East Asian Studies Minor
East Asian studies addresses the three societies of China, Japan, and Korea in northeast Asia. We recognize that they compose a meaningful regional designation that contains a diverse range of peoples, languages, and cultures. Linked by centuries of common use of the Chinese writing system, a shared textual canon, general principles of statecraft, and the continual circulation of people and goods, the three societies nevertheless also possess distinctive languages, histories, and social identities, making it necessary to explore each society in its own right.
In recognition of this diversity within the common bonds, East Asian studies at UC Santa Cruz encourages students to explore East Asia in both depth and breadth. Building first upon developing language skills in Chinese or Japanese, students also begin their studies in a historical survey—HIS 40A, HIS 40B, HIS 80C, or HIS 81—which explore the broad regional forces that contextualize each society’s particular trajectory. From these foundations, students are encouraged to investigate a broad range of questions pertinent to each society in classes across the university, including anthropology, economics, education, feminist studies, film and digital media, history, history of art and visual culture, languages, linguistics, literature, music, politics, sociology, and theater arts.
The East Asian studies minor is administered by the Department of History. For additional information on curriculum and advising, visit the East Asian studies website.
Study Abroad
Because the minor is designed to support the integration of language training with exploration of East Asian societies, we strongly endorse participation in one of the many education abroad programs available for UC students in East Asia where language skills acquired at the university are put to practical use in daily life and research. At present, there are UC Education Abroad Programs in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Taiwan. Students who complete Chinese or Japanese language courses while studying abroad are expected to complete a language placement exam upon their return to UCSC. Instructions for the placement exam can be found on the Languages and Applied Linguistics website. For more information about study abroad, see the UC Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) and UCSC Study Abroad websites.
Course Requirements
The East Asian studies minor requires a minimum of six courses, five of which must be upper-division (minimum of 25 upper-division credits). Additional lower-division coursework in Chinese or Japanese language may be need in order to gain the proficiency necessary to take the upper-division Chinese or Japanese language courses required for this minor (see below).
Lower-Division Courses
Language
All East Asian studies minors are expected to gain proficiency in Chinese or Japanese language. Students without prior knowledge of Chinese or Japanese should enroll in beginning Chinese (CHIN 1) or Japanese (JAPN 1) no later than fall quarter of their second year. Students with prior knowledge of Chinese or Japanese are required to complete a language placement exam to determine which course of Chinese or Japanese language instruction best suits their skill level. Instructions for the placement exam may be found on the Languages and Applied Linguistics website. Students may also pursue study abroad opportunities as a way of acquiring Chinese or Japanese language instruction.
Core Courses
Choose one of the following courses:
Upper-Division Courses
Upper-Division Chinese or Japanese Language
All East Asian studies minors are required to complete two upper-division courses in Chinese language instruction or two upper-division courses in Japanese language instruction. Additional upper-division courses in Chinese or Japanese language may be applied to the upper-division electives requirements (see below).
Chinese Language Courses
CHIN 103 | Advanced Chinese: Language and Society | 5 |
CHIN 104 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in Literature | 5 |
CHIN 105 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in History | 5 |
CHIN 107 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Prose | 5 |
CHIN 108 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Poetry | 5 |
Japanese Language Courses
Upper-Division Electives
Three additional upper-division courses from the East Asian studies curriculum, one of which may be a topically appropriate individual study: CHIN 199, HIS 199, JAPN 199, LIT 199, etc.
ANTH 130C | Politics and Culture in China | 5 |
ANTH 130G | Asian Americans in Ethnography and Film | 5 |
CHIN 103 | Advanced Chinese: Language and Society | 5 |
CHIN 104 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in Literature | 5 |
CHIN 105 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in History | 5 |
CHIN 107 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Prose | 5 |
CHIN 108 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Poetry | 5 |
CHIN 199 | Tutorial | 5 |
ECON 126 | Why Economies Succeed or Fail: Lessons from Western and Japanese History | 5 |
ECON 149 | The Economies of East and Southeast Asia | 5 |
EDUC 170 | East Asian Schooling and Immigration | 5 |
HAVC 122A | Sacred Geography of China | 5 |
HAVC 122B | Constructing Lives in China: Biographies and Portraits | 5 |
HAVC 122C | Writing in China | 5 |
HAVC 122D | Chinese Landscape Painting | 5 |
HAVC 122F | Bodies in Chinese Culture | 5 |
HAVC 127A | Buddhist Visual Worlds | 5 |
HAVC 127B | Buddhist Pure Lands | 5 |
HAVC 190D | The World of the Lotus Sutra | 5 |
HAVC 190F | Chan Texts and Images | 5 |
HAVC 190G | Buddhist Wisdom Traditions | 5 |
HIS 101D | World History of Science | 5 |
HIS 101F | Global Environmental History | 5 |
HIS 106B | Asian and Asian American History, 1941-Present | 5 |
HIS 140B | History of Qing China, 1644-1911 | 5 |
HIS 140C | Revolutionary China 1895-1960 | 5 |
HIS 140D | Recent Chinese History | 5 |
HIS 140E | Women in China's Long 20th Century | 5 |
HIS 145 | Gender, Colonialism, and Third-World Feminisms | 5 |
HIS 150A | Emperors and Outcasts: Ancient Japan | 5 |
HIS 150B | Tokugawa Japan | 5 |
HIS 150C | Inventing Modern Japan: The State and the People | 5 |
HIS 150D | The Japanese Empire, 1868-1945 | 5 |
HIS 150E | History and Memory in the Okinawan Islands | 5 |
HIS 150F | Engendering Empires: Women in Modern Japan and Korea | 5 |
HIS 194B | Okinawan History | 5 |
HIS 194E | Women in Japanese History | 5 |
HIS 194G | China Since the Cultural Revolution: Histories of the Present | 5 |
HIS 194H | Gender, Family, and State in China: 1600-Present | 5 |
HIS 194M | Literati, Samurai, and Yangban: Comparative History of State and Elite in East Asia, 1600-1900 | 5 |
HIS 194U | The Cold War and East Asia | 5 |
HIS 194Y | Memories of WWII in the U.S. and Japan | 5 |
HIS 194Z | Historical Memory and Historical Narration in China | 5 |
JAPN 103 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
JAPN 104 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
JAPN 105 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
JAPN 109 | Japanese Language, Culture, and Society | 5 |
JAPN 199 | Tutorial | 5 |
LIT 133E | Contemporary Chinese Society, Culture, and Politics | 5 |
LIT 133F | Pacific Rim Discourse | 5 |
LIT 133G | The Nuclear Pacific | 5 |
LIT 133H | Haunted by the Forgotten War: Literature and Film of the Korean War | 5 |
LIT 133I | Global Japan: Literatures of the Japanese Diaspora | 5 |
LIT 141B
/HIS 141A
| Classical Chinese Culture and Literature, 10th Century B.C.E. through Sixth Century C.E | 5 |
LIT 141C
/HIS 141B
| Classical Chinese Culture and Literature, Sixth Century through 16th Century | 5 |
LIT 149C | The 1960s | 5 |
LIT 162B | Literature of the Asian Diaspora | 5 |
POLI 140D | Politics of East Asia | 5 |
POLI 141 | Politics of China | 5 |
POLI 161 | The Rise of China | 5 |
POLI 190T | Governance and Conflict in East Asia | 5 |
SOCY 128
/LGST 126
| Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies | 5 |
SOCY 128J
/LGST 128J
| The World Jury on Trial | 5 |
THEA 161D | Asian Theater: An Anthropological Approach | 5 |