Faculty of Arts & Sciences

Non-intensive introduction to modern Chinese pronunciation, grammar, conversation, reading, and writing.

Continuation of Chinese Ba.

For students with significant listening and speaking background. Introductory Modern Chinese language course, with emphasis on reading and writing. Covers in one term the equivalent of Chinese Ba and Bb.

Basic grammar and the reading of simple historical narrative.

Introduction to pre-Qin philosophical texts.

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.

A continuation of Chinese 107a, introducing more prose styles as well as poetry and lyric.

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."

Modern texts, conversation, reading, and composition.

Continuation of Chinese 120a.

Continuation of Chinese Bx. Covers in one term the equivalent of Chinese 120a and 120b.

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.

Continuation of Chinese 130a.

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

Designed for heritage learners and covers the equivalent of Chinese 130b 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.

Continuation of Cantonese 132a.

Rapid reading of selections from books and articles.

Continuation of Chinese 140a.

Spoken Chinese for advanced students.

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.

Continuation of Chinese 150a.

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 humanities disciplines (e.g., art, literature, religious studies). May be offered independently in Chinese, or linked with an English-language content course. In fall 2014, the topic of this course is "Masterpieces of Modern Chinese Literature," co-taught with Professor David Der-Wei Wang. In spring 2015, the topic of this course is "Masterworks of Chinese Cinema." Students are required to attend the lectures and film screenings of Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 63 when the films are Chinese.

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

Examines the cultural implications of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). We will examine how art was violent towards people and how violence was turned into an art. We will also consider the link between violence, trauma, memory and writing. Materials include memoir, fiction, essay, "revolutionary Peking Opera," and film.

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 course will explore these trends with the aim of arriving at an improved understanding of the Northeast Asian frontier zone in and around the period of 20th-c. Japanese imperialist expansion.

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 increasing availability of large quantities of spatial and biographical data presents both an opportunity and a challenge for historians. This course prepares students for this challenge by introducing a variety of computational methods for extracting, organizing and analyzing large datasets, including XML markups, relational database design, Microsoft Excel-based data management, and data visualization on GIS and network analysis platforms. Though we focus on a few selected topics in later imperial Chinese history (ca. 8th -18th century), the objective of the course is to teach a set of skills that can be applied in any scholarly or professional context and help students develop a critical understanding of the possibilities and risks of these digital tools. Class time is divided evenly between hands-on tutorials and discussion. Topics of discussion include practices of digital scholarship in and outside the field of Chinese history as well as theoretical reflections on these practices. All readings and lab materials will be in English. No prior knowledge of Chinese history, Chinese language, or programming is required.

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.

History takes place through the actions of people who live in time and space. Modern computational methods provide means of analyzing changes in patterns of behavior and thought among large numbers of people spread across many regions. This course introduces the use of GIS, relational databases, social network analysis, text-mining, and topic modeling for the analysis of geographic information, biographical data, and the content of texts. Separate labs will provide introductory instruction in various computational techniques.

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.

Examines various topics in the political, institutional and intellectual history of Song China. Brief introductions on the Song bureaucratic institutions. Close reading of the texts selected from Xu Weili documents. The students will be evaluated by an open-book test and a final essay.

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 intellectual, social, and cultural history of Ming China. Topic for 2015: reading Ming legal documents.

Examines various topics in the history of the Han Dynasty.

Chronological survey of recently-discovered paleographic texts and received materials from the late Shang through the early Warring States period, with discussion of problems of contextualization.

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.

Close reading of texts from the Warring States period.

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.

This course explores various dimensions of local society and culture in the Tang and Song dynasties: local government, elite life, literati culture, and religion. It approaches these topics through close reading and analysis of a wide range of texts, including state documents, epitaphs, other forms of literati writing, as well as modern archeological reports. In reading these texts, the course also helps students develop a deeper understanding of Tang-Song institutions in connection to the realities of local governance and careers of civil officials. Secondary literature on local history, prosopography, and other pertinent topics will also be discussed. Knowledge of classical Chinese is required.

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.

Continued training in sources and methods for research in the history of late imperial China. Students will use original sources to write a research paper on a topic of their choosing.

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.

This course will introduce students to the best-known writers and canonical works of Chinese literature from the premodern period.

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.

An introduction to the use of Western and East Asian sources in literary research, including both print and digital media. In addition, one hour each week will be devoted to a basic text in literary theory.

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 is designed to trace the transformation of the dark vision of gratification and cultivation in this masterwork of Ming fiction, through the devastating deconstruction of human values in the early-Qing novel Xingshi yinyuanzhuan, to the lyricization of desire and its ultimate failure in the mid-Qing masterpiece Hongloumeng. Readings and discussion will concentrate on crucial sections of the original works in Chinese, supplemented by scholarly and critical readings on the classic Chinese novel.

