Spring 2025 Course Descriptions
Chinese Language and Literature Courses
The course is designed for students who are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment; or who are of Chinese origin but do not speak Chinese and whose parents do not speak Chinese. The course develops beginning learners’ functional language ability—the ability to use Mandarin Chinese in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways at the beginning level. It helps students acquire communicative competence in Chinese while sensitizing them to the links between language and culture.
The course is designed for students who are of non-Chinese origin and were not raised in a Chinese-speaking environment, or who are of Chinese origin but do not speak Chinese and whose parents do not speak Chinese. The course continues to focus on training students in the four language skills--speaking, listening, reading, and writing with a gradually increasing emphasis on basic cultural readings and developing intercultural competence. Prerequisites: Chinese 1A.
This course is designed for Chinese heritage students who have some speaking ability in Mandarin but little or no reading and writing skills in Chinese. The course leverages students’ prior knowledge of listening and speaking to advance their reading and writing skills to an intermediate level within one semester. The course focuses on addressing heritage students’ literacy needs in meaningful contexts through socio-culturally related topics. Hanyu Pinyin (a Chinese Romanization system) and both simplified and traditional characters are introduced. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Elementary Cantonese 3B is designed for non-Chinese heritage learners with no prior knowledge of Cantonese, a regional variety of Chinese, introducing students to its use through oral, written and visual texts related to daily life. Topics include meeting people, shopping, leisure activities, telling the time, discussing daily routines, describing people and family members, and transportation, and students will compose texts in Cantonese that show the relationship between language and culture. Finally, the course develops students’ awareness of socio-culturally situated language use and their ability to compare and negotiate similarities and differences between the target culture and their own culture. Prerequisite: Chinese 3A or consent of instructor.
Elementary Taiwanese (Chinese 4B) is the second semester of a one-year sequence designed to allow learners with no prior knowledge of Chinese language to build familiarity with Taiwanese (or Southern Min), a regional variety of Chinese, through oral, written and visual texts related to daily life. This two-semester sequence is designed to equip students with the basic language skills needed in everyday life situations. The course aims to develop students’ awareness of socio-culturally situated language use along with their ability to compare and negotiate similarities and differences between the target culture and their own culture. Prerequisite: Chinese 4A or permission of instructor
The second sequence introduces students to Chinese literature in translation. In addition to literary sources, a wide range of philosophical and historical texts will be covered, as well as aspects of visual and material culture. 7B focuses on late imperial, modern, and contemporary China. The course will focus on the development of sound writing skills.
The course further develops students’ linguistic and cultural competence. In dealing with texts, students are guided to interpret, narrate, describe, and discuss topics ranging from real-life experience and personal memoir to historic events. Intercultural competence is promoted through linguistic and cultural awareness and language use in culturally appropriate contexts. Prerequisites: Chinese 10A; or consent of instructor.
Going beyond satisfying basic communicative needs, students would learn to use Cantonese to complete more complicated tasks such as elaborating, comparing, analyzing, defending, debating, etc. Students would be frequently exposed to discussions regarding broader societal issues such as housing, food culture, fashion, safety, recreation, education, etc. Assuming basic competence of Cantonese, the course attempts to relate the learners to Chinese subculture through analyzing the link between Cantonese expressions and societal phenomenon in the Cantonese speaking society. Difference between Cantonese and Mandarin expressions and its cultural implications, as well as the social position of Cantonese globally and regionally. Prerequisites: Chinese 3X; or consent of instructor.
This course continues the development of critical awareness by emphasizing the link between socio-cultural literacy and a higher level of language competence. While continuing to expand their critical literacy skills, students interpret texts related to Chinese popular culture, social change, cultural traditions, politics and history. Through linguistic and cultural comparisons, students understand more about people in the target society and themselves as well as about the power of language in language use to enhance their competence in operating between languages and associated cultures. Prerequisite: Chinese 100A.
