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Minor concentrations in East Asian Studies (18 credits):
Minor Concentration East Asian Cultural Studies: [program medium BA X EAC8 MINOR]
Supplementary Minor Concentration East Asian Language: [program medium BA X SEA8 MINOR]
Minor Concentration East Asian Language and Literature: [program medium BA X EAL8 MINOR]
Minor EAS credit form
Major concentration
East Asian Studies Major Concentration (B.A.) (36 credits)
Offered by: East Asian Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 36
Program Description
The Major Concentration in East Asian Studies provides in-depth training in the humanistic studies of East Asia (including language, society, literature, history, media, religion, politics, and art). The program includes core survey on China, Japan, and Korea.
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Complementary Courses (36 credits)
Introduction to East Asian Culture
3-6 credits from the following courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 211 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Chinese culture. The course will also examine the changing representations of the Chinese cultural tradition in the West. Readings will include original sources in translation from the fields of literature, philosophy, religion, and cultural history. | ||
| EAST 212 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to Japan which presents various aspects of Japanese literature, culture, history, religions, philosophy and society. | ||
| EAST 213 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Korean culture, including Korean literature, religions, philosophy, and socio-economic formations. | ||
0-3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 215 | Introduction to East Asian Art. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian Art. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introductory survey of some of the major developments in the visual arts of Japan, China, and Korea. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of artistic traditions in East Asia and the intersections among these traditions. | ||
| EAST 250 | Introduction to Asian Media Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Asian Media Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course explores core methods and theoretical approaches to media in Asia and beyond: material culture, technicity, media infrastructures, intermediality, circulation, platforms, regionalism, and institutional history. | ||
East Asian Language
6-9 credits of East Asian language courses selected from the list below.
Note: Admission to language courses is subject to placement tests.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 220D1 | First Level Korean. | 4.5 |
First Level Korean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic structures of the standard Korean language. The aim of this course is to give students a basic knowledge of the Korean language. Special emphasis is put on handling everyday conversation, reading and writing short texts, and mastering basic grammar rules. | ||
| EAST 220D2 | First Level Korean. | 4.5 |
First Level Korean. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 220D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 230D1 | First Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
First Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic structures of Mandarin Chinese, Pin-yin romanization and 750 characters for reading and writing. Emphasis on developing aural and oral skills through communication games and interaction activities. Animated films are used as part of teaching materials. | ||
| EAST 230D2 | First Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
First Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 230D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 240D1 | First Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
First Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic grammar and sentence patterns of the Japanese language in both oral and written forms. In reading and writing skills students will be introduced to katakana, hiragana and kanji. | ||
| EAST 240D2 | First Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
First Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 240D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 241 | Japanese Writing Beginners 1. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Beginners 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Grammar, vocabulary, kanji, and introduction ofsome new expressions. | ||
| EAST 242 | Japanese Writing Beginners 2. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Beginners 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Grammar, vocabulary, kanji, and introduction ofsome new expressions. | ||
| EAST 320D1 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The aim of this course is to give students a fluent speaking ability in daily conversation, advanced grammar knowledge, improved reading and writing skills. Special emphasis is put on the efficient use of grammar, enrichment of vocabulary, and mastering useful expressions encountered in everyday life. | ||
| EAST 320D2 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 320D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 330D1 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The same communicative approach as in EAST 230 is used to develop aural and oral skills on daily topics. In addition to textbooks, Chinese films on videotapes will be incorporated as teaching materials. | ||
| EAST 330D2 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 330D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 340D1 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Continuation of the study of oral and written Japanese. | ||
| EAST 340D2 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 340D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 341 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji,focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 342 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji, focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 420 | Third Level Korean 1. | 3 |
Third Level Korean 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. grammar, enhancing written and oral comprehension and improving writing and speaking skills. | ||
| EAST 430D1 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A communicative approach will be used to provide students with skills to communicate in various situations, express their ideas and feelings, and discuss various aspects of culture and life in China and in Canada. Teaching materials include Chinese movies on videotape and slides depicting Chinese life and culture. | ||
| EAST 430D2 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 430D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 440D1 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 More advanced study of the Japanese language. Emphasis will be placed on reading. | ||
| EAST 440D2 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 440D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 530D1 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Development of skills required to conduct academic discussions in oral as well as in written forms. Teaching materials include original texts from Chinese newspapers, Chinese literature and videos. | ||
| EAST 530D2 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 530D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 533 | Classical Chinese 1. | 3 |
Classical Chinese 1. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the grammar and syntax of classical Chinese. Readings are selected from well-known Confucian and Taoist classics, and philosophical and historical writings from premodern China. | ||
| EAST 535 | Chinese for Business 1. | 3 |
Chinese for Business 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course aims to provide advanced students of Chinese with training in the terminology and syntax necessary for business communications. Topics will include many different aspects of business negotiations, such as price negotiation, methods of payment, etc. | ||
| EAST 536 | Chinese for Business 2. | 3 |
Chinese for Business 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course is a continuation of EAST 535. It is designed to further develop students' linguistic competence for business communication, and to provide students with some knowledge on China's trade policies as well as on different methods of trading with China. | ||
| EAST 540D1 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced study of Japanese, with emphasis on reading Japanese newspapers. Classes will be conducted entirely in Japanese. | ||
| EAST 540D2 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 540D1 for course description. | ||
East Asian Literature, Culture and Society (21-24 credits)
21-24 credits of courses in East Asian Literature, Culture and Society selected from the list below. At least 6 credits must be taken at the 400 or 500 level.
