Chinese Language and Literature Courses

Chinese 1B

1B. Elementary Chinese. A continuation of Chinese 1A, Chinese 1B develops listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern standard Chinese, using pinyin and simplified characters. Five hours in class, two hours in the language laboratory, and one required half-hour tutorial meeting every week. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A; or consent of instructor.

Please note: Chinese 1B is for students who: 1) are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment; or 2) are of Chinese origin but do not speak any dialect of Chinese and whose parents do not speak any dialect of Chinese. Students are responsible for enrolling in the appropriate level and section. They must also accurately inform instructors about their language proficiency level. Any student who enrolls in a class below his/her level will be dropped from the class. The required tutorial sections will be scheduled once classes begin.

Chinese 1BX

1BX. Elementary Chinese for Mandarin Speakers. The course teaches both pinyin and traditional characters, introduces functional vocabulary, and provides a systematic review of grammar. The class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, one hour a day. Prerequisites: Chinese 1AX; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 1BY

1BY. Elementary Chinese for Speakers of Other Dialects. Chinese 1BY, an elementary Mandarin Chinese course for non-Mandarin speaking Chinese dialect heritage learners, is a continuation of Chinese 1AY. The course provides further training in language skills. Linguistic forms and ways of using them are taught to meet learners' language needs. The course prepares Chinese dialect heritage learners to merge with Mandarin heritage learners at an intermediate level for continuous learning.one Five in-class hours and an additional one-hour tutorial meeting is required every week. Prerequisites: Chinese 1AY; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 7B

7B. Introduction to Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. Chinese 7B is the second semester in a year long sequence introducing students to the literatures and cultures of China. We will read many of the major authors, works, and literary genres from the Yuan Dynasty to modern times, and place these writings in their historical, cultural, and material contexts. This course does not assume or require any previous exposure to or coursework in Chinese literature, history, or language.

Chinese 10B

10B. Intermediate Chinese. The course, a continuation of Chinese 10A, is designed to develop the student's reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities in Chinese, and teaches both simplified and traditional characters. Additional time is required for tutorials and language lab. Prerequisites: Chinese 10A; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 10BX

10BX. Intermediate Chinese for Mandarin Speakers. Continuation of Chinese 10AX, an intermediate-level course for Mandarin speakers. The course teaches both pinyin and traditional characters, develops a functional vocabulary, and provides a systematic review of grammar. Three one-hour meetings in class and two one-hour periods in the language or computer lab per week. Prerequisites: Chinese 10AX; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 100B

100B. Advanced Chinese. The goal of the course is to introduce modern Chinese culture while developing competence in reading, speaking and writing standard modern Chinese. The readings include stories, essays, and plays, mostly by leading writers of recent decades. Students prepare in advance, then read and discuss in Chinese in class. Literary aspects are discussed in addition to problems of vocabulary and syntax. A half-hour tutorial meeting is required every week. Prerequisites: Chinese 100A; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 100BX

100BX. Advanced Chinese for Mandarin Speakers. Continuation of Chinese 100AX, an advanced-level course for Mandarin speakers with intermediate-level knowledge of reading and writing in Chinese. The goal of the course is to introduce modern Chinese society through reading materials and discussion. The reading materials include stories, essays, and plays, mostly by leading writers of recent decades. Three one-hour meetings in class and two one-hour periods in the language or computer lab per week. Prerequisites: Chinese 100AX; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 102

102. Readings in Modern Chinese - Social Sciences and Literature. The emphasis of this course is on Chinese social, political, and journalistic readings. The readings are further supplemented by newspaper articles. Students are required to turn in essays written in journalistic style in Chinese. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 110B

110B. Introduction to Literary Chinese. The second half of a one-year introductory course in literary Chinese, continuing the study of grammatical structures and classical usage from the first semester, and introducing the use of basic reference sources. Readings for this semester will be drawn from a range of literary, philosophical, and historiographical texts through the Song Dynasty. Prerequisites: Chinese 110A; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 112

