Asian Studies Courses

Courses in Art History

East Asian Art, Bronze to the Mongols

A survey of the arts of East Asia from 1500 B.C.E to the 14th century, analyzing the major developments in the art and architecture of China, Japan, Korea, and the Ryūkyūs over a range of media. We will study some of the various methodologies that can be applied to East Asian Art as well as key themes in the chronological and historical development of visual cultures against the background of religious, political and social contexts. May count toward Asian Studies.

Developments in East Asian Art, Modernity

A survey of the arts of East Asia from the 14th century to the present, analyzing modernity, as well as the march towards modernity, in the art and architecture of China, Japan, Korea, and the Ryūkyūs over a range of media. We will study some of the various methodologies that can be applied to East Asian Art as well as key themes in the chronological and historical development of visual cultures against the background of political, social, and cultural contexts. May count toward Asian Studies.

Prints & Print Culture of Early Modern & Modern Japan

This course explores the spectacle and complexity of Japanese urban life in the early modern and modern periods through a study of the eras' visual arts, particularly woodblock prints, paintings, and print culture. Investigation of pre-modern woodblock prints or ukiyo-e yields a rich tapestry of issues and topics relevant to "early modernity." The study of sōsaku hanga or creative prints, which developed in reaction to ukiyo-e in the early 20th century, expands our understanding of Japanese modernity, as well as of the global impact of Japanese art. We will consider the economic currents of the times, the wealth of the commoner class as well as the concomitant blurring of social boundaries in pre-modern Japan, government attempts at control, the powerful entertainment industries of theatre & sex, the visualization of urban literature, concepts of beauty, the "burden" of history, and the demands of modernity. Our interdisciplinary approach will allow us to engage with not only art-historical issues, but also literary, sociological, historical, and religious concerns.

Warrior Art of Japan and the Ryūkyūs

This course explores the arts produced for and by the warrior elite of Japan and the Ryūkyū islands (now Japan's Okinawa prefecture) from 1185 until 1868. From the tragic tale of Minamoto Yoshitsune to the mythical, warrior origins of Ryūkyū royalty, the class will concentrate on the arts produced for the men who led these nations through both treacherous and prosperous times. We will study arms & armor, castles & retreat pavilions, various ceremonial performances, including Ryūkyūan investiture and the Japanese tea ceremonies, paintings, Noh theatre, Ryūkyūan dance, and film. Through a careful consideration of translated documents, slide reproductions of art objects, movies, and selected treasures from the DePauw University Art Collection, students will learn about what motivated these powerful men to produce art, how they embraced the arts to better themselves culturally, and what these monuments and artworks conveyed about the culture of Japan's and the Ryūkyūs's medieval and early modern eras.

Monumental Art of Japan, 1550-1900: Splendor & Angst

This course explores large-scale art and architecture produced in Japan from 1550 to 1900. These years encompass the last turbulent decades of warfare and the first two centuries of an era of peace, witnessing the construction (and destruction) of resplendent castles, villas, religious complexes, and their accompanying interior decoration. Powerful and pervasive artistic ateliers, which were responsible for the decoration of these structures, also left an indelible artistic stamp on the nation during this period. What role did such resplendent monuments play in the struggle for power, both politically and culturally? For whose eyes was such splendor intended and what hidden, underlying angst pervades these efforts? What aesthetic values are expressed and did they extend beyond the elite, ruling class? Students will consider these questions and more, ultimately investigating the larger role of "art" in society.

East West Encounters

This course examines cross-cultural artistic encounters between the Western world (Europe and the United States) and Asia (India, China, and Japan) from ca. 1500 to the mid-twentieth century, concentrating on the role of art objects and visual culture, broadly speaking, in the cultural exchange between East and West over the past five hundred years. Topics include the impact of Western realism on traditional Asian art forms; the role of commodities and empire in artistic production; Japonisme and Chinoiserie in 19th century Europe and America; early photography; collections of Asian art objects in the West; issues of cultural identity in Asian modernism; and post-World War II abstract art.

