GE Cluster 25A,B,CW
Politics, Society, and Urban Culture in Modern East Asia
| Lecture Schedule: | Tuesday, Thursday 11:00a.m.-12:15p.m. – Rolfe 1200 |
| Faculty: | Robert Chi, Asian Languages and Cultures George Dutton, Asian Languages and Cultures Theodore Huters, Asian Languages and Cultures Jennifer Jung-Kim, Asian Languages and Cultures Jordan Smith, Comparative Literatures |
This cluster is a comprehensive exploration of the historical evolution of popular urban culture in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and China from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. In this course, students focus on the relationship between changes in the political, social, and economic life of these societies and the rise of new forms of urban cultural expression in literature and popular media. Students examine this new urbanized popular culture from within the context of such emergent or expanding urban centers as Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, and Hanoi, and explore the ways in which these new texts and forms of communication are used to address such issues as national identity, class, gender, and sexuality.
Course Format
In the fall and winter quarters, lectures rotate among the four countries, examining a common topic across China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Each two-week block examines some aspect of transformation of societies and cultures, beginning with the shift from the China-centered East Asian world order in the mid-nineteenth century. Each block moves forward in time, looking at pivotal changes in politics and society and their impact on urban life and popular culture. Students use the Hypercities module to see how the physical and cultural space of cities changed over time. In weekly two-hour discussion sections, students have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth examination of the issues raised in the lectures.
Students will also have the opportunity to link writing assignments to Hypercities, thereby helping to build the site and developing virtual worlds that enable visitors to experience a city in various historical moments and see how change came to these cities.
Film is also closely integrated into the cluster, through both in-class excerpts from documentary and dramatic films, and out-of-class screenings of various important 20th century movies from all four countries covered in the course. In addition to East Asian film, students are introduced to the nature, forms, and content of newspaper advertising of the 1920s and 1930s in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Music, theater, and a range of other forms of urban cultural expression will also be addressed by core faculty and guest lecturers who specialize in different fields of Asian history, language, literature, and culture.
Spring Seminars – recent titles include:
- Ethnic Encounters in American Television, Film, and Literature
- Construction of the Past in “History Films” in East Asia
- China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam in American Film and Literature
- Japanese Anime: Borders and Boundaries
- Religion and Modernization in East Asia
- Sex and City in 20th-Century Chinese Literature and Cinema.
Foundation Area General Education Credit
Upon completion of all three quarters of the cluster, students will satisfy 3 GE course requirements:
- 1 in Foundations of the Arts & Humanities (Literary and Cultural Analysis)
- 2 in Foundations of Society & Culture (1 in Historical Analysis; 1 in Social Analysis)