East Asian Studies (EAST)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 215 | Introduction to East Asian Art. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian Art. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introductory survey of some of the major developments in the visual arts of Japan, China, and Korea. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of artistic traditions in East Asia and the intersections among these traditions. | ||
| EAST 250 | Introduction to Asian Media Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Asian Media Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course explores core methods and theoretical approaches to media in Asia and beyond: material culture, technicity, media infrastructures, intermediality, circulation, platforms, regionalism, and institutional history. | ||
| EAST 279 | Introduction to Film History. | 3 |
Introduction to Film History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to representative periods, movements and styles in the history of cinema, as well as questions of film historiography. | ||
| EAST 303 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 304 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 305 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 306 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 307 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 308 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 313 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 314 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 328 | Archaeology East Asian Empires. | 3 |
Archaeology East Asian Empires. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of utilitarian and elite objects, art, architecture, cities and tombs from the early to medieval period dynastic states (ca. 221 BCE1-279 CE) to gain understandings of developments and changes in economic organization, art, religion, political orgranization, internal interactions, and external connections, along with both elite and commoner life based on recent archaeological discoveries and research. Issues in archaeological practices and theories, and the use of received texts to understand the past will also be examined. | ||
| EAST 350 | Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Gender and sexuality in modern and/or premodern Chinese literature with emphasis on representation of gender relations, notions of masculinity and femininity, morality and sexuality. Readings from fiction, drama, poetry, and/or other genres are approached from a variety of critical perspectives. | ||
| EAST 351 | Women Writers of China. | 3 |
Women Writers of China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of fiction, drama, and poetry by women writers in imperial, modern, and/or contemporary China. | ||
| EAST 352 | Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will examine traditional and/or modern genres of Chinese literature with a focus on different forms of Chinese and Western literary analysis. | ||
| EAST 353 | Approaches to Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Approaches to Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Development of Chinese film in the 20th century, with an emphasis on both critical approaches to film as well as film history. | ||
| EAST 361 | Animation and New Media. | 3 |
Animation and New Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Animation and new media in East Asia, with an emphasis on postwar developments. | ||
| EAST 362 | Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course will study the development of film in Japan during the 20th century with a particular focus on the analysis of film form, genres and history. | ||
| EAST 363 | Early and Medieval Japan. | 3 |
Early and Medieval Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines cultural production in early and medieval Japan, focusing on calligraphy, painting, picture scrolls, gestures and their relation to textual production. Readings explore various classic texts, taboos against seeing and narrative modes of cognition. | ||
| EAST 364 | Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. | 3 |
Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course addresses a number of analytic approaches to mass culture in order to examine the culture industry of post-war Japan. Emphasis on narrative strategies in popular or consumer fiction and on the problems of marginalized writers. | ||
| EAST 369 | Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In this course, we examine contesting notions of gender, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in Asian cinema and media. We study how individual works negotiate the social discourses on gender and sexual representation, identities, and performance, and how we may borrow conceptual frameworks from queer theories and histories at large to discuss them. | ||
| EAST 370 | History of Sexuality in Japan. | 3 |
History of Sexuality in Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Social and cultural history of sexuality in Japan. Possible topics include pre-modern sexuality and relations to court, religion and anthropology; pre-modern sex and gender relations; modern sexuality and gender identities; sexuality and the rise of science; relation to nationalism; feminism and queer movements. | ||
| EAST 372 | Topics in Television: Asia. | 3 |
Topics in Television: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course approaches television and televisuality historically, in regional, transnational, and global perspectives. | ||
| EAST 375 | Korean Media and Popular Culture. | 3 |
Korean Media and Popular Culture. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course approaches popular culture and mass media in postwar Korea from historical and theoretical perspectives, with a focus on the connections between activism, mass media, and commodity culture. | ||
| EAST 377 | Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. | 3 |
Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Investigation of cinema's border-crossing modes of cultural production, reception, and circulation, to uncover the ways that the study of culture enriches current theories and approaches to the transnational. | ||
| EAST 388 | Asian Migrations and Diasporas. | 3 |
Asian Migrations and Diasporas. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Asian migrations and diasporas. Topics include colonialism and diaspora, transnationalism, globalization, citizenship, migration and the state, gender and migration, human trafficking, and forced migration. | ||
| EAST 389 | Global Cinema and Media Asia. | 3 |
Global Cinema and Media Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Ascendancy of East Asian cinema and media as global culture; the aesthetic, technological, economic and political conditions of cinema as a transnational commodity; and the history of globalization and East Asia media platforms. | ||
| EAST 410 | Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture | 3 |
Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture Terms offered: Fall 2025 China's martial tradition; themes such as war, revenge, justice, and the use of violence, alongside martial arts. Topics include: philosophical discourses on war, literary nationalism, and representations of these themes in literature, film, digital media, and games. Spanning from the 6th century BCE to the 20th century, the key periods and genres of Chinese literature and martial traditions beyond popular media. | ||
| EAST 453 | Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected genres, themes and issues in Chinese literature. | ||
| EAST 445 | Late Imperial China | 3 |
Late Imperial China Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of Chinese society in the Ming and Qing eras (1368-1912) through the exploration of themes like gender and sexuality, family, law, ethnicity and borderlands, education, literary production, and political organization. | ||
| EAST 454 | Topics: Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected themes and issues in Chinese film. | ||
| EAST 461 | Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. | 3 |
Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the modern Japanese novel as a form which both affirms and resists the form of the European novel. Readings explore the particular problems of the Japanese novel in the context of modernization, westernization, and colonialism. | ||
| EAST 462 | Japan in Asia. | 3 |
Japan in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduces theories of cultural interaction, interpellation, and intertexuality in order to reconsider Japanese modes of reception and selection of Chinese texts and technologies. Readings range from early Japanese to 20th century texts. Readings in translation. | ||
| EAST 464 | Image, Text, Performance. | 3 |
Image, Text, Performance. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Drawing on theoretical approaches from a variety of cultural and media studies, including cinema, performance and performativity, and elsewhere, this course addresses cultural production in premodern and/or modern East Asia. Topics to be addressed range from calligraphy and writing, to theatre, and film. | ||
| EAST 467 | Topics: Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics in the study of Japanese cinema. | ||
| EAST 468 | Science and Technology: Asia. | 3 |
Science and Technology: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. History of science and technology in Asia with an emphasis on social and cultural impact and the legacy non-Western traditions. | ||
| EAST 477 | Media and Environment in Asia. | 3 |
Media and Environment in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course explores the intersection between media and "environment" in Asia and beyond; topics range from media ecology, cybernetics, environmental art and activism, urban planning, and the history of communications networks in Asia in the modern period. | ||
| EAST 478 | Topics: Korean Film and Media. | 3 |
Topics: Korean Film and Media. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in the study of Korean film and media. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 491 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 492 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 493 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2026 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 494 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 501 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 502 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 503 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 504 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 505 | Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Korean culture and society. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 515 | Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. | 3 |
Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the cultural stakes and ethical implications of applying Western European models of understanding to East Asian societies. Provides background on interdisciplinary debates around "otherness", "cultural appropriation", and "postcolonialism", focusing on their history within East Asian Studies and their impact on that field's methodological assumptions, self-definition, and institutional practices. | ||
| EAST 525 | Critical Area Studies in Asia. | 3 |
Critical Area Studies in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course introduces students to foundational concepts, key debates, recent research areas, theoretical methods, and critical approached in area studies. | ||
| EAST 527 | Culture and Capital in Asia. | 3 |
Culture and Capital in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar introduces the major anthropological, psychological, and political economic theories of the relation between culture and capital that have affected social and political formations in East Asia. Language of Instruction: English. | ||
| EAST 550 | Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. | 3 |
Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of major themes and genres of classical Chinese poetry from its beginnings to the Yuan dynasty (14th century), with emphasis on critical analysis of text and context. Readings of poems in the original. | ||
| EAST 551 | Technologies of Self in Early China. | 3 |
Technologies of Self in Early China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Readings on self-cultivation drawn from Confucian, Legalist, and Taoist philosophic texts of early China (5th-2nd centuries B.C.) in translation will be compared with historical and archaeological materials on the evolving construction of the "individual'' in Chinese social structure, military organization, political and ritual codes. | ||
| EAST 559 | Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year, ranging from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
| EAST 562 | Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. | 3 |
Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines Japanese theories of literary production and practice with an emphasis on 20th century thought. | ||
| EAST 564 | Structures of Modernity: Asia. | 3 |
Structures of Modernity: Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course explores relations between some of the principal sites which structure the experience of "modernity" in Asia (and elsewhere) - from bodies and cities, to the urban context in general. Along with general approaches (e.g. the idea of everyday life; questions of time), specific topics may include speed, music, architecture, crime, etc. | ||
| EAST 569 | Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
| LLCU 279 | Introduction to Film History. | 3 |
Introduction to Film History. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to representative periods, movements and styles in the history of cinema, as well as questions of film historiography. | ||
Anthropology (ANTH)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 331 | Prehistory of East Asia. | 3 |
