Princeton University - The Graduate School

The Department of East Asian Studies offers doctoral (Ph.D.) training in Chinese and Japanese history and literature, Korean history, Korean cultural studies, and the transnational social and cultural study of contemporary East Asia. Students primarily interested in modern Chinese and Japanese history, however, normally enroll in the Department of History, and also take courses in the Department of East Asian Studies. The Ph.D. program in East Asian studies is highly language intensive. Applicants for admission to the department are expected to have had at least three academic years of training (or the equivalent thereof) in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. In addition, it is advantageous, but not required, to already have begun the study of a second European language (in addition to English, usually French or German).

In addition to sound linguistic preparation, the department expects applicants to have received substantial academic training in their proposed field of study (broadly conceived) either through undergraduate study or in an M.A. program. We enroll domestic and international students from both B.A. and M.A. programs.

M.A. Requirements
The degree of Master of Arts is awarded to students who satisfactorily pass all courses, fulfill the language requirements and complete two research papers.

Language Preparation
Every student in the department is required to demonstrate competence in two foreign languages, one in the East Asian language appropriate to the field of specialization (Chinese or Japanese), the other in a European language. Students specializing in the pre-modern or early modern periods must be proficient in both the classical and the modern language of their field of specialization. In addition, students in Chinese studies are required to take at least two years of modern Japanese and are strongly advised to take EAS 563 (Readings in Japanese Academic Style). Competence in Chinese or Japanese is evaluated upon arrival and monitored through the course work. The European language requirement must be fulfilled prior to taking the general examination. In addition, some students may be required to acquire special skills, including additional languages, which will be determined in consultation with faculty advisers. All students, including not-yet-enrolled students who have been admitted, are encouraged to avail themselves of intensive summer language instruction in order to accelerate their language preparation. Information on recommended centers and possible grants for such study may be obtained from the departmental director of graduate studies.

The department has arranged with the Department of Comparative Literature for a minor in comparative literature. This involves choosing comparative literature as the third field in addition to other requirements that can be explained by the director of graduate studies in this department or in comparative literature.

Course Work
Normally, students will take three graduate courses each semester during their first two years of study. The exact course load will be determined by the director of graduate studies in consultation with the student and his/her adviser, and will depend on the state of the student’s preparation for the general examination.

Graduate seminars come in a variety of different formats. These include general reading courses (especially in preparation for the general examination), courses focused on disciplinary approaches, courses of intense work with original source texts, dissertation writing colloquia, and others. In addition, professors in the department regularly offer individual reading courses to students who need specific training at a critical moment of their studies.

General Examination
The general examination consists of both written and oral sections and covers three distinct fields of study, one major and two minor. It is designed to test the comprehensiveness and coherence of the candidate’s knowledge. Candidates submit written proposals for their fields, worked out in consultation with all members of their general examination committee, at least one term before their general examinations. Students are further guided by departmental requirements, such that (1) the examination committee shall have at least three members of the faculty; (2) the fields shall include more than one discipline or cultural area, and one of the two minor fields, which may be chosen from another department such as art and archaeology, comparative literature, English, history, politics, religion, or sociology; and (3) although the principal field of specialization may be defined in whatever depth is considered appropriate by the department, the supporting fields must be defined in sufficiently broad terms.

Dissertation and Final Public Oral
The dissertation is intended to demonstrate not only technical mastery of the student’s field of specialization, but also a capacity for original and independent scholarship. When feasible, students are encouraged to prepare for this through a period of residence and research in the appropriate country of East Asia. Departmental acceptance of the dissertation qualifies the candidate to stand for the final public oral examination. Although the normal expectation of the University is five years from matriculation to the awarding of the doctoral degree, students may and often do take a longer time to obtain it, in part because of the period of residence and research in East Asia. Students who come to the department with unusually strong linguistic abilities may find it possible to shorten this period, but others may require additional time to complete it.

Teaching Requirements
The University offers graduate students the opportunity to gather valuable teaching experience by leading discussion sections (“preceptorials”) in undergraduate lecture courses. The department requires all Ph.D. students to have served at least once as a preceptor before being able to schedule the final public oral examination. Students are eligible to precept after having successfully completed the general examination. Preceptors are remunerated in accordance with University policy.

