Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Continuation of Chinese Ba.

Basic grammar and the reading of simple historical narrative.

A second-year course designed to prepare students for reading and research using materials written in Literary Chinese. The focus in the fall semester will be prose from the Tang and Song dynasties.

An introduction to reading poetry of the ancient period, the middle period, and in early modern vernacular, considering the forms and the particular features of "poetic Chinese."

Continuation of Chinese 120a.

A study of writings selected from modern Chinese literature, academic works and newspaper articles, aimed at enhancing and further developing the student's proficiency in modern Chinese language.

Designed for heritage learners and covers the equivalent of Chinese 130a and other materials for reading and writing.

Spoken Cantonese for Advanced Cantonese speakers. Topics of this course include authentic texts from contemporary media sources, including news, films, and TV shows.

Rapid reading of selections from books and articles.

Spoken Chinese for advanced students.

The purpose of this course is to enable students to acquire a comprehensive written grammar with sufficient formal vocabulary in modern Chinese. Formal patterns generated by combining single characters are used for the foundation of written grammar. This course also offers students authentic academic readings in order to improve their abilities in academic writing and formal speech. Students are required to write and present their essays in formal Chinese.

Designed for students interested in international business or for students who intend to work or travel for business in Chinese-speaking communities (including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore), or for students who desire to improve their Chinese language proficiency. An introduction to business and economic climates, practices and customs of these communities. Students learn specialized business and economic vocabulary and the principles of business correspondence.

Advanced language practice associated with authentic academic texts in social science disciplines (e.g., history, politics, sociology, economics).

This course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of teaching Chinese as a foreign/second language. It seeks to help students gain an understanding of the current issues and research about Chinese language instruction in the US.

This course is a survey of the social and cultural history of China from the Song to the mid-Qing (roughly from 1000 to 1800). The main topics discussed include urbanization and commerce; gender; family and kinship; education and the examination system, and religion and ritual. The main goal of the course will be to explore the relationship between social and cultural changes and political and intellectual developments.

Recent scholarship on modern East Asia has seen a marked increase in attention to history, society, and culture in Manchukuo and Manchuria from interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives. The goal of this proseminar is to explore and analyze these scholarly trends and to come to an improved understanding of the Northeast Asian frontier zone in and around the period of 20th-century Japanese imperialist expansion. By extending our view beyond the fourteen-year colonial period to encompass the larger historical processes of Manchukuo's making and unmaking, and by incorporating a comparative perspective, the course aims to transcend the conventional frameworks of collaboration, colonialism, and rupture to unveil the embeddedness of Manchukuo as a multi-layered site of experiments in the longue duree. Two fundamental questions we will seek to answer are, Does "Manchurian studies" constitute a field of research, and if so, how should it be defined?

The course this year will be devoted to creating modules for ChinaX, the new HarvardX course devoted to China's history and culture from antiquity to the present. In addition to acquiring a general knowledge of China's history, participants in the course will be actively involved in creating materials for the online course; including producing videos, creating structures for content development, choosing texts and images for online discussion and mark-up, and participating in debates and discussions that will be shown to a world-wide online audience. We hope to do these modules in both English and Chinese versions, but knowledge of Chinese language is not necessary to participate. As presently conceived the course will aim to produce fifteen modules covering topics from the 8th to the 18th century. Topics will include political and institutional history, poetry, novels and short stories, art, social and economic change, and international relations among others. It is possible that the scope will be extended forward and backward in time. This is not a lecture course. There is no final examination. Grades will be based on both a self-assessment and a review of contributions to the modules by peers and faculty.

Introduction to the reading and interpretation of sources useful in the study of T'ang and Sung history. Recent scholarship and methodological issues are also discussed.

Introduces major Neo-Confucian texts for close reading and analysis. Selections from the writings and records of spoken instruction by Zhou Dunyi, Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, Zhu Xi, Liu Jiuyuan, and others.

Examines various topics in the history of the Han Dynasty.

A study of major trends in the history of scholarship on early China. The main focus will be on 20th-century scholarship, but earlier developments will be introduced where relevant.

