Asian Studies Courses

ARAB 150: Introduction to Arab Culture
This interdisciplinary course aims to provide you with a basic introduction to contemporary Arab culture and customs, with a special focus on popular culture. It will begin with an overview of the physical and cultural geography of the Arab world, its ethnic and religious diversity, and proceed to give a basic introduction to the teachings of Islam, as well as the cultural impact this religion has on the non-Muslim communities within the Arab world. We will discuss various cultural and artistic productions, analyze films produced in the Arab world, and Arabic music (both classical and contemporary) in order to learn about Arab popular culture, Arab customs, and some of the most important topics that inform cultural expression in the Arab world today. This course will include discussions of the impact of the West (Europe and the US), stereotyping, the role of tradition, education (traditional and modern), family structure and values, gender politics, and culinary cultures. At the end of the class, we will go on a field trip in the Triangle area so you can learn about the Arab community in this area; you will sample Arabic food and participate in some cultural events organized by the Arab and Muslim communities here.
At the end of this class, you will have learned about the following key topics: Geographic, ethnic and religious diversity of the Arab world; main capitals and cities of the Arab world; religions, with a focus on Islam; religious festivals; basic historical outline and key historical events; achievements and Arab contributions to the West; Arab diasporas; women in the Arab world and the question of the veil; the harem; arts and architecture; literature; film; music; culinary cultures. BN, CI, LA.

ARAB 453: Film, Nation, and Identity in the Arab World
This course will introduce students to the rich and varied history of Arab cinema from the 1940s to the present. The course will situate Arab film within world cinema and then examine in depth the cinemas of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and North Africa. We will examine the relationship between film and national identity as well as the effect of transnational funding, training, and distribution on the development of Arab Cinema. This course has no prerequisites and no knowledge of Arabic is required. However, it is designed primarily for juniors and seniors, and students are expected to be interested in the culture and politics of the modern Arab world. VP, BN.

ASIA 60: First Year Seminar: Israeli Culture and Society: Collective Memories and Fragmented Identities
This course is aimed at freshman students who are interested in learning about the culture and society of modern Israel. The course will examine the transformative power of the early Zionist discourse in the formation of the nascent state and the challenges to this discourse in years to come. Consequently, the emaphasis in this class will be on the cultural and social manifestation of the tensions between the creeeds of “one nation” (am ehad) and “the melting pot” on the one hand and multiculturalism and identity politics on the other. The first five classes will provide contextual and background accounts for later discussions. Then, until the middle of the semester, the class will focus on the various arenas of Israeli culture, past and present. The second part of the semster will be devoted to selected themes and case studies pertinent to culture and society in modern Israel. BN.

ASIA 147: Western Experience in East and Southeast Asia
This course will examine the experiences, perceptions, and motivations of western travelers to East and Southeast Asia, focusing primarily on the present-day. There has been a long-standing fascination of the American public with books (Anna and the King of Siam, Shogun) and movies (The Last Samurai, Lost in Translation, Seven Years in Tibet) detailing the experiences of Westerners in Asia. The most common themes include images of the mysterious and exotic Orient; a land that is so vastly different as to be impenetrable to “western outsiders,” or a backwards place which is fundamentally changed by the western visitor who himself is embarking on a mission of self-discovery. How realistic or useful are these images? While they may make for good entertainment, in a more practical sense, do they accurately influence us in our own interactions with and perceptions about Asia? Through analyzing accounts in print and film, both fictional and non-fictional, historical and modern, we hope to gain a clearer perspective about travelers' experiences in Asia. Students will participate actively through class discussion, group projects, two exams, and a term paper. LA, BN, GL.

ASIA 150: Asia: An Introduction
Asia, seen in broad geographic terms, can be seen to stretch from the Red Sea in the west to Japan in the east and from Indonesia in the south to Mongolia, in the north. In cultural, religious, historical, economic and political terms, this vast region exhibits huge diversity. At the same time, the region has been challenged and influenced by a range of global forces that are critical for understanding the ways in which Asian societies have been shaped while still exhibiting a fascinating diversity as global meets local. This course seeks to introduce student to the forces that have shaped Asia – amongst others, imperialism, colonialism, orientalism, and neoliberalism – and to locate these within particular Asian responses and interactions. SS, BN, GL.

ASIA 152: Survey of South Asian Cultural History
This course offers a serendipitous journey through South Asian cultural history from approximately 2500 BCE to the present. In order to fruitfully engage with such a huge topic, we will focus on an enduring theme: love and desire. That is, we will consider love towards the divine, human beloveds, and even the nation as expressed in literature, drama, film, music, art, and architecture. In doing so, we will pay special attention to developments within Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Sikhism—major religions of South Asia that have grappled with humanity’s desire and quest for both earthly and spiritual fulfillment. Some of the issues we will discuss include the means to salvation in various religious traditions, the tension between renunciation and ‘householding’ in South Asian society, the sublimation of the divine as a human paramour, purdah or the seclusion of women, courtesan culture, and romance in Bollywood. Along the way, we will chart the broad contours of Indian political life, particularly from the 16th century onwards, noting sites of intercultural contact between Mughals, Europeans, and the native inhabitants of South Asia. LA, WB, BN.