Joint Programs
A joint program is offered with the Department of Art and Archaeology leading to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese or Japanese art and archaeology (see the Program in East Asian Art and Archaeology). Qualified candidates pursuing programs with an East Asian concentration in other departments are referred to the Program in East Asian Studies.

East Asian Studies

EAS 501    Proseminar in Chinese and Japanese Studies
      Benjamin A. Elman

General seminar dealing with the problems, methods, and possibilities of research peculiar to the fields of East Asian studies. Students may pursue their particular interests in their individual assignments, while participating in the general work of the seminar.

EAS 502    Pro-Sem in Chinese & Japanese Studies
      Martin Kern

General seminar dealing with the problems, methods, and possibilities of research peculiar to the fields of East Asian studies. Students may pursue their particular interests in their individual assignments, while participating in the general work of the seminar.

EAS 503    Early China
      , Martin Kern

Selected topics in Chinese political, institutional, and cultural history in the pre-Qin period and Qin and Han dynasties. Focus on sources, traditional historical scholarship, and modern interpretations.

EAS 504    Early China
      Martin Kern

Selected topics in Chinese political, institutional, and cultural history in the pre-Qin period and Qin and Han dynasties. Focus on sources, traditional historical scholarship, and modern interpretations.

EAS 505    Medieval China
      Yang Lu

Issues and methods in the interpretation of the historical development in the period from the 3rd to the 10th centuries. The precise topic varies from year to year. Students may elect to take the course either as a reading or a research seminar.

EAS 506    Medieval China
      Dieter Kuhn

Issues and methods in the interpretation of the historical development in the period from the 3rd to the 10th centuries. The precise topic varies from year to year. Students may elect to take the course either as a reading or a research seminar.

EAS 507    Chinese Intellectual History
      Willard J. Peterson

Methods, sources, and problems of research in Chinese thought, including examination of some broad interpretations of intellectual development in China. A reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is required for the study of selected problem areas through seminar discussion, oral reports, and research papers.

EAS 508    Chinese Intellectual History
      Willard J. Peterson

Methods, sources, and problems of research in Chinese thought, including examination of some broad interpretations of intellectual development in China. A reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is required for the study of selected problem areas through seminar discussion, oral reports, and research papers.

EAS 513    Special Topics in Chinese History
      Benjamin A. Elman

Selected problems on the historiography of the early, medieval, or late empires with a focus on literati thought, religion, or literature in historical context. Working knowledge of classical Chinese strongly recommended.

EAS 514    Special Topics in Chinese History
      Benjamin A. Elman

Selected problems on the historiography of the early, medieval, or late empires with a focus on literati thought, religion, or literature in historical context. Working knowledge of classical Chinese strongly recommended.

EAS 515    Late Imperial China
      Benjamin A. Elman

Selected topics in Ming and Qing history with a focus on the most important secondary readings on a given problem. Reading ability in modern Chinese highly recommended.

EAS 516    Late Imperial China
      Staff

Selected topics in Ming and Qing history with a focus on the most important secondary readings on a given problem. Reading ability in modern Chinese highly recommended.

EAS 517/HIS 531    Qing History
      Benjamin A. Elman

Topics in Chinese social and cultural history, 1600-1900, ranging from material culture, popular religion, and education to the history of science.

EAS 518/HIS 532    Qing History
      Benjamin A. Elman

Topics in Chinese social and cultural history, 1600-1900, ranging from material culture, popular religion, and education to the history of science.

EAS 521/HIS 526    Readings in Early Modern Japanese History
      David L. Howell

Selected topics in the institutional and intellectual history of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan. Students attend the meetings of 321 and take part in a special graduate discussion group.

EAS 522/HIS 527    20th-Century Japanese History
      Sheldon M. Garon

Selected topics in Japanese social and economic history since 1900.

EAS 523    Research in Japanese History
      David L. Howell

Selected topics in the history of early modern and modern Japan.

EAS 524/HIS 524    Early Japanese History
      Martin C. Collcutt

Selected major periods or topics in the institutional, intellectual, and cultural history of Japan prior to 1600.

EAS 531    Chinese Poetry
      Martin Kern

Critical and historical studies of classical poetry and poetics, with particular stress on the application of linguistic theory and other tools of literary analysis to Chinese poetry.

