Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
Women in East Asia
Dr. Yanjie Wang ([email protected])
Class time & location: TBA
Office Hours: TBA
University Hall 3416, Ext. 81678
Course Description:
This course provides a survey on the experience and representations of East Asian (Chinese,
Japanese, and North and South Korean) women, from ancient times to the contemporary era. We
will investigate how East Asian womanhood is constructed, institutionalized, appropriated, reinvented, and re-interpreted in different socio-historical discourses. We will start with tracing
the initial social and ideological construction of womanhood/femininity in traditional East Asian
contexts, and will then delve into critically examining the past and continuing shifts and
transformations concerning women’s gender roles in family and society starting from the later
eras of pre-modern East Asian history all the way into modern times. This course will endeavor
to interrogate the underlying mechanisms that tend to perpetuate, explicitly or implicitly, East
Asian women’s marginality and subordination and, at the same time, will look into women’s
negotiation with their gender roles and their struggles for self-identity and agency. Situating
East Asian women in both regional and global contexts, this course will explore their intricate
intersections with sexuality and gender, family and patriarchy, class and race, social justice,
nation-building, modernity, (post)colonialism, consumerism, and globalization.
Required Readings:
1) E-reserves: http://eres.lmu.edu/eres/default.aspx
Note: the password to the E-reserves is “lmu”
2) MYLMU Connect
Recommended Textbooks:
1) Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. Anchor Press, 1993. ISBN: 0385425473
2) Pang-mei Natasha Chang, Bound Feet and Western Dress. New York, Doubleday, 1996.
ISBN: 0385479646
3) Sayo Masuda, Autobiography of a Geisha. Translated by G.G. Rowley. New York: Columbia
University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0231129505
4) Fumiko Kaneko, The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese Woman. Translated by Jean Inglis.
Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 1991. ISBN: 0873328019.
5) Kazuko Kuramoto, Manchurian Legacy: Memoirs of a Japanese Colonist. East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0870135104
6) Wei Hui, Shanghai baby. translated from the Chinese by Bruce Humes. New York :Pocket
Books, 2001. ISBN: 0743421566
7) Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman. Living Sacrifice
Book Co., 1999. ISBN-10: 0882643355
8) Wan-so Pak, My very last possession and other stories; translated by Chun Kyung-Ja et al.
Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 1999. ISBN: 0765604299
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
9) Emily Honig & Gail Hershatter Eds. Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980s.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
10)
Li, A tower for the summer heat. New York : Columbia University Press, 1998. ISBN:
0231113854
11) Ba Jin, The Family. Translated by Sidney Shapiro.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course students will:

Know the chronological sequence and geographical framework of China, Japan, and Korea,
as well as the changes of East Asian women’s gender roles from antiquity to the
contemporary era.

Be able to analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources on East Asian women.

Be able to examine and interpret competing points of view in the secondary literature on
different aspects of East Asian women and gain a deeper understanding of the contested
nature of historical interpretation.

Be able to construct arguments and convincingly advance arguments with supporting
materials on the interlocking relationships East Asian women have with gender, history,
identity, institution, nation, race, and cross-cultural representation.

Do away with stereotypical thinking of East Asian women, and value the complex
connections between the past and the present.
Course Requirements:
 Attendance and Participation: Class attendance is mandatory and will be taken at each
section. Absences without a valid reason will result in a grade penalty. Valid reasons include
interviews and sick-leaves (with a note from a doctor or the Dean’s office) and other
justifiable reasons. Common unexcused absences include oversleeping, busy work with other
courses and problems with an alarm clock, transportation, or parking. If any attendance
problems arise, consult with the instructor as soon as possible.
The first absence will be excused automatically. Students who have more than 6
unexcused absences will not pass the course.
Lateness interrupts the entire class, so please come to class on time.
Class participation is strictly required. You are expected to complete all the assigned
readings before coming to class, be prepared to ask questions and actively participate. An
excellent participation grade indicates substantive contributions to class discussion –
questions, opinions, disagreements, arguments, interpretations, and collaborations with your
classmates are all examples.
 In-class Writing: There will sometimes be short in-class written work, either by individuals
or groups, which will contribute to the course participation grade.
 Response Papers: There will be six response papers (2-3 pages, double spaced) due on the
days of your choice before class. Your papers should analyze critically the source in light of
the questions asked. Note: These papers should not be evaluations (discussing whether you
think it is good or bad) or statements of taste (whether you liked it or not) but thoughtfully
articulated observations about the source and the meaning it produces, or fails to produce. If
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus




