East Asian studies

East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, history and political institutions. East Asian Studies is located within the broader field of Asian studies and is also interdisciplinary in character, incorporating elements of the social sciences (anthropology, economics, sociology, politics etc.) and humanities (literature, history, art, film, music, etc.), among others. The field encourages scholars from diverse disciplines to exchanges ideas on scholarship as it relates to the East Asian experience and the experience of East Asia in the world. In addition, the field encourages scholars to educate others to have a deeper understanding of and appreciation and respect for, all that is East Asia and, therefore, to promote peaceful human integration worldwide.

At universities throughout North America and the Western World, the study of East Asian Humanities is traditionally housed in EALC (East Asian Languages and Civilizations or Cultures) departments, which run majors in Chinese and Japanese Language and Literature and sometimes Korean Language and Literature. East Asian Studies programs, on the other hand, are typically interdisciplinary centers that bring together literary scholars, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, etc. from their various departments and schools to promote instructional programs, conferences and lecture series of common interest. East Asian Studies centers also often run interdisciplinary undergraduate and master's degree programs in East Asian Studies.

Subfields

Sinology

The sub-field dedicated to China, Chinese history, Chinese culture, Chinese literature, and the Chinese language. In the context of the Republic of China also specified as Taiwan studies (Academia Sinica).

Japanology

The sub-field dedicated to Japan, Japanese culture, Japanese history, Japanese literature, and the Japanese language. The foundation of the Asiatic Society of Japan at Yokohama in 1872 by men such as Ernest Satow and Frederick Victor Dickins was an important event in the development of Japanese studies as an academic discipline.

Koreanology

The sub-field dedicated to Korea, Korean culture, Korean history, Korean literature, and the Korean language. The term Korean studies first began to be used in the 1940s, but did not attain widespread currency until South Korea rose to economic prominence in the 1970s. In 1991, the South Korean government established the Korea Foundation to promote Korean studies.

Mongolian studies

The sub-field dedicated to Mongolia, Mongolian culture, Mongolian literature and the Mongolian language. Mongolian studies are also presented as a sub-field of the study of Inner Asia (as opposed to East Asia). The American Center for Mongolian Studies was founded in 2002.

History

In universities across the United States, as part of the opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s, younger faculty and graduate students criticized the field for complicity in what they saw as American imperialism. In particular, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars debated and published alternative approaches not centered in the United States or funded, as many American programs were, by the American government or major foundations. They charged that Japan was held up as a model of non-revolutionary modernization and the field focused on modernization theory in order to fend off revolution.

In the following decades, many critics were inspired by Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism, while others, writing from the point of view of the quantitative or theoretical social sciences, saw area studies in general and East Asian studies in particular, as amorphous and lacking in rigor.

Critiques were also mounted from other points in the political spectrum. Ramon H. Myers and Thomas A. Metzger, two scholars based at the generally conservative Hoover Institution, charged that "the 'revolution' paradigm increasingly overshadowed the 'modernization' paradigm" and "this fallacy has become integral to much of the writing on modern Chinese history", discrediting or ignoring other factors in the history of modern China.

In Europe, notable scholars of East Asian studies have long occupied professorships at prominent universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Italy, while recent publications also suggest that the “Nordic countries offer some unique contributions in the field of East Asian studies.”

Noted East Asian studies programmes

Australia

• Australian National University
• The University of Western Australia

Austria

• University of Vienna

Czech Republic

• Charles University in Prague
• Palacký University of Olomouc
• Masaryk University

Canada

• McGill University
• Simon Fraser University
• University of Alberta
• University of British Columbia
• University of Calgary
• Université de Montréal
• University of Toronto
• University of Victoria
• University of Waterloo
• University of Western Ontario – Huron University College
• York University

France

• INALCO
• Jean Moulin University Lyon 3
• Paris Diderot University
• School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

Germany

• Ruhr University Bochum
• University of Cologne
• University of Heidelberg
• University of Duisburg-Essen
• University of Würzburg

Hong Kong

• Chinese University of Hong Kong
• City University of Hong Kong

Finland

• University of Turku
• University of Helsinki

India

• Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi
• Jawaharlal Nehru University

Iran

• University of Tehran–Faculty Of World Studies

Italy

• Ca' Foscari University of Venice
• Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"
• Sapienza University of Rome

Japan

• Waseda University
• Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Taiwan

• National Chengchi University
• National Taiwan Normal University

Republic of Korea

• Sungkyunkwan University
• Sogang University
• Korea University
• Seoul National University
• Yonsei University

Lithuania

• Vytautas Magnus University

Macau

• University of Macau

Malaysia

• University of Malaya

Poland

• Jagiellonian University

Slovakia

• Comenius University in Bratislava

Singapore

• National University of Singapore

Spain

• Autonomous University of Barcelona
• Autonomous University of Madrid
• University of Málaga
• University of Salamanca
• University of Seville

Thailand

• Chulalongkorn University
• Thammasat University

United Kingdom

• University of Bristol
• University of Cambridge
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Kent
• University of Leeds
• School of Oriental and African Studies
• University of Manchester
• University of Nottingham
• University of Oxford
• University of Sheffield

United States

• Brown University
• Brigham Young University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Duke University
• Georgetown University
• Harvard University
• Florida International University
• Indiana University Bloomington
• Michigan State University
• Middlebury College
• New York University
• Ohio State University
• Princeton University
• Rutgers University
• St. John's University
• Stanford University
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• University of Chicago
• University of Hawaii at Manoa
• University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
• University of Iowa
• University of Kansas
• University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota
• University of Oregon
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Rochester
• University of Southern California
• University of Utah
• University of Virginia
• University of Washington
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Yale University

Journals

• Asian Culture
• Asian Survey
• Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
• Early China
• East Asian History
• Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
• Journal Asiatique
• Journal of Asian Studies
• Journal of Chinese Religions
• Journal of Chinese Studies
• Journal of Contemporary China
• Journal of East Asian Studies
• Late Imperial China
• Modern Asian Studies
• Modern China (journal)
• New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies
• Pacific Affairs
• The China Quarterly
• T'oung Pao

See also

• List of academic disciplines
• List of Korea-related topics

External links

• Nordic Association of Japanese and Korean Studies

Library guides to East Asian studies

• "East Asian Studies Subject Resources". Subject Guides. Australian National University Library. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
• C.V. Starr East Asian Library. "Research Guides". USA: University of California, Berkeley.
• "East Asian Studies". Research Guides. Los Angeles: University of California.
• "East Asian Studies". Research Guides. Harvard University Library. Archived from the original on 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2014-04-23.
• "East Asian Studies". Library Guides. USA: Johns Hopkins University. Archived from the original on 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2014-04-22.
• "East Asian Studies". Research Guides. USA: University of Michigan.
• "East Asian Studies Research Guides". Princeton LibGuides. USA: Princeton University Library. Archived from the original on 2012-12-03.
• "East Asian Studies". Research Guides. USA: University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. Archived from the original on 2013-12-25.
• "East Asian Studies in Western Languages". Library Subject Guides. USA: Yale University Library.