Prehistory of East Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative study of prehistoric hunting and gathering cultures in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Eastern Siberia; origins and dispersal of food production; cultural processes leading to the rise of literate civilizations in certain regions of East Asia. | ||
| ANTH 500 | Chinese Diversity and Diaspora. | 3 |
Chinese Diversity and Diaspora. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores ethnic diversity within mainland China, as well as the diversity of Chinese cultures of diaspora, living outside the mainland, often as minorities subject to other dominant cultures. | ||
Economics (ECON)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ECON 335 | The Japanese Economy. | 3 |
The Japanese Economy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The first part of the course covers the economic institutions in, changing structure of, and public policies employed by the Japanese economy. The second part probes the economic "logic" of the Japanese capitalist system, explores its relationship to the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, and makes comparisons with the American economy. | ||
| ECON 411 | Economic Development: A World Area. | 3 |
Economic Development: A World Area. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced course in the economic development of a pre-designated underdeveloped country or a group of countries. | ||
Geography (GEOG)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG 408 | Geography of Development. | 3 |
Geography of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the geographical dimensions of development policy, specifically the relationships between the process of development and human-induced environmental change. Focuses on environmental sustainability, struggles over resource control, population and poverty, and levels of governance (the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and local communities). | ||
History (HIST)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 208 | Introduction to East Asian History. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian History. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to the history of East Asian civilization from earliest times to 1600, with emphasis on China and Japan, including social, intellectual, and economic developments as well as political history. | ||
| HIST 218 | Modern East Asian History. | 3 |
Modern East Asian History. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the history of China and Japan from the seventeenth century to the present, including modernization, nationalism, and the interaction of the two countries. | ||
| HIST 308 | Formation of Chinese Tradition. | 3 |
Formation of Chinese Tradition. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An examination of the multiple sources of the Chinese imperial system from the period of the neolithic culture interaction sphere to the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E. Special attention is paid to socio-economic developments as well as to the evolution of philosophy, ideology, and social practice. The sequel to this course is HIST 358. | ||
| HIST 338 | Twentieth-Century China. | 3 |
Twentieth-Century China. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Examines 20th Century China from the fall of the Qing, through Republican China, the emergence of communism, war with Japan, revolution and civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and later economic reforms. | ||
| HIST 358 | China's Middle Empires. | 3 |
China's Middle Empires. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Developments of China's middle empires, ca. 600-1300 CE. Studies changing international relations, rapid commercialization, religious developments, the rise of the civil service examination system, and ensuing social change. | ||
| HIST 439 | History of Women in China. | 3 |
History of Women in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the changing roles of women in traditional and modern China. Topics include political, social, and legal status, sexuality and medicine, religion and culture. | ||
| HIST 441 | Topics: Culture and Ritual in China. | 3 |
Topics: Culture and Ritual in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of selected aspects of the cultural and intellectual life of China. Topics vary from year to year, but include the history of popular religion, Chinese science and medicine, the esoteric arts including divination practices, law, and the influence of ideas in the production of Chinese culture. | ||
| HIST 442 | Asian Diaspora: Chinese Overseas. | 3 |
Asian Diaspora: Chinese Overseas. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The contexts and causes of Chinese emigration; historical patterns of migration; Overseas Chinese communities on five continents, with emphasis on Southeast Asia and North America; alienation and identity in Chinatown; relations between the Overseas Chinese and China. | ||
| HIST 443 | Topics: Modern Japan. | 3 |
Topics: Modern Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An intensive study of selected aspects related to the history of modern Japan. | ||
| HIST 445 | Late Imperial China. | 3 |
Late Imperial China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the social and economic history of Late Imperial China, focusing on the Ming and early to mid Qing Dynasties (1368 - 1800), and current interpretations thereof. Was this a discrete period in Chinese history? If so, why. | ||
| HIST 508 | The Art of War in China. | 3 |
The Art of War in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the historical development of military theory and practice from earliest times to 1911 from a variety of perspectives, technological, scientific, social, and cultural. | ||
| HIST 568D1 | Topics in Chinese History. | 3 |
Topics in Chinese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A research seminar on aspects of Chinese history from early time to the present, with emphasis on social history. | ||
| HIST 568D2 | Topics in Chinese History. | 3 |
Topics in Chinese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See HIST 568D1 for course description. | ||
| HIST 578D1 | Seminar in Japanese History. | 3 |
Seminar in Japanese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Particular attention will be paid to Japanese responses to the impact of Western culture from the sixteenth century, and to aspects of Japanese intellectual history. | ||
| HIST 578D2 | Seminar in Japanese History. | 3 |
Seminar in Japanese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See HIST 578D1 for course description. | ||
Management (ORGB)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ORGB 380 | Cross Cultural Management. | 3 |
Cross Cultural Management. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Addresses dilemmas and opportunities that managers experience in international, multicultural environments. Development of conceptual knowledge and behavioural skills (e.g. bridging skills, communication, tolerance of ambiguity, cognitive complexity) relevant to the interaction of different cultures in business and organizational settings, using several methods including research, case studies and experiential learning. | ||
Political Science (POLI)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| POLI 349 | Foreign Policy: Asia. | 3 |
Foreign Policy: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the foreign policies of two rising powers - China and India - in addition to Japan, covering the historical evolution, goals and determinants of their foreign policies, interactions with the rest of Asia and the world, and efforts at institutionalised cooperation in South and East Asia. | ||
Religious Studies (RELG)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| RELG 253 | Religions of East Asia. | 3 |
Religions of East Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course introduces East Asia's major religions comparatively by addressing the continuous exchange of ideas and practices between traditions. Rather than adopting a mere chronological approach, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism will be discussed thematically, taking in to account topics such as gender constructs, the secular and the sacred, material culture, and the apparent contrast between doctrine and practice. | ||
| RELG 264 | Introductory Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Introductory Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. | ||
| RELG 265 | Introductory Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Introductory Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A continuation of the introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. | ||
| RELG 344 | Mahayana Buddhism. | 3 |
Mahayana Buddhism. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Investigation of Mahayana schools of thought based on reading of key sutras and commentarial literature. | ||
| RELG 352 | Japanese Religions: History and Thought. | 3 |
Japanese Religions: History and Thought. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course provides an in-depth introduction to the religious traditions of Japan from the emerging of the Japanese state to the role of religion in contemporary Japan. Kami worship, the Buddhist tradition, Yin Yang divination, Confucianism, and the modern construct of Shinto are addressed in an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account insights from the fields of History, Literature, and Art. | ||
| RELG 354 | Chinese Religions. | 3 |
Chinese Religions. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the diverse religiosities in the Chinese cultural sphere. Examination of the everyday practice of ancestor worship, longevity practices, morality, rituals, and the veneration of deities and spirits. | ||
| RELG 364 | Intermediate Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Intermediate Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced Tibetan grammar, and translation of selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 365 | Intermediate Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Intermediate Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continuation of advanced Tibetan grammar and translation of selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 451 | Zen Buddhism: Poetry and Art. | 3 |
Zen Buddhism: Poetry and Art. Terms offered: Winter 2026 A general overview of Japanese Zen Buddhism through the reading of poetry, diaries, sculpture and architecture. | ||
| RELG 464 | Advanced Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Advanced Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Translation of specially selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 465 | Advanced Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Advanced Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continuation of translation of specially selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 549 | Japanese Buddhism in Historical Context. | 3 |
Japanese Buddhism in Historical Context. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This research-oriented seminar critically analyses key-questions from the field of pre-modern Japanese Buddhism. By engaging with recent research, students are expected to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and address questions and methodologies from both History and Buddhist Studies. | ||
Major EAS credit form
Honours
East Asian Studies Honours (B.A.) (60 credits)
Offered by: East Asian Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Program credit weight: 60
Program Description
The B.A.; Honours in East Asian Studies provides in-depth training in the humanistic studies of East Asia (including language, society, literature, history, media, religion, politics, and art). The program includes core survey on China, Japan, and Korea.
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Required Courses (6 credits)
Honours thesis:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 498D1 | Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. | 3 |
Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Supervised reading and preparation of an Honours thesis under the direction of a member of staff. | ||
| EAST 498D2 | Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. | 3 |
Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See EAST 498D1 for course description. | ||
Complementary Courses (54 credits)
Introduction to East Asian Culture
3-6 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 211 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Chinese culture. The course will also examine the changing representations of the Chinese cultural tradition in the West. Readings will include original sources in translation from the fields of literature, philosophy, religion, and cultural history. | ||
| EAST 212 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to Japan which presents various aspects of Japanese literature, culture, history, religions, philosophy and society. | ||
| EAST 213 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Korean culture, including Korean literature, religions, philosophy, and socio-economic formations. | ||
0-3 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 215 | Introduction to East Asian Art. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian Art. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introductory survey of some of the major developments in the visual arts of Japan, China, and Korea. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of artistic traditions in East Asia and the intersections among these traditions. | ||
| EAST 250 | Introduction to Asian Media Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Asian Media Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course explores core methods and theoretical approaches to media in Asia and beyond: material culture, technicity, media infrastructures, intermediality, circulation, platforms, regionalism, and institutional history. | ||
East Asian Language
24 credits of an East Asian language selected from the list below.
