Courses

ASIA 109 Anime: Shojo and Society in Japanese Animation

Some refer to shojo animation as “girls’ anime,” but the figure of the shojo–an adolescent somewhere between girlhood and womanhood, has a complex role in Japanese storytelling and society. Who is the shojo? Is the shojo a “third gender?” Does the shojo hold a special role compared with other age and gender categories? Why is the shojo so often chosen as a figure who confronts social crises or bridges social gaps? This class will explore the age and gender category known as “shojo” primarily through the lens of animation, but occasionally making use of literature and manga as well. The class will focus on how adolescent girls in Japanese animation interact with social problems and crises such as gender role limitations, environmental crisis, natural disaster, and urbanization.

ASIA 110 East Asia between Tradition and Modernity

China, Japan, and Korea each had a watershed moment in which they transformed into modern, independent nations. This course first provides an introduction to traditional cultures, and then explores the violent changes that swept over East Asia from the mid-nineteenth century through the Chinese Civil War and the destruction of World War II. Imperialism, women’s movements, and cultural nationalism are examined through an interdisciplinary approach that draws from intellectual history, literature, and visual and performing arts.

ASIA 125 Japanese Literature and Society

This course examines major trends in Japanese literature and society from its beginnings to the modern period. Students consider well-known stories, plays, and novels from the classical, medieval, early modern, and modern periods, placing each text within its unique sociohistorical context. All readings are in English.

ASIA 130 Japanese Horror Film: Silent Era to Present

Horror films are a familiar pop-culture touchstone, and many Americans are somewhat familiar with horror films from Japan. To deepen their appreciation of such films, students consider Japanese horror films in the context of genre theory and cinematic, psychological, social, political, and artistic elements. Students have the opportunity to think critically about popular films: What intellectual and artistic value do we find in genre films? How do we evaluate the claims of film scholars? Students also explore theory related to both filmic expression and horror themes, including psychoanalytic theory, feminist theory, film theory, and trauma theory. What does horror film say about the social, temporal, and cultural context from which it emerges? What does horror film say about filmmaking itself? How are formal filmic techniques used to express and induce fear and anxiety? No prior familiarity with Japan is required. Conducted in English.

ASIA 131 Chinese Popular Culture

This course explores the varied cultural landscapes of the Chinese-speaking world through the lens of popular culture. Students are introduced to key approaches in cultural studies, while learning to critically interpret literary, musical, and visual texts in the Chinese-speaking world in social and historical context. Topics include modernity and tradition, technology and culture, media and society, and the local and the global. Students emerge from the course with a new set of tools in thinking about “culture,” both familiar and unfamiliar. No previous knowledge of Asia is required.

ASIA 155 Introduction to Asian Religions

An introduction to the major religious traditions of Asia, in both their classical and modern forms, with a focus on modern popular developments in Hindu, Buddhist, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese traditions, and the ways in which racism has influenced perceptions of these religious traditions in the United States and Canada. The course explores the foundational teachings of each tradition, examines their historical and social contexts, and seeks answers to questions such as: What is the nature of religious experience? What are the functions of myth and ritual? How have these religious traditions been adapted, adopted, and appropriated in “the West”?

ASIA 171 Imperial China

An overview of Chinese civilization from the god-kings of the second millennium and the emergence of the Confucian familial state in the first millennium B.C.E., through the expansion of the hybrid Sino-foreign empires, to the revolutionary transformation of Chinese society by internal and external pressures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

ASIA 200 Women’s Movements and Religion across East Asia

What are the key challenges faced by women’s movements across East Asia? What roles do religious ethics and cultural norms play in creating either obstacles or opportunities for women activists who seek to counter gender disparity in the pursuit of economic development? Do religious traditions offer challenges or resources for socioeconomic reform? From Islam among Malay and Hui Chinese communities to Confucian-influenced Christianity among South Korean communities, this course provides an opportunity to explore how women’s movements in East Asia engage with religious and cultural traditions in their struggles for human rights and civil liberties, as well as equal access to education, labor markets, affordable childcare, and other development opportunities. Recommended background: one course in anthropology, economics, history, sociology, or politics. Cross-listed in Asian studies, gender and sexuality studies, and religious studies.

ASIA 205 Chinese Poetry and Poetics: From the Beginning to Today

This course surveys Chinese poetry (shi) from its beginnings in the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, the Classic of Poetry, to contemporary vernacular poems or “new poetry” (xinshi). Special attention is paid to major canonical poets, important poetic anthologies, and poets whose individual talents have transformed the tradition of classical Chinese poetry. Chinese poems written in premodern Japan and Korea are also introduced. In addition, students read theoretical essays about poetry from the ancient to contemporary eras in China. All readings are in English and there is no Chinese language requirement. Recommended background: basic knowledge of Chinese history or knowledge of poetry in other languages.

ASIA 207 Traditional Chinese Literature in Translation

This course is an exploration of Chinese literature through reading and discussion of some of its masterworks of poetry, drama, fiction, and belles-lettres prose from ancient times to the nineteenth century. The focus of the course is as much on general knowledge of the history of Chinese literature as on ways of reading literary texts from a different culture. Topics we will investigate include: How do we approach a literary text? What is the role of translation in shaping our understanding? In what ways are the works we read products of their own times and places, and how do they speak to universal themes of human experience? No prior knowledge of Chinese language is required, but those who wish to do so are welcome to consult the texts in their original language.

ASIA 208 Religions in China

A study of the various religious traditions of China in their independence and interaction. The course focuses on the history, doctrines, and practices of Daoism, Confucianism, and various schools of Mahayana Buddhism. Readings include basic texts and secondary sources.

ASIA 215 Film, Literature, and the Cultures of Postwar Japan

From monster movies to abstract poetry, this course explores the diverse cultural currents running through Japan’s era of high-speed growth during its dramatic economic recovery following the widespread destruction of World War II. Students examine some of the major literary, cinematic, and artistic movements of the period, their interrelationships, and their global reach and reception. Analysis of individual works considers broad thematic trends and choices made by postwar artists, including engagement with-or breaks from-the cultural and historical past; varying degrees of social engagement; and use of realism, experimentalism, or abstraction. Conducted in English.