Eccentrics & the Exotic in 17th & 18th c. China & Japan

This course explores two major artistic currents arising in both China and Japan in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dubbed "eccentric" by their contemporaries, a number of innovative painters broke the rules, constructed "bohemian" personas, and yet also paid homage to their art historical heritage. Alongside the (re)emerging figure of the eccentric artist, 17th and 18th century China and Japan also encountered Europeans. As a result, both countries grappled with its sense of identity, as a nation and as a people. Contact with Europeans, direct and indirect, led to the representation of "other" and experimentation with unfamiliar artistic techniques. Thus, through this focused study of a specific time period in China and Japan, students examine "diversity" and "inclusion" in a pre-modern, East Asian context. With paintings as our point of departure, we will think deeply about the meanings of terms such as "eccentric" and "exotic," as well as how the associated concerns of artistic freedom and negotiation with "other" still resonate in contemporary society. This class will nurture critical thinking about art and its active role in international relations today, challenging students to approach the subjects of diversity and inclusion from different points of view and to express opinions articulately in verbal, as well as in written, form.

Kyoto: A Cultural Metropolis

This course examines the rich visual culture of Kyoto, the imperial capital of Japan from 794 until 1868. During its long history, the city witnessed astounding growth, cultural flowering first under the emperors and then under various warlords, devastation by wars, fires, and famine, and multiple rebirths. Kyoto presided over some of the nation's greatest artistic achievements including the construction of sumptuous palaces, get-away villas, grand temples, and the production of the paintings and decorative flourishes within these structures. In the early modern period, Kyoto silk weavers, lacquer-ware specialists, book illustrators, calligraphers, and especially, painters commanded the respect of consumers throughout Japan, spreading Kyoto's artistic "style" to other urban centers and to the villages at the peripheries of power. The class will proceed chronologically, beginning with the founding of the city in 794 and ending with the city's role in the restoration of imperial power in 1868. Each week we will focus on specific case studies, monuments, art objects, illustrated works of literature, and maps, as well as translated primary sources and pertinent studies by art historians of Japan. Besides gaining a familiarity with Kyoto's pre-modern visual culture, the class aims to impart an awareness of Kyoto's role in the formation of Japanese 'nationhood' and national identity.

Representation in Japanese Visual Culture

This course examines the concept of "representation" in Japanese visual culture, engaging with subject matter from contemporary times, as well as from Japan's modern and pre-modern periods (12th through the early 20th centuries). We will proceed along thematic lines. Balancing theoretical readings with scholarly articles and a sprinkling of translated primary sources, the class will address issues relating to the representation (or re-presentation) of landscape and the environment, the body and gender roles, canonical narratives as performance, and national identity at three crucial periods in Japan's history. At times we will reference Japanese monuments and works of art produced prior to the early modern era, as well as the Chinese sources that influenced some of the Japanese topics at the locus of our investigation. What lies at the heart of representation--subjectivity, political aims, societal concerns, emotional responses--and the complexity this question reveals are the central concerns of this course.

The Supernatural in Japanese Art

This course explores the theme of the supernatural in Japanese visual culture from the 12th century to the present. With origins in religion, folklore, and literature, otherworldly creatures and their powers have captured the imagination of the Japanese and consequently inspired creative visualizations of them. Students will not only analyze works ranging from traditional painting mediums to contemporary manga, as well as anime, but also will engage with texts that have supernatural worlds and beings as a central element. Moreover, this course will ask students to place these exhilarating and cautionary tales in context: what do these narratives say about the societies that created them, believed in them, and produced visualizations of the supernatural creatures featured within them?

Women and East Asian Art

This course examines the role of women in the arts in pre-modern East Asia and the negotiation of women's concerns, by female artists, in modern and contemporary East Asian art. Did women have no sense of empowerment at all in pre-modern China, Korea, and Japan? What about Chinese, Korean, and Japanese women artists today? What are their interests and agendas? Students will engage with historical works of art and artists, while concurrently gaining an understanding of gendered female roles as determined by religious, philosophical, and societal conceptualizations of the past. Then, students will study feminist discourses originating from the West in their analysis of modern and contemporary East Asian art by and about women. Ultimately, the aim of this course is to demystify and to complicate understandings about women as the subject of art, as well as women as the producers of art, in East Asia. This course counts towards the WIM (Writing in the Major) requirement for art history majors.

