This December the Department will be celebrating our 50th Anniversary with a banquet to be held at the Renissance Hotel downtown, join us for a night of more...
Each year the department offers a variety of topics under the course numbed 360B. This year we are offering courses in Modern Japanese Literature, Cultures of Manga and Anime More...
Graduate
China
ASIA 502 A (026) - Modern Chinese Fiction and Western Criticism [3.0 credits] Instructor: Dr. Christopher Rea
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course description
An introduction to modern Chinese literature and cinema of Taiwan since the early 20th century. The course will introduce theoretical concepts relating to cross-cultural criticism, diaspora, representation, visuality, and the canon. Students will complete a research paper.
- ASIA 506 (018) - Topics in Chinese Linguistics and Sociolinguistics [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Duanduan Li
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
This course introduces graduate students to some fundamental aspects of the Chinese language – its history, structure, dialects, spoken vs. written language. We also examine sociolinguistic topics and issues related to language contact, language change, language ideology, language policy, and language use in Chinese society. The course will be conducted through lectures combined with class discussions of assigned readings and individual/small-group presentations. Course work will also include students’ selection of a research topic, their bibliographic search for relevant materials, a term paper and an oral presentation on the topic. The course is taught in English with examples from Chinese. Familiarity with the Chinese language is expected. - ASIA 507B (018) - Topics in Chinese Applied Linguistics [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Duanduan Li,
Not offered in 2011-2012
Pre-requisites ASIA506: Chinese Linguistics and Sociolinguistics (or instructor’s approval)
Course Description
This course provides an overview to theory and research related to teaching/learning Chinese as a second, foreign or heritage language. It explores current issues related to Chinese language instruction around the world and examines major approaches to foreign language pedagogy with an emphasis on their applications to Chinese language instruction. Topics include: Chinese second language acquisition and socialization, Chinese lesson planning, teaching methodology, Chinese teaching material development and evaluation, testing and assessment, Chinese heritage language learning, culture and language learning, and the use of technology in Chinese language teaching. - ASIA 508 A,B (020) - Topics in Pre-modern Chinese History and Institutions [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Josephine Chiu-Duke
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
This course examines in depth the history and institutions of imperial China with a focus on the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties. Although background information will be covered, emphasis is on the character and patterns of social, political and intellectual history, and on the evolution of related institutions. Topics include: history and historiography, classical political thought, emperor and bureaucracy, structure of the central and local government, the examination system and civil service recruitment, female rule in early Tang politics, representation of womanhood, transformation of the ruling elite, land tenure and taxation, the rise of militarism, reform and counter reform, Confucian revival and the rise of Neo-Confucianism. Bibliography varies depending on student needs. - ASIA 510 (012) - Monastic Hagio-Biographical Writings in Medieval East Asia Instructor: Dr. Jinhua Chen
Not offered in 2011-2012
Course Description
As a general introduction to medieval East Asian (mainly Chinese and Japanese) monastic bio/hagiographical literature, this seminar (for graduate students and advanced under-graduates) will begin with a general discussion of its nature, structure and basic features, which is supplemented by a comparison of East Asian monastic biographies with Chinese secular (official) biographies on the one hand and Western (mainly Christian) biographies on the other. After a brief survey of biographies of nuns, a peculiar portion of East Asian monastic biographical literature, it will formally investigate the functions monastic biographies played in medieval East Asian Buddhism, focusing on the following aspects: (1) the writing of monastic biographies and the formation of sectarian consciousness, (2) monastic biographies as a vehicle of sectarian ideologies, (3) monastic biographies as a polemical instrument. In the course of this investigation, we will touch on the historical and textual value of monastic biographical literature, especially its significance for deciphering sectarian agenda. Some general methods of interpreting monastic biographies will also be introduced (in particular, we will stress the necessity and effectiveness of reading monastic biographies in close comparison with their corresponding autobiographies). - ASIA 511B (012) - Buddhist and Taoist texts in Chinese; Reading and Research Methods Instructor: Dr. Jinhua Chen, Winter 2011, Term 2
Course Description
Topics of this course will be flexible, adjusting to the interest and background of the students. Selections for readings can be from any important Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts belonging to any major Buddhist and Taoist traditions of any period. Focus is given to the doctrinal issues implied in a specific genre of Buddhist and Taoist texts. Methodological issues of interpreting Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts are also to be discussed.