Review of historical scholarship on China from roughly 1500 to the early 20th century. This course is designed to aid in preparations for the general examinations and in developing a dissertation topic.

Training in the use of a wide array of sources, methods, and reference tools for research in the history of late imperial China, focusing upon the reading and analysis of different types of Qing-era documents, official and unofficial. Students will write a research paper using documents provided in class. Reading knowledge of modern and literary Chinese required.

In this course we will consider the range of meanings encompassed by the term qing in early Chinese texts, from newly-discovered manuscripts and the "Classics" of Confucian and Daoist thought, through a variety of major works of the "received" philosophical tradition. We will consider the semantic and rhetorical paths by which earlier uses of this key concept are turned in the direction of the issue of human feeling and the cult of desire that it commonly expresses in late-Imperial and modern intellectual discourse. The selected texts will be made available for reading in both the original Chinese and in English translations to be provided for the course.

The Story of the Stone (also known as The Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xueqin (1715?-1763) is widely recognized as the masterpiece of Chinese fiction. It is also a portal to Chinese civilization. Encyclopedic in scope, this book both sums up Chinese culture and asks of it difficult questions. Its cult status also accounts for modern popular screen and television adaptations. Through a close examination of this text in conjunction with supplementary readings and visual materials, the seminar will explore a series of topics on Chinese culture, including foundational myths, philosophical and religious systems, the status of fiction, conceptions of art and the artist, ideas about love, desire and sexuality, gender roles, garden aesthetics, family and clan structure, and definitions of socio-political order.

In-depth, scholarly introduction to history of Chinese literature and literary culture from antiquity through 1400. Also examines state of the field and considers issues for future research. Includes bibliography. Essential for generals preparation.

This course will examine the semantic range of keywords in early Chinese texts (up to Han) by considering their narrative and rhetorical possibilities. What kinds of arguments do they generate? What are the stories told to illustrate their meanings?

Surveys writings from second half of sixteenth century until fall of Ming, including prose (including "informal essays"), poetry, drama, fiction. Examines late-Ming literary-aesthetic sensibility (and questions how such a category may be justified.)

This seminar deals with the dialogics between historical dynamics and literary manifestation at select moments of twentieth century China. It focuses on two themes: history and representation; modernity and monstrosity.

Explores lyricism as an overlooked discourse in modern Chinese literature and culture. Looks into lyrical representations in poetic, narrative, and performative terms and re-defines the polemics of "the lyrical" in the making of Chinese modernities.

In this course we will read a series of important Chinese texts from past to present and explore the complicated and nuanced ways in which modern literary culture responds to and negotiates with the classical tradition. Whether inheriting or disinheriting traditional resources, the present is intimately intertwined with the past, in its ingenious appropriations or impassioned negation.

This term we will study the construction and aesthetics of Song lyric (ci).

A graduate seminar aimed at improving students' ability to read and analyze scriptural sources in the context of textual, artistic, and other cultural productions centered around large monasteries in premodern Japan. Major theme for this semester: Buddhist cultural exchange between medieval Japan and China.

Examines the way in which rituals are approached, described, and interpreted in primary Japanese Buddhist texts. Students will acquire skills allowing them to move freely in their reading of texts from diverse literary genres.

This seminar focuses on the careful textual study and translation of a variety of Chinese Buddho-Daoist texts through the medieval period.

How does popular culture flow across East Asia? What are the consequences of this intense form of exchange in terms of politics, nation, and global media culture? This course maps the interaction of film, moving images and other forms of popular culture between Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. Topics include colonialism and its after effects, co-productions, fan cultures, recent attempts at national branding and the increasing significance of visual media such as animation, comic books, and video games.

This course examines Japanese animation (or anime) through its generic conventions, formal aesthetic, and narrative motifs. At the same time, the course approaches anime as a lens through which we study contemporary media culture and its local and global production, distribution, and reception. In this sense, anime will be treated as a node in an extensive transnational network involving commercial as well as non-commercial mediums such as graphic novels, live-action films, video games, character merchandises, and fanzines/fan-events.