ASIA 162: Nation, Film, & Novel in Modern India
This course starts from the premise that popular conceptions of the Indian nation are not so much essential truths, but relatively recent ideas which grew out of specific historical circumstances. For instance, since the nationalist period, many have envisioned the Indian nation as a great mother, if not a goddess. This notion has cut both ways at it has been used to both celebrate and critique the Indian nation. How did the phenomenon of “Mother India” come about? In what other (competing) wasy has the Indian nation been conceptualized? How have representations of India’s past been manipulated for ideological or political purposes? In examining these questions, we will have recourse to representations of the Indian nation as found in fiction ad film, produced both during the colonial period and after independence. Theoretical readings on nationalism will also be consulted. BN, GL, VP.

ASIA 165: Bollywood Cinema
This course explores the development of the Indian Cinema, with particular emphasis on the Hindi-Urdu films produced in Mumbai (“Bollywood”). Our objective is to understand the evolution of film in India, focusing on the portrayal and expression of various themes in different eras, including nationalism and national integration, conflicts of wealth, religion, gender, caste, and language. We will also examine the evolution of cinematic aesthetics by studying films by a range of master directors and the careers and contributions of selected Bollywood stars. We will place Bollywood in context by referring to additional films from the parallel cinema, diaspora, and non-Hindi-Urdu cinemas. Ultimately, we will seek to understand how the Bollywood cinema reflects and interprets Indian society in the past and present. VP, BN.

ASIA 691H: Senior Honors Thesis
This seminar has been especially designed as a required course for students writing a senior honors thesis in the Department of Asian Studies. Students will learn about all aspects of writing a thesis including selecting a topic, finding sources, writing short funding proposals, using electronic tools for citation, and organizing chapters. We will also discuss the ethics, goals, and controversies involved in doing research on Asia in the U.S. and consider the various forms that academic writing can take. Weekly writing assignments as well as peer and instructor responses to students’ writing will ensure that students make steady progress on their thesis. Guest speakers will acquaint students with the many resources on campus that can aid them in their research as well as speak to contemporary issues in intellectual inquiry. This seminar will also prepare students to look ahead to campus presentations of their research in the spring and to publication opportunities. This seminar brings together a small group of highly motivated students who will share strategies, successes, challenges, and fun as they begin working on their first in-depth research project.

CHIN 252: Chinese Culture through Narrative
The object of the course is to show how Chinese historical legends define and transmit the values, concepts, figures of speech, and modes of behavior that constitute Chinese culture. The core material consists of forty or so historical narratives that collectively represent all phases of Chinese civilization prior to this century. The job of the student is to master this body of narrative, which means remembering the broad outlines of the stories and learning how to relate them to each other; in other words, finding ways of answering such questions as: What motifs occur again and again in the legends? How do the legends evolve over time? How do the values and concepts embodied in the legends evolve over time? The course material is all contained in class presentations and in two course anthologies: "Readings in Chinese Historical Legend," Vols. 1 and 2, available in the coursepack division of the textbook department. The course includes two short papers, two midterms, and a final examination. LA, WB, BN. [GC Non-Western/Comparative perspective].

CHIN 253: Chinese Language and Society
This course is a scientific study of the Chinese language in relation to social, cultural, historical and political situations in China. Topics and discussions will be presented in comparison to English and Western culture and society. To foster a basic understanding of the structure of the language, unique features of Chinese speech and writing are described before an examination of sociolinguistic aspects of the language, such as regional dialects, the use of a lingua franca, and Chinese characters as a unifying power. From a historical perspective, the evolution of the writing system is traced from the oracle bones to its current form; comparisons to other ancient writing systems such as cuneiform and hieroglyph are also made to see how and why Chinese survived as a logographic language without adopting an alphabetic script. In education, the discussion focuses on the relation between written script and literacy and the role of Chinese characters. Modernization of the Chinese language in the contemporary era is the final topic, which covers the forces for change over the last 150 years, from the New Culture Movement at the beginning of the 20th century to the massive simplification efforts in the middle of the century, and to the use of Chinese for computer and internet. BN, SS. Prerequisite: CHIN 102 or CHIN 111.

CHIN 361: Chinese Traditional Theater
This course surveys the history of Chinese traditional theater from its early days to modern period. The course material will include texts, dance, and music which are the essential features in traditional operatic theater. The traditional theater of China represents a crucial intersection of many elements within the culture. Theatrical texts include prose, poetry, and illustration, while performance is enlivened by music and dance. During the Ming era especially, drama culture reached beyond the theatre to embrace a huge constituency of readers, importantly influencing the development of the publishing industry. We thus need to draw together poetry, prose, criticism, music, dance, art, and history to develop a clear picture of traditional Chinese drama. In class we will examine performance footage, visual art and dramatic texts. Knowledge of the Chinese language is not a requirement. VP, WB, BN. [A&S Aesthetic perspective.]

CHIN 463: Narrative Ethics in Modern China
In this survey of modern Chinese literature we explore intersections between text, ethics, and everyday life by reading Chinese fiction in translation and comparative essays on aesthetics. The questions that govern the class are: What is the purpose of literature? Should cultural works edify? How much autonomy should the literary artist have? Should the artist be governed by social needs, personal expression, or transcendent ideals? What is the relationship between the narrative and the normative? In modern China Confucian ideals about literature gave way to the iconoclastic literature of the May Fourth Movement, followed by the Marxist revolution and proletarian ethics. In contemporary China the tradition of literature as moral discourse became further threatened by a market-driven popular culture, while censorship and Internet literature have raised age-old ethical questions about authorial autonomy and the function of literature.

JAPN 375: The Culture of Modern Imperial Japan, 1900-1945
This course will examine the various expressions of cultural modernity in Japan with a focus on film, literature, and popular culture from 1900 to the end of the Pacific War.