Note: Admission to language courses is subject to placement tests.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 220D1 | First Level Korean. | 4.5 |
First Level Korean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic structures of the standard Korean language. The aim of this course is to give students a basic knowledge of the Korean language. Special emphasis is put on handling everyday conversation, reading and writing short texts, and mastering basic grammar rules. | ||
| EAST 220D2 | First Level Korean. | 4.5 |
First Level Korean. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 220D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 230D1 | First Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
First Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic structures of Mandarin Chinese, Pin-yin romanization and 750 characters for reading and writing. Emphasis on developing aural and oral skills through communication games and interaction activities. Animated films are used as part of teaching materials. | ||
| EAST 230D2 | First Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
First Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 230D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 240D1 | First Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
First Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the basic grammar and sentence patterns of the Japanese language in both oral and written forms. In reading and writing skills students will be introduced to katakana, hiragana and kanji. | ||
| EAST 240D2 | First Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
First Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 240D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 241 | Japanese Writing Beginners 1. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Beginners 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Grammar, vocabulary, kanji, and introduction ofsome new expressions. | ||
| EAST 242 | Japanese Writing Beginners 2. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Beginners 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Grammar, vocabulary, kanji, and introduction ofsome new expressions. | ||
| EAST 320D1 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The aim of this course is to give students a fluent speaking ability in daily conversation, advanced grammar knowledge, improved reading and writing skills. Special emphasis is put on the efficient use of grammar, enrichment of vocabulary, and mastering useful expressions encountered in everyday life. | ||
| EAST 320D2 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 320D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 330D1 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The same communicative approach as in EAST 230 is used to develop aural and oral skills on daily topics. In addition to textbooks, Chinese films on videotapes will be incorporated as teaching materials. | ||
| EAST 330D2 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 330D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 340D1 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Continuation of the study of oral and written Japanese. | ||
| EAST 340D2 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 340D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 341 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji,focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 342 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji, focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 420 | Third Level Korean 1. | 3 |
Third Level Korean 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. grammar, enhancing written and oral comprehension and improving writing and speaking skills. | ||
| EAST 430D1 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A communicative approach will be used to provide students with skills to communicate in various situations, express their ideas and feelings, and discuss various aspects of culture and life in China and in Canada. Teaching materials include Chinese movies on videotape and slides depicting Chinese life and culture. | ||
| EAST 430D2 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 430D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 440D1 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 More advanced study of the Japanese language. Emphasis will be placed on reading. | ||
| EAST 440D2 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 440D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 530D1 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Development of skills required to conduct academic discussions in oral as well as in written forms. Teaching materials include original texts from Chinese newspapers, Chinese literature and videos. | ||
| EAST 530D2 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 530D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 533 | Classical Chinese 1. | 3 |
Classical Chinese 1. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the grammar and syntax of classical Chinese. Readings are selected from well-known Confucian and Taoist classics, and philosophical and historical writings from premodern China. | ||
| EAST 540D1 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced study of Japanese, with emphasis on reading Japanese newspapers. Classes will be conducted entirely in Japanese. | ||
| EAST 540D2 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 540D1 for course description. | ||
East Asian Literature, Culture and Society
24 credits of courses in East Asian Literature, Culture and Society.
East Asian Studies (EAST)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 303 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 304 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 305 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 306 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 307 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 308 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 313 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 314 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 350 | Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Gender and sexuality in modern and/or premodern Chinese literature with emphasis on representation of gender relations, notions of masculinity and femininity, morality and sexuality. Readings from fiction, drama, poetry, and/or other genres are approached from a variety of critical perspectives. | ||
| EAST 351 | Women Writers of China. | 3 |
Women Writers of China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of fiction, drama, and poetry by women writers in imperial, modern, and/or contemporary China. | ||
| EAST 352 | Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will examine traditional and/or modern genres of Chinese literature with a focus on different forms of Chinese and Western literary analysis. | ||
| EAST 353 | Approaches to Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Approaches to Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Development of Chinese film in the 20th century, with an emphasis on both critical approaches to film as well as film history. | ||
| EAST 361 | Animation and New Media. | 3 |
Animation and New Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Animation and new media in East Asia, with an emphasis on postwar developments. | ||
| EAST 362 | Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course will study the development of film in Japan during the 20th century with a particular focus on the analysis of film form, genres and history. | ||
| EAST 363 | Early and Medieval Japan. | 3 |
Early and Medieval Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines cultural production in early and medieval Japan, focusing on calligraphy, painting, picture scrolls, gestures and their relation to textual production. Readings explore various classic texts, taboos against seeing and narrative modes of cognition. | ||
| EAST 364 | Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. | 3 |
Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course addresses a number of analytic approaches to mass culture in order to examine the culture industry of post-war Japan. Emphasis on narrative strategies in popular or consumer fiction and on the problems of marginalized writers. | ||
| EAST 369 | Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In this course, we examine contesting notions of gender, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in Asian cinema and media. We study how individual works negotiate the social discourses on gender and sexual representation, identities, and performance, and how we may borrow conceptual frameworks from queer theories and histories at large to discuss them. | ||
| EAST 370 | History of Sexuality in Japan. | 3 |
History of Sexuality in Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Social and cultural history of sexuality in Japan. Possible topics include pre-modern sexuality and relations to court, religion and anthropology; pre-modern sex and gender relations; modern sexuality and gender identities; sexuality and the rise of science; relation to nationalism; feminism and queer movements. | ||
| EAST 372 | Topics in Television: Asia. | 3 |
Topics in Television: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course approaches television and televisuality historically, in regional, transnational, and global perspectives. | ||
| EAST 375 | Korean Media and Popular Culture. | 3 |
Korean Media and Popular Culture. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course approaches popular culture and mass media in postwar Korea from historical and theoretical perspectives, with a focus on the connections between activism, mass media, and commodity culture. | ||
| EAST 377 | Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. | 3 |
Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Investigation of cinema's border-crossing modes of cultural production, reception, and circulation, to uncover the ways that the study of culture enriches current theories and approaches to the transnational. | ||
| EAST 388 | Asian Migrations and Diasporas. | 3 |
Asian Migrations and Diasporas. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Asian migrations and diasporas. Topics include colonialism and diaspora, transnationalism, globalization, citizenship, migration and the state, gender and migration, human trafficking, and forced migration. | ||
| EAST 410 | Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture | 3 |
Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture Terms offered: Fall 2025 China's martial tradition; themes such as war, revenge, justice, and the use of violence, alongside martial arts. Topics include: philosophical discourses on war, literary nationalism, and representations of these themes in literature, film, digital media, and games. Spanning from the 6th century BCE to the 20th century, the key periods and genres of Chinese literature and martial traditions beyond popular media. | ||
| EAST 453 | Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected genres, themes and issues in Chinese literature. | ||
| EAST 454 | Topics: Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected themes and issues in Chinese film. | ||
| EAST 461 | Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. | 3 |
Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the modern Japanese novel as a form which both affirms and resists the form of the European novel. Readings explore the particular problems of the Japanese novel in the context of modernization, westernization, and colonialism. | ||
| EAST 462 | Japan in Asia. | 3 |
Japan in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduces theories of cultural interaction, interpellation, and intertexuality in order to reconsider Japanese modes of reception and selection of Chinese texts and technologies. Readings range from early Japanese to 20th century texts. Readings in translation. | ||