ASIA 221 Venice to Tokyo: Religion and Trade along the Spice and Silk Routes

This course examines the intersection of religion and trade along the silk and spice routes that linked Venice and Istanbul with Isfahan, Malacca, Nanjing, and Tokyo in the medieval and early modern periods (800-1800 C.E.). Adherents of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and other spiritual traditions traversed these trade routes as merchants, diplomats, and pilgrims. As cultural brokers connecting Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, these merchants transmitted objects as diverse as silk textiles, relics, and texts on philosophy and ethics. This course follows the transfer of culture and commerce along these trade routes, focusing on a key thematic question: How are urban economies impacted by religion and culture?

ASIA 223 Communism, Capitalism, and Cannibalism: New and Emerging Voices in Chinese Literature

A survey of Chinese literature since 1911, including a wide range of fiction, poetry, and drama from mainland China and texts from the Chinese diaspora as well. Students gain a greater understanding of China’s history and literary culture in three major periods: the May Fourth shift from traditional language and forms to vernacular literature; Socialist Realism and the Marxist theory of the first three decades of the People’s Republic; and China’s Reform Era, including expatriate authors like Ha Jin and China’s two controversial Nobel Prize winners, Gao Xingjian and Moyan. Recommended background: AS/CI 207.

ASIA 225 Art and Politics in China

Winnie-the-Pooh is blocked on China’s internet after memes appear of President Xi and the bear walking side by side. A Chinese artist is held without charges and then welcomed by foreign hosts into exile. The Western media clings to a narrative of Chinese art as authoritarian critique, but this is only one aspect of a complex relationship between art and politics in Chinese culture. What does "censorship" really mean? What are China’s mechanisms of control? Is there Chinese art that is neither dissent nor propaganda? This course considers these questions through close analysis of China’s visual arts, theater, and literary texts.

ASIA 234 Chinese Arts and Visual Culture

This course introduces Chinese visual cultures, from the Neolithic period to the present day, focusing on a period of particular cultural significance from the Han to Qing dynasties. The course reveals interrelationships among Chinese art, literature, religious philosophy, and politics. Topics discussed include artists’ places within specific social groups, theories of arts, questions of patronage, and the relation of traditional indigenous art forms to the evolving social and cultural orders from which they draw life. Principal objects include ritual objects, bronze vessels, ceramics, porcelain, lacquer ware, sculptures, rock-cut temples, gardens, painting, calligraphy, and wood-block prints.

ASIA 235 Supernatural in East Asia

This course explores key themes in stories of the supernatural in East Asia, specifically China and Japan and their role in the cultural, visual, and religious imagination. Here the supernatural ranges from strange animals, ghosts, and demons to Buddhist miracles and Daoist immortals. The texts include short stories, plays, and visual representations. Students consider the boundaries between our world and other worlds and between humans and nonhumans. In the process, they consider the different ways the supernatural can function, from explorations of the self and the other to embodiments of cultural anxieties and desires.

ASIA 236 Japanese Arts and Visual Culture

This course surveys the history of Japanese art and visual culture focusing on the development of pictorial, sculptural, and architectural traditions from the Neolithic to the present time. The course explores the relationship between indigenous art forms and the foreign concepts, art forms and techniques that influenced Japanese culture, and social political and religious contexts as well as the role of patronage for artistic production. Topics include architecture, sculpture, painting, narrative handscrolls, the Zen arts, monochromatic ink painting, woodblock prints, decorative arts, contemporary architecture, photography, and fashion design.

ASIA 238 Visual Depiction of “Self” and Transformation in East Asian Art

Portraits have occupied preponderant places in East Asian cultures, depicting visual forms and revealing the subjects’ spiritual essences. This course offers a cross-cultural study of portraitures in East Asian art. It introduces students to the physical likeness of a wide variety of subjects and explores underlying meanings and messages. It provides a comprehensive study of East Asian portraits, offers the current scholarship, and explores the core issues, including the relationship of portraitures, oral and written stories, the art of physiognomy, aesthetic principles and artistic styles, material cultures, and religious beliefs, social rituals, political ideologies, and underscored functions and meanings in the wide-ranging contexts. The course offers timely and astonishing transformations of the concepts of “self” examined via various aspects of social echelons, and reconsidering portraits as a thread to weave aspects of East Asian art together.

ASIA 243 Buddhist Arts and Visual Cultures

The course examines the history of Buddhist visual cultures. It provides a basic introduction to a broad spectrum of Buddhist art, beginning with the emergence of early Buddhist sculpture in India and ending with modern Buddhist visual works. It examines selected works of architecture, sculpture, and paintings in their religious, social, and cultural contexts. It also briefly surveys regional Buddhism and its arts.

ASIA 245 Architectural Monuments of Southeast Asia

This course examines the arts of Southeast Asia by focusing on significant monuments of the countries in the region. It examines the architecture, sculpture, and relief carvings on the ancient monuments and their relations to religious, cultural, political, and social contexts. Sites covered include Borobudur, Angkor, Pagan, Sukkhothai, and My-Son.

ASIA 246 Visual Narratives: Storytelling in East Asian Art

This course examines the important artistic tradition of narrative painting in China and Japan. Through study of visually narrative presentations of religious, historical, and popular stories, the course explores different contexts in which the works-tomb, wall, and scroll paintings-were produced. The course introduces various modes of visual analysis and art-historical contexts. Topics include narrative theory, text-image relationships, elite patronage, and gender representation.

ASIA 247 The Art of Zen Buddhism

The art of Zen (Chan) as the unique and unbounded expression of the liberated mind has attracted Westerners since the mid-twentieth century. But what is Zen, its art, and its culture? This course considers the historical development of Zen art and its use in several genres within monastic and lay settings. It also examines the underlying Buddhist concepts of Zen art. The course aims to help students understand the basic teachings of Zen and their expression in architecture, gardens, sculpture, painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Recommended background: AV/AS 243.

ASIA 248 The Art of Rock-Cut Architecture in Asia

This course explores the art of early Buddhist rock-cut temples. These temples appeared in India during the third century B.C.E., then spread along the ancient trade routes from India to eastern Asia. The rock caves not only chart artistic development, expressed through breathtaking architecture, sculpture, reliefs, and mural paintings depicting legends and stories, they also reveal the religious practice along the trade route, as well as international and local cultures. Recommended background: AV/AS 243.

