Asian Identities

School of Cultures, Languages, & Linguistics: Asian Studies

 

City Campus, Semester 1, 2018

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

Who am I?  Who are we?  Who are they?  Questions of identity drive the relationships between individuals, societies and nations.  This course will examine a range of theorisations of identity and explore how these can be applied in modern Asia.  Our exploration will embrace two themes: nationalism and gender and then continue to examine the way identity can be multiple, hybrid, fractured or contested, with particular reference to minorities and diaspora.

 National identity in the region is a striking issue.  Where does China begin and end?  Can Indonesia be considered a single nation?  What does the division of the peninsula mean for Korean nationalism?  How is Japanese nationalism expressed?

Gender identity raises issues of the traditional or expected role of men and women in societies undergoing rapid change.  How are customary notions of male and female roles being challenged or undermined?

Our approach to these issues combines two pathways.  The first is the reading and discussion of key theoretical works on the main themes.  The second is the examination of these themes in works of popular culture from the societies and nations involved. 

 

Short Loan texts       

*Colin Mackerras, ed., Ethnicity in Asia. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.  

*David Birch, Tony Schirato and Sanjay Srivastava. Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age, New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Supplementary recommended reading

Erich Kolig et al. Ed. Identity in Crossroad Civilisations: Ethnicity, nationalism and Globalism in Asia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009. 

 

Lectures:         two hours per week

 

Tutorials:        Asian 200 one hour per week beginning week 2

                        Asian 303 one hour per week beginning week 2

 

Coordinator:  Dr Ian Fookes  email:  ifoo001@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Concurrent teaching statement

This course is taught concurrently as Asian 200 and Asian 303, and lectures are common to both courses. However, please be aware that the course requirements, assessment tasks, and expectations for achievement are different. Please be sure to complete the assessment requirements at the appropriate level outlined below.

 

 Learning outcomes Asian 200

• building on Asian 100, you will develop further your knowledge of events, developments and trends in East and Southeast Asia focussing on the post World War II era;
• you will explore and use theoretical ways of examining identity as applied to the main themes;
• you will gain familiarity with analysing visual, historical and contemporary  texts as representations of issues of identity;
• you will gain practice in expressing your new knowledge in reports and essays formatted in standard scholarly ways.

Learning outcomes Asian 303

• building on Asian 100 and other study for the major, you will develop further your knowledge of events, developments and trends in East and Southeast Asia focussing on the post World War II era;
• master academic theories and scholarship on issues of identity to analyse topics of your interest and to advance your own arguments;

 

Your responsibilities

• Full attendance three hours per week;
• Completion of the weekly readings specified in the schedule in preparation for lectures and other assignments relating to the discussion class as directed by the course organiser;
• completion of coursework as follows:

 

Asian 200

• One assignment of 1,500 words
• One mid-semester class test;
• One essay of 2,500 words.

 

Asian 303

• One assignment of 2000 words
• One mid-semester class test;
• One essay of 3,000 words.

 

Course Prerequisites

ASIAN 200

This course is available to the following majors in the BA:

Asian Studies, Chinese, Gender Studies, Korean

and to Asia Area Studies in the Bachelor of Global Studies.

If you are majoring in other subject and you wish to include this course you should speak to the relevant undergraduate advisor.