EALC

This course provides a survey of the history of popular music in East Asia since 1900, with a focus on questions of media technologies and their impact, practices of circulation and translation, political uses of music, and ideologies of authenticity and liveness. The course introduces a wide variety of musical genres from China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, ranging from forms considered 'traditional' to contemporary J-Pop, K-Pop and C-Pop. All readings are in English, and no background in music is required or expected. This course is open only to Masters students at the grad level.

This course will investigate the various understandings of the nature of consciousness—its extent and function, its grounding or groundlessness, its relation to body and will, its distinction from or identity with experienced physical entities and envisioned ethical ideals--in pre-modern Chinese philosophies. Readings will include early Confucian, Daoist and syncretic speculations (Mengzi, Xunzi, Zhuangzi, Huainanzi), medieval Buddhist idealisms and omnicentrisms (Tiantai, Huayan, Chan), and the representative thinkers of the various branches of Neo-Confucian thought (Zhang Zai, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming). All readings will be done in English, with optional supplemental reading sessions of the original texts for students proficient in classical Chinese.

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.