Exploration of the new horizons of communication created by current media technology and their implications for the future of teaching and scholarship. The seminar will combine theoretical readings and reflection with practical, hands-on experiments using podcasts, media-intensive lectures, and iMovies for conveying academic research.

This course traces the role of the body as a discursive anchor in moving image culture in Japan. The focus will lie on the period after WW II, although the mapping of historical contexts will entail investigations into earlier histories as well.

This course addresses the question "What was/is cinema in China?" from shadow puppets to DV documentaries. Topics include cinema's arrival in China, silent film stars, sound film sing-alongs, wartime collaborations, mobile projection teams, revolutionary model operas, and Chinese cinema's transnational connections.

This seminar examines the changing Chinese mediascape from the 1950s to the present. Every week, we will focus a different form of representational media, from propaganda posters, photography, radio broadcasting, and cinema, to television, video piracy, and the Internet. We will ask question such as: How have media technologies changed contemporary Chinese culture and society? Were they instruments of totalitarian control, commodities of market capitalism, or tools of resistance and independent expression? How did the mass media affect perception, experiences, and memories of socialism and postsocialism, as well as the periods' cultural forms and aesthetics? What is specific or special about each medium, and how do different types of media interact in the Chinese context? While analyzing media texts, we will also consider their sociopolitical, institutional, and technological as well as engage with media theories and explore untapped historical sources.

Independent reading and research in East Asian Studies.

Junior Tutorial option for EAS. Open to Government and other concentrators. For students with an interest in the society, economy, politics, and popular culture of contemporary Japan and its place in the world.

This tutorial is designed to deepen and extend the student's knowledge of the study of East Asian religions. It will build on the student's foundational understanding of the development and history of Buddhism, Daosim, Confucianism, Shinto, and various forms of popular religion, by situating that material in the context of larger issues in the study of East Asian religions. The overarching concern within this tutorial will be on reading and discussing methodologically oriented scholarship that will introduce the student to new and intellectually engaging approaches to the various traditions covered.

Thesis guidance under faculty direction.

This course examines urbanization and globalization in East Asia, focusing first on the development of Tokyo as a global city, then turning to the socialist cities of contemporary China, before concluding with an examination of uneven development in Southeast Asian cities. In each section of the course, we will examine how urbanization and globalization affect major social groups (in particular, entrepreneurs and women) who have both propelled and been marginalized by these processes.

The Tang was not only one of the largest and culturally cosmopolitan periods in Chinese history, it played a pivotal role in the formation of a shared "East Asian" culture. By looking at the history, literature, social and religious thought, and visual culture of the Tang, we will address a series of questions about historical culture: what are the presumptions and strengths of different disciplines and is it possible to cross them to some unified understanding? To what degree is our knowledge shaped by what gets recorded and what materially survives? How much of our understanding of a period is shaped by subsequent ages?

The Japanese haiku is well known, widely published, written about, a part of most school curricula in the United States. The Korean sijo is less known, but stands as a compelling contrast on its own terms and as a verse form in English. The workshop will be reading examples of haiku and sijo, translations as well as poems written and published in English, then writing and comparing the forms. Participants will assemble portfolios of their own original work, with commentary and notes. We will also identify potential magazine, online or other literary journals, prepare and submit selections.

This course is a research seminar on the political economy of poverty and inequality in China. Because China has tried such a wide variety of methods to combat poverty, it provides a useful "laboratory" for analyzing different anti-poverty policies. After an introduction to theories of the welfare state and international humanitarian relief, students will examine disaster relief and the welfare state in China, with comparisons to Europe, North America, and other developing countries.

Examines the rich tradition of medieval Japanese picture scrolls (emaki). Provides training in the reading of scroll texts (kotobagaki), the analysis of paintings, and the examination of the production contexts of important scrolls from the 12th to the 16th century. Aims to make picture scrolls available as a primary source for graduate research in many different disciplines within Japanese studies.

Continuation of Japanese Ba, with an approximately 135 additional Kanji.

Introduction to Kambun.

