EALC

Are there too many people in the world? Is human reproduction a right, a duty, or an interest? In 1798, a pamphlet titled An Essay on the Principle of Population was published anonymously in London. The author claimed that a growing population increases the supply of labor, inevitably lowering wages and living standards. The author warned that future improvements for humanity would be hindered if governments failed to address the issue of overpopulation. What is now known as the Malthusian Law of Population sparked continuous debate among politicians, economists, statisticians, and philosophers for over two centuries.
Today, however, the global population debate has shifted. While concerns over overpopulation remain in some contexts, many parts of the world are now grappling with a fertility crisis. Declining birth rates have become a pressing issue, raising urgent questions about aging populations, shrinking workforces, and the sustainability of economic and social systems. Historically accounting for approximately one-fifth of the world's population, China holds a unique position in demography and politics. In the current landscape of falling birth rates across East Asia—affecting China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—and rising skepticism toward globalization, this course offers essential insights into the historical and ongoing dynamics of population control, economic inequality, and shifting global demographics.

Few people would doubt that the Qing dynasty (1644-1912) was an empire, or that the People’s Republic of China, occupying the vast majority of Qing territory, is a nation-state, or at least a national state. But what do those differences mean? Are there legacies of the Qing as empire that shape the way citizenship, legitimacy, and politics more generally work in the PRC? And how did “China” wind up roughly reproducing the Qing borders when it looked at many points during the late 19th and early 20th century as if it might lastingly splinter into multiple states? We will consider these issues through a series of weekly readings and discussions – mostly of works by historians, but also by historically minded political scientists, sociologists, and others. Students will have the option of writing 2 medium-length papers (7-10 pages) from a given list of choices, or of writing one longer paper on an historiographic or research topic selected in conversation with the instructor.

Focusing on roughly 1200-1900 CE in East Asia, this course considers the social functions of East Asian paintings and craft objects in conjunction with their subject matter, materiality, and style. Art historian Timon Screech has observed that the function of most paintings in early modern Japan was to radiate positivity and auspiciousness --a fact also connected to Wu Hung's observations about the absence of 'ruins' in traditional Chinese art. How can we put a finer point on a painting's auspicious qualities, and what were some other functions that paintings were fulfilling during this time period, either in tandem with auspiciousness or in place of it?

This course examines theoretical and empirical issues in the modern history of labor, conceived on a global scale. The class is organized around the development of major debates, including: skill, deskilling, and the labor process; gender and the labor of social reproduction; the spectrum between free and unfree labor; the science and measurement of work and the conception of the laboring body; race, ethnicity, and migration at work; the meaning and experience of labor in colonial societies; the meaning and experience of labor in socialist societies; and the relationship between labor processes and workers' ideology and political activity and organization. The class will strike a balance between reading historiographical and theoretical classics and new research that can be put into conversation with those classics.

This course registration is by consent only

One of the world’s largest and most populous cities, Tokyo has long captivated the imaginations of Japanese artists, especially ukiyo-e (woodblock print) designers, who returned repeatedly to the tradition of the “100 Views” (hyakkei) of the city in an effort to capture its mystery, majesty, and constant transformations.
This course is related to the planning phase of a special exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. It posits a periodization of Tokyo based around four major ukiyo-e series of “100 Views" from Hiroshige in the 1850s, to Kobayashi Kiyochika's 1876-1882 series in the Meiji period, and continuing on to the “100 Pictures of Great Tokyo in the Showa Era” (Showa dai Tokyo hyakuzue) by Koizumi Kishio (1893-1945), issued from 1927-1940. These prints will allow investigation of the creeping nationalism and rise in imperialism that would characterize the newly expanded “Great Tokyo” (Dai Tokyo) during the 1930s. The course concludes with an examination of a collaborative work entitled “100 Views of Tokyo: Message to the 21st Century” made from 1989-1999, which will allow investigation of new printing techniques, such as lithography and linocuts, as well as the culture and economy of “The Metropolis of Tokyo” (Tokyo-tou) in the post-Bubble era, concluding with Takashi Murakami’s famed commissions for the real estate development Roppongi Hills.

Remediate: 1) provide a remedy for, redress or make right 2) Restore by reversing or stopping environmental damage. See also remediation: “the formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms.” (Bolter and Grusin 1999, 273) Synonyms: amend, rectify, remedy, repair. This class examines the various ways in which Chinese literature, cinema and media remediated the theorizations and representational practices of socialism during one of the most transformative periods of China’s twentieth century. Topics will include: the debates on socialist alienation; rethinking the division of labor and the rural-urban divide; cultural nationalism and culture fever; the role of art and aesthetics; linguistic rebellions; and cultures of protest. Materials in Chinese and English.

This course explores the styles and functions of Chinese independent documentary since 1989, with particular attention to the social and political contexts that underpin its flourishing in Mainland China and Taiwan. We will discuss the ways in which recent Chinese documentaries challenge current theories of the genre, how they redefine the relationship between fiction and non-fiction, and the problems of media aesthetics, political intervention, and ethics of representation that they pose. We will look at their channels of circulation in Asia and elsewhere, and will discuss the implications and limits of the notion of independence. Readings will include theorizations of the documentary genre in relation to other visual media and narrative forms, analyses of specific works, and discussions on the impact of digital media.

This course introduces “interregional art history” as an alternative to the dominant nation-state-based framework in the study of Asian art. The robust discourse on global art history in recent decades has generated a range of methodological approaches, including comparison, transnationalism, internationalism, regionalism, and the global contemporary. These approaches are also reflected in practice, as seen in artist-led collaborations, traveling exhibitions, and biennales. To capture the diversity of interregionalist thought and praxis, the course adopts a case study approach. Key themes include artistic engagements with Pan-Asianism, the 1955 Bandung Conference, Southeast Asian regionalism and ASEAN, Afro-Asia, Transpacific migration, the construction of the Third World and Global South, and the Asia Pacific Triennial (1993–present). While the course materials focus on East and Southeast Asia, students with diverse geographical interests are welcome. A significant portion of class time and assignments will be devoted to critically assessing the strengths, limitations, and future directions of global art history.

This course examines the most influential Chinese romantic comedy of all times, "The Western Chamber" (Xixiang ji) in light of its multiple literary and visual traditions. Over 100 different woodblock editions, many of them illustrated, were published during the Ming and Qing dynasties alone. The focus of the class will be on close readings of the original texts in classical and vernacular Chinese. We will concentrate on the earliest extant edition of 1498 and Jin Shengtan's expurgated, annotated edition of 1656, along with visual treatments of the play in various mediums.

This course introduces students to sociological approaches to the study of culture, using K-pop (South Korean popular music) as a central case. The course draws from a wide repertoire of disciplines, with a thematic focus on gender and labor and a methodological focus on qualitative methods. Such a design helps students understand the analytical power of different approaches while developing their own sensibilities toward theorizing and researching popular culture from a sociological standpoint. The first half of the course covers foundational frameworks such as the production of culture perspective, art worlds, and field theory, while the latter half engages with newer topics including fandom, branding, aesthetic labor/socialization, celebrity, and platforms. The course does not assume prior knowledge of sociology or K-pop, although they are welcome. Students will be expected to post weekly reflections on the readings, which will eventually help them develop a research proposal or a short research paper. The course will be generally helpful to those interested in sociology of culture or K-pop/Korean popular culture, but it will be especially well-suited for students who are considering a B.A. thesis or want to conduct a pilot study before embarking on a larger project.