This course is designed for Chinese heritage language learners who have taken Chinese 100XA or an equivalent course. It guides learners to use their Chinese language knowledge and skills to survey portions of Chinese history and society and to comprehend Chinese cultural heritage in economic and socio-political contexts. Students read and analyze texts discussing cross-strait relations, Chinese people’s basic living necessities, and their changing lifestyles and mindsets since the economic reforms in mainland China. They are also introduced to several important historical figures in modern Chinese history and to modern literary works. In addition to the continuous development of reading techniques for communicative purposes, critical reading skills in the heritage language are also developed in order to interpret subtle meanings in texts. Different styles and genres of Chinese discourses in speaking and writing are further explored along with an increasingly sophisticated vocabulary, phrases, and structures. Moreover, students are required to be able to read both simplified and traditional versions of Chinese characters. The development of critical reading and writing skills enables students to understand more about people in the target culture and themselves, about what determines values and actions, and about the power of language. Prerequisite: Chinese 100XA. If you have not taken Chinese 100XA, to enroll in this class you must first take the online Chinese Language Placement Exam and be interviewed. Students are responsible for following the instructions at ealc.berkeley.edu to complete the placement process. 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.
Prerequisites: Chinese 100B or 100XB. If you have not taken Chinese 100B or 100XB, to enroll in this class you must first take the online Chinese Language Placement Exam and be interviewed. Students are responsible for following the instructions at ealc.berkeley.edu to complete the placement process. 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 second half of a one-year introductory course in literary Chinese, continuing the topics from the first semester, and giving basic coverage of relevant issues in the history of the language and writing system. This course examines the canonical texts of the late-imperial period, placing them in the context of literary culture of the Ming-Qing. The course focuses on a different set of texts each time it is taught; the aim is to introduce students to the primary issues in scholarship of late-imperial fiction and drama over a period of several years. Prerequisite: Chinese 110A.
Modern Chinese Buddhism emerged from a variety of reactions to the challenges posed by modernity. The course aims at introducing students to the ways in which Buddhists in China have engaged and continue to engage with the formation of a modern state and society in a globalized world. The course will follow the trends of Chinese Buddhism from the early twentieth century down to the most recent developments in the present. In exploring modern constructions of Buddhism in China, we will distinguish between modernism and modernity, and investigate how Chinese Buddhists introduced reforms and innovations, while also attempting to maintain continuity with traditional ideals and modes of practice.
This course is an introduction to the study of medieval Buddhist literature written in Classical Chinese. We will read samples from a variety of genres, including early Chinese translations of Sanskrit and Central Asian Buddhist scriptures, indigenous Chinese commentaries, philosophical treatises, and sectarian works, including Chan gongan (Zen koans). The course will also serve as an introduction to resource materials used in the study of Chinese Buddhist texts, and students will be expected to make use of a variety of reference tools in preparation for class. Readings in Chinese will be supplemented by a range of secondary readings in English on Mahayana doctrine and Chinese Buddhist history. Prerequisites: This course is intended for students who already have some facility in literary Chinese, and at least one semester of Classical Chinese is prerequisite for enrollment. Prior background in Buddhist history and thought is helpful but not required.
Chinese cities are the sites of complicated global/local interconnections as the nation is increasingly incorporated into the world system. Understanding Chinese cities is the key to analyzing the dramatic transformation of Chinese society and culture. This course is designed to teach students to think about Chinese cities in more textured ways. How are urban forms and urban spaces produced through processes of social, political, and ideological conflict? How are cities represented in literary, cinematic, and various popular cultures? How has our imagination of the city been shaped and how are these spatial discourses influencing the making of the cities of tomorrow? Prerequisites: Chinese 100A, Chinese 100XA, Chinese 100YA (may be taken concurrently); or consent of instructor.
This course centers around intensive reading and analysis of Cao Xueqin’s 18th-century masterpiece of Chinese fiction (also known as the Dream of the Red Chamber). Students will be introduced to the literary, cultural, philosophical, and material world from which this work emerged, as well as various approaches to the world within the text.
This semester the seminar will focus on the early development of the Chinese Chan tradition. Topics covered will include: antecedents of Chan in early Prajñāpāramitā literature; the influence of Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, and Tantra; the evidence of the Dunhuang Chan manuscripts (including the Platform Scripture); the writings of medieval Tang exegetes (esp. Zongmi 宗密, 780-841); and the emergence of gong'an 公案 literature.
