East Asian Studies 97AB:

Introduction to the Study of East Asia: Issues and Methods

Time: T&Th, 12-1 pm
Place: Sever 201
Spring 2017–2018

Ryuichi Abé
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Course Description:
Studying East Asia means exploring some of the great civilizations of human history, seeking to
understand their historical transformations, and reflecting on their critical importance in the premodern,
contemporary, and future world. East Asian Studies 97AB is the sophomore tutorial for students
concentrating in East Asian studies. This tutorial is an interdisciplinary course that aims to introduce
students to some of the main themes and intellectual approaches that are used in the study of East Asia at
Harvard. The course is taught collaboratively; each week a different lecturer will discuss their particular
disciplinary approach to the study of Asia, the main theories and methods used in that discipline, and
some of the challenges faced by that discipline as applied to the study of Asia. The course is required for
students concentrating or completing a secondary field in East Asian Studies but is also open to other
students.

Students taking EAS97AB for concentration or secondary field credit may not take the course
SAT/UNSAT.

Course Coordinator:
Ryuichi Abé
2 Divinity Ave, #130B
Tel: 617-495-4305
Email: rabe@fas.harvard.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:30pm and by appointment

Teaching Fellows:
Jesse LeFebvre (Head TF/Japanese Specialist) jesselefebvre@g.harvard.edu
Tu Hang (China Specialist) hangtu@g.harvard.edu
Ivanna Yi (Korea Specialist) iyi@fas.harvard.edu

Expectations and Evaluations:

Students are required to attend all lectures and sections, complete the assigned readings before class, write
two response papers, engage in online forum discussions, and produce three longer papers—the third of
which serves as the final paper.
Your performance in the course will be evaluated as follows:

Section Participation: 15%

Responses and Online Discussion: 30%
First Research Paper: 12% (due Feb 19)
Second Research Paper: 18% (due Mar 18)
Third Research Paper: 25% (due May 2)

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Section Participation
Participation is a key component in engaging with new and familiar ideas and vital to the building of
a community of learning and exploration. Participation will be evaluated based on attendance and
punctuality. You will also be evaluated based on participation in discussions and activities. It will be
important to demonstrate your preparation and depth of engagement with the materials prior to class.
Listening to your peers and engaging with ideas other than your own will also be an important
element of participation. If you experience or anticipate trouble speaking up in section, please meet
with your TF for suggestions on how to participate.

Response Papers
You need to write one response (two pages each) to the readings in each half of the semester (i.e., one
before and one after the spring break). You must submit the first response paper by 11am on the
Tuesday of Week 7 (March 6), and the second by 11am on Tuesday of Week 13 (April 24). Outside
of these criteria, it is up to you to choose which weeks you submit. We strongly encourage you to
submit response papers in each of the weeks when a longer research paper is not due. You may
submit more than two responses, in which case the lowest grade(s) are dropped in calculating your
final grade. Response papers are a “low-stakes” opportunity to explore new issues and we encourage
you to submit multiple response papers as a way of engaging issues of interest to you and as a way to
investigate fields with which you may be less familiar.

Online Discussion Forum

All students are required to engage in the online classroom discussion forum. There will be one online
forum in each half of the semester and all students will be required to post twice and contribute at
least two paragraphs for each discussion but are in no way limited to only two posts. The online
discussion forums will give students an opportunity to share their thoughts, questions, and ideas with
their fellow students and to engage one another in discussion and refinement of those ideas.

Research Papers
Students will write three research papers for this course. These three papers are designed to
familiarize students with the academic writing process. The goal of the first paper is to find an
appropriate topic, situate the topic in the context of East Asian studies, and formulate a thesis
statement. In the second paper, students will expand upon the first paper by identifying and selecting
an appropriate set of methods for exploring the topic. In the final paper, students will more fully
develop their argument and engage meaningfully with source materials. At each stage in the writing
process, students are expected to incorporate the feedback on they receive on their writing.

Paper Due Dates

The first paper should be 6–8 pages (double-spaced), and is due at 5 pm, Feb 19.
The second paper should be 8–10 pages, and is due at 5 pm, Mar 18.
A 13–15 page paper on a topic of your choice is due at 5 pm, May 2.

Submitting Written Work

All written work for the course should be submitted to Canvas (click “Submit Assignment”) on the
course website. Your TF may also ask you for a hard copy of your submissions.