112. Fifth-Year Chinese B. This course is designed to bring up the students to advanced-high competence in all aspects of modern Chinese; it aims to prepare students for research or employment in a variety of China-related fields. Materials are drawn from native-speaker target publications, including modern Chinese literature, film, intellectual history, and readings on contemporary issues. Radio and TV broadcasts will also be included among the teaching materials. Texts will be selected, in part, according to the students' interests. With the instructor's guidance, students will conduct their own research projects based on specialized readings in their own fields of study. The research projects will be presented both orally and in written form by the end of the semester. Prerequisites: Chinese 102; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 134

134. Readings in Classical Chinese Poetry. This course will introduce students to the critical analysis and translation of a wide-ranging selection of poems (and some poetic essays) from the Six Dynasties through the Song Dynasty. As students acquire the skills to read poems in the original, they will also develop their sensitivity to the particularities of individual style, the evolution of genres and the expressive uses of the formal features that typically comprise poetic writing. Along the way, students will consider the changing intellectual and historical contexts in which the poems were created and circulated. Among the many topics that will be discussed are: modes of self-presentation; the poetic expression of time and temporality; lyrical uses of space and visuality; uses of the past, narration and ellipsis; poetic explorations of Daoist, Confucian and Buddhist ideas. Prerequisites: Chinese 110A or the equivalent. Recommended: Chinese 7A or History 6A.

Chinese 157

157. Contemporary Chinese Literature. This course will introduce students to selected works of Chinese literature written in the second half of the twentieth century. We will read stories and novels by major modern writers, as well as a number of newly emergent contemporary authors, including A Cheng, Eileen Chang, Han Shaogong, Jin Yong, and Zhu Tianxin, among others. The course is not a survey; rather, we will read an idiosyncratic selection of texts produced from out of the dizzying historical transformations of World War Two, the Cold War, and our own post-Mao, post-Chiang moment. In particular, we will ask why - in an age of globalization and economic effervescence - Chinese fiction remains haunted by questions of history, violence, death, and impermanence, be it of the self or the environment. All readings will be in Chinese, supplemented by occasional critical and biographical articles in English, and film screenings. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B (may be taken concurrently); good reading knowledge of modern Chinese; or consent of instructor. Previous coursework in Chinese or other literary traditions is also helpful, but not required.

Chinese 165

165. History of the Chinese Language. This course is designed to introduce students to important phonological and grammatical features in different periods in the history of the Chinese langauge. Rhyme dictionaries and rhyme tables will be examined for their contribution to our understanding of earlier stages in the phonological system of the Chinese language, and of changes in rhyming practice. Development of grammatical features in the history of the langugae will also be examined. Included as part of the course will be a cursory look at the origin of evolution of the Chinese writing system, literary poetry and its patterns, and earlier dictionaries. Other topics may also be included. Prerequisites: Chinese 100B (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor. Recommended: Linguistics 5 or 100.

Chinese C223

C223. Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts: "Monks and Literati." This seminar will focus on the interaction between monks and lay Buddhists in later imperial China. Readings (in Chinese) will include selections from letters, literary collections, local gazetteers, and apologetics by authors such as Qisong (1007-1072), Su Shi (1037-1101), Dahui (1089-1163), and Song Lian (1310-1381). We will also consider literati critiques of Buddhism, and the interaction between Buddhism and the Daoxue movement. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and a good reading knowledge of classical Chinese; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 230