Description coming soon
The course explores the issue of form (ti in Chinese, which literally means “body”) in the late
imperial context by asking the following questions: What constitutes form? How can we sense
form? In what ways do our senses of form affect us, for better or worse? How does any form of
any body, including the sensorium that senses forms, come into being through a technico-
energetic process that informs the becoming? This final, most fundamental question requires us
to clarify what we mean by information—through a genealogy of its correspondent term in
Chinese—which is not signals received by our senses but what grounds any ontogenesis of forms
and senses. Here information does not mean communication between preformed bodies but the
very operation of forming as such—the waxing and waning of the form-body through an
energetic process, as implied in the Chinese term xiaoxi. If seventeenth-century China witnessed
the rise of theatricality—the ontological foundation for genuine encounters between media—this
revisionist view of in-formation is going to renew our understanding of intermediality as
mapping and amplifying a system of energetic modulation across mediums. Going in this
direction, the course bridges literary and material studies, history of science and philosophy of
technology. We cover a wide range of materials including the formal classification of genres in
traditional criticism, the connection between poetics and pottery production, the depictions of life
forms in early modern Chinese medicine, botany, and drawing manuals, and the bodily
transfiguration in drama and fiction.
This seminar will take the form of a workshop in the close reading of literary, musical, and cinematic texts. In particular, we will track specific formal qualities and their aesthetic effects across divergent media (print, recorded sound, and cinema) with an eye toward examining what makes for medium specificity, and what does or does not translate across divergent artistic practices and platforms. The qualities we will consider may include color, tone, and timbre; meter and rhythm; composition (plot, melody, motif); duration and brevity; volume and intensity; texture; and space. Through matched methodological and theoretical readings, we will work to develop, deepen, and refine our critical vocabulary. How can we approach these texts more closely, describe them accurately and vividly, and write about them with style, subtlety, and insight? Primary texts, driven in large part by student interests, will include a wide variety of fiction, poetry, films, and sound recordings from modern and contemporary China and Taiwan. While the seminar will not focus on any one particular period, thematic question, or theoretical tendency, we will explore the extent to which an insistent, proximate, and supple attention to form might open up new methodological possibilities, enable productive dialogue between literary, sound, and cinema studies, and enlarge our sense of the complexity of historical moment out of which the texts emerged.
East Asian Languages and Cultures Courses
Description coming soon
This seminar ponders the finitude of human existence and its implications
for ethics, politics, and religion in an era of imminent climate crisis and
growing disparities in wealth, education, and quality of living. Reading
Martin Hägglund's life-changing book, This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual
Freedom (Anchor Books, 2019), we will consider the continuing relevance of
humanism, atheism, and socialism in an increasingly fractured and
disillusioned world. We will work through the entire book across the
semester while pairing it with a number of outstanding films dealing with
questions of mortality, society, and faith (including Greta Gerwig’s Lady
Bird, Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl, Don McKellar’s Last Night, and Hu Bo's
Jamaica is a small Caribbean island whose music has had a massive impact on global popular music and culture. In this seminar, we will immerse ourselves in Jamaican sounds, from the ska and rocksteady of the 1960s to the reggae, dub, and dancehall music of the 1970s and beyond. We will do a deep dive into the sources and history of Jamaican music — including the distinctive and diverse people, places, cultures, and spiritualities from which the songs emerged. At the same time, we will learn to hear how the music registers the history of the modern world, reflecting upon and resisting the global forces of slavery, colonialism, capitalism, migration, mass media, and technological change that have shaped all of our lives.
This course will discuss the social, economic, and cultural aspects of Buddhism as it moved along the ancient Eurasian trading network referred to as the “Silk Road”. Instead of relying solely on textual sources, the course will focus on material culture as it offers evidence concerning the spread of Buddhism. Through an examination of the Buddhist archaeological remains of the Silk Road, the course will address specific topics, such as the symbiotic relationship between Buddhism and commerce; doctrinal divergence; ideological shifts in the iconography of the Buddha; patronage (royal, religious and lay); Buddhism and political power; and art and conversion.