Extensions
As a rule, extensions will not be given on the paper assignments. However, if contact your TF at least
72 hours before the deadline and can demonstrate extenuating circumstances, extensions will be
considered on a case-to-case basis. You should not plan on being granted an extension.
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 Late Papers
Papers submitted after the official deadline will be docked one step of a letter grade, per day (i.e., an
“A” paper would become an “A-” one day after the deadline, a “B+” two days after the deadline, etc.).

Accommodations for students with documented disabilities

If you have a documented disability and require academic accommodations, be sure to present your
Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with Jesse Lefebvre, the head
TF, by February 6th. Discussions related to accommodations will be treated confidentially.

Readings
All required readings will be available on the course website; you do not need to purchase any books.
There is a chance that readings may change to better reflect current issues and events as the course
progresses. TFs will notify students of any change in assigned course readings.

EAS concentrators are expected to take one or more of the East Asian survey courses offered in the
General Education program and the department. The sophomore tutorial does not provide a general
historical overview, but rather highlights interesting topics and modes of study. If you feel you do not
have a basic understanding of the historical background, we recommend you look at one or more of the
following history texts:

Albert Craig, The Heritage of Japanese Civilization

Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan: from Tokugawa Times to the Present
Carter Eckert et al., Korea: Old and New: A History
John King Fairbank: China: A New History
Patricia Ebrey, Anne Walthall and James Palais, eds., East Asia: A Cultural, Social and Political History

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

Week 1 (Jan 23 & Jan 25)

What Is East Asia? What Is East Asian Studies?
Ryuichi Abé

After dealing with administrative matters in our first course meeting, in the second session we will
discuss East Asia as a field of study. Unlike some other concentrations at Harvard, East Asian Studies is
not defined by a single disciplinary approach. Rather, what unites scholars and experts of East Asian
Studies is the object of their study: East Asia. But is there a single, coherent cultural and historical entity
called East Asia? How has this entity been defined, and how has its definition related to other intellectual
and political concerns?

No readings for Week 1

Week 2 (Jan 30 & Feb 1)

Classical Chinese Thought
Michael Puett (Jan. 30) and James Robson (Feb. 1)

In this week we will explore two of the major philosophical and religious traditions that would have a
lasting impact on the cultural traditions of East Asia. We will focus on Confucianism and Daoism.
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Readings will consist of the classical texts from each of these traditions in translation.

● Jan 30 Confucianism Readings:

❖ Selections from the Analects (Theodore De Bary, et al., ed., Sources of Chinese
Tradition. Volume 1. Second edition: pp. 41- 63.)

● Feb 1 Daoism Readings:

❖ Selections from the Laozi and the Zhuangzi (Theodore De Bary, et al., ed., Sources of Chinese
Tradition. Volume 1. Second edition: pp. 77-111.)
❖ Robson, James. “Introduction: Daoism Lost and Found”

Week 3 (Feb 6 & Feb 8)

Buddhism and its Acculturation in East Asia
James Robson

In the first of these two lectures we will lay the foundations for an understanding of the Buddhist tradition.
In the second lecture we will follow that tradition as it spread from India to China and Japan. We will ask
questions about how Buddhism was able to successfully take root in China and Japan and analyze how
Buddhism was transformed to adapt to its new historical and cultural settings.

● Feb 6 Foundation of Buddhism Readings:

❖ Lopez, “Buddhism in Practice” p. 56-87

● Feb 8 Buddhism in China and Japan Readings:

❖ “How a Monk Freed His Mother From Hell”
❖ Excerpt from The Platform Sūtra of the Sixth Patriarch
❖ Excerpts from Dōgen and Hakuin

Week 4 (Feb 13 & Feb 15)

Japanese Literature and Art: The Tale of Genji
Melissa McCormick

● Feb 13
The first lecture will provide some background on The Tale of Genji, its historical, political, religious,
and social context, as well as the status of the work, known as the “world’s first novel,” and its female
author, Murasaki Shikibu. We will delve into the story, based on the assigned four chapters, touching
upon modes of narration, characterization, and plot structure, and the materiality of texts in East Asia.
Both lectures will involve the analysis of Genji paintings and will examine the relationship between
word and image in Japanese art.

Readings:
❖ Murasaki Shikibu. Dennis Washburn, trans. The Tale of Genji, chapters 1-4 (“Kiritsubo”,
“Hahakigi”, “Utsusemi”, “Yugao”), pp. 3-93.

● Feb 15
The second lecture will take a look at some of the myths that structure The Tale of Genji, including
the Chinese epic poem by Bai Juyi (772-846), “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” and how those
sources can be mined to understand some of the key themes of the Tale. Far from an insular work of

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 the Heian court, the Genji is a rich tapestry of sources reworked for specific literary and political ends
that engages the East Asian cultural tradition writ large.