230. Seminar in Chinese Literary History: "The Study and Use of the Shijing." Like other classical texts in premodern China, the Classic of Poetry, or Shijing, became, in the successive generations of scholarship and discussion centered on it, not merely a static artifact—an anthology of songs from roughly the eleventh to sixth centuries BCE—but rather a source of interpretive and moral authority perpetually in need of reconstitution and re-explanation in the context of ever-shifting debates about language, history, and social and individual ethics. The voluminous body of literature that developed around this canonical text, with its specialized vocabularies of philological and philosophical exegesis and its often rather esoteric scholastic forms of argumentation, can appear somewhat forbidding, even to specialist scholars. Gaining conversancy with this literature, and gaining familiarity with the various mentalities of scriptural thought that went into producing it, however, can be of immense help to us in understanding the underlying logic of a wide range of premodern cultural practices and attitudes, both “elite” and “popular.” This seminar will take the form of a series of guided readings in the Shijing and its varied schools of interpretation, oriented towards developing just this sort of conversancy. In addition to extensive readings in the classic text itself and commentarial works directly appended to it, we will also consider the broader spectrum of literary production that explicitly or implicitly presents itself as “rewriting” or “supplement” to the classic. Prerequisites: Graduate standing and advanced reading knowledge of classical Chinese; or consent of instructor.

Chinese 256

256. Early 20th-Century Chinese Literature: "Modernism in Shanghai." Verbal and visual modernist aesthetics became urgent critical practices in China during the late 1920s-early 1930s.  Shanghai was experiencing the disjunctive spatial power of colonialist capitalism.  The modernizing May 4th Movement, which previously had called for a break with the past through Western science, realist literature and art, and cultural iconoclasm, had faltered by the late 1920s, while fragments of the rejected past remained uncannily present.  At the same time, the expansion of visual technologies of photography, illustrated magazines, and cinema, brought about a radical extension of the limits of perception and a surge in the production and circulation of images in everyday life.  Cultural producers were highly conscious of the changing relationships between texts and images brought about by these technologies and their implication in a rapidly globalizing culture through which the transmission of China’s own cultural past now appeared to be mediated.  Modernism was thus represented in Shanghai as a global aesthetic, and its formal practices were used to explore the limits of new modes of imaging and perception, as well as to re-compose Shanghai as a center of modernity in China vis-à-vis China’s own margins, even as Shanghai itself was constituted as lying on the margins of global modernity.

East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses

EA Lang C50

EA Lang 105 NEW!

EA Lang C126 NEW!

EA Lang 180 NEW!

Japanese Language and Literature Courses

Japan 1B

1B. Elementary Japanese. Continuation of Elementary Japanese 1A using the same general format (written and oral/aural quizzes every Friday) and textbook. Emphasis is on spoken, reading, and written Japanese. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework, in-class final examination, and class participation. Prerequisites: Japanese 1A; or consent of instructor.

Japan 1BL

1BL. Supplementary Work in Listening - Elementary. Designed to supplement 1A-1B, respectively, in order to facilitate students' listening proficiency. 1AL will cover a variety of listening strategies. 1BL is a continuation of 1AL where students will apply these strategies in listening activities.

Japan 1BS

1BS. Supplementary Work in Kanji. A course designed to be taken concurrently with 1B to help students improve overall kanji performance. The course will make the kanji learning process easier by providing exercises and background information about the relationships between characters and how they function.

Japan 7B

7B. Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature and Culture. 7B offers students the opportunity to consider a wide variety of prose fiction and poetry from Japan’s 19th through 21st centuries, that is, from the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868) until the present. About ten of the works will be read in their unabridged form. The first text we will discuss is what is often called the earliest Japanese work styled after the Western concept of the novel. The last work is a set of short stories exploring the impact of the Kobe earthquake. In between we will read authors who narrate pre-War, post-war and post-modern Japan. Rarely do these authors represent the most common values of their time but they always have a sharp understanding of the world within which they live. There will be abundant opportunity to explore Japanese social and cultural issues through the themes these authors set before the reader. This class is designed to include students with no background in Japan or the Japanese language. Prerequiste: None.

Japan 10B

10B. Intermediate Japanese. In this course, students will learn how to integrate the basic structures and vocabulary which they learned in Japanese 1A/B and Japanese 10A in order to express a wider range of ideas, and will study the new structures and vocabulary necessary to express such ideas in a manner appropriate for many social situations. Students are expected to participate fully in classroom activities and discussions. Prerequisites: Japanese 10A; or consent of instructor.