This course is designed as an historical introduction to the Silk Road, understood as an ever-changing series of peoples, places, and traditions, as well as an introduction to the study of those same peoples, places, and traditions in the modern period. In this way, the class is intended both as a guide to extant textual, archaeological, and art historical evidence from the Silk Road, and as a framework for thinking about the modern Silk Road regions from the perspective of a contemporary American classroom. Prerequisites: None.
Description coming soon
A study of the Buddhist tradition as it is found today in Asia. The course will focus on specific living traditions of East, South, and/or Southeast Asia. Themes to be addressed may include contemporary Buddhist ritual practices; funerary and mortuary customs; the relationship between Buddhism and other local religious traditions; the relationship between Buddhist institutions and the state; Buddhist monasticism and its relationship to the laity; Buddhist ethics; Buddhist "modernism," and so on.
This course studies the purview of astral science under Buddhist dominion. Here it is at once promoted for promulgating Buddhist world order and repudiated for begetting the suffering-inducing physical universe, a warped vessel of ceaselessly turning stars that the Buddhist dharma must transcend. The course begins with the part astral science plays in genesis, the creation of Buddhist world order. It then covers the science’s central aspects, celestial systems, spatial orientation, time reckoning, the making of a calendar, and publication of an almanac. Thereafter, it treats the science’s outgrowth into interrelated forms of Buddhist propaganda manifest as divination, magic, medicine, ritual, scripture, and iconography.
This course comprises an immersive survey of science fiction - historically the only literary genre fully devoted to imagining the alterity of the future - as it takes on a unique and pressing relevance in contemporary East Asian culture and society. Providing students with both comprehensive training in literary analysis and critical thinking as well as a substantive sociohistorical introduction to contemporary East Asian societies and politics, the course will constitute a solid foundation for the East Asian humanities major. All readings will be in English; no prior knowledge of Asian languages and/or cultures expected.
This course is a capstone experience that centers on the philosophies and religions of East Asia examined from multiple theoretical perspectives. It comprises several thematic units within which a short set of readings about theory are followed by chronologically arranged readings about East Asia. Themes will alternate from year to year but may include: ritual and performance studies; religion and evolution; definitions of religion and theories of its origins; and the role of sacrifice. Prerequisites: None. Preference will be given to majors, especially those with junior or senior standing.
Did you ever wonder how other people get their work done? Or where they get their ideas? Are you curious about the best strategies and habits for clear, forceful, and engaging writing? Do you want the inside story on the joys of the process of submitting your work to a journal? Over the course of the semester each of you will revise for submission to a journal a seminar paper you have already written. At the conclusion of the semester, you will send your revised essay for review at a journal. (You are not required to have it accepted!) Over the course of the term, we will read and discuss the written work of all the seminar members, as well as model examples of writing by Berkeley faculty, who will speak to us about their writing process.
Japanese Language and Literature Courses
Japanese 1A is designed to develop basic Japanese language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will learn the Japanese writing system: hiragana, katakana and approximately 150 kanji. At the end of the course, students should be able to greet, invite, compare, and describe persons and things, activities, intensions, ability, experience, purposes, reasons, and wishes. Grades will be determined on the basis of attendance, quiz scores, homework and class participation.
An introduction to Japanese literature in translation in a two-semester sequence. 7B provides a survey of important works of 19th- and 20th-century Japanese fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism. The course will explore the manner in which writers responded to the challenges of industrialization, internationalization, and war. Topics include the shifting notions of tradition and modernity, the impact of Westernization on the constructions of the self and gender, writers and the wartime state, literature of the atomic bomb, and postmodern fantasies and aesthetics. All readings are in English translation. Techniques of critical reading and writing will be introduced as an integral part of the course.
This course aims to develop further context-specific skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. It concentrates on students using acquired grammar and vocabulary with more confidence in order to express functional meanings, while increasing overall linguistic competence. Students will learn approximately 200 new Kanji. There will be a group or individual project. Course materials include the textbook supplemented by newspapers, magazine articles, short stories, essays, and video clips which will provide insight into Japanese culture and society. Prerequisites: Japan 100A; or consent of instructor.
