101 Intellectual and Religious Foundations of Asian
Civilizations
This course introduces
students to the major religions and social
philosophies of pre-modern Asia. These include
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and
Shintô. The course emphasizes the reading of
original texts in translation. (Bloss/Oshikawa, Fall)
209 The Golden Age of Chinese Culture
Although China is known for its long history, it is
best known for its golden age during the Tang and
Song dynasties (618-1279). These two dynasties
witnessed a rapid growth in thought, government
structures, literature, art and many aspects of
culture. The people of this period, from emperor/empress and aristocratic elite to storytellers and
courtesans, contributed to the formation of an
urban culture that was the richest in the world.
While Europe was still in its dark age, China’s
golden age established the foundations of much of
Asian culture. This course explores Tang and
Song contributions to the Chinese cultural
heritage. (Huang, offered annually)
210 Buddhism and Taoism through Chinese Literature Buddhism and Taoism have long
been two important constituent elements of
Chinese culture. Their influences on Chinese
elite culture, social ethics, and popular values
have inspired the use of such phrases as “The
Age of Neo-Taoism” and “The Buddhist Age” to
characterize some periods of Chinese history.
Though many Chinese intellectuals were
suspicious of and even hostile towards these two
religions and sometimes labeled them as
“heterodox,” they could not deny the fact that
the two teachings had become an integral part of
Chinese elite and popular culture. This course is
an introduction to the major ideas of Chinese
Buddhism and Taoism as they were represented
and interpreted in various texts and narratives.
(Huang, offered annually)
212 Women in Contemporary Chinese Culture
Are Chinese women still submissive, powerless,
and silent as commonly perceived? What roles
are Chinese women playing in the present-day
China and international societies? These are
among the oft-asked questions this course
attempts to answer. By contextualizing Chinese
women in pre-modern China, nationalist China,
and communist China, this course attempts to
show their different characteristics in different
periods. Special attention, however, is given to
women in social and cultural settings in
contemporary China. A variety of works, including history, fiction, and films are used to
acquaint students with dramatic changes,
multifaceted images, gender problems of Chinese
women in the post-Mao era. (Zhou, offered
alternate years)
213 Tibet Incarnate: Understanding Contemporary Tibet
How are we to think of Tibet
today? As the hapless victim of Chinese
aggression; a poster child for human rights? Or as
a people with a long and complex history of
political and cultural associations, east and west;
a people with its own imperial past? This course
explores the context of today’s “Tibetan
Question” in Tibet’s history, culture, and
geographic position on the frontiers of trade and
empires across millennia. This course is
conducted in seminar format and participants are
responsible for researching and presenting
sources materials. Prerequisite: ASN 101 or ASN
225 or permission of the instructor. (Bennett,
offered annually)
214 The Ottoman World
At its peak, Ottoman
domains encompassed what we know today as
the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and the “Middle
East”—the successor states to the great empire of
Byzantium in the west and the Arab conquests in
the east. And of the great cities of the world,
Istanbul sat at its heart. This course examines the
nature of empire in the Ottoman experience, the
emergence of nationalism and capitalist
economies, and the legacy of Ottoman rule today
through the achievements—and failures—of
Ottoman society, culture, and statecraft, and the
microcosm of Ottoman society that was, and is,
Istanbul. (Bennett, offered annually)
217 Gurus, Saints, Priests, and Prophets: Types of Religious Authority
Using information from many Asian
cultures, this course compares types of religious
leadership. Focusing on founders, prophets,
shamans, gurus, mystics, and priests, the course
explores how these Asian specialists in the sacred
relate to the ultimate and how their authority is
viewed by the members of their traditions. Do
these leaders mediate or intercede with the
sacred, pronounce or interpret, advise or perform
rites? What types of religious experiences do they
have and what techniques do they use to exhibit
their authority? (Bloss, offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Spence, God’s Chinese Son;
Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery; Fingarette,
Confucius, The Secular as Sacred; Hawley, Saints
and Virtues; Kendall, Shamans, Housewives
220 Male and Female in East Asian Societies and
Cultures Gender, sex roles, and domestic relations are
among the basic building blocks of culture and
society. This course is designed to examine the historical legacy of East Asian countries,
contemporary Eastern Asian cultures, and basic
values from the perspective of sex and gender,
and to explore a variety of cultural contexts and
social venues, including marriage, the family, the
relations between husband and wife, generation
gaps, private life and public life, and tradition
and its changes. The course focuses on China
and views it as one of the great sources of
Eastern Asian civilization, especially Japan,
Korea, and Vietnam. Particular attention is paid
to the representation of male and female in
contemporary Asian cultures. Films are used to
supplement the readings. (Staff, offered
occasionally)
225 Tibetan Buddhism
This course is an
introduction to Tibetan belief and practice.
