we eat and how we define ourselves in the context of global culture. We will proceed from the assumption that food is an object of culture, and that our contemplation of its transformations and translations in production, preparation, consumption, and distribution will inform our notions of personal and group identity. This course takes Chinese food as a case study, and examines the way that Chinese food moves from its host country to diasporic communities all over the world, using theories of translation as our theoretical and empirical foundation. From analyzing menu and ingredient translations to producing a short film based on interviews, we will consider the relationship between food and communication in a multilingual and multicultural world. Readings include theoretical texts on translation (Apter), recipe books and menus, Chinese and Chinese-American literature (Classic of Poetry, Mo Yan, Hong Kingston). Films include Ian Cheney's "Searching for General Tso," Wayne Wang's "Soul of a Banquet" and "Eat a Bowl of Tea," Ang Li's "Eat Drink Man Woman," and Wong Karwai's "In the Mood for Love."

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

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EALC B322 Topics: Considering the Dream of Red Chambers

Spring 2025

The Dream of Red Chambers (Hongloumeng) is arguably the most important novel in Chinese literary history. The novel tells the story of the waxing and waning of fortunes of the Jia family and their networks of family and social relations, and in its finely articulated details also serves as a chronicle of the Qing dynasty, an examination of visual culture, environment, kinship, sociology, economics, religious and cultural beliefs, and the structures of domestic life. In addition to addressing these aspects that we might categorize as external, the novel also turns inwards and examines the human heart and mind. How can we know another? How do we define ourselves? These questions, and many others, have occupied scholars for the last two centuries. We will spend the semester reading all five volumes of the David Hawkes translation, with secondary readings assigned to guide the discussion based on the semester's theme. Course topics varies.

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EALC B325 Topics in Chinese History and Culture

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Law and Society/Imperial China
Section 001 (Fall 2024): Rituals in Imperial China

Fall 2024

This is a topics course. Course content varies.

Current topic description: This seminar offers students a distinctive perspective from which to understand Chinese society. It investigates rituals performed in various societal domains in imperial China. Through the study of texts, the screening of videos, and the examination of artifacts, the course delves into four principal themes: the significance of rituals in Confucianism; the ideology and role of rituals in imperial governance; the impact of rituals in community construction and family relations; and rites of passage in imperial China. Additionally, using rituals in imperial China as a special lens, this course engages in dialogues with the existing scholarship on general issues such as the relations between beliefs and performance, rituals and emotions, and rituals and social change.

Counts Toward International Studies

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EALC B353 The Environment on China's Frontiers

Not offered 2024-25

This seminar explores environmental issues on China's frontiers from a historical perspective. It focuses on the particular relationship between the environment and the frontier, examining how these two variables have interacted. The course will deal with the issues such as the relationship between the environment and human ethnic and cultural traditions, social movements, economic growth, political and legal institutions and practices, and changing perceptions. The frontier regions under discussion include Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and the southwestern ethnic areas, which are all important in defining what China is and who the Chinese are.

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EALC B355 Animals, Vegetables, Minerals in East Asian Literature & Film

Not offered 2024-25

This semester, we will explore how artists question, explore, celebrate, and critique the relationships between humans and the environment. Through a topics-focused course, students will examine the ways that narratives about environment have shaped the way that humans have defined themselves. We will be reading novels and short stories and viewing films that contest conventional binaries of man and animal, civilization and nature, tradition and technology, and even truth and fiction. "Animals, Vegetables, Minerals" does not follow chronological or geographical frameworks, but chooses texts that engage the three categories enumerated as the major themes of our course. We will read and discuss animal theory, theories of place and landscape, and theories of modernization or mechanization; and there will be frequent (and intentional) overlap between these categories. We will also be watching films that extend our theoretical questions of thes e themes beyond national, linguistic, and generic borders. You are expected to view this course as a collaborative process in which you share responsibility for leading discussion. There are no prerequisites or language expectations, but students should have some basic knowledge of East Asian, especially Sinophone, history and culture, or be willing to do some additional reading (suggested by the instructor) to achieve an adequate contextual background for exploring these texts.

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EALC B398 Senior Seminar

A research workshop culminating in the writing and presentation of a senior thesis. Required of all majors; open to concentrators and others by permission.

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EALC B403 Supervised Work

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