Readings:
❖ Dennis Washburn. “Introduction,” in The Tale of Genji. (New York & London: W.W. Norton &
Company 2015), ix-xxxviii.
❖ Bo Juyi. Stephen Owen, trans. “Song of Lasting Pain,” in An Anthology of Chinese Literature:
Beginnings to 1911 edited and translated by Stephen Owen (New York & London: W.W. Norton
& Company 1997), 441-452.

Week 5 (Feb 20 & Feb 22)

Chosŏn Korea
Sun Joo Kim

The longevity of Korean dynasties is unique in world history and the Chosŏn dynasty is no exception.
This week’s lecture aims to investigate the sources of Chosŏn dynastic stability as well as political, social,
and cultural transformation that took place during this dynasty. By examining the dynamic relationship
between the monarch and his officials, political ideology and governing mechanisms, means of
recruitment, changes in social and family structure, and cultural values and religious practices, we will
find that the stability of the dynasty derived from relative flexibility, openness, and diversity present in
various institutions and cultural practices, while acknowledging the weaknesses of the same dynastic
foundations and structures. We will also discuss what historical forces trigger social changes that lead to
dynastic instability.

Readings:
❖ Haboush, Jahyun Kim. “The Confucianization of Korean Society.” In The East Asian Region,
edited by Gilbert Rozman (Princeton University Press, 1991), 84–110.
❖ “Fathers’ Letters Concerning Their Children’s Education.” In Epistolary Korea, 277–86.
❖ “Letters between Spouses.” In Epistolary Korea, 256–59.
❖ “Daughters’ Letters of Farewell to Their Fathers.” In Epistolary Korea, 375–89.
❖ “Letters of Appeal.” In Epistolary Korea, 83–95.
❖ “Case 2 A Family Activist Confronts a Local Magnate” and “Case 3 A Defiant Slave Challenges
His Overlord with Death.” In Wrongful Deaths, 47–61.

Week 6 (Feb 27 & March 1)

East Asia in Comparative and Global Perspective
or
How East Asian Studies Can Change Your Life
Shigehisa Kuriyama

This week, we will spotlight two different approaches to the question of East Asia, namely that of 1)
comparative history, and 2) global history. We will emphasize on the one hand how East Asia can
illuminate alternative ways of being in the world, and on the other, how our lives in America today are
entwined with what happened in the East Asian past. The broad question we will explore is therefore: In
what ways is the study of traditional East Asia important for understanding our lives in America today?

Readings:
❖ Shigehisa Kuriyama, “The Imagination of the Body and the History of Embodied Experience:
The Case of Chinese Views of the Viscera”
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 ❖ Shigehisa Kuriyama, “The Geography of Ginseng
and the Strange Alchemy of Needs”

Week 7 (March 6 & March 8)

Mid-Semester Review
Ryuichi Abé

During this mid-semester review students will have an opportunity to review and further explore issues
pertaining to East Asia. This will be a good opportunity for students to revisit issues that arose in review
papers and the online discussion boards and to further consider their paper topics in light of what they
have learned.

No Readings

3/10-3/18: Spring Recess (No Classes)

Week 8 (March 20 & March 22)

Modern Chinese Literature in the East Asian Context
David Wang

● March 20 Obsession with China: National Literature and Its Discontent

The rise of modern Chinese literature is closely related to the dynamics of nationalism versus
individualism; radical anti-traditionalism versus the “Obsession with China”. With Lu Xun, the
founding father of modern Chinese literature and culture, as a case in point, we will explore how
literature manifests its power, or the lack thereof, in relation to imagining the nation and fashioning
the national character. In particular, we will discuss the intriguing question of nation and narration.

Readings:
❖ C. T. Hsia, “Obsession with China,” A History of Modern Chinese Fiction
❖ Leo Lee, Voices from the Iron House, “The Loner and the Crowd” (Optional)
❖ LU Xun, “The Diary of A Mad Man”
“The True Story of Ah Q”
“Preface to A Call to Arms”
“My Old Home” (Optional)

● March 22 Imaginary Nostalgia: Wanderers on the Native Soil

How do we describe and define our home and homeland in the context of global modernity? We will
look into two cases, Yu Dafu’s xenophobia and suicide in “Sinking,” and Shen Congwen’s
regionalism and imaginary nostalgia in select stories.