Courses in Asian Studies

Introduction to Chinese Culture

This course introduces the elements of contemporary and traditional Chinese culture. It provides students with a fundamental yet diverse knowledge of China and its culture through examination of its manifestations: political, religious, social, cultural, and economic. Topics include history, traditional belief systems, society, languages, arts and literature, performance traditions, daily life and customs, ethnicity and gender issues, science and technology, business and government.

Introduction to Taoism

Through a close reading of the classic of Taoism Tao te ching in the context of its antiquity (around the 7th century BCE) and in its contemporary applications in politics, aesthetics, arts, gender relations, violence and peace, and power and authority, students will learn one of the three major schools of thought in China. Particular attention will be paid to the philosophical and cultural issues that influenced not only Chinese but also many other Asian and Western cultures.

Topics in Asian Studies

Topics in Asian Studies.

First-Year Seminar in Asian Studies

A seminar focused on a theme related to the study of Asia. Open only to first-year students.

China on Screen

Through viewing and discussing cinematic films, students will learn to appreciate how China has been presented as a nation and a culture by generations of Chinese directors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other cultural enclaves and by current film critics, both Chinese and western. Topics include the history of the Chinese film industry, major genres in Chinese cinema, the issues of cultural hegemony, as well as cinematic constructions of "so-called" Chinese gender, nationhood and individuality.

Classical Chinese Literature

This course outlines Chinese literature from the beginning to the Tang dynasty (618-907). From some of the most beloved and celebrated literary texts, we will glean the ageless enigmas of the Warring States sophists, the whimsical wisdom of Chinese hippies of the Bamboo Grove, and the anomalies and the fantastic from poetesses (both male and female) of China's Golden Age, the Tang dynasty. In seven themes, we will explore major genres and sub-genres of Chinese literature, including poetry (e.g., "the music bureau," "classical poetry,' and 'lyric meters'), prose (e.g., historical and philosophical), and fiction (e.g., 'describing anomalies' and 'romances'). We will learn and experience how politicians and common people in China over 2,500 years ago thought, felt, and lived. How did the ancient Chinese achieve immortality, behave in courtship, eavesdrop on a love affair, express their emotions, and criticize one another? Amazingly enough, many of the answers are as contemporary as scenes in a Hollywood movie today. No knowledge of Chinese is required.

Traditional Japanese Literature

A survey of Japanese literature, in English translation, from the eighth to the 18th century. Works from a variety of genres (poetry, plays, novels, diaries) are examined.

Modern Japanese Novelists

A study, in translation, of major Japanese novelists of the 19th and 20th centuries, including Natsume Soseki (Kokoro), the Nobel Prize winner Kawabata Jasunari (Snow Country), Murakami Haruki (Sputnik Sweetheart) and Hoshimoto Banana (Kitchen).

Topics in Asian Studies

Usually a course on aspects of one of the societies and cultures studied in the Asian Studies program (India, China and Japan) or a comparative treatment of aspects of these cultures.

Topics in Asian Studies

Typically examines selected themes, genres or periods in Chinese, Japanese or Indian literature. May also explore issues and/or periods in Chinese, Japanese or Indian cultural and intellectual history. Prerequisite: One of the following courses - ARTH 133, ARTH 134, ARTH 135, ARTH 234, ASIA 140, ASIA 197, HIST 107, HIST 108, POLS 253, REL 130, or REL 253

Directed Readings in Asian Studies

Independent study for majors or, by permission of the instructor, for students with significant coursework in an aspect of Asian Studies.

Asian Studies Senior Seminar

Required of majors in Asian Studies. Normally taken in the fall semester of the senior year.

Courses in Chinese Studies

Elementary Chinese I

The goals for this course are for students to master the pinyin Romanization system and to acquire basic communication skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing Mandarin Chinese. CHIN 161 is open only to beginners in Chinese or those with two years or less of high school Chinese.