| EAST 464 | Image, Text, Performance. | 3 |
Image, Text, Performance. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Drawing on theoretical approaches from a variety of cultural and media studies, including cinema, performance and performativity, and elsewhere, this course addresses cultural production in premodern and/or modern East Asia. Topics to be addressed range from calligraphy and writing, to theatre, and film. | ||
| EAST 467 | Topics: Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics in the study of Japanese cinema. | ||
| EAST 468 | Science and Technology: Asia. | 3 |
Science and Technology: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. History of science and technology in Asia with an emphasis on social and cultural impact and the legacy non-Western traditions. | ||
| EAST 477 | Media and Environment in Asia. | 3 |
Media and Environment in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course explores the intersection between media and "environment" in Asia and beyond; topics range from media ecology, cybernetics, environmental art and activism, urban planning, and the history of communications networks in Asia in the modern period. | ||
| EAST 478 | Topics: Korean Film and Media. | 3 |
Topics: Korean Film and Media. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in the study of Korean film and media. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 491 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 492 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 493 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2026 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 494 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 501 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 502 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 503 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 504 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 505 | Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Korean culture and society. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 515 | Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. | 3 |
Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the cultural stakes and ethical implications of applying Western European models of understanding to East Asian societies. Provides background on interdisciplinary debates around "otherness", "cultural appropriation", and "postcolonialism", focusing on their history within East Asian Studies and their impact on that field's methodological assumptions, self-definition, and institutional practices. | ||
| EAST 525 | Critical Area Studies in Asia. | 3 |
Critical Area Studies in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course introduces students to foundational concepts, key debates, recent research areas, theoretical methods, and critical approached in area studies. | ||
| EAST 527 | Culture and Capital in Asia. | 3 |
Culture and Capital in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar introduces the major anthropological, psychological, and political economic theories of the relation between culture and capital that have affected social and political formations in East Asia. Language of Instruction: English. | ||
| EAST 550 | Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. | 3 |
Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of major themes and genres of classical Chinese poetry from its beginnings to the Yuan dynasty (14th century), with emphasis on critical analysis of text and context. Readings of poems in the original. | ||
| EAST 551 | Technologies of Self in Early China. | 3 |
Technologies of Self in Early China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Readings on self-cultivation drawn from Confucian, Legalist, and Taoist philosophic texts of early China (5th-2nd centuries B.C.) in translation will be compared with historical and archaeological materials on the evolving construction of the "individual'' in Chinese social structure, military organization, political and ritual codes. | ||
| EAST 559 | Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year, ranging from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
| EAST 562 | Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. | 3 |
Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines Japanese theories of literary production and practice with an emphasis on 20th century thought. | ||
| EAST 564 | Structures of Modernity: Asia. | 3 |
Structures of Modernity: Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course explores relations between some of the principal sites which structure the experience of "modernity" in Asia (and elsewhere) - from bodies and cities, to the urban context in general. Along with general approaches (e.g. the idea of everyday life; questions of time), specific topics may include speed, music, architecture, crime, etc. | ||
| EAST 569 | Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
Anthropology (ANTH)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 331 | Prehistory of East Asia. | 3 |
Prehistory of East Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Comparative study of prehistoric hunting and gathering cultures in China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Eastern Siberia; origins and dispersal of food production; cultural processes leading to the rise of literate civilizations in certain regions of East Asia. | ||
| ANTH 500 | Chinese Diversity and Diaspora. | 3 |
Chinese Diversity and Diaspora. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores ethnic diversity within mainland China, as well as the diversity of Chinese cultures of diaspora, living outside the mainland, often as minorities subject to other dominant cultures. | ||
Economics (ECON)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ECON 335 | The Japanese Economy. | 3 |
The Japanese Economy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The first part of the course covers the economic institutions in, changing structure of, and public policies employed by the Japanese economy. The second part probes the economic "logic" of the Japanese capitalist system, explores its relationship to the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, and makes comparisons with the American economy. | ||
| ECON 411 | Economic Development: A World Area. | 3 |
Economic Development: A World Area. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced course in the economic development of a pre-designated underdeveloped country or a group of countries. | ||
Geography (GEOG)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG 408 | Geography of Development. | 3 |
Geography of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the geographical dimensions of development policy, specifically the relationships between the process of development and human-induced environmental change. Focuses on environmental sustainability, struggles over resource control, population and poverty, and levels of governance (the role of the state, non-governmental organizations, and local communities). | ||
History (HIST)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| HIST 208 | Introduction to East Asian History. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian History. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An introduction to the history of East Asian civilization from earliest times to 1600, with emphasis on China and Japan, including social, intellectual, and economic developments as well as political history. | ||
| HIST 218 | Modern East Asian History. | 3 |
Modern East Asian History. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the history of China and Japan from the seventeenth century to the present, including modernization, nationalism, and the interaction of the two countries. | ||
| HIST 308 | Formation of Chinese Tradition. | 3 |
Formation of Chinese Tradition. Terms offered: Fall 2025 An examination of the multiple sources of the Chinese imperial system from the period of the neolithic culture interaction sphere to the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 C.E. Special attention is paid to socio-economic developments as well as to the evolution of philosophy, ideology, and social practice. The sequel to this course is HIST 358. | ||
| HIST 338 | Twentieth-Century China. | 3 |
Twentieth-Century China. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Examines 20th Century China from the fall of the Qing, through Republican China, the emergence of communism, war with Japan, revolution and civil war, the Cultural Revolution, and later economic reforms. | ||
| HIST 358 | China's Middle Empires. | 3 |
China's Middle Empires. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Developments of China's middle empires, ca. 600-1300 CE. Studies changing international relations, rapid commercialization, religious developments, the rise of the civil service examination system, and ensuing social change. | ||
| HIST 439 | History of Women in China. | 3 |
History of Women in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines the changing roles of women in traditional and modern China. Topics include political, social, and legal status, sexuality and medicine, religion and culture. | ||
| HIST 441 | Topics: Culture and Ritual in China. | 3 |
Topics: Culture and Ritual in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of selected aspects of the cultural and intellectual life of China. Topics vary from year to year, but include the history of popular religion, Chinese science and medicine, the esoteric arts including divination practices, law, and the influence of ideas in the production of Chinese culture. | ||
| HIST 442 | Asian Diaspora: Chinese Overseas. | 3 |
Asian Diaspora: Chinese Overseas. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The contexts and causes of Chinese emigration; historical patterns of migration; Overseas Chinese communities on five continents, with emphasis on Southeast Asia and North America; alienation and identity in Chinatown; relations between the Overseas Chinese and China. | ||
| HIST 443 | Topics: Modern Japan. | 3 |
Topics: Modern Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An intensive study of selected aspects related to the history of modern Japan. | ||
| HIST 445 | Late Imperial China. | 3 |
Late Imperial China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the social and economic history of Late Imperial China, focusing on the Ming and early to mid Qing Dynasties (1368 - 1800), and current interpretations thereof. Was this a discrete period in Chinese history? If so, why. | ||
| HIST 508 | The Art of War in China. | 3 |
The Art of War in China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the historical development of military theory and practice from earliest times to 1911 from a variety of perspectives, technological, scientific, social, and cultural. | ||
| HIST 568D1 | Topics in Chinese History. | 3 |
Topics in Chinese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A research seminar on aspects of Chinese history from early time to the present, with emphasis on social history. | ||
| HIST 568D2 | Topics in Chinese History. | 3 |
Topics in Chinese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See HIST 568D1 for course description. | ||
| HIST 578D1 | Seminar in Japanese History. | 3 |
Seminar in Japanese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Particular attention will be paid to Japanese responses to the impact of Western culture from the sixteenth century, and to aspects of Japanese intellectual history. | ||
| HIST 578D2 | Seminar in Japanese History. | 3 |
Seminar in Japanese History. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See HIST 578D1 for course description. | ||