❖ YU Dafu, “Sinking”
❖ SHEN Congwen, “Xiaoxiao”
“Husband” (Optional)
“Three Men and One Woman” (Optional)
❖ David Wang, “Imaginary Nostalgia,” Fictional Realism in 20th Century China (Optional)

Week 9 (March 27 & March 29)

East Asia in the Cold War
Michael Szonyi
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Readings:

❖ "East is East and West is West? Towards a comparative socio-cultural history of the Cold War";
Patrick Major , Rana Mitter Cold War History; Vol. 4, No. 1, 2003
❖ The Cold War in Asia: A Roundtable. Journal of Asian Studies, vol 75, no 4 (Nov 2016), 973-
1048 (Read the Introduction, essay by Szonyi, and at least one of the other essays)

Week 10 (April 3 & April 5)

Popular Culture, Media, and Early Modernity
David Atherton

● April 3
Early modern Japan (ca. 1600-1867) saw the emergence of an expansive popular culture, facilitated in
part by the development of new media. We will explore how commercial woodblock printing created
new possibilities for the visual and verbal representation of a rapidly transforming society, and we
will consider the ways new theatrical forms enabled spectators to imagine their relationships to each
other and to their larger social and political world.

Readings:
❖ Chikamatsu Monzaemon, The Love Suicides at Sonezaki
❖ Ihara Saikaku, The Life of a Sensuous Woman (excerpts)

● April 5
In this session, we look at early modern popular culture as a series of mashups: past spliced
with present, text mixed with images, theater overflowing into fiction, Asia blending with
Japan. Our readings are taken from later works produced in the city of Edo—by 1700 one of
the largest cities in the world—and they invite us to consider the ways fiction and theater
mediated not only the popular imagination of early modern society, but also its relationship
to the world beyond its shores.

Readings:
❖ Shiba Zenkō, Thousand Arms of Goddess, Julienned: The Secret Recipe of Our
Handmade Soup Stock
❖ Tsuruya Nanboku, The Tale of Tokubei from India

Week 11 (April 10 & April 12)

Korea’s Search for Autonomy in the 20th Century
Peter Kwon

● April 10 Readings:
❖ Japanese Colonization of Korea (1910-1945):
o Ch’oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition 2, pp. 333-351 (The Nationalist
Movement, 1910-1945)
❖ Liberation, War, and Division (1945-1953):
o Ch’oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition 2, pp. 367-375 (Korea Since 1945)
❖ Nation-building in the North: The Nation of Kim Il Sung
o Ch’oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition 2, pp. 419-425 (Kim Ilsŏng and
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 Chuch’e Thought in North Korea)
o Optional Reading: Ch’oe, Lee, and de Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition 2, pp. 395-400
(Pak Chŏnghŭi and Economic Development in South Korea)

● April 12 Readings:
❖ Postwar Nation-building in South Korea:
o Eckert, Carter J. et al., “Authoritarianism and Protest, 1948-1990” (Ch. 19), Korea Old
and New, pp. 347-387
o Kim, Hyung-A. “Heavy and Chemical Industrialization, 1973-1979: South Korea’s
Homeland Security Measures,” in Kim and Sorensen, eds., Reassessing the Park Chung
Hee Era, 19-42

Week 12 (April 17 & April 19)

Political Economy: Economic “Miracles” and the Post-Cold War Peace in East Asia
Nara Dillon

 April 17 What Explains East Asia’s Rapid Economic Growth?

 Paul Krugman, “The Myth of Asia’s Miracle” Foreign Affairs (Nov/Dec. 1994): 62-78.
 Ian Bremmer, "The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and
Corporations?" European View (2010): 249-252
 Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity,
and Poverty, New York: Crown Business, 2012. Ch. 2-3.

 April 19: Will China’s Rise Lead to War or Peace?

 Aaron L. Friedberg, “The Sources of Chinese Conduct: Explaining Beijing’s Assertiveness”
Washington Quarterly 37:4 (2014): 133-150.
 Richard J. Samuels, “Securing Japan: The Current Discourse” Journal of Japanese Studies 33:1
(Winter 2007): 125-152.
 Joseph Nye, "Will the Liberal Order Survive?: The History of an Idea" Foreign Affairs 96:1
(2017): 10-16
 Peter Gries, China’s New Nationalism, University of California Press, 2004. Ch 5-6.
(OPTIONAL)

Week 13 (Apr 24)

East Asia in the World and the World in East Asia, or What is the Point of East Asian Studies
Anyway?
Ryuichi Abé

Readings:
❖ Dan Jurafsky, “The Cosmopolitan Condiment: An Exploration of Ketchup’s Chinese Origins.”
❖ Frenchy Lunning and Crispin Freeman, “Giant Robots and Superheroes: Manifestations of Divine
Power, East and West.”