Women and their associated symbolism are a perpetual presence across a wide range of mediums throughout Chinese art history. Spanning the longue durée from 1200 BCE to the twentieth century, this course focuses on how the production, mediation, and reception of gendered artistic symbols operate in various contexts. It proceeds chronologically and thematically. The instructors intend to incorporate novel formats, such as classroom interviews and VR headsets, in investigating Chinese artworks concerning women and their relevant discourses from the angles of gender politics and identity construction, with a special emphasis on women's agency.

The course focuses on the intellectual stock of the field of Chinese painting. It offers an opportunity to rethink the topics and issues that important studies in the field have addressed. The goal of the seminar is to guide the Ph.D. students on how to tackle these topics and issues raised by previous scholarship.

This course is designed for students who have had advanced training in modern Chinese. The focus of readings is modern Chinese intellectual history. Topics that will be discussed include language reform, women's emancipation, the encounter of western civilization, the rise of communism, etc.

This course is an introductory survey of the cultural history of premodern Korea-from early times until the turn of the twentieth century-focused on the primary sources. We will read various original materials (in English translation): myths, state histories, diaries, travelogues, and works of fiction, among others. Topics covered in this course include the imagination of the origins in myth, the idea of Confucian governance, everyday life and entertainment in Choson (1392-1910), and Korea's opening to the west in the late nineteenth century.

Japan became the first non-Western nation to industrialize and modernize in the late 19th century, determined to fend off colonization. Decades later, Japan challenged Americans to imagine alternative futures through its economic success and later its "soft power." The course will consider change and continuity in Japan and how Japan's current status as a stable, slowly growing economy informs our views of capitalism and society in the current era. Topics include gender, labor, and corporate welfare; youth socialization; marriage and divorce; race, "Japaneseness" and citizenship; diasporic identities; sub-cultures and popular culture.

This course explores the work and life of poets across the Chinese-speaking world from the tumultuous twentieth century to the present. How does poetry adapt to the evolving media landscape and serve as a storage device for the events, experiences, and myths of modern China? How did poets transform crises--dynastic collapse, colonialism, national failure, revolution, war, displacement, state and mass violence, political repression, environmental calamity--into critical reflections on the diverse yet interconnected human condition? Concluding with a glimpse into the creativity of AI poets, we ask: why do humans still need poetry?

This seminar teaches the research and writing skills needed to produce a thesis as an East Asian studies major. Through mini-projects and guest lectures, the class introduces the various disciplines and methodologies used to study East Asia, including history, anthropology, political science, history, literature, and media studies. In addition, the class teaches techniques of research and writing: how to formulate a research question, find and use appropriate sources, write a research proposal, craft a compelling introduction and convincing conclusion.

This course will examine modern Japanese fiction and film that engaged with Japan's shift from "empire" to "nation" (roughly from 1930s to 1960s) with a specific focus on identity formation via race, ethnicity, and nationalism.

The is a project-oriented seminar in which students undertake original research. Previous student projects have included the school lunch program; "internet addiction"; hydroponic gardening; and alternative education in Japan. This year our theme will be the government's slogan, "Preparing for the 100-year Life." Topics will include demographic change, meaning in late life, gender roles and fertility, medicalization, and death with dignity. The course may also include visits from palliative care physicians, bioethicists, visits to local facilities, and engagement with grass roots groups encouraging planning for late life.

Course topics: Shangshu and the Origins of Chinese Political Philosophy. Readings in the Shangshu and its traditional commentaries, with a review of its history of scholarship from antiquity to the present. Specific issues of discussion include the role of the Shangshu in Warring States and Han political and philosophical discourse, the formation of its different chapters in terms of language and ideology, its relation to bronze inscriptions and the Shijing, its presence in recently excavated manuscripts, and its place in Zhou political and religious ritual.

Methods, sources, and problems of research in history of Chinese thought.

This course explores the role of science and technology in the material culture of late imperial China in the Qing (Ch'ing) era, roughly 1550-1900. Emphasis is on navigating Chinese and other language primary sources.

This course provides an introduction to the written sources of Japanese history from 800-1600. Instruction focuses on reading and translating a variety of documentary genres, although court chronicles and some visual sources are introduced in class as well. Each week entails the translation of several short documents. Some research resources are also introduced. Weekly assignments include documents which are published on Princeton's komonjo website. In a presentation of the final translation project and analysis is required during the final class and a 12-15 page paper is due on Dean's Day.

Through close readings of the original poetry and historical sources, we analyze the anthology of the Verses of Chu (Chuci) in its aesthetic, historical, and hermeneutic dimensions, with particular attention to the formation and the nature of early Chinese textuality. Drawing on a wider range of early historical, literary, and philosophical texts, and using traditional as well as modern commentaries, we contextualize the songs in late Warring States and Han literary and intellectual culture.