ASIA 249 The Hindu Tradition

This course examines Hindu rituals, practices, and doctrine with some consideration of their relation to Jainism and Indian Buddhism. Special attention is paid to the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad-Gita, as well as to the classical myths of Hinduism embodied in the Puranas, and to ritual and devotional practices. Students make use of primary and secondary texts as well as film and music.

ASIA 250 The Buddhist Tradition

The course focuses on the doctrinal and social developments of a range of Buddhist communities, from early Buddhism in India and the rise of various Buddhist schools of thought up to modern Buddhist traditions as practiced in North America; Mahayana philosophies; and rituals, meditation, and other forms of religious expression across the Buddhist world.

ASIA 251 Religions of Tibet

Tibetan religions contain a complex mixture of Indian, Chinese, and indigenous elements. This course focuses on the history, doctrines, practices, literatures, major personalities, and communities of the different religious traditions that are expressions of this mixture, including monastic and tantric forms of Buddhism and pre-Buddhist religions practices. The relationships between religious and other social influence ethics also are explored.

ASIA 252 Musics of Asia and the Pacific

Designed for students interested in music cultures based outside the West, this course introduces selected historical and contemporary musical traditions of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands, with an emphasis on the integration of music, dance, theater, and ritual. The mutual constitution of music and social worlds is a core premise of the course. Music and/as place, the performance of group and individual identities, and issues of cultural representation are unifying themes. Several hands-on sessions, in which students learn to play instruments of the Bates Indonesian gamelan, enhance the grasp of formal principles common to a variety of Southeast Asian musics. Regional/cultural focus may vary.

ASIA 257 Asian American Psychology

This course provides an overview of the major theories and research findings in Asian American psychology. The course also explores documented and lived experiences among Asian Americans in the United States, drawing upon interviews, memoirs, films, the arts, traditional healing, interdisciplinary ethnic studies, Asian studies, and multicultural psychology. The course critically explores various topics such as culture, race, ethnicity, immigration, acculturation, stereotyping and discrimination, intergenerational conflicts and trauma, and interracial relationships as they pertain to diverse Asian American communities. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 101.

ASIA 259 Caravans, Khans, and Commissars: A History of Central Eurasia

From Silk Roads to Chinggis Khan, an understanding of our world-and an appreciation for the diversity of human experience-calls for examining Central Eurasia. This course covers millennia and journeys through steppe, desert, and mountain, from Mongolia to Hungary, to reveal the ways Central Eurasia and its peoples have shaped world history. Key topics include the emergence of pastoral economies, steppe-sown interactions, the exchange of both goods and ideas, and the rise of empire as well as Central Eurasia’s modern fate. Students consider these issues by examining scholarship and exciting primary sources, including epic poetry, art, and novels.

ASIA 260 Cultural Psychology

This course provides an introduction to the theoretical perspectives and research findings of cultural psychology, with an emphasis on comparisons between North American and East Asian cultural groups. Topics include defining culture as a topic of psychological inquiry; the methods of conducting cross-cultural research; the debate between universality versus cultural specificity of psychological processes; acculturation and multiculturalism; and cultural influences on thought, emotion, motivation, personality, and social behavior. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 101.

ASIA 261 Cultural History of Japan: From Jōmon Pottery to Manga

This course starts with two questions: What is cultural history? Has there been just one culture in the history of the Japanese isles? The course considers cultural features of the prehistoric Japanese isles and then explores the development of aristocratic, warrior, and mercantile cultures in premodern and early modern Japan, focusing on literature, the arts, and religion. The course then considers culture in modern Japan. How have the premodern arts informed the cultural development of modern Japan? How does popular culture reflect earlier cultural concerns while reformulating them in novel ways? The aim of the course is to promote critical engagement with Japanese cultures. Readings are in English, and no previous familiarity with Japanese culture is required.

ASIA 263 Producing Gender in Japanese History: Theater, Literature, Religion, Thought, and Policing

How well does the gender binary describe cultural, religious, and linguistic identities and sexual relationships in premodern Japan? This course looks at gender identities and their conventions in premodern religious and political institutions as well as among professional entertainers, performers, and sex workers. Additional factors within these contexts are age and class. We will consider consent and the age of sexual maturity in the aristocratic court, boy entertainers in service at Buddhist temples and the shogun’s court, and gender onstage in public and private performances. To understand the fate of gender as Japanese society modernized according to European and North American models, the course will introduce material on the policing of gender identities in the Meiji Period. Sources will include well-known examples of Japanese literature as well as less known texts, supplemented with art and material history. There are no prerequisites. All materials will be in English.

ASIA 274 China in Revolution

Modern China’s century of revolutions, from the disintegration of the traditional empire in the late nineteenth century, through the twentieth-century attempts at reconstruction, to the tenuous stability of the post-Maoist regime.

ASIA 275 China in the World

This course focuses on China’s connections to the world from ancient times to the present, emphasizing the formal and informal relationships that have linked the peoples of China to peoples and places beyond the Chinese frontiers. A varied array of primary sources reveals elements of foreign relations, transnational and international connections, and local experiences of global phenomena while addressing topics such as Sino-Japanese relations before and after World War II, imperialism’s role in shaping places like Hong Kong and Macao, cold war politics in Africa, and Chinese diasporic communities across the Pacific Ocean.

ASIA 283 International Politics of East Asia

This course examines the security, political, economic, and cultural relations of East Asia through a range of theoretical perspectives in international relations. The major goal of the course is to understand the character, causes, and consequences of international conflict and cooperation in East Asia. Historical comparisons are drawn between the post-World War II and post-cold war periods. The course also considers foreign policy implications for the United States. Recommended background: PLTC 171.

ASIA 287 Chinese Drama and Storytelling

This course provides an introduction to the vibrant traditions of Chinese drama and storytelling. What are the social, historical, and cultural contexts of these traditions? What can stories and plays tell us about the worlds from which they came? While learning to read the texts as literary works, we will also pay attention to their lives in performance. The first half of the course is devoted to dramatic literature of the 14th to 19th centuries; the second half focuses on modern Chinese drama, in conjunction with the history of Chinese film and the continued interactions between literature, stage and screen. Recommended background: prior coursework in Asian studies, film studies, or theater. Crosslisted in Asian studies, Chinese, and theater.

