亞際文化研究導論

The aim of this seminar is to orient students toward re-thinking the problematics of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies (IACS). Bearing in mind the complex relations and geopolitics of East/Southeast and South Asian societies, this seminar delimits its scope in order to foreground the questions and formations of present conditions shaped by the residues of the colonial past and the process of decolonization, the Cold War regime and the post-Cold War aftermath, the shadow of Pax Americana and the shuffling of new powers with the rise of China, as well as new tensions in the age of globalization and neoliberalism. This course will also address several fundamental questions: “What is Cultural Studies?” “What is the objective of Inter-Asia Cultural Studies?” “Is there any particular disciplinary methodology or theoretical framework that we need to adopt in doing Inter-Asia cultural Studies?” Questions such as race, class, nation, gender, migration, citizenship, border, modernity, capitalism, neoliberalism, cannot be dealt with through any conventional disciplinary. Also, the inter-connected, inter-influencing and inter-conflicting historical processes in this area obliges Inter-Asia Cultural Studies to go beyond national boundaries. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies therefore needs to be transdisciplinary, transnational and trans-local. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies would not take “Asia” as a totality of any pre-existing entity to retrieve or a future utopia to arrive at. Inter-Asian perspective offers an emergent mode of complex thinking, acknowledging the inter-relational conflicts and tensions in the past histories that have left their traces and are still functioning in contemporary societies. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies therefore needs to be comparative, improvisational and critical so as to expose and to dismantle the apparatus of socio-cultural formation behind the scene that is still shaping the uneven and unequal partitions within the societies.

(1) Students are expected to complete all assigned readings before class, participate in the discussion, taking turns to lead and facilitate discussion in the class, and submit 5 bi-weekly two-page journals (800-1000 words). (2) Students can form study groups (3-4 people per group) for the presentation to lead discussions. The group in charge of the presentation are expected to do their presentation with PPT, and provide additional materials on contemporary conditions, artistic works and film clips to facilitate the discussion. (3) Final paper is considered in the form of a research paper (minimum 10 double-spaced pages, ranging from 3000 to 6000 words) on a chosen topic related to the student’s research project. It can be a continuation or an extension from the bi-weekly reading journal. It is therefore strongly encouraged that students start to consider the topic of their final project from the beginning of this course. Topics and thesis statement should be submitted by the 7th week after individual conferences with the instructor. Oral presentations will be arranged in the 18th week, and the final revised paper will be due two weeks after the presentation. Bi-Weekly Response: 50% Participation/Discussion: 20% Final Project: 30%