In this course, students will practice various techniques to read articles in Japanese on current issues in Japan, and they will learn about Japanese conceptions of the world and how Japanese society functions. They may want to compare what they have learned with similar issues in their own countries to deepen their understanding of the issues and develop their critical thinking ability. They will also learn more advanced Japanese grammar and increase their vocabulary. Prerequisites: Japan 100, Japan 100B, or Japan 100X; or consent of instructor.
The course focuses on select masterpieces from the Japanese narrative tradition, including Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) and Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book (Makura no soshi).
Contemporary Japanese Literature. This course will examine how Japanese writers, filmmakers and artists responded to the atrocities of the Pacific War. We will study works representing the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, experiences on the frontline, and attempts to account for both personal and collective involvement in the abuses of war. We will pay particular attention to how the form of literature, film, and art reflects experiences of trauma and serves to accept or defer responsibility. Primary readings will be in Japanese with some available in English translation. Prerequisites: 100B (may be taken concurrently) or equivalent, or consent of instructor.
Reading and critical evaluation of selected texts in postwar (roughly the 1940s through the present) Japanese literature and literary and cultural criticism. Texts change with each offering of the course.
Korean Language and Literature Courses
This course is designed for non-heritage students who have absolutely no prior knowledge of the Korean language. Students will learn written and spoken Korean on self-related and day-to-day topics, and present information both in oral and written forms using formulaic and memorized expressions. They will also engage in simple conversational exchanges on a variety of daily topics. Prerequisites: None.
This is a continuing course for Korean-American heritage students who have completed K1AX or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. More emphasis will be paid on reading and writing in order to establish their balanced four language skills. Students will enhance their linguistic competence by mastering essential grammatical structures and more elaborated daily expressions, as well as accompanying cultures. Prerequisites: Korean 1AX; or consent of instructor.
A survey of modern Korean literature and culture in the 20th century, focusing on the development of nationalist aesthetics in both North and South Korea. Topics include class and gender, urban culture, colonial modernity, war and trauma, and modernization. Texts to be examined include works of fiction, art, and film. All readings are in English.
This is an intermediate course for non-heritage students who have completed K10A or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. Students will continue to improve their linguistic skills with the goal of becoming more proficient and fluent in daily and extended communication needs, with a special emphasis on listening and speaking. The course will introduce expressions, vocabularies, and complicated sentence structure and students are expected to carry on more sophisticated conversations on various topics beyond daily life. Prerequisites: Korean 10A; or consent of instructor.
This is an intermediate course for Korean-American heritage students who have completed K10AX or demonstrated an equivalent proficiency level. It will emphasize reading and writing so that students can reach a comparable proficiency with their already high speaking and listening skills. More cultural aspects and social phenomena will be covered and students will be able to convey and write more than a paragraph level on various topics. Prerequisites: Korean 10AX; or consent of instructor.
This course is a continuation of K100AX for Korean-American heritage speakers. Students will be introduced to advanced-level Korean by reading authentic texts and writing short compositions, summaries, essays, and critical reviews. They will be encouraged to use advanced vocabulary and expressions including various idiomatic expressions. This course particularly emphasizes on heritage speakers’ speaking and writing competency. Prerequisites: Korean 100AX; or consent of instructor.
This course is a continuation of K100A for non-heritage speakers. It will place more emphasis on listening and speaking through various authentic materials. Students will conduct individual projects on aspects where they intend to improve on. Various cultural aspects in addition to four-letter idiomatic expressions will be also covered. Prerequisites: Korean 100A; or consent of instructor.
This course aims to help students achieve a high-advanced level of proficiency in all aspects of Korean by deepening their knowledge of fast-changing modern Korean society through the lens of current issues. It covers various authentic media materials to facilitate class discussions and promote critical thinking skills. Special attention will be paid to the formal use of the Korean language through practices on advanced expressions and grammar. Prerequisites: Korean 100B/BX; or consent of instructor.