ASIA 289 Stupa Towers: Forms, Symbols, and Narratives in Buddhist Architecture

The great reliquary towers called stupas (or “pagodas”) are by far the most pervasive and symbolic form of Buddhist architecture in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Even in North America and Europe, they have become an essential part of Tibetan Buddhist communities. Stupas are symbols of illumination, repositories for the relics of enlightened Buddhists, and central to sacred narratives throughout the Buddhist world. They are also a universal symbol, conceived of as embodiments of metaphysical principles with manifold meanings. The course examines the vast array of architectural forms of stupas and artistic programs decorated on their gateways, balustrades, and galleries. It also explores religious concepts and symbolic motifs embodied in the architectural work.

ASIA 301B From Tibet to Taiwan: Frontiers in Chinese History, 1700 to the Present

This course investigates the twists and turns that attended the transition from imperial regime to modern nation in China. Perhaps two of the main legacies of China’s last empire, the Qing (1644-1912), have been the territorial boundaries claimed by the People’s Republic and the tensions that have continued to erupt throughout the borderlands: Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Taiwan. This course deepens our understanding of modern China by considering why these frontiers are part of the contemporary nation-state and why their inclusion continues to be so contentious. Borderlands bring this transition into focus most clearly.

ASIA 301N Mummies, Marauders, and Modernizers: Silk Road Cultural Contacts in the Heart of Central Eurasia

The Silk Roads crisscrossing the heart of Central Eurasia have been and continue to be significant conduits enabling contact among radically different people, goods, ideas, and practices. This course probes the most critical moments of intercultural contact in this region from ancient times to the present, and the scholarly debates they have inspired. From disagreements over the identities of mummified corpses in Western China, the impact of European explorers collecting cultural artifacts, and the role of Islam among the Mongols to Marxist-inspired campaigns to liberate women, the course considers how this region both reflects and shapes world historical patterns.

ASIA 302 Environmental History of China

This course investigates the deep historical roots of China’s contemporary environmental dilemmas. From the Three Gorges Dam to persistent smog, a full understanding of the environment in China must reckon with millennia-old relationships between human and natural systems. In this course students explore the advent of grain agriculture, religious understandings of nature, the impact of bureaucratic states, and the environmental dimensions of imperial expansion as well as the nature of kinship and demographic change. The course concludes by turning to the socialist “conquest” of nature in the 1950s and 1960s and China’s post-1980s fate.

ASIA 303 Phillippine Literature in Spanish

This course interrogates the status of the Spanish language and literature written in Spanish in the Philippines from 1873 to 1945. Through the study of foundational works by the late nineteenth-century Ilustrados, it explores how Spanish came to be a vehicle for movements of resistance and rebellion against 400 years of Spain’s colonial domination of the archipelago. In novels, poetry, and essays by writers of the so-called Golden Age, it examines how Spanish persisted under the U.S. colonial occupation (1898-1945) to contest the imposition of English and Anglophone culture, and to cultivate a sense of Filipino nationhood alongside literary revivals of indigenous languages such as Tagalog, Cebuano, and Chavacano. Readings include works by Pedro Paterno, José Rizal, Jesús Balmori, Adelina Gurrea and María Paz Mendoza, among others. Only open to juniors and seniors. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Hispanic studies course beyond 211. Recommended background: HISP 230 and 231.

ASIA 308 Buddhist Texts in Translation

This seminar involves the close reading and discussion of a number of texts representing a variety of Buddhist traditions. Emphasis is placed on reading across genres, which include canonical sutras, commentarial exegeses, modern-day texts for lay practitioners, philosophical treatises, and popular legends. Prerequisite(s): one course in religious studies.

ASIA 320 Advanced Seminar: Current Research on Asia

What are scholars teaching us about Asia today? How do scholars in different fields of Asian Studies approach topics and present their research to an audience in distinct ways? What is Asian Studies, and what are the origins of this discipline? In this advanced seminar, students read recently published scholarship about Asia, representing a variety of scholarly fields and research methods (History, Literature, Religion, Art, Economics, and others). They discuss the subject matter and methodology behind that research with several guest professors. Students work through all the stages of writing their own original research project: generating ideas, narrowing to a topic, making initial inquiry research, evaluating sources, writing a formal proposal, drafting, editing, receiving comments from readers, and revising. This work helps students find the research methodology, writing style, and academic mentors at Bates best suit their research interests. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.

ASIA 324 Nationalism, Conflict, and Peace in East Asia

This course explores the different meanings of nationalism in international relations, including national identity, national images, and nationalistic sentiments, and how nationalism affects a state’s foreign policy behavior, focusing on East Asian countries. It provides an overview of distinct characteristics of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese nationalism, and examines how and to what extent nationalism shapes important foreign policy issues: territorial disputes, alliance politics, regionalism, and nuclear proliferation. Recommended background: PLTC 122 or 171.

ASIA 348 Epics of Asia: Myth and Religion

This course considers the intersection of religion and society in Asia through the lens of popular Asian myths. Students examine how religious doctrine, ideals, and art have influenced the creation and interpretation of this unique narrative form, while also learning about specific Asian traditions. Close study of several tales, including narratives from India, Thailand, China, Tibet, and Japan, include reading texts in translation as well as viewing cinematic and theatrical representations of myths intended for popular audiences. Students explore the dialogic process of myth by creating their own modern versions of one text.

ASIA 351 Religion and International Development across South Asia

How do politicians and communities balance commitments to religious traditions with diverse conceptions of modernization? How will the participation of women-whose lives and liberties are often defined by religious and cultural norms-change in the world of business and technology over the next fifty years? What kinds of cultural literacy do international organizations like the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme need to work effectively together with local communities? This course offers an introduction to the sociology of religion as a component of international development across South Asia (Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh) since the 1980s with an emphasis on these often-overlooked but vital issues and questions. Recommended background: one course on Islam or Asian religions or one introductory course in economics, politics, or sociology.

ASIA 360 Independent Study

ASIA 384 Crisis Diplomacy in East Asia

This course provides an overview of crisis diplomacy and conflict management among states, focusing on East Asia, exploring theories of the use of force and coercive diplomacy in international relations. How can states credibly signal their intention in diplomatic crises? When do diplomatic crises escalate into a militarized conflict? Students examine the processes and outcomes of major international crises that have taken place in East Asia, including crises among China and the United States in the Cross Strait, North Korean nuclear crises, and territorial crises between China and Japan. Recommended background: PLTC 171 and 218.