Second-year intermediate level course aimed at consolidation of the basic grammatical patterns of Japanese and development of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills to the level necessary for communication in everyday life in Japanese society. Introduction of approximately 130 Chinese characters beyond those introduced in Bb.

Third-year intermediate advanced course. Development of skills in reading authentic materials from contemporary Japanese media and fiction and in aural comprehension of contemporary television news and drama with decreased reliance on pedagogical aids. Development of speaking and writing skills to an increasingly sophisticated level. Introduction of approximately 200 additional Chinese characters beyond those introduced in 120b.

Readings of modern texts in both rapid and in-depth modes. Comprehension of media news and drama. Advanced conversation and composition on topics related to the preceding.

Selected readings and discussion in Japanese primarily on contemporary topics in economics, sociology, political science, psychology, and cultural studies, with occasional readings from literature. Readings are supplemented by selections from audiovisual media on current social issues.

Development of skills in reading and translating academic genres of Japanese, with special attention to Japanese scholarship on Chinese and Korean studies. Introduction to old kana usage and classical forms commonly used in scholarly writing.

This conference course is an introduction to the study of Japanese folk religion, popular religious life carried on largely outside the frameworks of Buddhism, Shinto, and other religious institutions. The course aims to interrogate the idea of folk religion and its viability as a field of study within Japanese religions and within contemporary society. In its first half, the course examines the traditional rubrics and topics in the literature on Japanese folk religion. In the second half, the course turns to changes in folk religious life brought about through tourism and the appropriation of folk religious motifs by such contemporary media forms as anime and manga.

An examination of Shinto, emphasizing its concepts of deity (kami), patterns of ritual and festival, shrines as religious and social institutions, political culture and interactions with party politics, and its contribution to contemporary youth culture.

From their integration into the Japanese population in 1871 to their recognition by the Japanese government as an indigenous people of Japan in 2008, the history of the Ainu people has been in part a struggle over their discursive representation. Designated by Japanese dominant discourse as "former aborigines", coined "a vanishing people" before all but disappearing from it all together, the Ainu have had to reclaim their discursive representation, affirm their identity, ultimately achieving international, and national recognition less than a decade ago. These two movements -governmental discursive deconstruction of Ainu identity on the one hand, and Ainu discursive reclamation of their own identity, on the other- are intricately linked; Ainu affirmative discourse developed not a separate reaction to the hegemonic governmental discourse, but with and as a part of it. This course conjunctly aims at defining a theoretical framework for discourse analysis, interethnic relations, and the study of ethnic identity, and analyzing various sources defining and discussing Ainu identity (written or translated into English) produced by the Ainu themselves (epic songs, autobiographies, articles, speeches, etc.), the Japanese (legislative and institutional texts, registers, acts, surveys, speeches, etc.) and Western authors (travelogues, accounts, international exhibition catalogues, etc).

This seminar examines Shikinen Sengu, the practice of rebuilding the Ise Grand Shrines every twenty years, addressing these shrines' history, architecture, religious practices, and related topics. Course readings will be in English and Japanese.

This seminar surveys the recent English-language literature on the history of early modern Japan, roughly from the late sixteenth century to around 1875.

Introduces students to The Tale of Genji, often called the world's first novel, authored by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu around the year 1000 CE. In addition to a close reading of the tale, topics for examination include Japanese court culture, women's writing, and the tale's afterlife in painting, prints, drama, manga, and film.

This course traces voices of protest in modern Japanese literature from the Freedom & People's Rights movement and the political novel of the Meiji period to literary responses to the triple disaster of March 11, 2011. Lectures on historical context will supplement and situate discussions of literary texts. We will examine works from the proletarian literature movement of the late 1920s; atomic bomb literature; literary representations of the anti-Security Treaty protests; feminist literature; works by underrepresented minorities, and more. We will consider how literature has served as a means of protest and a site for recording protest throughout modern Japan.

The course examines the ways in which girlhood and girl culture have figured in the construction of gender, nation, and popular medias in modern to contemporary Japan. We will study visual and textual mediums, including novels, magazines, films, manga, and animation, paying attention to principal transformations that have marked the history of modern girl culture in Japan. No prior knowledge of Japanese language or history is expected.

