This course will provide a general survey of Chinese women’s history during the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279). We will examine women’s social status in medieval China, especially focusing on issues related to marriage and legal status between the Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties (960-1279). Patricia Buckley Ebrey’s The Cambridge Illustrated history of China will serve as our primary textbook, supplemented by various shorter readings, including English translations of Chinese primary sources and articles by leading U.S.-based scholars. The course consists of three components—reading, discussion and writing. Each week students will be asked to read a chapter of the textbook, a short primary source in English translation, and a related article. A one-hour discussion period via Blackboard will allow students to discuss and ask questions about the readings, before submitting a 3-5 page reaction paper during the weekend. All required readings will be uploaded to blackboard.
“Modern Korean Fiction and Film” is an on-line class that introduces various modern and contemporary Korean fiction and film. In literature, not only the subject matter and story line are important but also why a given material is chosen, how the characters and the events are expressed and who tells the story is significant. In this class, we will examine Korean fiction from various aspects including character depiction, perspective, setting and plot. Likewise, film also demonstrates such features visually. This course uses fiction and film as a means to understand the cultural background (social, political, historical, etc) of a given time or place.
There is no language requirement. The readings will be in English translation and the films will have English subtitles.
This course will explore the dynamic changes that altered the economic, political, social, and cultural contexts of Chinese cities from thelate 19th century to 1949. Mainly focusing on Shanghai, tianjin, Beijing, and Hong Kong. It will analyze how cities responded to the challenges and opportunities in an era of wars and revolustions. Themes to be covered would include Chinese and colonial administrations, public services, life of the commoners, cultural movements, impacts of new media and western ideas, popular religions, and secret societies. The readings consist of book chapters and journal articles, which will be available on Blackboard for free.
This course examines gender relationships in pre-modern China, Korea and Japan. We will explore how different social contexts, such as family, education, politics and economics, engender each cultural tradition, and examine these gender issues from a comparative perspective. Our goal is not only to gain insights to gender relations in East Asia but also to extend our understanding of the dynamics of gender in the contemporary society.