This course explores the history of emotions in Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song literature, examining form and emotional expression, genre-specific conventions, the discourse of emotions in Buddhism and Daoism, and norms of gendered emotional expression. We explore secondary scholarship to survey recent trends in the field. Key writers include Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Han Yu, Meng Jiao, Li He, Mei Yaochen, Ouyang Xiu, Liu Yong, and Su Shi. Genres will include shi poetry, yuefu, song lyrics, funerary writing, and letters. Students from any field are welcome; strong reading skills in Classical Chinese required.

A study of selected major authors and literary trends in modern Japan, with an emphasis on the Meiji and Taisho periods.

Reading of poetic works from pre-Meiji Japan together with an introduction to relevant topics including: commentaries and reception, book history and manuscript transmission, historical and social background, and the use of modern reference tools.

This course focuses on various types of Japanese kanbun, including waka kanbun (Japanese vernacular kanbun) from Nara to Meiji era.

The two-semester course is designed for students in Chinese studies, who already possess reading fluency in Chinese. Its goal is to train these students in reading the particular style of Japanese academic writing; at the end of the year, students are able to independently read modern Japanese scholarship on China. Students take this course after at least one year of modern Japanese (JPN 101/102). The course does not train all four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening; instead it is devoted entirely to rapidly develop the necessary reading skills in Japanese academic style. The course is conducted in English.

This seminar considers the issues of language, writing, and inscription in a broad comparative perspective that brings together critical theory and recent scholarship on Korea and East Asia. It traces the issues of language and inscription against the frameworks of semiology (Derrida, Irigaray), discursive order (Foucault, Kittler), folds of matter and power (Deleuze), and ideological control (Althusser). The class also uses this theoretical framework to build our understanding of Korean (and, when applicable, East Asian) writing systems, from calligraphy, to the development of print and digital culture. All readings available in English.

A general introduction to the history of the political cultures in China and Japan, with some heed to comparisons with developments in Korea.

Covering 1868 to the present, this course emphasizes Japan's dramatic rise as the modern world's first non-Western power, imperialism, industrialization, social change, gender relations, democracy, World War II, the U. S. Occupation, the postwar "economic miracle" followed by slow growth, and the preoccupation with national identity in a Western-dominated world. We will think about post-1945 developments in terms of continuities with prewar Japan. We will also hold Japan up as a "mirror" for America, comparing how the two capitalist societies have dealt with inequality, urbanization, health and welfare, and intervention in the economy.

This seminar provides a unique angle of studying Chinese history from antiquity to our present moment through the lens of medicine. Using China as method, it also aims at cultivating a pluralistic and historically informed understanding of medicine as evolving science, cultural system, socio-economic enterprises, and increasingly in the modern world a vital component of domestic and global governance. This semester, the thematic focus will be history of epidemic diseases.

A survey of major issues in the historiography of early modern Japan and Meiji Japan (1600-1890).

Readings in Japanese political, social, and economic history. Topics include transwar continuity and change, political economy, labor, gender issues, culture and state, religion, Japanese expansion and colonialism, the Allied Occupation of Japan and "social management." Some readings in Japanese (optional for those who do not specialize in Japanese history).

An introduction to the literature, art, religion and philosophy of China, Japan and Korea from antiquity to ca. 1600. Readings focus on primary texts in translation and are complemented by museum visits and supplementary materials on the course website. The course aims to allow students to explore the unique aspects of East Asian civilizations and the connections between them through an interactive web-based platform, in which assignments are integrated with the texts and media on the website. No prior knowledge of East Asia or experience working with digital media is required.

This class analyzes how different cultures imagine monsters and how these representations changed over time to perform different social functions. As negative objectifications of fundamental social structures and conceptions, monsters help us understand the culture that engendered them and the ways in which a society constructs the Other, the deviant, the enemy, the minorities, and the repressed. This course has three goals: it familiarizes students with the semiotics of monsters worldwide; it teaches analytical techniques exportable to other topics and fields; it proposes interpretive strategies of reading culture comparatively.

This course is targeted to students whose Japanese proficiency is at an advanced or superior level. Students will (1) discuss various issues using dramas, short novels and editorials, and (2) learn business Japanese. Through these activities, students will develop critical thinking skills as well as Japanese language skills.

This sixth-year Korean course is designed to advance students' reading and writing skills to the superior level and to promote a deeper understanding of the Korean language, culture, society, and history. Readings cover various types of authentic materials (e.g., newspaper articles, editorials, think pieces, essays, and contemporary literary short stories). Discussion and presentation skills in formal settings (e.g., academic, professional) are also emphasized. Class discussions are conducted in Korean.

Translation is at the core of our encounters with East Asia. From translations of the literary classics to contemporary novels and poetry, from the formation of modern East Asian cultural discourses to national identities to East-West travels of works in theater and film, the seminar poses fundamental questions to our encounters with East Asian cultural artifacts, reflecting on the classical principles of translation and problematizing what the "translation" of "original works" even means anymore in our globalized world. Open to students with or without knowledge of an East Asian language.