East Asian Languages and Civilizations

Ivy

In 2016, the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC) celebrated its fiftieth year as a formally established department. Today, the specializations of EALC faculty cover a wide range of cultures, topics, and historical periods, facilitating the Department’s encouragement of interdisciplinary and inter-regional projects. The Department’s language program offers Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, as well as classical Chinese, and kindai bungo. Studies in EALC are also further supported and expanded by the University of Chicago's Center for East Asian Studies, where students can engage with a wide variety of events relative to the department. MAPH students can take the entirety of their classes in EALC or explore offerings in other subjects, such as Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, Gender and Sexuality, and Theater and Performance Studies.

Selected Faculty

Portrait of Michael Bourdaghs

Michael K. Bourdaghs

Modern Japanese literature, culture, and intellectual history; popular music; literary and critical theory
Black and white portrait of Jacob Eyferth

Jacob Eyferth

Social history of twentieth-century China, in particular of the Chinese countryside; history of work, technology, gender, and everyday life
Portrait of Melissa Van Wyk

Melissa Van Wyk

Kabuki, early modern theater and performance, misemono, print and visual culture, disability studies, performance studies

Sample Courses

EALC 34225 - The History of the Book in East Asia: From Bamboo to Webtoon (Graeme Reynolds)
This seminar offers an overview of the development and history of the “book” and its physical forms, broadly conceived, in East Asia from ancient times to the present. Drawing on recent scholarship, selected primary sources, and rare books housed within the library system, this course familiarizes students with the evolution of the book and methods of book production in China, Korea, and Japan, the principles and practices of material bibliography and the application of such to physical and digital objects, and selected topics salient to the social and cultural meanings of books: authorship, the book trade, reading, censorship, and more.

EALC 34305 - Autobiographical Writings, Gender, and Modern Korea (Kyeong-Hee Choi)
This course explores the intersections between gender, the genre of autobiography, forms of media (written; oral; visual; audiovisual) and historical, cultural, and political contexts of modern Korea. The students read theoretical writings on autobiography and gender as well as selected Korean autobiographical writings while being introduced to Korean historical contexts especially as they relate to practice of publication in a broader sense. The focus of the course is placed on the female gender—on the relationship between Korean women’s life-experience, self-formation, and writing practices in particular while dealing with the gender relationship in general, although some relevant discussions on the male gender proceeds in parallel.

EALC 35620 - Japanese Animation: The Making of a Global Media (Thomas Lamarre)
This course offers an introduction to Japanese animation, from its origins in the 1910s to its emergence as global culture in the 1990s. The goal is not only to provide insight into Japanese animation within the context of Japan but also to consider those factors that have transformed it into a global cultural form with a diverse, worldwide fanbase. As such, the course approaches Japanese animation from three distinct perspectives on Japanese animation, which are designed to introduce students to three important methodological approaches to contemporary media — film studies, media studies, and fan studies or cultural studies. As we look at Japanese animation in light of these different conceptual frameworks, we will also consider how its transnational dissemination and ‘Asianization’ challenge some of our basic assumptions about global culture, which have been shaped primarily through the lens of Americanization.

EALC 38901 - Discovering Ancient East Asia: Themes in the Archaeology of China, Korea, and Japan (Yung-ti Li)
What happened to Peking Man? Where did rice cultivation begin and who made the first pottery? Why were hoards of bronzes buried and what were they used for? This course will explore themes such as the origins of humans, the beginning of agriculture, early villages and cities, metal technology, ancient writing systems, and the rise of states and civilizations in East Asia. It will also discuss the current state of archaeological research in Asia, and the role of archaeology in nation building and modern geopolitics. The rich resources available in the museums of Chicago will also be explored.

A complete listing of courses and descriptions is available at the EALC course page.

Recent East Asian Languages and Civilizations Thesis Projects

"Dreams of Women, Not Dreams of Men: A Close Reading of Female Characters in Mo Du"
Silin Chen, MAPH '21
Advisor: Melissa Van Wyk

"The Rise of Chinese Hip-Hop and Its Parodoxical Quest for Authenticity"
Mingsi Ma, MAPH '21
Advisor: Michael Bourdaghs

"“Weaker than Women”: Liang Qichao’s Gender Metaphor and the Birth of Chinese Nationalism in the Early Twentieth Century"
Yizeng Wei, MAPH '21
Advisor: Jacob Eyferth

"The Depiction of Colonial Korea Through Film"
Bernard Kim, MAPH '19
Advisor: Hoyt Long