ASIA 457 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic relevant to East Asian society and culture that adopts one or more of the disciplinary approaches represented in the Asian studies curriculum. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the Asian studies program committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the program committee.

ASIA 458 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic revelant to East Asian society and culture that adopts one or more of the disciplinary approaches represented in the Asian Studies curriculum. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the Asian studies program committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the program committee.

ASIA S15 Sport, Gender, and the Body in Modern China

From kungfu to the Olympics, Jet Li to Yao Ming, sport is a central part of lived experience in China. There is more here than simply box scores and baskets: through sport, we see how China’s twentieth-century revolutions radically transformed gender relations, conceptions of the body, and what it means to be modern. This course looks at sport and the rise of nationalism, the gendered dimensions of revolution, reform-era commercialization, and the persistence of racialized stereotypes. Students grapple with these issues by examining a range of sources such as novels, posters, kungfu film, and actual sporting events.

ASIA S17 Global Chinese Food

What makes a “Chinese” meal? From dumplings in Shandong to chop suey in California, the meanings and flavors of “Chinese” food are hardly uniform. In this course, students explore-and taste their way through-the diverse ways of producing, preparing, and consuming “Chinese” foods. They focus especially on unique historical contexts and global patterns of migration, reflecting on what food and food culture might reveal about issues of authenticity, identity, gender, race, class, and memory. They consider these topics not only through textual and visual sources, but through oral interviews, hands-on cooking demonstrations, and taste tests.

ASIA S20 Philosophy of the Body

What is the relationship between mind, spirit, and body? What constitutes the boundaries between health and illness? Traditional Chinese philosophy and contemporary science and medicine have very different answers to these questions. In this course, students explore conceptions of the body in diverse contexts, with readings drawn from the fields of medical anthropology, literature, philosophy, religion, and gender studies. In the spirit of embodied practice, the course culminates in a week-long practicum in the Chinese martial arts tradition of xinyi (“heart and mind”).

ASIA S23 Studying Asian Art in the Bates College Museum Collection

This course studies the major collections of more than 200 pieces of Asian art in the Bates College Museum of Art. They represent cultural richness and diversity in medium, and artistic expression, from the seventeenth century to the present in Asia. The course focuses on the art of shaman ritual objects from Southern China and Vietnam, on the popular images of the Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and the painting of flowers, birds, and water creatures from the Edo period, and on political propaganda posters from the mainland China. The course a) provides students with the first-hand experiences of viewing real objects in the museum; b) offers students the underpinned cultural contexts and original functions, meanings, purposes, and aesthetic concepts; c) helps students practice writing museum pamphlets and a short catalogue. Moreover, the museum’s director and curators assist in facilitating the course to achieve its goals and objectives.

ASIA S27 Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The technologies of the industrial and postindustrial age have made possible a scale of destruction that seems impossible for human beings either to grasp or perhaps even to survive. Japan is the only nation to have experienced attack by atomic weapons. What is the role of art, literature, film, and journalism in expressing the “inexpressible” and possibly preventing its reoccurrence? This course examines Japanese and Korean responses to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Conducted in English.

ASIA S28 From Shangri-la to Radical Dharma: Buddhism in North America

How did Buddhism first come to North America? How has it changed since its arrival? This course examines the development of Buddhism in the Americas since the nineteenth century. Students discuss different paths of Buddhist traditions from Asia to North America, and the ways that newly arrived Buddhists, and adopters of the tradition, have changed the face of what it means to be “Buddhist” in the “West.” They consider shifting self-identification with the tradition, both among convert groups and in historically Buddhist communities, and the role of race and gender in the religion’s development in the twenty-first century. The course includes brief trips to Dharma centers in New England as well as a “digital religion” component and several film screenings. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: REL 110, GS/RE 311, AS/RE 208, 248, 249, 250, 251, 308, or s26.

ASIA S29 Modern Vietnamese Culture through Film

Many people conceive of Vietnam through images of war rather than through its culture. This course offers students an opportunity to study modern Vietnamese culture through documentary and feature films produced by westerners and Vietnamese during the last fifty years. The course helps students to gain insight into a traditional culture that, in part, shaped the modern course of Vietnam’s history. The course challenges the old stereotypical views of Vietnam advanced by Hollywood movies with the new cultural images presented through Vietnamese eyes. Not open to students who have received credit for AV/AS 229.

ASIA S50 Independent Study

Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester.

AVC 238 Visual Depiction of “Self” and Transformation in East Asian Art

Portraits have occupied preponderant places in East Asian cultures, depicting visual forms and revealing the subjects’ spiritual essences. This course offers a cross-cultural study of portraitures in East Asian art. It introduces students to the physical likeness of a wide variety of subjects and explores underlying meanings and messages. It provides a comprehensive study of East Asian portraits, offers the current scholarship, and explores the core issues, including the relationship of portraitures, oral and written stories, the art of physiognomy, aesthetic principles and artistic styles, material cultures, and religious beliefs, social rituals, political ideologies, and underscored functions and meanings in the wide-ranging contexts. The course offers timely and astonishing transformations of the concepts of “self” examined via various aspects of social echelons, and reconsidering portraits as a thread to weave aspects of East Asian art together.

AVC 289 Stupa Towers: Forms, Symbols, and Narratives in Buddhist Architecture

The great reliquary towers called stupas (or “pagodas”) are by far the most pervasive and symbolic form of Buddhist architecture in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Even in North America and Europe, they have become an essential part of Tibetan Buddhist communities. Stupas are symbols of illumination, repositories for the relics of enlightened Buddhists, and central to sacred narratives throughout the Buddhist world. They are also a universal symbol, conceived of as embodiments of metaphysical principles with manifold meanings. The course examines the vast array of architectural forms of stupas and artistic programs decorated on their gateways, balustrades, and galleries. It also explores religious concepts and symbolic motifs embodied in the architectural work.

CHI 101 Beginning Chinese I

An introduction to spoken and written modern Chinese. Conversation and comprehension exercises in the classroom and laboratory provide practice in pronunciation and the use of basic patterns of speech.

CHI 102 Beginning Chinese II

A continuation of CHI 101 with increasing emphasis on the recognition of Chinese characters. By the conclusion of this course, students know more than one quarter of the characters expected of an educated Chinese person. Classes, conducted increasingly in Chinese, stress sentence patterns that facilitate both speaking and reading..