a secondary source, please identify its argument, examine the premises of the argument,
analyze how the argument is advanced, and offer your critique of it if any.
Midterm exam: Essay questions
Conferences: There will be two individual conferences during the semester. 1) One is on
your group project. 2) The other is on your final paper. Please bring your ideas on your
projects. I will brainstorm with you and will help sharpen your ideas. Come to these
conferences prepared. Showing up unprepared will negatively affect your grade.
In class presentations: Each student is required to do two presentations.
Presentation #1: Students will sign up for a 3-4 person group presentation project. The
project will be certain aspects of East Asian women. Specifically, each group will select a
topic from “Group Project Topics” that I will be distributing in due time. While you start
with a general topic chosen, you are required to narrow it down to a more specific topic
through research, discussion with your group members, and in consultation with the
instructor. Research for every project needs to be based on course materials, including at
least 2 recommended textbooks, and several required articles.
Presentation #2: Students will present their final project in the formal conference
presentation format at the end of the semester.
Final paper: 10-12 pages. Your final paper should be on a topic related to the experience and
representation of East Asian women. The paper requires in-depth analysis of primary sources
as well as scholarship relating to your topic. The subject of the research paper should be
worked out in advance with the instructor.
Grading:
 Attendance & Participation: 15%
 Response papers: 30% (6 total, 5% each )
 Midterm exam: 15%
 Conferences: 5%
 Presentations: 10% (2 total, 5% each)
 Final paper: 25%
Final grades in this course will be granted based on a general scale listed below. Please note that
there will be no curving of the grade distribution.
A+
97% and above
A
93%-96.99%
A90%-92.99%
B+
87%-89.99%
B
84%-86.99%
B80%-83.99%
C+
77%-79.99%
C
74%-76.99%
C70%-73.99%
D+
66%-69.99%
D
63%-65.99%
D60%-62.99%
F
Anything less than 59%
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
*Extensions on assignments, makeup or conflict exams will be allowed only if complete official
documentation of the reason is provided in advance. Papers turned in late will be marked down
one notch (an A becomes an A-, an A- becomes a B+) for every calendar day it is late. Papers
more than one week late will not be accepted.
Policies:
 Laptops: Your laptop may be used to take notes. Should you be found using the laptop for
browsing websites, facebooking, email etc during class time, that day will be counted as an
absence.
 Cell phones: Use of cell phone for any purpose is strictly prohibited. Use of cell phone for
any purpose will result in a recorded absence for that day. Cellphones should be put on
silence if brought into the classroom.
 Email Communication: At times I will communicate with students using campus email
systems, so it is essential that you are available for e-mail communication via lion.lmu.edu
address.
 Academic Honesty: Academic dishonesty will be treated as an extremely serious matter with
serious consequences. It is your responsibility to make sure that your work meets the
standards of academic honesty set forth in the “LMU Honor Code and Process” which
appears in the LMU Bulletin (see
http://www.lmu.edu/about/services/registrar/Bulletin/Bulletins_in_PDF_Format.htm). Please
pay particular attention to plagiarism. It is never permissible to turn in any work that has
been copied from another student or copied from a source (including Internet) without
properly acknowledging the source. Please note that there is a zero tolerance policy for any
kind of academic dishonesty: Students will receive the grade of “F” for the entire course.
 Special Accommodations: Students with special needs who need reasonable modifications,
special assistance, or accommodations in this course should promptly direct their request to
the Disability Support Services Office. Any student who currently has a documented
disability (physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should
contact the Disability Services Office (Daum Hall # 224, x84535) and the instructor as early
in the semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. Please visit
<http://www.lmu.edu/dss> for additional information.
Class Schedule:
Week 1. Introduction I
T.
Orientation
Th.
Chronological Introduction to Chinese history
Week 2. Introduction II
T
Traditional Philosophy
Th.
Chronological Introduction to Japanese and Korean History
Section I: Women in Confucian Societies
Week 3. Gender Studies and Women’s History
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
T. Gender and Asian Womanhood
Scott, Joan W. 1986. “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.,” The American
Historical Review, 91.5 (Dec., 1986): 1053-1075.
Optional: Susan Mann 2000. “Presidential Address: Myths of Asian Womanhood,” The
Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 59, No. 4. (Nov., 2000), 835-862.
Th. Women and Confucian Tradition
Ban Zhao, “A lesson for women”
Enoki, Kazuo. “Confucian women in theory and in reality”.
*Sign up for group project
*Discussion 1: Confucianism and Women
Week 4. Bound Feet: Beautiful or barbarian
T. Bound Feet and Chinese Women