What is life from a Buddhist perspective? What
did the Buddha teach? What is the law of karma?
These and many other questions are addressed.
The course looks at Tibetan Buddhist practice
from the Four Noble Truths to the highest Yoga
tantra with special emphasis on the practice of
love, kindness, and compassion. A monk’s life in
the monastery is also studied. Prerequisite: Any
religious studies course or permission of the
instructor. (Yignyen, offered annually)
226 Hinduism
This course
traces the major Indian religious tradition from its
roots in the Indus Valley civilization and the
Vedic era, through the speculations of the
Upanishadic seers and the meditative techniques
of the yogis, to the development of devotional
cults to Siva, Durga, and Vishnu. It ends with an
exploration of the effect of Hinduism on such
figures as Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, and Tagore in
the imperial and contemporary periods. Sacred
texts, novels, autobiographies, village studies, and
Hindu art and architecture provide major sources
of this study. Audiovisual aids—slides and films—
are used extensively. (Bloss, offered annually)
Typical readings: Zaehner, The Bhagavad
Gita; Narayan, The Ramayana; Zimmer, Myths
and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization;
Forster, A Passage to India; Eck, Darsan; Roy,
Bengali Women
227 Buddhism
Buddhism’s
rise and development in India, and its spread
into Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Korea, Viet
Nam, and Japan are traced. In each of these
regions the indigenous traditions, such as Bon in
Tibet, or Confucianism and Taoism in China, or
Shinto in Japan, are considered, and the
question is asked as to how Buddhism adopted
and/or influenced elements of its new surroundings.
This interaction of the core of Buddhist
ideas and practices and other cultures creates
such movements as Zen (Ch’an) and Vajrayana (Tibetan Tantrism). Audiovisual materials
include the films Requiem for a Faith and The
Smile. (Bloss, offered annually)
Typical readings: Rahula, What the Buddha
Taught; Lhalungpa, The Life of Milarepa; Suzuki,
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind; Trungpa, Meditation
in Action; Kaltenmark, Lao Tzu and Taoism;
Confucius, Analects; Hesse, Siddhartha; Kasulis,
Zen Action, Zen Person
231 Tibetan Mandala Painting The purpose of
this course is to introduce students to the
wonders of Tibetan culture. This is accomplished
through the study of traditional Tibetan
Buddhist painting and mandala construction.
The world of Tibetan Buddhist art is introduced
through the emersion in historic background and
current utilization. Students learn the accurate
methods for drawing the geometric outlines of
the mandala. Each student completes a painted
version of the Chenrezig mandala (which is most
often used in Tibetan Buddhist meditation
practice). This includes the formation of the
accurate symbols of the five Buddha families.
Students becomes familiarized with these and
other emblems and learn their meanings. Using
colored sand, students learn how to make a sand
painting with authentic Tibetan metal funnels
and wooden scrapers. Finally, students participate
in the joy of a group class project of sand
mandala painting and dismantling ceremony.