CHI 131 Chinese Popular Culture

This course explores the varied cultural landscapes of the Chinese-speaking world through the lens of popular culture. Students are introduced to key approaches in cultural studies, while learning to critically interpret literary, musical, and visual texts in the Chinese-speaking world in social and historical context. Topics include modernity and tradition, technology and culture, media and society, and the local and the global. Students emerge from the course with a new set of tools in thinking about “culture,” both familiar and unfamiliar. No previous knowledge of Asia is required.

CHI 201 Intermediate Chinese I

Designed to enable students to converse in everyday Chinese and to read simple texts in Chinese. Classes conducted primarily in Chinese aim at further development of overall language proficiency.

CHI 202 Intermediate Chinese II

A continuation of CHI 201.

CHI 207 Traditional Chinese Literature in Translation

This course is an exploration of Chinese literature through reading and discussion of some of its masterworks of poetry, drama, fiction, and belles-lettres prose from ancient times to the nineteenth century. The focus of the course is as much on general knowledge of the history of Chinese literature as on ways of reading literary texts from a different culture. Topics we will investigate include: How do we approach a literary text? What is the role of translation in shaping our understanding? In what ways are the works we read products of their own times and places, and how do they speak to universal themes of human experience? No prior knowledge of Chinese language is required, but those who wish to do so are welcome to consult the texts in their original language.

CHI 223 Communism, Capitalism, and Cannibalism: New and Emerging Voices in Chinese Literature

A survey of Chinese literature since 1911, including a wide range of fiction, poetry, and drama from mainland China and texts from the Chinese diaspora as well. Students gain a greater understanding of China’s history and literary culture in three major periods: the May Fourth shift from traditional language and forms to vernacular literature; Socialist Realism and the Marxist theory of the first three decades of the People’s Republic; and China’s Reform Era, including expatriate authors like Ha Jin and China’s two controversial Nobel Prize winners, Gao Xingjian and Moyan. Recommended background: AS/CI 207.

CHI 225 Art and Politics in China

Winnie-the-Pooh is blocked on China’s internet after memes appear of President Xi and the bear walking side by side. A Chinese artist is held without charges and then welcomed by foreign hosts into exile. The Western media clings to a narrative of Chinese art as authoritarian critique, but this is only one aspect of a complex relationship between art and politics in Chinese culture. What does "censorship" really mean? What are China’s mechanisms of control? Is there Chinese art that is neither dissent nor propaganda? This course considers these questions through close analysis of China’s visual arts, theater, and literary texts.

CHI 287 Chinese Drama and Storytelling

This course provides an introduction to the vibrant traditions of Chinese drama and storytelling. What are the social, historical, and cultural contexts of these traditions? What can stories and plays tell us about the worlds from which they came? While learning to read the texts as literary works, we will also pay attention to their lives in performance. The first half of the course is devoted to dramatic literature of the 14th to 19th centuries; the second half focuses on modern Chinese drama, in conjunction with the history of Chinese film and the continued interactions between literature, stage and screen. Recommended background: prior coursework in Asian studies, film studies, or theater. Crosslisted in Asian studies, Chinese, and theater.

CHI 301 Upper-Level Modern Chinese I

Designed for students who already have a strong background in spoken Chinese, the course gives an intensive review of the essentials of grammar and phonology, introduces a larger vocabulary and a variety of sentence patterns, improves conversational and auditory skills, and develops some proficiency in reading and writing. The course makes extensive use of short texts (both literary and nonfictional) and some films. Classes are conducted primarily in Chinese.

CHI 302 Upper-Level Modern Chinese II

A continuation of CHI 301.

CHI 360 Independent Study

CHI 401 Advanced Chinese

This course is designed to enhance students’ proficiency in Mandarin Chinese in all areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students develop confidence in their ability to narrate, describe, and articulate their opinions while engaging with a range of topics on Chinese culture and society. Recommended background: three years of college-level Mandarin or permission of the instructor.

CHI 415 Readings in Classical Chinese

An intensive study of classical Chinese through reading selections of ancient literary, historical, and philosophical texts in the original with the help of English translations. Readings include excerpts from the Analects, the Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Shiji, Tang-Song prose, poetry, and short stories. Grammar and syntax of classical Chinese are also covered. Prerequisite(s): CHI 201.

CHI 450 Special Topics in Advanced Chinese

Through the discussion and study of literary and nonliterary texts on topics of student interest, faculty expertise, and current events, the course seeks to utilize, develop, and integrate skills acquired in the earlier stages of language learning. Through class presentations and discussion, students further develop oral skills and expand their understanding of Chinese culture. Students may repeat the course for credit with instructor permission. Prerequisite(s): CHI 401.

CHI 457 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic in Chinese literature, culture, or language utilizing some source materials in Chinese. Qualified students may, with approval of the Committee on Asian Studies, choose to write the thesis in Chinese. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the committee.

CHI 458 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic in Chinese literature, culture, or language utilizing some source materials in Chinese. Qualified students may, with approval of the Committee on Asian Studies, choose to write the thesis in Chinese. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the committee.

CHI S20 Philosophy of the Body

What is the relationship between mind, spirit, and body? What constitutes the boundaries between health and illness? Traditional Chinese philosophy and contemporary science and medicine have very different answers to these questions. In this course, students explore conceptions of the body in diverse contexts, with readings drawn from the fields of medical anthropology, literature, philosophy, religion, and gender studies. In the spirit of embodied practice, the course culminates in a week-long practicum in the Chinese martial arts tradition of xinyi (“heart and mind”).

CHI S23 Science Fiction from China: From the Rabbit in the Moon to The Three-Body Problem, and Beyond

China has been looking to the stars for thousands of years. Now the science fiction world is looking to China. Chinese writers recently won major Hugo awards, and a constant flow of science fiction story and novel translations into English has followed. This course considers stories and films representing major periods in the history of Chinese science fiction with a strong focus on the past decade. What is “Chinese” about science fiction from China? How can popular fiction reflect the history and politics of a nation? Taught in English.

CHI S50 Independent Study

FYS 346 Desire, Devotion, Suffering

Love and pleasure were much cultivated in classical and medieval India, side by side with the spiritual practices better known in the West. Royal courts and rustic villages reveled in songs, stories, and dramas about courtship and passion among humans, demons, and gods. Students read a range of lyric and dramatic poetry in English translation from North and South Indian traditions featuring Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim poets. The works deal with desire and disgust; earthly love carried into religious realms; and the transformation of erotic desperation into spiritual gain. Lectures and prose readings provide cultural background and interpretive strategies; music, slides, and film clips connect literature to the performing arts, including Bollywood movies.

