East Asian studies | |||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||
Simplified Chinese | 东亚研究 | ||||||
Traditional Chinese | 東亞研究 | ||||||
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Korean name | |||||||
Hangul | 동아시아학 | ||||||
Hanja | 東아시아學 | ||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||
Kanji | 東アジア研究 | ||||||
Kana | ひがしあじあけんきゅう | ||||||
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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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
In addition to the above,studies about the history of the Orient have mainly developed in Japan. Orient means areas in North Africa,Eurasia except Europe and islands around them because of chaos due to studies about the history of Greater China and Korea under the Tokugawa shogunate before 1868 and those about the Eastern world from the establishment of European-style high-educational institutions after that year.
The notion about Oriental history that was made between 1868 and 1945 did not spread on other East Asian areas including Korea as the colony of Japan. There have been some Japanese notable historians about Oriental history but they are less famous in other countries.
North America:Stanford University,Yale University,Princeton University,Columbia University,Harvard University,Johns Hopkins University,University of Chicago,Brown University,University of Southern California,University of Pennsylvania,New York University,Indiana University Bloomington,Georgetown University,University of Pittsburgh,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,Washington University in St. Louis,University at Albany,University of California,Berkeley,University of California,Irvine,University of California,Davis,University of Virginia,University of Maryland,University of Texas at Austin,George Washington University,University of Arizona,University of Notre Dame,University of Kansas,Wake Forest University,Dickinson College,Oberlin College,University of Virginia,University of Toronto,University of Alberta,McGill University,York University
Asia:National Taiwan Normal University,National Chengchi University,University of Malaya,University of Delhi,Tel Aviv University
Europe:University College London,University of Leeds,Comenius University Bratislava,,Paris CitéUniversity,Heidelberg University,University of Göttingen
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. [1]
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. [2]
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." [3]
Some journals also cover other regions of Asia in addition to East Asia.
Sinology, otherwise referred to as Chinese studies, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization primarily through Chinese language, history, culture, literature, philosophy, art, music, cinema, and science. Its origin "may be traced to the examination which Chinese scholars made of their own civilization."
Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research, encompassing both the social sciences and the humanities. Typical area study programs involve international relations, strategic studies, history, political science, political economy, cultural studies, languages, geography, literature, and other related disciplines. In contrast to cultural studies, area studies often include diaspora and emigration from the area.
American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory.
Japanese studies or Japan studies, sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, history, culture, literature, philosophy, art, music, cinema, and science.
Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian studies combines aspects of sociology, history, cultural anthropology and many other disciplines to study political, cultural and economic phenomena in Asian traditional and contemporary societies. Asian studies form a field of post-graduate study in many universities.
Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Korean history, Korean culture, Korean literature, Korean art, Korean music, Korean language and linguistics, Korean sociology and anthropology, Korean politics, Korean economics, Korean folklore, Korean ethnomusicology and increasingly study of Korean popular culture. It may be compared to other area studies disciplines, such as American studies and Chinese studies. Korean studies is sometimes included within a broader regional area of focus including "East Asian studies".
The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) is an English-language scholarly journal published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute. HJAS features articles and book reviews of current scholarship in East Asian Studies, focusing on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history, literature and religion, with occasional coverage of politics and linguistics. It has been called "still Americas's leading sinological journal."
Edward Hetzel Schafer was an American historian, sinologist, and writer noted for his expertise on the Tang dynasty, and was a professor of Chinese at University of California, Berkeley, for 35 years. Schafer's most notable works include The Golden Peaches of Samarkand and The Vermilion Bird, which both explore China's interactions with other cultures and regions during the Tang dynasty.
The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, abbreviated DMG, is a scholarly organization dedicated to Oriental studies, that is, to the study of the languages and cultures of the Near East and the Far East, the broader Orient, Asia, Oceania, and Africa.
Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studies and Asian studies. Traditional Oriental studies in Europe is today generally focused on the discipline of Islamic studies, and the study of China, especially traditional China, is often called Sinology. The study of East Asia in general, especially in the United States, is often called East Asian studies.
Iranian studies, also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It is a part of the wider field of Oriental studies.
Southeast Asian studies (SEAS) refers to research and education on the language, culture, and history of the different states and ethnic groups of Southeast Asia. Some institutions refer to this discipline as ASEAN Studies since most of the countries that they study belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. Definitions of what constitutes Southeast Asia differ between scholars, which blurs the boundaries between Southeast Asian studies and other regional studies like Oriental studies and post-colonial studies. Southeast Asian studies incorporates anthropology, religious studies, linguistics, and international relations.
The University of Hawaiʻi Press is a university press that is part of the University of Hawaiʻi.
The Harvard–Yenching Library is the primary location for East Asia-related collections at Harvard Library. In addition to East Asian languages, it houses collections in European languages and Southeast Asian language (Vietnamese). Totaling more than 1.5 million volumes, the Harvard-Yenching Library has one of the largest collections in East Asian studies outside of Asia. The library has been located at 2 Divinity Avenue on the Cambridge campus of Harvard University since around 1957. The building was originally built in 1929 for Harvard's Institute of Geographical Exploration and currently houses part of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, in addition to the Harvard-Yenching Library.
Martina Deuchler is a Swiss academic and author. She was a professor of Korean studies at the SOAS University of London from 1991 to 2001.
Jaroslav Průšek (1906–1980) was a Czech sinologist. He was considered as the founder of the Prague School of Sinology. He trained as an historian, with an interest in the history of ancient Greece, Byzantium and Roman Empire at Charles University. After graduating from Charles University, he went to Germany and Sweden and became the student of Bernard Karlgren. He was sent to China and Japan in the 1930s, where he became friends with many Chinese intellectuals, including Lu Xun. He went back to Czechoslovakia in 1937. In 1952, he was appointed head of Institute of East Asian Studies of Charles University.
Education About Asia is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Association for Asian Studies especially for middle-school and university classroom teachers. The journal covers the entire field of Asian studies, including classical cultures and literature and background issues in current events. Other frequent features are guides to print and digital resources, such as movies, teachings materials, and web resources. The journal publishes theme issues on topics that included Islam in Asia, marriage and family, youth culture, religion, economics and business, visual and performing arts, and Asia in world history.
The East Asian Library and the Gest Collection in the Princeton University Library is the university's principle collection of materials in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, as well as works on Chinese, Japanese and Korean linguistics and literatures in Western languages.
Richard C. Rudolph was an American professor of Chinese Literature and Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Mongolian studies is an interdisciplinary field of scholarly inquiry concerning Mongolian language, Mongolian history, and Mongolian culture. Scholars who work in the field of Mongolian studies are often referred to as Mongolists.