Japan 10BG

10BG. Supplementary Work in Grammar - Intermediate. This supplementary course is designed for students who are concurrently enrolled in 10B to enable their acquisition of a better understanding of Japanese grammar in general and clause linkage in particular.

Japan 10BS

10BS. Supplementary Work in Kanji - Intermediate. For students who are concurrently enrolled in 10B to acquire a better understanding of kanji writing system and to improve overall kanji performance.

Japan 100B

100B. Advanced Japanese. Continuation of J100A. This course aims to develop further communicative skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in a manner appropriate to the context. It concentrates on enabling students to use acquired grammar and vocabulary with more confidence in order to express functional meanings, while increasing linguistic competence. Course materials include the textbook, supplemented by newspaper and magazine articles and short stories to provide insight into Japanese culture and society. Active student participation is not only encouraged but required. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A; or consent of instructor.

Japan 102

102. Fourth-Year Readings: Japanese Culture. This course is designed for students who have studied Japanese for three years or more at college level to improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. It aims to develop further the vocabulary and knowledge of kanji and Japanese grammar through reading and discussing various topics related to Japanese culture. Students will research culture topics and give a short presentation on their findings. Prerequisites: Japanese 100B; or consent of instructor.

Japan 112

112. Fifth-Year Japanese B. This course provides focused, high-level language training for those students who possess advanced ability in the modern Japanese language. Students will improve their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening in their areas of specialty and in fields of particular interest to them. The course has a dual-track approach, requiring the completion of both class-wide and individually designed projects. The balance of the course focuses on perfecting reading and writing skills. With the instructor’s assistance, students pursue their own projects based on extensive reading of materials in their areas of specialization. These projects will be presented orally to the class. Further, when possible, visiting scholars from Japan are invited to the classroom to speak, their topics discussed afterwards. This provides a valuable opportunity for students to practice listening and speaking high-level, educated Japanese. Committed study at home is expected, and essential for success in this course. Prerequisites: Japanese 111 or equivalent; or consent of instructor.

Japan 146

146. Japanese Historical Documents. Writings in the Japanese vernacular constitute only a limited part of the total pre-modern Japanese written corpus. Until the twentieth century, the preferred medium for most historical texts and male diaries was Sino-Japanese (/kanbun/). Familiarity with the grammar of this extraordinarily rich tradition is therefore essential for all students of pre-modern Japanese disciplines. Prerequisites: Japanese 100A and Japanese 120; or consent of instructor.

Japan 180

180. Ghosts and the Modern Literary Imagination. The course examines the complex meanings of the ghost in modern Japanese literature and culture. Tracing the representations of the supernatural in drama, fiction, ethnography, and the visual arts, we explore how ghosts provide the basis for remarkable flights of imaginative speculation and literary experimentation. Topics include: storytelling and the loss of cultural identity, horror and its conversion into aesthetic pleasure, fantasy, and the transformation of the commonplace. We will consider historical, visual, anthropological, and literary approaches to the supernatural and raise cultural and philosophical questions crucial to an understanding of the figure and its role in the greater transformation of modern Japan (18th century to the present). Prerequisites: None.

Japan 185

185. Introduction to Japanese Cinema. This course examines Japanese film, constantly questioning the ways in which it has been categorized as a national cinema. Issues examined include the transnational influences of modernist aesthetics on early cinema, the emergence of the Japanese studio system as rival and complement to Hollywood, Japanese films and global New Waves, the documentary tradition, and the political valence of contemporary cinema. We dedicate considerable attention to the three canonical directors of Japanese cinema—Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa—to examine the different ways in which they are sutured within—as well as resist—the national cinema model. Also examined are central writers in English on Japanese film: Richie, Burch, Kirihara, Bordwell, and Yoshimoto as well as Cazdyn, Andrew, and Turim. All materials will be examined in historical, social, aesthetic, and political contexts.Prerequisites: None.