Elementary Chinese II

This course is a continuation of Elementary Chinese I. Students will continue to develop the language skills they acquired in Elementary Chinese I. Prerequisite: CHIN 161 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Intermediate Chinese I

Course work helps students to develop four linguistic skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading) in Chinese at a more advanced level. Course work emphasizes drills, conversation and grammar. The goals are for students to acquire the following skills: to pronounce modern standard Chinese, to write words using both characters and pinyin Romanization system, to converse in more complicated sentences based on grammatical structures introduced in this course and to write essays. Prerequisite: CHIN 162 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Intermediate Chinese II

A continuation of CHIN 261. Prerequisite: CHIN 261 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Topics in Chinese

Topics in the Chinese language. May be repeated with different topics for credit.

Advanced Chinese I

Reading and discussion of advanced Chinese materials. Exercise in speaking the language and in writing compositions. Prerequisite: CHIN 262 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Courses in Economics & Management

Asian Economies

Provides an overview of key economic developments in the Asia-Pacific region. Students will have an opportunity to apply economic theories and models to understand the divergent development paths of countries in this region. Topics include the rise of the East Asian economies, the challenges that emerged from the Asian financial crisis, development obstacles of East and South Asian economies and prospects for regionalization. Prerequisites: Econ 100, Econ 295

Courses in Literature

Asian Pacific American Voices

Since Asian American and Pacific Islander writing is typically presented from the perspective of race, our topics will focus on cultural identity, immigration experience, displacement, gender identities, and language. The goal of this class is not to suggest a cohesive tradition of Asian American communities, but rather to explore the different histories and origins of Asian American writers and how their backgrounds inform their work.

Courses in History

The Creation of East Asia: Transformations and Traditions

This is a survey of the history of East Asia, c. 1300 BCE to 900 CE, focusing on China with additional consideration of Japan and Inner Asia. The course starts with the beginning of the region's written past in the 2nd millennium BCE and concludes with a consideration of the emergence of a multipolar region after the collapse of the Tang empire in China in the 10th century. Some of the topics explored: the creation of a continental empire; the spread and indigenization of religious traditions; the world of aristocrats and the peasant society they ruled; the values of this aristocratic milieu, especially in so far as they have shaped many of the cultural touchstones of East Asia today.

The Emergence of East Asia: Scholars, Warriors, and Empires

This is a survey of the history of East Asia, c. 900 CE to 1800 CE, focusing on China and Japan, with some consideration of Korea and Vietnam. The course begins with the emergence in the 10th century of a multipolar region following the collapse of the Tang empire in China, and ends c. 1800 with the global repercussions of the industrial revolutions. The period is characterized by transformations in state and society broadly associated with Neo-Confucianism, commercialization, and steppe-based imperial formations. Topics explored in the course include: formation of elite status groups (scholar-officials, samurai), women & gender, empires, trade, environment.

East Asia in the Modern World

This is a survey of the history of East Asia, c. 1800 to the present. The course begins with the mature states and societies of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam at the end of the eighteenth century and finishes with a consideration of the post-Cold War era. We cover the dissolution of early modern states, encounters with global industrialization and imperialism, the rise of nation-states, social and cultural modernity, postwar/Cold War revolution and developmentalism, and late 20th century globalization. Some topics explored in the course: feminism, colonialism, imperialism, modernity, ideologies, war, cities.

Partition and Memory

This course examines the history of partition, its representations, memories and legacy in Israel-Palestine and Pakistan-India in a broadly comparative manner. The course not only engages with the events leading up to partition, but how partition and partition memories and narratives continue to inform the construction of national identities, and how the conflicts within those narratives continue to fuel current clashes in these regions. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course grapples with the differing memories of key events to flesh out their ethical and political implications. The course also engages with films on and about partition and memory. It assesses the limits and capabilities of this genre for refining cultural memories, coping with memories of violence, as well as challenging the status quo of collective memories and national histories.

Courses in Japanese Studies

Elementary Japanese I

Introduction to the Japanese language with emphasis on development of proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. JAPN 151 is open only to beginners in Japanese or those with two years or less of high school Japanese.

Elementary Japanese II

A continuation of the study of JAPN 151. Open to students who have successfully completed Japanese I or who are placed into this level by test results. Prerequisite: JAPN 151 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Intermediate Japanese I

Further study of Japanese language and practice in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Prerequisite: JAPN 152 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Intermediate Japanese II

A continuation of JAPN 251. Prerequisite: JAPN 251 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Advanced Japanese I

Readings and discussion of advanced Japanese materials. Exercise in speaking the language and in writing compositions. Prerequisite: JAPN 252 or qualifying score on the placement test.