Management (ORGB)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ORGB 380 | Cross Cultural Management. | 3 |
Cross Cultural Management. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Addresses dilemmas and opportunities that managers experience in international, multicultural environments. Development of conceptual knowledge and behavioural skills (e.g. bridging skills, communication, tolerance of ambiguity, cognitive complexity) relevant to the interaction of different cultures in business and organizational settings, using several methods including research, case studies and experiential learning. | ||
Political Science (POLI)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| POLI 349 | Foreign Policy: Asia. | 3 |
Foreign Policy: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the foreign policies of two rising powers - China and India - in addition to Japan, covering the historical evolution, goals and determinants of their foreign policies, interactions with the rest of Asia and the world, and efforts at institutionalised cooperation in South and East Asia. | ||
Religious Studies (RELG)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| RELG 253 | Religions of East Asia. | 3 |
Religions of East Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course introduces East Asia's major religions comparatively by addressing the continuous exchange of ideas and practices between traditions. Rather than adopting a mere chronological approach, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism will be discussed thematically, taking in to account topics such as gender constructs, the secular and the sacred, material culture, and the apparent contrast between doctrine and practice. | ||
| RELG 264 | Introductory Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Introductory Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. | ||
| RELG 265 | Introductory Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Introductory Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A continuation of the introduction to the language of Classical Tibetan, specifically Tibetan script and basic grammar. | ||
| RELG 344 | Mahayana Buddhism. | 3 |
Mahayana Buddhism. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Investigation of Mahayana schools of thought based on reading of key sutras and commentarial literature. | ||
| RELG 352 | Japanese Religions: History and Thought. | 3 |
Japanese Religions: History and Thought. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course provides an in-depth introduction to the religious traditions of Japan from the emerging of the Japanese state to the role of religion in contemporary Japan. Kami worship, the Buddhist tradition, Yin Yang divination, Confucianism, and the modern construct of Shinto are addressed in an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account insights from the fields of History, Literature, and Art. | ||
| RELG 354 | Chinese Religions. | 3 |
Chinese Religions. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the diverse religiosities in the Chinese cultural sphere. Examination of the everyday practice of ancestor worship, longevity practices, morality, rituals, and the veneration of deities and spirits. | ||
| RELG 364 | Intermediate Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Intermediate Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced Tibetan grammar, and translation of selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 365 | Intermediate Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Intermediate Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continuation of advanced Tibetan grammar and translation of selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 451 | Zen Buddhism: Poetry and Art. | 3 |
Zen Buddhism: Poetry and Art. Terms offered: Winter 2026 A general overview of Japanese Zen Buddhism through the reading of poetry, diaries, sculpture and architecture. | ||
| RELG 464 | Advanced Tibetan 1. | 3 |
Advanced Tibetan 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Translation of specially selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 465 | Advanced Tibetan 2. | 3 |
Advanced Tibetan 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Continuation of translation of specially selected Tibetan texts. | ||
| RELG 549 | Japanese Buddhism in Historical Context. | 3 |
Japanese Buddhism in Historical Context. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This research-oriented seminar critically analyses key-questions from the field of pre-modern Japanese Buddhism. By engaging with recent research, students are expected to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and address questions and methodologies from both History and Buddhist Studies. | ||
Honors EAS credit form
honours_east_asian_studies.docx
Joint Honours
East Asian Studies Joint Honours Component (B.A.) (36 credits)
Offered by: East Asian Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 36
Program Description
The Joint Honours - East Asian Studies Component provides in-depth training in the humanistic studies of East Asia (including language, society, literature, history, media, religion, politics, and art). The program includes core survey on China, Japan, and Korea. and progresses to upper-level lectures and seminars that allow students to tailor an individualized program of study. Half of the coursework will be done in East Asian Studies and the other half in another program within the Faculty of the Arts.
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Required Course (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 495D1 | Joint Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. | 1.5 |
Joint Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Supervised reading and preparation of an Honours thesis under the direction of a member of staff. | ||
| EAST 495D2 | Joint Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. | 1.5 |
Joint Honours Thesis: East Asian Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See EAST 495D1 for course description. | ||
Complementary Courses (33 credits)
Introduction to East Asian Culture
3-6 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 211 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: China. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Chinese culture. The course will also examine the changing representations of the Chinese cultural tradition in the West. Readings will include original sources in translation from the fields of literature, philosophy, religion, and cultural history. | ||
| EAST 212 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to Japan which presents various aspects of Japanese literature, culture, history, religions, philosophy and society. | ||
| EAST 213 | Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. | 3 |
Introduction: East Asian Culture: Korea. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course provides a critical introduction to central themes in Korean culture, including Korean literature, religions, philosophy, and socio-economic formations. | ||
0-3 credits selected from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 215 | Introduction to East Asian Art. | 3 |
Introduction to East Asian Art. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introductory survey of some of the major developments in the visual arts of Japan, China, and Korea. Emphasis will be placed on the diversity of artistic traditions in East Asia and the intersections among these traditions. | ||
| EAST 250 | Introduction to Asian Media Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Asian Media Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The course explores core methods and theoretical approaches to media in Asia and beyond: material culture, technicity, media infrastructures, intermediality, circulation, platforms, regionalism, and institutional history. | ||
East Asian Language
18 credits in an East Asian language above the introductory level selected from the following courses:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 320D1 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The aim of this course is to give students a fluent speaking ability in daily conversation, advanced grammar knowledge, improved reading and writing skills. Special emphasis is put on the efficient use of grammar, enrichment of vocabulary, and mastering useful expressions encountered in everyday life. | ||
| EAST 320D2 | Second Level Korean. | 4.5 |
Second Level Korean. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 320D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 330D1 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 The same communicative approach as in EAST 230 is used to develop aural and oral skills on daily topics. In addition to textbooks, Chinese films on videotapes will be incorporated as teaching materials. | ||
| EAST 330D2 | Second Level Chinese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 330D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 340D1 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Continuation of the study of oral and written Japanese. | ||
| EAST 340D2 | Second Level Japanese. | 4.5 |
Second Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 340D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 341 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji,focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 342 | Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. | 3 |
Japanese Writing Intermediate 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Intermediate grammar, vocabulary and kanji, focusing on writing skills and reading comprehension. | ||
| EAST 420 | Third Level Korean 1. | 3 |
Third Level Korean 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. grammar, enhancing written and oral comprehension and improving writing and speaking skills. | ||
| EAST 430D1 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 A communicative approach will be used to provide students with skills to communicate in various situations, express their ideas and feelings, and discuss various aspects of culture and life in China and in Canada. Teaching materials include Chinese movies on videotape and slides depicting Chinese life and culture. | ||
| EAST 430D2 | Third Level Chinese. | 3 |
Third Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 430D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 440D1 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 More advanced study of the Japanese language. Emphasis will be placed on reading. | ||
| EAST 440D2 | Third Level Japanese. | 3 |
Third Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 440D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 530D1 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Development of skills required to conduct academic discussions in oral as well as in written forms. Teaching materials include original texts from Chinese newspapers, Chinese literature and videos. | ||
| EAST 530D2 | Fourth Level Chinese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Chinese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 530D1 for course description. | ||
| EAST 533 | Classical Chinese 1. | 3 |
Classical Chinese 1. Terms offered: Winter 2026 An introduction to the grammar and syntax of classical Chinese. Readings are selected from well-known Confucian and Taoist classics, and philosophical and historical writings from premodern China. | ||
| EAST 540D1 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced study of Japanese, with emphasis on reading Japanese newspapers. Classes will be conducted entirely in Japanese. | ||
| EAST 540D2 | Fourth Level Japanese. | 3 |
Fourth Level Japanese. Terms offered: Winter 2026 See EAST 540D1 for course description. | ||
East Asian Studies (EAST)
9 credits chosen from the following East Asian Studies courses, at least 3 credits must be at the 400-level or above.