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?

Topic for fall term is poetry and poetics from the late Eastern Han through Sui. Spring term topic: The fall of the South in mid-sixth century and the subsequent displacement of many southerners to north China was a traumatic event for Southern Dynasties elite. We will discuss the writing of trauma, diaspora and nostalgia in this period with focus on the use of poetry as a medium of writing the history of self and state.

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 course focuses on the literature of the Three Kingdoms period and on the Three Kingdoms imaginary constructed from the fourth century until today. All primary readings in Literary Chinese.

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.

Survey of modern Chinese fiction and narratology from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese Diaspora: polemics of the canon, dialogues between national and regional imaginaries, and literary cultures in the Sinophone world.

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.

Survey of the concepts, institutions, canons, debates, experiments, and actions that gave rise to, and continually redefined, modern Chinese literature. Equal attention given to theories drawn from Chinese and Western traditions.

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.

The focus for the fall term is the poetry of Du Fu and in the spring term, the poetry of the "High Tang" from early representations to its later canonization in the thirteenth century.

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

This course aims to excavate the cultural and historical memories of China's two most important cities. We will discuss literary and cinematic representations, visual and material transformations of the cityscape, cities as sites of cultural production, and the lives of their inhabitants in modern times.

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.

A graduate seminar that critically examines major academic works in English on East Asian Buddhism. It is aimed at preparing EALC graduate students for their general examinations in the fields relevant to Buddhism.

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 aims to discuss significant new works in the field of Chinese Religions by focusing on the historical, doctrinal, and philosophical development of the Buddhist tradition in China.

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 aims to deepen our understanding of how film reflects and influences power dynamics and inequalities among gender, sexuality, class, race and ethnicity. The course will look at film's role as a medium both within and across societies, in both national and transnational contexts. This seminar will explore key issues and themes in the study of Korean cinema, through surveys and discussions of exemplary works that deal with the concepts of the national and the transnational. The course constitutes three parts: First, we will examine historical transformation in national cinema and transnational historicity, focusing on selected films' views and criticisms on topics such as ethnic nationalism, colonial memories, the legacy of the Cold War, national division, and democratization. In the second part of the course, we will discuss the issues of North Korean defectors, diaspora, migration and globalization, and the representation of otherness in South Korean films. The third part will investigate the rise of transnational/post-national Korean cinema in Japan and China.

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.

Introduction to major works, genres, and waves of Chinese cinema from the silent era to the present (with a focus on Mainland China). We will discuss formal aesthetics, historical representation, and audience reception. Students are encouraged to collaborate on their own short films in response to works we watch in class.

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 will explore different histories of the interconnection of media in Japan, from the early ties between theater, literature and cinema to the popularization of the media mix by the company Kadokawa and the current routes between manga, anime, light novels, films and games.

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 seminar will focus on transitional moments in the history of film and media culture in Japan, all of them embedded in decisive socio-political shifts. It will explore the deep transformations manifesting around the years 1927, 1963, and 1995, with an additional focus on 1973.

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.

How have films documented, represented, or even made history in modern China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan? Examines diverse ways by which films can or cannot tell the "truth" about history. Topics: film propaganda under colonial and authoritarian regimes, during wars and revolutions; contemporary political and ethical implications of cinematic testimonies.

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 an East Asian language.

Independent reading and research in East Asian Studies.

This interdisciplinary and team-taught course provides an introduction to several of the approaches and methods through which the societies and cultures of East Asia can be studied at Harvard, including history, philosophy, literary studies, political science, film studies, anthropology and gender studies. We consider both commonalities and differences across the region, and explore how larger processes of imperialism, modernization, and globalization have shaped contemporary East Asian societies and their future trajectories.

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.

Junior Tutorial for students with an interest in China Social Sciences. After an introduction to the historical context of China's development, this course will focus on the political economy of reform in the post-Mao period. Some of the topics covered include democracy, the 1989 Tiananmen protests, the rise of entrepreneurs, the role of labor, rural-urban migration, and the Internet.

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.

Readings of various materials related to the history of modern Korea, in conjunction with the research and writing of a term paper using primary and secondary sources. Readings for fall 2012 will center on contemporary history after 1945.

Thesis guidance under faculty direction.

In this course, we will explore the histories, doctrines, rituals, and practices of the major religious traditions of Korea, including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity, as well as Shamanism and new religions. We will look at how these religions have interacted with each other, as well as the ways in which they have been both influenced and been shaped by Korean culture and politics. We will also pay close attention to the ways in which Korea has developed its own distinctive religious traditions on the basis of active interactions with those of other countries: Korea was exposed to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Catholicism through China, as well as Protestantism which was brought directly from the West. We will explore how Koreans not only transformed these imported traditions and incorporated elements of their own indigenous traditions to meet their own religious needs, but also served as active agents or participants in the development, for example, of pan-East Asian religious traditions such as Hwaom/Huayan/ Kegon Buddhism.

