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 one of two historical surveys—HIS 40A or HIS 40B—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:
| HIS40A | Early Modern East Asia | 5 |
| HIS40B | The Making of Modern East Asia | 5 |
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
| CHIN103 | Advanced Chinese: Language and Society | 5 |
| CHIN104 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in Literature | 5 |
| CHIN105 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in History | 5 |
| CHIN107 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Prose | 5 |
| CHIN108 | 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.
| ANTH130C | Politics and Culture in China | 5 |
| ANTH130G | Asian Americans in Ethnography and Film | 5 |
| CHIN103 | Advanced Chinese: Language and Society | 5 |
| CHIN104 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in Literature | 5 |
| CHIN105 | Advanced Chinese: Readings in History | 5 |
| CHIN107 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Prose | 5 |
| CHIN108 | Introduction to Classical Chinese Poetry | 5 |
| CHIN199 | Tutorial | 5 |
| ECON126 | Why Economies Succeed or Fail: Lessons from Western and Japanese History | 5 |
| ECON149 | The Economies of East and Southeast Asia | 5 |
| EDUC170 | East Asian Schooling and Immigration | 5 |
| HAVC122A | Sacred Geography of China | 5 |
| HAVC122B | Constructing Lives in China: Biographies and Portraits | 5 |
| HAVC122C | Writing in China | 5 |
| HAVC122D | Chinese Landscape Painting | 5 |
| HAVC122F | Bodies in Chinese Culture | 5 |
| HAVC127A | Buddhist Visual Worlds | 5 |
| HAVC127B | Buddhist Pure Lands | 5 |
| HAVC190D | The World of the Lotus Sutra | 5 |
| HAVC190F | Chan Texts and Images | 5 |
| HAVC190G | Buddhist Wisdom Traditions | 5 |
| HIS101D | Topics in the World History of Science | 5 |
| HIS106B | Asian and Asian American History, 1941-Present | 5 |
| HIS140B | History of Qing China, 1644-1911 | 5 |
| HIS140C | Revolutionary China 1895-1960 | 5 |
| HIS140D | Recent Chinese History | 5 |
| HIS140E | Women in China's Long 20th Century | 5 |
| HIS145 | Gender, Colonialism, and Third-World Feminisms | 5 |
| HIS150A | Emperors and Outcasts: Ancient Japan | 5 |
| HIS150B | Tokugawa Japan | 5 |
| HIS150C | Inventing Modern Japan: The State and the People | 5 |
| HIS150D | The Japanese Empire, 1868-1945 | 5 |
| HIS150E | History and Memory in the Okinawan Islands | 5 |
| HIS150F | Engendering Empires: Women in Modern Japan and Korea | 5 |
| HIS194A
/FMST 194N
| Gender, Class, and Sex in Shanghai | 5 |
| HIS194B | Okinawan History | 5 |
| HIS194E | Women in Japanese History | 5 |
| HIS194F | Jewish Shanghai | 5 |
| HIS194G | China Since the Cultural Revolution: Histories of the Present | 5 |
| HIS194H | Gender, Family, and State in China: 1600-Present | 5 |
| HIS194I | U.S. Bases and Social Movements in Asia | 5 |
| HIS194M | Literati, Samurai, and Yangban: Comparative History of State and Elite in East Asia, 1600-1900 | 5 |
| HIS194U | The Cold War and East Asia | 5 |
| HIS194Y | Memories of WWII in the U.S. and Japan | 5 |
| HIS194Z | Historical Memory and Historical Narration in China | 5 |
| JAPN103 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
| JAPN104 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
| JAPN105 | Advanced Japanese | 5 |
| JAPN109 | Japanese Language, Culture, and Society | 5 |
| JAPN199 | Tutorial | 5 |
| LIT133E | Topics in Asian Modernism | 5 |
| LIT133F | Pacific Rim Discourse | 5 |
| LIT133G | The Nuclear Pacific | 5 |
| LIT133H | Haunted by the Forgotten War: Literature and Film of the Korean War | 5 |
| LIT133I | Global Japan: Literatures of the Japanese Diaspora | 5 |
| LIT141B
/HIS 141A
| Classical Chinese Culture and Literature, 10th Century B.C.E. through Sixth Century C.E | 5 |
| LIT141C
/HIS 141B
| Classical Chinese Culture and Literature, Sixth Century through 16th Century | 5 |
| LIT149C | The 1960s | 5 |
| LIT162B | Literature of the Asian Diaspora | 5 |
| POLI140D | Politics of East Asia | 5 |
| POLI141 | Politics of China | 5 |
| POLI161 | Foreign Relations of China | 5 |
| POLI190T | Governance and Conflict in East Asia | 5 |
| SOCY128
/LGST 126
| Law and Politics in Contemporary Japan and East Asian Societies | 5 |
| SOCY128J
/LGST 128J
| The World Jury on Trial | 5 |
| THEA161D | Asian Theater: An Anthropological Approach | 5 |