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| EAST 303 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 304 | Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Chinese Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 305 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 306 | Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Japanese studies. The content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 307 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 308 | Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. | 3 |
Topics: East Asian Language and Literature 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of East Asian literature and/or language. | ||
| EAST 311 | Rebellion and Revolution in Modern China | 3 |
Rebellion and Revolution in Modern China Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of the role of rebellion and revolution in shaping 19th and 20th century China. Covers major movements like the Taiping, the Boxers, the Kuomintang, and the Chinese Communist Party, with attention to their political, social, and cultural impact. | ||
| EAST 313 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 314 | Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. | 3 |
Current Topics: Korean Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of important issues in Korean Studies. Content of the course will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 350 | Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Gender and sexuality in modern and/or premodern Chinese literature with emphasis on representation of gender relations, notions of masculinity and femininity, morality and sexuality. Readings from fiction, drama, poetry, and/or other genres are approached from a variety of critical perspectives. | ||
| EAST 351 | Women Writers of China. | 3 |
Women Writers of China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of fiction, drama, and poetry by women writers in imperial, modern, and/or contemporary China. | ||
| EAST 352 | Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will examine traditional and/or modern genres of Chinese literature with a focus on different forms of Chinese and Western literary analysis. | ||
| EAST 353 | Approaches to Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Approaches to Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025, Winter 2026 Development of Chinese film in the 20th century, with an emphasis on both critical approaches to film as well as film history. | ||
| EAST 361 | Animation and New Media. | 3 |
Animation and New Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Animation and new media in East Asia, with an emphasis on postwar developments. | ||
| EAST 362 | Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course will study the development of film in Japan during the 20th century with a particular focus on the analysis of film form, genres and history. | ||
| EAST 363 | Early and Medieval Japan. | 3 |
Early and Medieval Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines cultural production in early and medieval Japan, focusing on calligraphy, painting, picture scrolls, gestures and their relation to textual production. Readings explore various classic texts, taboos against seeing and narrative modes of cognition. | ||
| EAST 364 | Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. | 3 |
Mass Culture and Postwar Japan. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course addresses a number of analytic approaches to mass culture in order to examine the culture industry of post-war Japan. Emphasis on narrative strategies in popular or consumer fiction and on the problems of marginalized writers. | ||
| EAST 369 | Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. | 3 |
Gender and Sexuality in Asian Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. In this course, we examine contesting notions of gender, sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in Asian cinema and media. We study how individual works negotiate the social discourses on gender and sexual representation, identities, and performance, and how we may borrow conceptual frameworks from queer theories and histories at large to discuss them. | ||
| EAST 370 | History of Sexuality in Japan. | 3 |
History of Sexuality in Japan. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Social and cultural history of sexuality in Japan. Possible topics include pre-modern sexuality and relations to court, religion and anthropology; pre-modern sex and gender relations; modern sexuality and gender identities; sexuality and the rise of science; relation to nationalism; feminism and queer movements. | ||
| EAST 372 | Topics in Television: Asia. | 3 |
Topics in Television: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course approaches television and televisuality historically, in regional, transnational, and global perspectives. | ||
| EAST 375 | Korean Media and Popular Culture. | 3 |
Korean Media and Popular Culture. Terms offered: Fall 2025 This course approaches popular culture and mass media in postwar Korea from historical and theoretical perspectives, with a focus on the connections between activism, mass media, and commodity culture. | ||
| EAST 377 | Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. | 3 |
Topics: Transnational Asian Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Investigation of cinema's border-crossing modes of cultural production, reception, and circulation, to uncover the ways that the study of culture enriches current theories and approaches to the transnational. | ||
| EAST 388 | Asian Migrations and Diasporas. | 3 |
Asian Migrations and Diasporas. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of Asian migrations and diasporas. Topics include colonialism and diaspora, transnationalism, globalization, citizenship, migration and the state, gender and migration, human trafficking, and forced migration. | ||
| EAST 402 | Age of Samurai | 3 |
Age of Samurai Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of the history, society, and culture of early modern Japan in the period of rule by the warrior class: the samurai. Examination of the formation and collapse of the samurai-dominated political order of the Tokugawa shogunate, as well as themes like social status, gender and sexuality, religion, and connections to the outside world during the period of Tokugawa rule. | ||
| EAST 410 | Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture | 3 |
Martial Tradition in Chinese Literature and Culture Terms offered: Fall 2025 China's martial tradition; themes such as war, revenge, justice, and the use of violence, alongside martial arts. Topics include: philosophical discourses on war, literary nationalism, and representations of these themes in literature, film, digital media, and games. Spanning from the 6th century BCE to the 20th century, the key periods and genres of Chinese literature and martial traditions beyond popular media. | ||
| EAST 445 | Late Imperial China | 3 |
Late Imperial China Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of Chinese society in the Ming and Qing eras (1368-1912) through the exploration of themes like gender and sexuality, family, law, ethnicity and borderlands, education, literary production, and political organization. | ||
| EAST 453 | Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected genres, themes and issues in Chinese literature. | ||
| EAST 454 | Topics: Chinese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Chinese Cinema. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in selected themes and issues in Chinese film. | ||
| EAST 461 | Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. | 3 |
Inventing Modern Japanese Novel. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the modern Japanese novel as a form which both affirms and resists the form of the European novel. Readings explore the particular problems of the Japanese novel in the context of modernization, westernization, and colonialism. | ||
| EAST 462 | Japan in Asia. | 3 |
Japan in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduces theories of cultural interaction, interpellation, and intertexuality in order to reconsider Japanese modes of reception and selection of Chinese texts and technologies. Readings range from early Japanese to 20th century texts. Readings in translation. | ||
| EAST 464 | Image, Text, Performance. | 3 |
Image, Text, Performance. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Drawing on theoretical approaches from a variety of cultural and media studies, including cinema, performance and performativity, and elsewhere, this course addresses cultural production in premodern and/or modern East Asia. Topics to be addressed range from calligraphy and writing, to theatre, and film. | ||
| EAST 467 | Topics: Japanese Cinema. | 3 |
Topics: Japanese Cinema. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics in the study of Japanese cinema. | ||
| EAST 468 | Science and Technology: Asia. | 3 |
Science and Technology: Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. History of science and technology in Asia with an emphasis on social and cultural impact and the legacy non-Western traditions. | ||
| EAST 477 | Media and Environment in Asia. | 3 |
Media and Environment in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course explores the intersection between media and "environment" in Asia and beyond; topics range from media ecology, cybernetics, environmental art and activism, urban planning, and the history of communications networks in Asia in the modern period. | ||
| EAST 478 | Topics: Korean Film and Media. | 3 |
Topics: Korean Film and Media. Terms offered: Fall 2025 Advanced seminar in the study of Korean film and media. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 491 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 492 | Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. | 3 |
Tutorial: East Asian Languages and Literatures 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Advanced reading course in language or literature. | ||
| EAST 493 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2026 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 494 | Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. | 3 |
Special Topics: East Asian Studies 2. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Advanced reading course under supervision of instructor on certain aspects of East Asian Studies. Topics will vary from year to year. | ||
| EAST 501 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 502 | Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Japanese Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 503 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025, Fall 2025 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 504 | Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Chinese Studies 2. Terms offered: Winter 2026 Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese culture and society. | ||
| EAST 505 | Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. | 3 |
Advanced Topics in Korean Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Korean culture and society. Taught in English. | ||
| EAST 515 | Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. | 3 |