Ko, Dorothy. 1997. “The Written Word and the Bound Foot: A history of the courtesan’s
aura”, in Ellen Widmer, Kang-I Sun Chang, eds. Writing Women in Late Imperial China.74100.
Th. Studying the Bound Feet
Ebray, Patricia 1999. “Gender and Sinology: Shifting Western Interpretation of Footbinding,
1300-1890,” Late Imperial China, 20.2 (December 1999):1-34.
*Discussion 2: Bound Feet, Beauty, and Gender
Week 5. Women and Confucian Cultures
Readings:
Zang’s, Deuchler’s, and Sugano’s articles in Ko, Dorothy, Haboush, JaHyun Kim, and Joan R.
Piggott eds. Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea, and Japan.
T Women, family and the state
*Discussion 3 Womanhood in Confucian Societies
Th. The past in the present
Women’s Virtues in a 2000 Korean Film: Chunhyang
Week 6. Women’s Place
Readings:
Francesca Bray. 2005. “The inner quarters: oppression or freedom?” From Ronald G. Knapp and
Kai-yin Lo (eds), House Home Family: Living and Being Chinese, Honolulu, University of
Hawai’I Press, 2005
Optional: Dorothy Ko 1992. “Pursuing Talent and Virtue: Education and Women’s Culture in
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century China”, Late Imperial China, 13.1 (June 1992): 9-39.
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
T.
Inner Chamber and Gendered Space
*Discussion 4 Women’s Place and Space
Th. Group Project 1: Women in Pre-Modern East Asian Societies
Section II: Women in Modern East Asia
Week 7. Westernized or/and Modernized Women
Readings:
Carroll, Peter. “Refashioning Suzhou: Dress, Commodification, and Modernity,” Positions: East
Asia Cultures Critique, 11.2 (Fall 2003): 443-478.
Miriam Silverberg. “The Modern Girl as Militant,” in Bernstein, Gail Lee. ed. Recreating
Japanese Women. (University of California Press, 1991), 239-266.
Optional: Eileen Otis, “Virtual personalism in Beijing: Learning deference and femininity at a
global luxury hotel,” Worlds of Chinese Labor: Ethnographies of Class, Gender, and Spatial
Inequalities in Post-socialist China, edited by Ching Kwan Lee. New York: Routledge.
T. Fashion, Body and Modernity
*Discussion 5 Fashion and East Asian Women
Th. Group Project 2: Women and East Asian Modernization
Week 8. Women in Revolution
Readings:
Qiu Jin on releasing bound feet
Selected chapter from Gilmartin, Christina Kelley. 1993. Engendering the Chinese Revolution:
Radical Women, Communist Politics and Mass Movements in the 1920s.
Optional: Selected chapter from Kaneko Fumiko. 1991. The Prison Memoirs of a Japanese
woman.
T
En-gendering Revolution
*Discussion 6 Women Revolutionaries in East Asia
Th
Group Project 3: Women revolutionaries
Week 9 Women in War
Readings:
Selected chapters from Comfort Women Speak
Hye Seung Chung. 2001. Korean Comfort Women Trilogy as Subaltern Autobiography
T.
Documentary: Habitual Sadness
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
Th. Chinese “Revolutionary” Ballet: The Red Detachment of Women (1970)
*Discussion 7 Women in War
Week 10. Women and Colonization
Readings:
Selected chapter from Kuramoto, Kazuko. Manchurian Legacy: Memoirs of a Japanese
Colonist.
Shao Dan 2005. “Princess, traitor, Soldier, Spy: Aisin Gioro Xianyu and the Dilemma of
Manchu Identity,” in Mariko Asano Tamanoi, ed. Crossed histories: Manchuria in the age of
empire.
T.
Women and Colonization
*Discussion 8 Women Colonizers
Th.
Group Project 4: Women, Identity, and Colonial empire
Week 11. Gender performed
Reading:
Robertson, Jennifer, 1998. Takarazuka.
William B. Hauser. “Women and War: The Japanese Film Image,” in Bernstein, Gail Lee. ed.
Recreating Japanese Women. University of California Press, 1991, 296-314.
Selected chapter from Autobiography of a Geisha
T.
Th.
Documentary: Dream Girl
*Discussion 9 Takarazuka
Group Project 5: Gender performed
Section III: Women after WWII
Week 12. Generational gaps and changes
Readings:
Selected chapters from Personal Voices
Selected chapters from Jung Chang. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
T.
Th.
Documentary: Wild swans
*Discussion 10 Generational Changes
Group Project 6: Generational Changes/Differences in East Asian Women
(Interviews are recommended)
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Loyola Marymount University
Course Syllabus
Week 13. Presenting and Representing East Asian Women
Readings:
Cai, Rong. 2005.”Gender Imaginations in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Wuxia
World,” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 13.2 (Fall 2005): 441-471.
T.
Film: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
*Discussion 11 East Asian Women in Westerners’ Eyes
Th.
Group Project 7: East Asian Women in Films
Week 14. Dating, Wedding, and Love
Readings:
Selected pages from Emily Honig, Personal voices, pp.31-40
Nemoto, Kumiko 2006. “Intimacy, Desire, and the Construction of Self between Asian American
Women and White American Men,” JAAS, 27-54.
Optional: My Sassy Girl Friend
T
Gendered Passages and Processes in Life
*Discussion 12 Gender Relationships in dating and marriage
Th
Group Project 8: Dating and Wedding in East Asia
(Interviews are recommended)
Week 15 Final Paper Presentation
*This syllabus is subject to change based on the needs of the class. Students are responsible for
keep yourselves informed of any changes or modifications announced in class or posted on
MYLMU Connect.
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