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.

This course explores the appeal of the "Three Kingdoms," a dangerous and violent time, and examines the nostalgic construction of the world of the Three Kingdoms from medieval times through contemporary period, in the forms of fiction, poetry, plays, movies, TV series, video games, MVs and fan fiction. Using the concept of "nostalgia" as a point of entry, this class offers an account of the nuances in the phenomenon and sentiments of nostalgia about the Three Kingdoms in different periods throughout Chinese history, with emphasis on nostalgia as a historical emotion and a modern global condition.

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?

This course aims at enabling students to read and analyze in depth major religious texts of East Asia, representing diverse traditions and genres. The course encourages students to take up their reading of texts not only as ways to acquire knowledge on Asian religious traditions, but as practice, labor, and play in which their ordinary way of understanding/experiencing the world and themselves will be challenged, reaffirmed, and renewed.

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 an introduction to the religious history, philosophy and practices of Zen Buddhism. Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chan, which is itself a transcription of the Sanskrit word dhyana, meaning meditation. While meditation is the backbone of the Zen tradition, we will see that Zen has a number of different faces and will examine the rich diversity of the Zen tradition as it developed in China, Korea, and Japan.

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.

Research seminar devoted to the theory and methods, possibilities and challenges of cross-cultural studies in the history of medicine and the body.

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.

This course aims to develop a basic foundation in modern Japanese leading to proficiency in the four language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Emphasis is placed on the use of these skills to communicate effectively in authentic contexts of daily life. Mastery of hiragana, katakana, and approximately 45 Kanji (Chinese characters).

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

Introduction to classical grammar and texts.

Introduction to Kambun.

Post-Heian writings in Classical Japanese.

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.

Continuation of Japanese 120a. Approximately 240 additional Chinese characters.

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.

Continuation of Japanese 130a. Approximately 200 additional Chinese characters.

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.

Continuation of Japanese 140a.

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.

Continuation of Japanese 150a.

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.

Continuation of Japanese 210a.

Examination of religion and society in Japan from 1600-1912, beginning with an era of state control over religious institutions and religious affiliations of the populace, followed by the demise of the Edo-period system and diversification of religious practice in context of rapid social change, modernization, and imperialism during the Meiji period. Separate section for students able to utilize primary sources in Japanese will explore the Maruzen Meiji Microfilm collection in the Harvard-Yenching Library.

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 religion and society from the end of the Meiji period (1912) to the present. This course explores the meaning of the modern in Japanese religions, the development of the public sphere and religion's relations with it, religion and nationalism, and the interconnections of religion and social change with materialism, consumerism, pacifism, and spiritualism.

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.

This course probes the nature and history of curiosity by exploring the strangely, extravagantly, intensely curious culture that was Japan in the Edo period (1600-1868), and spotlighting its entwinement with outsiders who were intensely curious about it. The design of the course is unique: crafted as an intellectual adventure game, it presupposes no prior knowledge, but will require keen curiosity and a willingness to experiment with new technologies of learning. In addition to students of Japanese culture, it should particularly interest those fascinated by global connections, early modern science, and the mystery of curiosity.

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).

Examines works in the Harvard Art Museums in art historical, literary, and religious context. The Spring 2014 seminar will focus on medieval Buddhist art and illustrated scrolls about the Shingon sect and its founder Kukai.

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.

In 2013-14, the course will focus on the interplay of pictures and texts in Edo Japan in a wide variety of genres, including natural history, shunga, popular literature, how-to manuals, and advertisements. In addition to training students in the cultural analysis of printed illustrations, the course will also help students develop facility in reading hentaigana materials.

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

This seminar deals with the politics, society, and culture of Japan from the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Readings will include primary and secondary sources in Japanese and English. Students will write a major research paper.

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.

Examines the role of gender in the production, reception, and interpretation of visual images in Japan from the twelfth through the twenty-first centuries. Topics include Buddhist conceptions of the feminine and Buddhist painting; sexual identity and illustrated narratives of gender reversals; the dynamics of voyeurism in Ukiyo-e woodblock prints; modernization of images of "modern girls" in the 1920s; and the gender dynamics of girl culture in manga and anime.

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.

Written texts are never separate from the material culture in which they are embedded. In premodern societies as in modern ones, the written word is an inseparable part of objects, both those in and on which it is written, and those in which it is stored, on which it is read, which it describes and alongside which it is placed. In the case of premodern Japan, the aesthetic and technological developments that produce new forms of material culture are often mirrored in literature, and vice versa. Therefore this course is designed as a survey of both premodern Japanese literature (in English translation) from the 8th through 19th centuries, and of the material and visual culture of those same eras. This course aims to explore the correspondences and differences among various texts and objects in premodern Japan,and in doing so introduce students to the possibilities of a multidisciplinary approach to scholarship in the humanities.