Seminar: Beyond Orientalism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examines the cultural stakes and ethical implications of applying Western European models of understanding to East Asian societies. Provides background on interdisciplinary debates around "otherness", "cultural appropriation", and "postcolonialism", focusing on their history within East Asian Studies and their impact on that field's methodological assumptions, self-definition, and institutional practices. | ||
| EAST 525 | Critical Area Studies in Asia. | 3 |
Critical Area Studies in Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 The course introduces students to foundational concepts, key debates, recent research areas, theoretical methods, and critical approached in area studies. | ||
| EAST 527 | Culture and Capital in Asia. | 3 |
Culture and Capital in Asia. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar introduces the major anthropological, psychological, and political economic theories of the relation between culture and capital that have affected social and political formations in East Asia. Language of Instruction: English. | ||
| EAST 550 | Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. | 3 |
Classical Chinese Poetry Themes and Genres. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of major themes and genres of classical Chinese poetry from its beginnings to the Yuan dynasty (14th century), with emphasis on critical analysis of text and context. Readings of poems in the original. | ||
| EAST 551 | Technologies of Self in Early China. | 3 |
Technologies of Self in Early China. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Readings on self-cultivation drawn from Confucian, Legalist, and Taoist philosophic texts of early China (5th-2nd centuries B.C.) in translation will be compared with historical and archaeological materials on the evolving construction of the "individual'' in Chinese social structure, military organization, political and ritual codes. | ||
| EAST 559 | Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Chinese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Chinese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year, ranging from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
| EAST 562 | Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. | 3 |
Japanese Literary Theory and Practice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course examines Japanese theories of literary production and practice with an emphasis on 20th century thought. | ||
| EAST 564 | Structures of Modernity: Asia. | 3 |
Structures of Modernity: Asia. Terms offered: Winter 2026 This course explores relations between some of the principal sites which structure the experience of "modernity" in Asia (and elsewhere) - from bodies and cities, to the urban context in general. Along with general approaches (e.g. the idea of everyday life; questions of time), specific topics may include speed, music, architecture, crime, etc. | ||
| EAST 569 | Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. | 3 |
Advanced Topics: Japanese Literature. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Consideration of selected topics and aspects of Japanese literature. The content of the course may vary from year to year from contemporary to modern to pre-modern literature. | ||
Joint Honours EAS credit form
joint_honours_component_east_asian_studies.docx
FAQ-Honours
Major Undergraduate Program Director
Marianne Tarcov
680 Sherbrooke St. W. Room
Phone: 514-398-5882
Email: marianne.tarcov@mcgill.ca
Office hours: By appointment
Minor Program Advisors
Mrs. Myung Hee Kim
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:00 or by appointment
680 Sherbrooke St. W. Room 255
Phone: 514-398-5872
Email: myung.kim@mcgill.ca
Ms. Yasuko Senoo
Office Hours:
680 Sherbrooke St. W. Room
Phone: 514-398-6755
Email: yasuko.senoo@mcgill.ca
EAST Languages REGISTRATION policies
JAPANESE language registration policy:
A placement test prior to registration is not required. A placement test will be administered on the first day of class in the language course the student has registered in. If you miss the placement test, you may not be able to remain in the course.
Students with little or no prior knowledge can register for EAST 240. If you have taken a Japanese course at McGill, you can register for the next level. Based on the results of the placement test, instructors might recommend a change in level. We do not guarantee, however, that places will be available in the suggested course/level.
If you need consultation, you can send e-mail to one of the instructors. (Please note that they may not be available during the summer.)
All students with or without any background in Japanese MUST complete and submit the EAS Regulations for Registration Form and Japanese Placement Questionnaire and submit to the Instructor on the first day of class in the Fall. Students who fail to do so may not be able to remain in the course.
For the FALL 2023 semester: A placement test is not required prior to registration. Your course instructor will contact you about the first class and placement test before the first day of class.
For the WINTER 2025 semester: Japanese placement test (EAST 242 & EAST 342):
east242_342_japanese_placement_test_winter2025.pdf
For summer Japanese language courses: If you have studied Japanese before, including self-study, and/or you use Japanese at home, you must contact Ms. Tomoko Ikeda or Ms. Yasuko Senoo before registering for the summer course.
CHINESE language registration policy:
Students with no prior or little knowledge of Chinese should register in EAST 230. A placement test is not required prior to registration. These students must fill out the EAS Waiver Form and submit it to the instructor during the first day of class. Students who fail to do so will not be able to remain in the course.
All students with or without any background in Chinese Language must complete the EAS Regulations for Registration Form and return it to the instructor on the first day of class in the Fall semester.
Students who have registered in EAST 330, EAST 430, EAST 530, EAST 491 or EAST 535 must take a placement test or have an interview if they have not taken the next lower level course at McGill. Placement tests will be given on the first day of class. Placement interviews, if necessary, will be administered by appointment during the first week of class. If students miss the placement test or interview, they will not be able to remain in the course. Based on the results of the placement test, instructors might recommend a change in level. We do not guarantee, however, that places will be available in the suggested course/level.
KOREAN language registration policy:
Students with no prior or little knowledge of Korean should register in EAST 220. No placement test or interview are required prior to registration. All students should complete the EAS Waiver Form and hand it to the instructor during the first week of class. Students who fail to do so may not be able to remain in the course.
Students who successfully completed EAST 220 with a grade of "C" or better and wish to register in EAST 320, should do so without placement test.
All students registered in EAST 320, with or without any background in Korean Language, must complete the korean_language_regulations_2020_final.pdf, and return it to the Instructor on the first day of class. Students who fail to do so may not be able to remain in the course.
Students with background in Korean:
If you have studied Korean before, including self-study, and/or you use Korean at home, you can register in the course which seems appropriate to your level, but you must contact the instructor with a description of your level of Korean by email: myunghee.kim@mcgill.ca. Depending on the description, the instructor may suggest a change of the course you registered in or will schedule an interview with you to assess your level.
All students must complete the korean_language_regulations_2020_final.pdf and return it to the Instructor on the first day of class. Students who fail to do so may not be able to remain in the course.
Korean Language Summer courses:
If you have studied Korean before, including self-study, and/or you use Korean at home, you must contact Ms. Myunghee Kim before registering for the summer course.
Study Away:
Please follow the procedures outlined on the OASIS (Arts Advising) website.
Once your study away activity has been approved by your Department Advisor/Academic Unit, a travel registry form (only for international activity) will be created on Minerva.
Students planning to register at a university outside of Québec, must see a Department Advisor PRIOR to leaving for their study away. Retroactive credit will not be approved upon return from studies. Provide your advisor with detailed course descriptions, course syllabi, including methods of evaluation and reading lists.
Reread Policy
Reassessments and Rereads: Faculty of Arts
Please consult the Faculty of Arts Office of Advising and Student Information Services for the Policy concerning Reassessment of Course Work and Rereads of Final Exams.
Reread Policy: Department of East Asian Studies
Rereads for graduate courses are governed by policies of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.
Rereads for undergraduate courses (including 500-level courses) are governed by policies of the Faculty of Arts. In addition, the following departmental policy concerning only undergraduate rereads is to be followed:
- Students desiring their work to be re-evaluated shall first have a meeting concerning their assignment with the instructor.
- If this discussion does not satisfy the student's desire for a reread, the student may contact the Undergraduate Program Director (UPD). The student will submit a form (downloadable below), signing the form to indicate that the meeting in item 1. above has occurred, and attaching the assignment with the corrections and marks intact.
- The Undergraduate Program Director (UPD) will send this form to the instructor for counter-signature. In the event that the instructor claims that the meeting described in item 1. has not occurred, the Undergraduate Program Director (UPD) will bring the two parties together, and the process will not proceed until student and instructor have engaged in dialogue and tried to reach an agreement. After this discussion has taken place, if the student wishes, the process will move forward.
- The reread will take place according to Faculty of Arts policies. Please note: New Faculty policy requires that a request for a reread must occur within 10 working days of the date of the return of course work. Students must use diligence in obtaining corrected work.
- When the reread is complete, and the second reader has submitted a report, the Undergraduate Program Director (UPD) will inform both the student and the instructor of the result. The new grade may be higher, lower or remain unchanged, and will be final.
- In the case where the course instructor is also the UPD, the request for a reassessment should be submitted to the department Chair. The Chair will carry out the reassessment process as described above in the place of the UPD.