In addition to intensive reading of the original texts, students are to be trained in some basic methods indispensable for the research of Sinology in general and Buddhism and Taoism in particular. Students will be required to demonstrate at least basic competence in all the following areas:
Dictionaries (general and specialized).
Bibliographies and bibliographic databases in European and East Asian languages.
Historical Geography of China, Central Asia and India.
Use of maps, atlases and dictionaries.
Biography (religious and secular).
Official and religious titles.
Dates and chronologies.
Books and authors.
Structure and content of the Buddhist (and Taoist) canons.
Extra-canonical works and collectanea.
Indices and concordances (including electronic resources such as the Academia Sinica website).
Dunhuang materials.
Epigraphy.
Gazeteers (secular and monastic).
Dynastic histories.
Biji, anecdotal sources and unofficial histories.
Poetry.
Art historical sources.
By the end of this course students are expected to punctuate original Chinese Buddhist and Taoist texts correctly, translate them appropriately and interpret them both faithfully and creatively. - ASIA 511B (022) - Readings in Chinese Religious Texts: New Insights from the Earth: The Guodian Corpus [3.0 credits], Instructor: Dr. Edward Slingerland
Not Offered in 2011-2012
Can also be taken by undergraduates as Asia 490 (section 022) with instructor approval.
Course Description
Perhaps the most exciting recent development in the field of early Chinese studies has been the discovery of troves of excavated texts, many of them previously unknown, that are in the process of enriching and transforming our understanding of early Chinese thought and literature. Texts on bamboo and silk excavated from tombs such as Mawangdui and Guodian, as well as looted bamboo strips purchased and published by the Shanghai Museum, have augmented the received textual record with entirely new kinds of texts that call into question traditional notions of genre and school affiliation.
This course will focus on the Guodian bamboo texts (interredc. 300 B.C.E.), and has several objectives. First, it aims to introduce students to the particular challenges involved in organizing and deciphering archeological texts of this sort. Second, it will introduce students to a variety of important Warring States texts, including an alternate version of the Laozi or Daodejing and a variety of previously unknown texts with a vaguely Confucian bent that may be associated with the lost school of Gaozi or Zisi.Third, it will help students to hone their classical Chinese skills, and also introduce graduate students to the vibrant world of secondary scholarship on these texts that has sprung up in mainland China. Students will be left with a more subtle and finely-textured view of the conceptual and literary landscape of Warring States China. ASIA 514 B (026) - Topics in Modern Chinese Literature [3.0 credits] Instructor: Dr. Christopher Rea
Not offered in 2011-2012Course description
An introduction to transnational Chinese cinema and Chinese writings on cinema since the early 20th century. The course will cover cinema history, criticism, and theory. Students will complete a research paper.- ASIA 515A (015) - Topics in Vernacular Fiction and Drama [3.0 credits] Chinese Narrative: Short Stories in the Classical and Vernacular Languages, Instructor: Dr. Catherine Swatek
Term 1, 2011-2012
Meeting Time: TBA
Course Description/Course outlineThe focus of this seminar is on short fiction in the classical language, with some attention to vernacular short stories (huaben) in the latter stages of the course, for purposes of comparison. The goals of the seminar will be: 1) To gain an idea of how classical language tales developed over a period of roughly 1500 years, from ca. 300-1800; 2) To gain an idea of how classical language short story compares to its vernacular counterpart and how the two influenced each other after the emergence of vernacular fiction around 1400; and 3) To gain an idea of how the status of fiction rose (what one scholar refers to as "making room for fiction" in the Chinese literary landscape), how its aesthetics ("poetics") evolved, and how Chinese fiction compares to its counterparts in the West.