Japan C225

C225. Readings in Japanese Buddhist Texts. This graduate course in Japanese Buddhist texts will provide students with an overview of the major genres of Japanese Buddhist primary material from canonical works, medieval doctrinal and sectarian writing, premodern Buddhist literary texts, institutional and social history documents, and early modern and modern Buddhist writings. Students will become introduced to the reference works and online resources necessary to read and translate these documents and research secondary materials written in modern Japanese. We will also have weekly secondary readings in Japanese and Western languages. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.

Japan 230

230. Seminar in Classical Japanese Poetry. /Man'yôshû/ (The Collection of a Myriad Leaves) is the oldest extant anthology of poetry in Japanese. With the bulk of its approximately 4,500 poems dating from the seventh and eighth centuries, it constitutes the inevitable starting point for any diachronic study of Japanese verse. The poems in the anthology provide the opportunity for literary archaeology of the first order, allowing us to disinter evidence about some of the most exciting dialectics in early Japanese literary history: between oral practice and the tentative beginnings of the written tradition, between religious ritual and literary art, between imported and native artistic systems, and between communal expression and the development of the individual literary consciousness. Prerequisites: Graduate standing; or consent of instructor.

Japan 240

240. Seminar in Classical Japanese Texts. Close reading of a variety of early modern literature, including works by authors including Sanyutei Encho, Ueda Akinari, Hiraga Gennai, Kyokutei Bakin, Tsuruya Nanboku, Jippensha Ikku, Tamenaga Shunsui, and Ihara Saikaku. The seminar will be joined periodically throughout the term by visiting scholars. Prerequisites: Permission of instructor required. Please email Alan Tansman at tansmana@berkeley.edu.

Japan 255

255. Seminar in Prewar Japanese Literature. Close reading of modern Japanese literary and cultural texts within their literary historical, cultural, historical, and theoretical contexts. Particular themes and time periods change with each seminar. Spring 2008 description not available. Prerequisites: Permission of instructor required.

Korean Language and Literature Courses

Korean 1B

1B. Elementary Korean for Non-heritage Speakers. Building on the basic grammar of the Korean language learned from Korean 1A, Korean 1B will introduce more vocabulary and expressions that are useful for everyday conversation. Students will also learn about the Korean culture.. Prerequisites: Korean 1A; or consent of instructor.

Please note: Korean 1B is not open to heritage students who have some background knowledge in Korean.

Korean 1BX

1BX. Elementary Korean for Heritage Speakers. Continuation of Elementary Korean 1AX. Building on the basic grammar of the Korean language learned from Korean 1AX, Korean 1BX will introduce more vocabulary and expressions that are useful for everyday conversation as well as for improving reading and writing skills of students. Students who wish to enroll in K1BX without prior taking K1AX will need to have an oral interview and take a short written proficiency test on the first day of the class. Prerequisites: Korean 1AX; or consent of instructor.

Korean 10B

10B. Intermediate Korean. Korean 10B is a continuation of Korean 10A and will continue to use the materials and methods used in 10A. The aim of the course is to help the students develop the language skills necessary to pursue the study of Korean at a more advanced level. The course will introduce vocabulary and idioms beyond basic level, complex grammatical patterns, and varieties of speech styles. Prerequisites: Korean 10A; or consent of instructor.

Korean 10BX

10BX. Internediate Korean for Heritage Speakers. A second-year course in modern Korean for students whose Korean proficiency level is higher in speaking than in reading or writing due to Korean-heritage background. Prerequisites: Korean 10AX; or consent of instructor.

Korean 100B

100B. Advanced Korean. Continuation of Advanced Korean 100A using similar methods and format to 100A. Readings in modern Korean selected as appropriate for the advanced Korean course, i.e., presupposing two and one-half years of college-level Korean. A variety of texts from textbooks, essays, journals, and newspapers will be introduced. About 100 Sino-Korean characters will be systematically introduced. Prerequisites: Korean 100A; or consent of instructor.