A seminar course on the history, theory, and practice of modern to contemporary Japanese fiction. The course will be organized around a specific theme, time period, a cluster of writers, critics, or genres.

Introduction to modern Korean: basic grammar, reading of simple texts, conversational skills, and writing short letters. After successful completion of this course, students are expected to be able to handle a limited number of interactive, task-oriented, and social situations and to have sufficient control of the writing system to interpret written language in areas of practical needs.

Designed for students with some listening and speaking background, either from prior formal learning or previous exposure to a Korean speaking community. Introductory Korean course, with emphasis on reading and writing. After successful completion of this course, students are expected be able to understand main ideas and/or some facts from the simple connected texts dealing with basic personal and social needs and to be able to meet a number of practical writing needs.

Independent reading and research in Korean Language.

Continuation of Korean 120a.

Continuation of Korean 130a.

Continuation of Korean 140a.

Continuation of Korean 150a.

Survey of the history of Korea, from earliest times to the 19th century. Examines various interpretive approaches and issues in the political, social, economic, intellectual, cultural, and diplomatic history of premodern Korea.

A study of social, political, economic, and intellectual history of premodern Korea reviewing major scholarship in the field. Designed primarily for graduate students preparing for the general examination. All readings are in English.

Continued training in reading and interpreting primary sources and exploring innovative research methodologies. Students are required to write a research paper based on original sources on a topic of their choosing.

Reading and research of selected primary sources and secondary works on premodern Korean history.

Readings and research in modern Korean history. Students are required to write a seminar paper based largely on primary materials

Explores the history of the field through an examination of major scholarship. Designed primarily for graduate students preparing for the general examination.

This lecture course introduces students to select representations of Korean literature through literary works and their contexts from the 9th through the early 20th centuries. Lectures will be on the socio-cultural, historical, political, and philosophical contexts within which the texts, their writers' lives, their customs, their worldviews were embedded. Readings include original texts in translation and parallel scholarly commentaries. Students will read diverse genres of writing including biographies, memorials, poetry, songs, letters, fictional prose, travelogues, memoirs, folklore, and p'ansori. Some of our literary texts may perfectly fit our understanding of what a literary text is supposed to be, while others will challenge us to expand the boundaries of what we define as literature. The course aims to uncover sensibilities that constituted what Koreans during this period perceived as literary and literature-like. Combining lectures and deep reading of the course materials for class discussions, the course also uses visual representations such as paintings, maps, and old books, and portrayals of traditional Korean literary practices in film and television. Those interested in East Asian literature, history, and society will find this course useful.

Introduction to Manchu grammar with elementary readings in Manchu script.

Readings in a wide variety of Manchu texts. English to Manchu translation exercises.

Research papers prepared on the basis of primary sources.

Study of classical Mongolian grammar, with introduction to pre-classical and classical Mongolian texts.

Readings in classical and modern Mongolian texts.

Continuation of Uyghur A. Completion of basic Uyghur grammar, listening and speaking practice with the aid of audio-visual materials, selected readings from Uyghur literature and academic prose.

Continuation of Uyghur 120A.

Surveys the fundamentals of Vietnamese phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary to provide students with basic ability to understand, speak, read, and write Vietnamese. Conversational ability is stressed through an interactive, communication-oriented approach.

Further development of speaking, reading, writing, and aural comprehension. Texts and dialogues on Vietnamese geography, history, culture, and customs will be used, as well as audiotapes and videos. Students are expected to speak Vietnamese in all class discussions.

Development of high proficiency in Vietnamese. Introduction of complex grammar and vocabulary, using authentic Vietnamese texts, videos, and translation of English news articles into Vietnamese. Discussions focus on selected short stories and poems.

Development of near-native fluency in oral and written expression. Modern Vietnamese literature, including short stories, excerpts from novels, and poems in the original, that were published in Vietnam from the 1930s to the present day is used to introduce the complex grammar, idioms, proverbs and some slang expressions commonly used in contemporary Vietnamese. Discussion focuses on Vietnamese culture and issues related to Vietnamese society during that period.