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.

Topic: Sagoromo Monogatari.

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.

A seminar course that studies the constructions of gender and gender relations in Japan through the examination of various forms of expressive culture (visual, textual, sonic) in their historical contexts.

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.

Continuation of Korean Ba.

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.

Continuation of Korean Bxa.

Independent reading and research in Korean Language.

Continuation of elementary Korean to consolidate students' knowledge of the fundamental grammatical structures of Korean with an aim to increase their abilities to communicate using Korean in a wide range of daily-life transactional situations. After successful completion of second-year Korean, students are expected to handle most uncomplicated communicative tasks and social situations and read consistently with understanding of simple connected texts dealing with personal and social needs.

Continuation of Korean 120a.

Continuation of intermediate Korean, to consolidate the student's knowledge of the grammatical structures of Korean with an aim to increase their abilities to communicate using Korean in a wide range of familiar and everyday topics, current societal events, and factual and concrete topics relating to personal interests. After successful completion of third-year Korean, students are expected to be able to describe and narrate about concrete and factual topics of personal and general interest.

Continuation of Korean 130a.

Development of skills in reading materials from contemporary Korean media and fiction and in aural comprehension of contemporary television news and drama with decreased reliance on pedagogical aids. After successful completion of fourth-year Korean, students should be able to satisfy the requirements of various everyday school, and work situations and follow essential points of written discourse which are abstract and linguistically complex, and also to write about a variety of topics in detail with precision.

Continuation of Korean 140a.

Selected readings in contemporary Korean on topics in art, film, drama, and cultural studies, supplemented by selections from audio-visual media on traditional and current cultural events. After completion of Korean 150a and 150b, students are expected to be able to participate in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, professional, and abstract topics and read with almost complete comprehension and at normal speed expository prose on unfamiliar subjects and a variety of literary texts.

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.

This course is to examine history of premodern Korea through select Korea's contemporary feature films. Films and dramas with historical themes and personages have been very popular in Korea. We will examine the content of the films, and investigate how "true" or "false" they represent Korea's past, how they imagine and invent Korea's past, in what ways films are useful in better understanding Korean history, people's lives and practices.

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.

Introduction of the different types of primary sources and research methodologies useful for study of Choson Korea. Students are required to write a research paper.

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.

Explores current historical research in the field of premodern Korea by reviewing major publications in the field in Korean.

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

An introduction to some of the current issues in modern Korean history through selected readings. Designed for entering graduate students and undergraduates with a basic knowledge of modern Korean History (Societies of the World 27, "Two Koreas" or its equivalent).

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

Readings and research in modern Korean history. Students are required to write a seminar paper based largely on primary materials. Focus in Spring 2015 will be on contemporary (post-1945) Korean history, especially the Park Chung Hee period (1961-1979).

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

Continuation of Korean History 260. 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.

Koreans before the 20th century used literary Chinese and Chinese characters as the primary means of written expression. Present-day Koreans find this a vexing fact. What ideas of language and writing underpin such collective discomfort? This course examines how discourses on language and writing in Korea have shaped the ways in which Koreans imagined literary practices, cultural identity, power, gender, and literature. Our focus is Korea's long-time participation in and modern abandonment of the Sinographic Cosmopolis, but some of the readings will illustrate parallel cases of language ideologies in Japan, Vietnam, and China.

Introduction to Manchu grammar with elementary readings in Manchu script.

Readings in a variety of historical and literary texts with emphasis on Manchu documentary sources.

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

Intensive reading in Manchu archival materials, other historical texts and literary texts. Some texts in pre-diacritical form. 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.

Continuation of Mongolian A.

Readings in classical and modern Mongolian texts.

Continuation of Mongolian 120a.

Introduction to Uyghur, the Turkic language spoken in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and throughout Central Asia. Course covers grammar, reading and writing (in the modified Arabic alphabet adopted in the PRC), and conversation practice.

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.

Additional training in modern Uyghur, with attention to improvement of spoken fluency and comprehension. Extensive readings in a range of genres, including historical writing and academic prose as well as religious texts.

Continuation of Uyghur 120A.

Guided readings in advanced Uyghur-language texts. May be repeated for credit.

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.

Continuation of Vietnamese Ba, with introduction of additional Vietnamese texts and excerpts from Vietnamese newspapers to enhance reading skills.

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.

Continuation of Vietnamese 120a.

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.

Continuation of Vietnamese 130a.

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.

Continuation of Vietnamese 140a.