21G.030
Introduction to East Asian Cultures: From Zen to K-Pop
Examines traditional forms of East Asian culture (including literature, art, performance, food, and religion) as well as contemporary forms of popular culture (film, pop music, karaoke, and manga). Covers China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, with an emphasis on China. Considers women's culture, as well as the influence and presence of Asian cultural expressions in the US. Uses resources in the Boston area, including the MFA, the Children's Museum, and the Sackler collection at Harvard. Taught in English.
Spring 2015 · East Asian Culture: From Zen to K-Pop
Topics
- Introduction
- Lecture
- Discussion
- Field trip
- In-class Work and Food Videos
- Lecture (Prof. Samson Lim from SUTD, Singapore)
- Lecture (Prof. Ian Condry, MIT)
- Lecture (Prof. Hyangjin Lee, Kim Koo Visiting Professor of Korean Studies, Harvard)
- Guest Lecture (Prof Merry White, Boston University)
- Presentations
Readings
- SES #: 1 · READINGS: n/a
- Theodore de Bary, Wing-tsit Chan, and Burton Watson. “Confucius” and “Taoism.” Chapters 2 and 4 in Sources of Chinese Tradition. Vol. 1. Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 15–33 and 48–53. ISBN: 9780231109390.
- White, Merry, and Sylvan Barnet. “Thinking about Culture.” Chapter 1 in Comparing Cultures: Readings on Contemporary Japan for American Writers . St Martins Press, 1995, pp. 3–11. ISBN: 9780312106201.
- SES #: 3 · READINGS: n/a
- Theodore de Bary, Wing-tsit Chan, and Burton Watson. “The Introduction of Buddhism.” Chapter 12 in Sources of Chinese Tradition . Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 266–74. ISBN: 9780231109390.
- Tsunoda, Ryusaku, Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene. “Zen Buddhism.” Chapter 12 in Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600 . Columbia University Press, 2002, pp. 226–9. ISBN: 9780231121392.
- Nitschke, Gunter. “Rocks in the Sand,” “Path and Goal,” “The Rustic Tea Garden,” and “Wabi—Restraint and Poverty.” In Japanese Gardens: Right Angle and Natural Form . Taschen, 2007, pp. 65–109, 115, 146–56, 160–62 and also, look at all pictures in pp. 64–167. ISBN: 9783822830345.
- Reading the following selected chapters in Fang, J. P. “Introduction.” In Treasures of the Chinese Scholar . Weatherhill, 1997, pp. 1–3. ISBN: 9780834803992.
- Zhang, Yiyang. “The Chinese Language and Scholar Objects.” In Treasures of the Chinese Scholar . Weatherhill, 1997, pp 15–17. ISBN: 9780834803992.
- Zhang, Juwen. “Scholar Objects and Folk Beliefs.” In Treasures of the Chinese Scholar . Weatherhill, 1997, pp. 23–26. ISBN: 9780834803992.
- Also, Clunas, C. “Furnishing the Self in Early Modern China.” In Beyond the Screen: Chinese Furniture of the 16th and 17th Centuries . MFA Publications, 2000, pp. 21–34. ISBN: 9780878464357.
- ———. “Ideas about Things.” Chapter 2 in Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China . University of Hawaii Press, 2004, pp. 40–45. ISBN: 9780824828202.
- Excerpts of Wen Zhenheng (1585–1645) “One Ming Gentleman’s Notion on Room Order: Sections from Zhang Wu Zhi–A Treatise on Superfluous Things.” In Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History . Edited and Translated by Berliner Dagmar Shaefer and Huanjing Xiu Maske. Brill, 2011, pp. 85–88. ISBN: 9789004218444.
- 6 · [Shen Records] Chapters 1–3.
- 9 · Haboush. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea . University of California Press, 2013, pp. 296–330. ISBN: 9780520280489.
- Institute of Traditional Korean Food. “Foreword (1),” “Foreword (2),” and “Preface.” In Beauty of Korean Food: With 100 Best-Loved Recipes . Hollym International Corporation, 2008, pp. 12–13, 24–27, and 31. ISBN: 9781565912533. (Based on the “Research Project for the Standardization and Globalization of Korean Food.”)
- Alison, Anne. “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus.” Anthropological Quarterly 64, no. 4 (1991): 195–208.
- Han, Kyung-koo. “Some Foods Are Good to Think: Kimchi and the Epitomization of National Character.” Korean Social Science Reading Response 27, no. 1 (2000): 221–5.
- Weiming, Tu. “Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Exploring Moral Authority and Economic Power in Japan and the Four Mini-dragons.” Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 46, no. 8 (1993): 5–19.
- 17 · Contry, Ian. Chapters 6 and 7 in The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story . Duke University Press Books, 2013. ISBN: 9780822353942.
- Lee, Hyangjin. “South Korea: Film on the Global Stage.” In Contemporary Asian Cinema: Popular Culture in a Global Frame . Edited by Anne Tereska Ciecko. Berg Publishers, 2006, pp. 182–92. ISBN: 9781845202378.
- Berliner, Nancy Zeng. Yin Yu Tang: The Architecture and Daily Life of a Chinese House . Tuttle Publishing, 2003, pp. vii–xiii and 315. ISBN: 9780804834872.
- Cwiertka, Katarxyna. “The Global Hansik Campaign and the Commodification of Korean Cuisine.” In The Korean Popular Culture Reader . Edited by Kim and Choe. Duke University Press Books, 2014, pp. 363–84. ISBN: 9780822355014.
- Watson, eds. “Hong Kong and Taipei.” In Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia . Stanford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780804749893.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as WGS.236[J] Subject meets with 21G.193 Prereq: None Acad Year 2027-2028: U (Fall) Acad Year 2028-2029: Not offered 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2015
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.