Korean 102

102. Fourth-Year Readings – Social Sciences and History. An advanced course in the reading and analysis of texts in modern Korean drawn from history, sociology, economics, etc. Advanced conversation, writing skills, and practice in the use of standard reference tools will also be emphasized, with the goal of preparing students to do independent research in Korean. Prerequisites: Korean 100B; or consent of instructor.

Korean 112

112. Fifth-Year Korean B. This course is designed to increase the students' proficiency to advanced-high level in all aspects of modern Korean; it aims to prepare students for research or employment in a variety of Korea-related fields. Text materials are drawn from authentic sources including modern Korean literature, film, intellectual history, and readings on contemporary issues. Radio and TV broadcasts will also be included in the teaching materials. Texts will be selected, in part, according to student interests. With the instructor's guidance, students will conduct research projects based on specialized readings in their own fields of study. The research projects will be presented both orally and in written form at the end of the semester. Prerequisites: Korean 111; or consent of instructor.

Korean 155

155. Modern Korean Fiction: "Melodrama and Literature." The course examines a mode of representation called melodrama in literary and cinematic texts of Korea. Melodrama is an enduring cultural expression of modern Korea , a vehicle to cast and convey pressing social concerns, individual desires, political condition and historical changes in highly affective ways. The course encourages students to think critically of melodramatic logic and its implication in literary as well as film texts. Readings include literary texts (short fictions) in Korean. Prerequisites: Korean 100B (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.

Korean 185 NEW!

185. Picturing Korea: "History and Memory in Korean Cinema." This course examines representation of history and memory in South Korean cinema. Contemporary South Korean films demonstrate thematic preoccupation with the nation's history by rendering diverse stories of the past events and experiences. The cinematic rendition of the past registers different ways to project, remember and imagine the past, thereby actively creating the new senses and ideas of historical time. The goal of the course is to develop critical understanding of diverse temporalities of South Korean national cinema. Prerequisites: None.

Tibetan Language and Literature Courses

Tibetan 1B

1B. Elementary Tibetan. This course is an intensive introduction to both standard spoken Tibetan (Lhasa dialect) and written literary Tibetan. As such, it will serve the needs of students who intend to continue the study of modern Tibetan so as to function in a Tibetan-speaking environment, as well as the needs of students who will concentrate on classical Tibetan and its rich literature. Prerequisites: Tibetan 1A; or consent of instructor.

Tibetan 10B

10B. Intermediate Tibetan. This course, a continuation of 10A, is designed to develop the student's reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities in standard Tibetan (Lhasa dialect). The course focuses on both modern vernacular Tibetan as well as literary Tibetan, with a particular emphasis on reading classical Buddhist materials. Prerequisites: Tibetan 10A; or consent of instructor.

Tibetan 110B

110B. Intermediate Tibetan. This course is an intensive course in reading modern and classical Tibetan literature, with an emphasis on classical Buddhist texts. It builds on basic reading skills acquired in 1A-1B (elementary Tibetan), and is designed to be taken either concurrently with 10A-10B (intermediate Tibetan) or independently. Prerequisites: Tibetan 10A; or consent of instructor.

Tibetan C114

C114. Tibetan Buddhism. A survey of Tibetan Buddhism. The first part of the course focuses on popular religious practices and beliefs at the intersection of Buddhism and “folk religion”, taking as its starting point a viewing of Ulrike Koch's film “The Saltmen of Tibet,” a 1997 documentary that accompanies a group of nomads in eastern Tibet on their arduous annual trip for salt to a distant lake. The second part is designed as a historical survey of Buddhism in Tibet from its introduction around the 7th century to the end of the 19th century, dealing with the history of religious institutions, the close relation of religion and politics in Tibet, and the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism and their doctrines. The third and final part of the course deals with Tibetan Buddhism in the 20th century, centering around Luc Schaedler’s film “Angry Monk” (2005), a cinematic journey to present-day Tibet on the footsteps of the controversial figure Gendün Chöphel (1901-1951). Prerequisites: None.