FYS 439 Defining Difference: How China and the United States Think about Racial Diversity

“China’s national minorities excel at singing and dancing.” Such a broad generalization about ethnic groups could get someone fired in the United States. In China, this type of statement is touted as simple fact. In this seminar students compare U.S. and Chinese experiences with racial diversity and consider the uses the two countries make of ethnic categories. Are Americans being hypocritical in criticizing China on these issues? Does China’s relative lack of diversity excuse attitudes that outsiders consider “racist”? Students read historical and contemporary sources and watch a popular Chinese TV show in translation, as they wrestle with and write about these provocative issues.

FYS 491 Reading Japan in Multicultural Picture Books

This course explores children’s picture books and the depictions of Japanese culture in them. Students read each picture book closely, considering the whole book (including the cover, layout, pictures, and languages) and examining the representations of cultures, languages, and identities therein. Students draw on the Diverse Book Finder Picture Book Collection in the Ladd Library; they focus on books that feature Japanese and Japanese American people, but also explore other dimensions of multiculturalism. Students deepen their understanding through community-engaged work. No background on Japan is required.

FYS 501 Japan on Screen

Japan has created some of the most vibrant films in the world. Breathtaking animation, playful comedies, samurai epics, and groundbreaking silents are all a part of Japan’s cinema output. But many students leave high school with a media diet dominated by Hollywood. What can we learn by studying a country’s movies from outside that country? How can studying Asian film help break unnoticed patterns of bias in media consumption? This introduction to film studies centers on five prominent Japanese films by major directors. Students learn how to read films beyond narrative, acquiring skills for formal film analysis. Taught in reverse chronological order, students encounter films by greats such as Kurosawa Akira and Ozu Yasujirō. Readings and assignments consider questions of the auteur, film form, film history, and the place of film in Japanese society. Mid-week meetings are set aside for in-class film screenings and advising .

FYS 516 Multilingualism and Society

Some forms of multilingualism are celebrated, but others are undervalued and even seen as a problem. This seminar explores personal and social dimensions of bilingualism and multilingualism with a goal of realizing linguistically just communities. Through reading memoirs of bi- and multilinguals, conducting interview projects and linguistic landscape study, students explore such topics as paths to multilingualism, language and identities, dialect, language rights, “native” speaker, and translanguaging.

FYS 564 Pop-Culture in Premodern Japan: Finding the Dog-King and his World of Performing Arts

At one time, a performer known as the Dog-King (Inuō) amazed audiences of commoners, warriors, and aristocrats, including even the shogun and emperor. Taking Yuasa Masaaki’s experimental rock-opera anime “Inu-oh” as a starting point, explore the history of popular culture in Japan to consider why this star of the fifteenth century is all but forgotten today. Together, we will work to untangle history, historical fiction, and literary history. Against a backdrop of performing arts and political history, we will reconstruct the Dog-King’s relationships and imagine who he might have been, thereby testing the limits of historical research. To investigate his artistry, we will read plays attributed to him and his contemporaries within the context of Japanese literary history. With the Dog-King as our focus, we will take up and practice key skills, including critical thinking, building an argument, reading, discussing, and writing, to give you the lead role in your academic studies at Bates.

GSS 263 Producing Gender in Japanese History: Theater, Literature, Religion, Thought, and Policing

How well does the gender binary describe cultural, religious, and linguistic identities and sexual relationships in premodern Japan? This course looks at gender identities and their conventions in premodern religious and political institutions as well as among professional entertainers, performers, and sex workers. Additional factors within these contexts are age and class. We will consider consent and the age of sexual maturity in the aristocratic court, boy entertainers in service at Buddhist temples and the shogun’s court, and gender onstage in public and private performances. To understand the fate of gender as Japanese society modernized according to European and North American models, the course will introduce material on the policing of gender identities in the Meiji Period. Sources will include well-known examples of Japanese literature as well as less known texts, supplemented with art and material history. There are no prerequisites. All materials will be in English.

JPN 101 Beginning Japanese I

An introduction to the basics of spoken and written Japanese as a foundation for advanced study and proficiency in the language. Fundamental patterns of grammar and syntax are introduced together with a practical, functional vocabulary. Mastery of the katakana and hiragana syllabaries, as well as approximately seventy written characters, introduces students to the beauty of written Japanese.

JPN 102 Beginning Japanese II

A continuation of JPN 101, this course is normally taken immediately following JPN 101 in order to provide a yearlong introduction to the language. Through dynamic exercises carried out inside and outside the classroom, students extend their proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Japanese. An additional seventy written characters are introduced. Prerequisite(s): JPN 101.

JPN 109 Anime: Shojo and Society in Japanese Animation

Some refer to shojo animation as “girls’ anime,” but the figure of the shojo–an adolescent somewhere between girlhood and womanhood, has a complex role in Japanese storytelling and society. Who is the shojo? Is the shojo a “third gender?” Does the shojo hold a special role compared with other age and gender categories? Why is the shojo so often chosen as a figure who confronts social crises or bridges social gaps? This class will explore the age and gender category known as “shojo” primarily through the lens of animation, but occasionally making use of literature and manga as well. The class will focus on how adolescent girls in Japanese animation interact with social problems and crises such as gender role limitations, environmental crisis, natural disaster, and urbanization.

JPN 125 Japanese Literature and Society

This course examines major trends in Japanese literature and society from its beginnings to the modern period. Students consider well-known stories, plays, and novels from the classical, medieval, early modern, and modern periods, placing each text within its unique sociohistorical context. All readings are in English.

JPN 130 Japanese Horror Film: Silent Era to Present

Horror films are a familiar pop-culture touchstone, and many Americans are somewhat familiar with horror films from Japan. To deepen their appreciation of such films, students consider Japanese horror films in the context of genre theory and cinematic, psychological, social, political, and artistic elements. Students have the opportunity to think critically about popular films: What intellectual and artistic value do we find in genre films? How do we evaluate the claims of film scholars? Students also explore theory related to both filmic expression and horror themes, including psychoanalytic theory, feminist theory, film theory, and trauma theory. What does horror film say about the social, temporal, and cultural context from which it emerges? What does horror film say about filmmaking itself? How are formal filmic techniques used to express and induce fear and anxiety? No prior familiarity with Japan is required. Conducted in English.