EAS 532    Chinese Fiction and Drama
      Andrew H. Plaks

A study of the development of Chinese narrative and dramatic literature, with emphasis on generic and thematic analysis.

EAS 533    Readings in Chinese Literature
      Martin Kern, Ping Wang

To suit the particular interests of students and instructor, a subject for intensive study is selected from classical or vernacular literature based on genres, periods, or individual writers, such as the prose of the Six Dynasties, the poetry of Tu Fu, the plays of Kuan Han-ch'ing, or Dream of the Red Chamber.

EAS 534    Readings in Chinese Literature
      Ping Wang

To suit the particular interests of students and instructor, a subject for intensive study is selected from classical or vernacular literature based on genres, periods, or individual writers, such as the prose of the Six Dynasties, the poetry of Tu Fu, the plays of Kuan Han-ch'ing, or Dream of the Red Chamber.

EAS 535    Readings in Modern Chinese Literature
      Perry Link

The course explores readings in 20th-century literature and related scholarship. Emphases vary from year to year to suit the needs of students. There is discussion in Chinese or English, as appropriate.

EAS 536    Studies in Modern Chinese Culture
      Perry Link

Selected research topics in 20th-century culture, especially literature are studied. Topics vary from year to year, depending on the interests of the instructor and the students. Class discussion is in Chinese or English, as appropriate.

EAS 538    Topics in Modern Chinese Intellectual History
      Chih-p'ing Chou

The focus of the course is the intellectual transition occurring in China from the late nineteenth century to the present. Topics include the vernacular movement, language reforms, issues on democracy, Westernization and the relative value of science and metaphysics, debates that polarized the academic community and have shaped intellectual trends.

EAS 541    Classical Japanese Prose
      Richard H. Okada

Aspects of the development of the narrative tradition in Japan, with an emphasis on analytical discussion of selected texts.

EAS 542    Modern Japanese Prose
      Atsuko Ueda

A study of selected major authors and literary trends in modern Japan, with an emphasis on the Meiji and Taisho^? periods. Possible topics include the development of the modern novel, "inter-war" literature, and Taisho modernism

EAS 543    Classical Japanese Poetics
      Richard H. Okada

Man'yo shu the Imperial Anthologies, and the works of Basho.

EAS 544    20th-Century Japanese Literature
      Atsuko Ueda

This course examines Japanese literary modernism through twentieth-century narrative and criticism. Analysis of texts are augmented through discussion of contemporary literary, theoretical, and historical developments.

EAS 547    Topics in Classical Japanese Literature and Poetics
      Earl R. Miner

The course discusses the critical presumptions explicit and implicit in pre-Meiji literature.

EAS 550/ANT 550    Topics in Social Theory and East Asia
      Amy B. Borovoy

An introduction to classical social theory and an exploration of new directions in historical and social science literatures on East Asia. Weber's copnstruction of capitalism, Durkheim's notion of society, and Marx's concept of ideology all continue to inform contemporary East Asian studies; in turn, East Asian Studies has also been central to demonstrationg the Eurocentrism of many of these theories.

EAS 561/COM 531    Comparative Poetics
      Earl R. Miner

The theory and practice of literary history in the light of evidence from periods and literacy cultures available to members of the seminar: ancient to contemporary, Euro-American, and intercultural. Topics are chosen from, but not restricted to, literature, history, and literary history; genesis of poetic and critical systems; literary change and periodizings; interpretations and ideologies; gender and other conditions of authorship/readership; cultures, languages, and translations; and reception and influence. Readings are literary, historical, theoretical, and exemplary.

EAS 571/HIS 525    Readings in Early Modern Korean History
      Joy S. Kim

A survey of major issues and debates in the historiography of early modern Korea. Course introduces the major English language works on Chosen history as well as some key primary texts from the Choson period in classical Chinese. No previous knowledge of Korean history or language is necessary, but a working knowledge of classical Chinese or classical Japanese (kanbun) is required.

EAS 572/HIS 528    Readings in Modern Korean History
      Joy S. Kim

A survey of major issues and debates in the historiography of modern Korea, and introduction to the major English language works on modern Korean history. Topics include: “opening” of Korea, Japanese colonialism, space of liberation, the Korean War, issues of gender and labor, and U.S.-Korean relations.

EAS 582    Readings in Manchu Language and History
      Nicola Di Cosmo