Advanced Readings and Projects in Japanese

Open to advanced students in Japanese. May be repeated for credit.

Courses in Political Science

China and India in the 21st Century

Why do the two Asian giants, India and China, with more than 38 percent of the population of the world, matter to the rest of the world at the beginning of the 21st century? What are China's superpower prospects? Will nuclear India attain great power status? What is the future of communism and the prospect of political freedom and democracy in China? Is Indian democracy stable? What are the sources of instability of Indian government? The dynamics of ethnic minorities in China? The future of secularism in India? The nuclear dynamics in Sino-Indian relations? These questions and many others will be explored in this course.

Courses in Religious Studies

Introduction to Religions

A cross-cultural survey course of major religious traditions, with emphasis upon the theoretical and methodological issues at stake in the discipline of Religious Studies. The course provides a balanced treatment of Asian and Western/Abrahamic traditions in order to explore the concept of 'religion' within a comparative humanistic context. Most important will be a close reading and discussion of primary texts in English translation. By the end of the course students will have developed a vocabulary for understanding religious phenomena cross-culturally and a sensibility for engaging with religious others in our globalizing world.

Religions of India

This course provides an introduction to the many religious traditions which have found a home in India. In this comprehensive introduction we survey the history, thought, and practices of the major Indian religious traditions in order to come to a better understanding of the ways in which people in South Asia have found meaning and purpose in their lives through religion over several millennia. India (by which we mean not just the present-day nation-state of India but the cultural complex of South Asian civilization from Sri Lanka to Tibet and from Afghanistan to Myanmar from 2500 BCE to the present) gave birth to the three great religious traditions which now blanket Asia: Hinduism in modern-day India, Nepal, and Indonesia; Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos; and Mahayana Buddhism in Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. So, too, the religions of Jainism and Sikhism were born on Indian soil. And in the present day, the majority of the world's Muslims live in South Asia, thus making Islam a thoroughly 'Indian' religion by adoption. In this introductory class we concentrate on the practices and worldviews of Indian religions classical and modern.

Hinduism

In this course students examine religious experience and expression in Hindu India in all of their diversity and regional variation with special emphasis on the contemporary persistence of traditional values and practices. Relevant historical background information is surveyed in order to help assess continuity and change in learned and vernacular Hindu religious practices with particular attention paid to the values that both influence and are displayed by them.

Buddhism

Examines the development of Buddhist thought, scriptures, practices and institutions in India and the religion's spread to China and Japan.

East Asian Religions

This course serves as an introduction to the religious beliefs and practices of East Asia. The course proceeds in chronological order, but it will also focus on broader themes of East Asian religions. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity and unity of religious expressions in China, Korea, and Japan, with readings drawn from a wide-range of texts: religious scriptures, philosophical texts, popular literature, and ethnographic studies. Special attention will be given to those forms of religion common to both the elite and popular culture: cosmology, afterlife, morality, and mythology. The course also raises more general questions concerning gender, class, political patronage, and differing concepts of religion.

Modern Hinduism

In this course we examine the rise of Hindu modernity from the colonial period to the present day. Our main objective is to come to an understanding of the embedded nature of modern Hinduism within the historical matrices of culture, society, politics, and economics in India. Through the close reading of primary and secondary interpretive texts dealing with the transformation of religion in modern South Asia students learn how to apply the critical hermeneutical techniques specific to the discipline of the history of religions. At the same time they gain a better understanding of contemporary Hinduism as they learn about the challenges which Hindus have faced and negotiated in the modern period. By doing so students are able to understand more thoroughly the situation of religious belief and practice across the globe in the modern and post-modern periods.

Religion in Modern Japanese Society

Examines religion within the context of Japanese society from the 17th to the 20th century. Attention given to the rise of Confucianism in the 17th century, the Shinto revival of the 18th century, Buddhism in early modern Japan, the appearance of the new religions, and the relationship of religion to modernization and nationalism. Prerequisite: an introductory course in the department, East Asian history or permission of the instructor.