JPN 201 Intermediate Japanese I

A continuation of JPN 102, the course stresses the acquisition of new and more complex spoken patterns, vocabulary building, and increasing knowledge of cultural context through role play, video, and varied reading materials. Approximately seventy-five new written characters are introduced. A range of oral as well as written projects and exercises provides a realistic context for language use. Prerequisite(s): JPN 102.

JPN 202 Intermediate Japanese II

A continuation of JPN 201, this course is normally taken immediately following JPN 201. It stresses further acquisition of complex spoken patterns, vocabulary and cultural knowledge through exercises in culturally realistic contexts. Students extend proficiency in the written language through writing projects and the introduction of approximately seventy-five new characters.

JPN 215 Film, Literature, and the Cultures of Postwar Japan

From monster movies to abstract poetry, this course explores the diverse cultural currents running through Japan’s era of high-speed growth during its dramatic economic recovery following the widespread destruction of World War II. Students examine some of the major literary, cinematic, and artistic movements of the period, their interrelationships, and their global reach and reception. Analysis of individual works considers broad thematic trends and choices made by postwar artists, including engagement with-or breaks from-the cultural and historical past; varying degrees of social engagement; and use of realism, experimentalism, or abstraction. Conducted in English.

JPN 261 Cultural History of Japan: From Jōmon Pottery to Manga

This course starts with two questions: What is cultural history? Has there been just one culture in the history of the Japanese isles? The course considers cultural features of the prehistoric Japanese isles and then explores the development of aristocratic, warrior, and mercantile cultures in premodern and early modern Japan, focusing on literature, the arts, and religion. The course then considers culture in modern Japan. How have the premodern arts informed the cultural development of modern Japan? How does popular culture reflect earlier cultural concerns while reformulating them in novel ways? The aim of the course is to promote critical engagement with Japanese cultures. Readings are in English, and no previous familiarity with Japanese culture is required.

JPN 263 Producing Gender in Japanese History: Theater, Literature, Religion, Thought, and Policing

How well does the gender binary describe cultural, religious, and linguistic identities and sexual relationships in premodern Japan? This course looks at gender identities and their conventions in premodern religious and political institutions as well as among professional entertainers, performers, and sex workers. Additional factors within these contexts are age and class. We will consider consent and the age of sexual maturity in the aristocratic court, boy entertainers in service at Buddhist temples and the shogun’s court, and gender onstage in public and private performances. To understand the fate of gender as Japanese society modernized according to European and North American models, the course will introduce material on the policing of gender identities in the Meiji Period. Sources will include well-known examples of Japanese literature as well as less known texts, supplemented with art and material history. There are no prerequisites. All materials will be in English.

JPN 305 Upper Intermediate Japanese

A continuation of JPN 202, this course completes the introduction of essential Japanese syntactic forms and sentence patterns and prepares students to read, write, and discuss a range of texts in Japanese. Students continue development of oral skills through culturally realistic exercises involving a range of topics. Emphasis is placed on increased competence in the written language. Prerequisite(s): JPN 202.

JPN 350 Topics in Advanced Japanese

Through the discussion and study of literary and non-literary texts on topics of student interest, faculty expertise, and current event, the course seeks to utilize, develop, and integrate skills acquired in the earlier stages of language learning. Through class presentations and discussion students further develop oral skills and expand their understanding of Japanese culture. Students may repeat the course for credit with instructor permission. Prerequisite(s): JPN 302 or 305.

JPN 360 Independent Study

JPN 457 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic in Japanese literature, culture, or language utilizing some source materials in Japanese. Qualified students may, with approval of the Committee on Asian Studies, choose to write the thesis in Japanese. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the committee.

JPN 458 Senior Thesis

An extended research project on a topic in Japanese literature, culture, or language utilizing some source materials in Japanese. Qualified students may, with approval of the Committee on Asian Studies, choose to write the thesis in Japanese. Students register for 457 in the fall semester or for 458 in the winter semester unless the committee gives approval for a two-semester project. Majors invited to pursue honors register for 457 and 458, contingent on the approval of the committee.

JPN S25 Traditional Japanese Theater: Noh, Puppet Theater, and Kabuki

This course explores the rich tradition of Japanese theater, focusing the three major genres: Noh (and kyogen), puppet theatre, and kabuki. Reading, watching, and discussing representative plays from medieval to contemporary Japan, students learn how to analyze each play from both a literary and a performative point of view. The goal is to foster a deep understanding of the major traditions of Japanese theater while broadening students’ perspectives on the social and cultural contexts of these works. Recommended background: No previous knowledge of Japanese language or culture is required, but one course in Japanese language or Asian studies is advantageous.

JPN S27 Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The technologies of the industrial and postindustrial age have made possible a scale of destruction that seems impossible for human beings either to grasp or perhaps even to survive. Japan is the only nation to have experienced attack by atomic weapons. What is the role of art, literature, film, and journalism in expressing the “inexpressible” and possibly preventing its reoccurrence? This course examines Japanese and Korean responses to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Conducted in English.

JPN S29 Performing Fukushima: Theater and Film

In Japan in 2011, an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown killed nearly 16,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. This course considers how a traumatic event is presented in theater and film. Students learn about the social and political background of the disaster through readings and watch related theater and film. They analyze these media, considering and critiquing different approaches. How can trauma be represented? Who controls the narrative? What are the ethics of performing trauma? Recommended background: one course in Asian studies, environmental studies, film studies, Japanese, or theater.

JPN S50 Independent Study

THEA 287 Chinese Drama and Storytelling

This course provides an introduction to the vibrant traditions of Chinese drama and storytelling. What are the social, historical, and cultural contexts of these traditions? What can stories and plays tell us about the worlds from which they came? While learning to read the texts as literary works, we will also pay attention to their lives in performance. The first half of the course is devoted to dramatic literature of the 14th to 19th centuries; the second half focuses on modern Chinese drama, in conjunction with the history of Chinese film and the continued interactions between literature, stage and screen. Recommended background: prior coursework in Asian studies, film studies, or theater. Crosslisted in Asian studies, Chinese, and theater.