(Yignyen, offered annually)
236 Society, Culture, and the State in Contemporary China
This course addresses the
momentous social and cultural changes that have
occurred in China in recent years. In exploring
this subject, Chinese culture is systematically
examined from different aspects, including but
not limited to Chinese cultural roots, economy,
ideology, politics, religion, and education. Some
of China’s hottest issues, with which Western
societies have been concerned in recent years,
are discussed, such as the reform movement, the
Tiananmen Square Incident of 1989, human
rights, the anti-Falun Gong campaign, peasants’
protest, HIV, China’s ascension, China-U.STaiwan
relations, and China’s future. Films are
used to supplement the readings. (Zhou, offered
alternate years)
304 Courtesan Culture in China and Japan
Look up the word “courtesan” in a dictionary, say
Merriam-Webster’s 10th edition, and one finds
the following definition: “a prostitute with a
courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele.”
Historically, however, the courtesans of China or
Japan have been women whose appeal lay
primarily in their surpassing musical and literary
cultivation, not their sexual services. This
multidisciplinary course uses the textual sources and visual representations that record or celebrate
courtesan culture to examine the demimonde of
the elite Chinese “singing girl” or the Japanese
geisha across the centuries, with some attention to
Western conceptions or misconceptions of their
roles and relationships. (Blanchard, Fall, offered
occasionally)
312 Literary and Historical Memory in China: Texts, Contexts, and
Historical Facts
For
centuries many educated Chinese have read
traditional literary works with greater interest than
they have read historical works. Their appreciation
for the “memory” in these literary works
helped popularize a variety of novels, short stories,
poetry, and plays, as well as immortalize some
historical personages and fictional characters. In
its idealizing or stigmatizing men and women in
history, literary work also historicizes its stories
and is commonly accepted as a valuable historical
text. This course compares the often disparate
memory of China’s past in literary and historical
texts, focusing substantially on their representation
of the image of cultural heroes and heroines,
of gender and class inequities, as well as of moral
and ethical values. (Huang, offered occasionally)
342 Chinese Cinema: Gender, Politics, and Social Change in Contemporary China
This
course is designed to examine the development
of Chinese cinema. It introduces the fifth and
sixth generation of Chinese filmmakers, as well
as recent Chinese films produced in Mainland
China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United
States. It is hoped to help students develop their
ability to analyze visual images from both
Chinese and multicultural perspectives. Through
the lens of Chinese films used in this course,
students are expected to better understand issues
such as gender, family, tradition, custom, and
politics in China today. In the meantime, they
are expected to become familiar with some new
trend of cultural and social movement in China
and overseas Chinese communities. (Zhou,
offered annually)
393 The Pacific Century A seminar course
designed for, and limited to, students returning
to campus from study abroad programs in Asia,
this course explores the extraordinary economic,
social, political, and cultural changes that have
occurred in that region over the past 150 years.
Students enrolled in the course conduct
extensive research on a topic related to modern
Asia, make several oral presentations on that
research, and complete a substantial term paper.
Prerequisite: A term abroad in Asia. (Staff,
offered annually)
410 Sacred Space
The
course takes a comparative approach in order to
explore the meaning, function, and structure of
space for religious persons. Topics include: the
“wanderings” of the Australian aborigines;
habitation modes of American Indians; the
Peyote pilgrimage of the Huichol Indians of
Mexico; the Hindu Temple; the Buddhist Stupa;
and the individual as cosmos in yoga and
Chinese alchemical texts. The student is asked to
keep a journal reflecting his or her reactions to
the readings and reflections on space as
experienced in our culture. Prerequisite: One
200-level course in history of religions
(210-219), or permission of instructor. (Bloss,
offered alternate years)
Typical readings: Turner, Ritual Process;
Bachelard, The Poetics of Space; Chatwin,
Songlines; Snodgrass, The Symbolism of the Stupa;
Griaule, Conversations with Ogotemmeli; Campbell,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces; Eliade, Australian
Religions; Mookerjee, The Tantric Way
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