This course is uniquely designed for students who are interested in enhancing their proficiency level up to high-advanced or superior level through the lens of Korean popular media. By analyzing various media such as movies, documentary, TV shows, K-Pop songs, and news articles, students will broaden their knowledge and understanding about Korean society and culture in a deeper level, which is vital in advancing proficiency. Class discussions, presentations, article readings, and essay writings will help students learn and practice how to express their own opinion on various topics from aspects of Korean history to current social issues. Additionally, four-letter idioms, advanced grammars, and vocabularies will be introduced. Prerequisites: Korean 100B or Korean 100BX; or consent of instructor.
This course aims to help students acquire strong language proficiency in spoken and written Korean at the advanced-high (or superior) level required for academic research and in business or other professional fields. The focus will be on building advanced-level vocabulary that is useful in understanding and expressing their opinions on topics, such as social studies, politics, business, policy, and history. Students will gain knowledge in four-letter words, complex idiomatic expressions and proverbs that often appear on editorials, news discourse, and academic writings. Students will also learn skills in formal oral presentations and writing. Prerequisites: Korean 101/102; or consent of instructor.
K160 is designed to provide a comprehensive exploration of the fundamental aspects of the Korean language. This course will serve as a gateway to understanding the intricate structures of Korean grammar and its application in discourse. Students will learn the basic features of Korean linguistics, including phonology, morphology and syntax, with emphasis on investigating how grammar influences meaning and discourse in diverse Korean communication contexts. Through a blend of theoretical study, practical examples, and language analysis, students will develop a solid foundation in Korean linguistics. Additionally, the course will investigate the interplay between grammar and ongoing communication dynamics within Korean society, providing students with insights into the evolving nature of language in cultural context.
This course will provide an overview of the considerations that a translator must take into account when approaching a Korean text. Special attention will be paid to the structural and linguistic differences between Korean and English as well as cross-cultural differences in stylistics. Texts to be considered are drawn from both expository and literary writings in Korean. By means of translating selected texts in English, students will acquire abilities to recognize common translating problems, explore methods for finding solutions, and evaluate accuracy and communicative effectiveness of translation. Prerequisites: Korean 100B or Korean 100BX; or consent of instructor
This undergraduate course examines aesthetic features and thematic preoccupation of major Korean film authors. It begins with the brief survey of historical development and theoretical underpinnings of the concept of “auteur” and advances an inquiry into the application of such theoretical tool in the area of film criticism and culture in Korea. In addition to analyzing signature style, generic orientation, and thematic consistency, the course also situates and explores the unique film authorship in relation to larger contexts that constitute the dynamics of Korean cinema: industrial structure, government censorship, social changes and cultural phenomena, intellectual development, technological shifts and discourse of national cinema.
Mongolian Language and Literature Courses
This course introduces students to Literary Mongolian, its phonetics, grammar, vertical writing system and its relation to living spoken language. The course emphasizes reading texts in the Mongol vertical script. As foundation, students receive a basic introduction to Mongolian phonology and grammar as well as learn the Mongol vertical script writing system and a standard system of transcription. After a brief period of introduction students immerse in reading texts. Class time is devoted to reading comprehension, translation, and analysis. Although texts may be drawn to suit student interest, the standard course repertoire will consist of works of Mongolian Buddhist literature and history.
This course examines the Mongol Empire founded by Chinggis Khan. We will study the empire from the time its founding in 1206 until its decline in the mid-14th century. The greater extent of the course covers the matter of the Mongol conquest: military technologies, methods and strategies, logistics, and the events of specific battles and actions. These events are framed in the context of the Mongolian cu
Tibetan Language and Literature Courses
A beginning Tibetan class developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in modern Tibetan (Lhasa dialect). Prerequisite: Tibetan 1A or equivalent; or consent of instructor.
This course is a broad introduction to the history, doctrine, and culture of the Buddhism of Tibet. We will begin with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century and move on to the evolution of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist literature, ritual and monastic practice, the place of Buddhism in Tibetan political history, and the contemporary situation of Tibetan Buddhism both inside and outside of Tibet.