学科概述
东亚研究(East Asian Studies)是专门针对东亚三国(中国,日本,韩国)设立的区域研究专业。该专业是一个跨学科领域,包含了社会科学(人类学、经济学、社会学、政治学等)和人文科学(文学、历史、艺术、电影、音乐等)等元素。
人文学科导向的通常被称为East Asian Languages and Cultures(东亚语言文化),而社会科学导向的被称为East Asian Regional Studies(东亚区域研究)。在少数学校,比如加州伯克利分校,东亚研究隶属于更大的母类别,亚洲研究(Asian Studies)。
一般来说,只有具备较深人文社科研究基础的高校才会在文化研究、艺术研究、历史、社会科学、政治科学等学科的基础上建立东亚研究专业,很多教授也同时兼任东亚区域研究和另一学科两系的成员。
课程安排
选择东亚研究作为专业通常要先选择一个专攻的区域(中国/韩国/日本),然后学习这个地区的文学、历史、人文、政治和艺术,之后会在其中再挑选出一个专门研究的方向。该专业对语言基础有一定的要求,和研究方向相关联。如果刚好对中国区域研究感兴趣并且母语是中文可以免去这项要求。
值得一提的是,东亚研究专业通常有很多专业相关的交换项目,可以去专攻的国家短期学习,基本都是可以边学边看优质项目。项目通常都有英文授课的课程和本地语言授课的课程,学生可以根据自己的语言水平进行选择。
课程示例
以下课程名字及介绍来自哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)的 East Asian Languages and Cultures Program,在选择上尽量涵盖了不同区域以及专业。
A、EAAS GU4111 Modern Chinese Poetry in a Global Context
In this course, we will take modern Chinese poetry as a crucible in which we can observe the interacting forces of literary history and social change. From diplomats who saw poetry as a medium for cultural translation between China and the world, to revolutionaries who enlisted poetry in the project of social transformation, we will examine the lives and works of some of China’s most prominent poets and ask, what can we learn about modern China from reading their poetry? In addition to poems, the course will include fiction, essays, photographs, and films by both Chinese and non-Chinese artists that place our poets in a broader context; topics of discussion include national identity, revolution, translation, gender, the body, ethnicity, and technology.
B、EAAS GU4122 Japanese New Wave and Cinematic Modernism
This course will delve into an analytical reconsideration of postwar Japanese cinema specifically from the perspective of the Japanese New Wave. While we will aim to capture the exhilaration of the Japanese New Wave by closely analyzing existing studies on some of its key makers and their works, special attention will be given to what is left out of the category as it is conventionally understood, drawing on marginalized works and genres, such as educational and industrial films as well as pink films.
C、EARL GU4328 Texts, Paintings, and Images of Korean Religions
The course explores the doctrines, practices, and rituals of Korean religions through iconic texts, paintings, and images. The texts, paintings, and images that the course covers include ghost stories, doctrinal exegeses and charts, missionary letters, polemical and apologetic writings, catechism, folklores, and ritual paintings.
D、EAAS GU4445 Proletarian Asia: working-class culture from the 1930s to present
From Bong Joon-ho’s runaway success Parasite, to manga adaptations of Kobayashi Takiji’s novel The Crab Cannery Ship, to the proliferation of Chinese migrant worker poetry, recent developments in the cultural landscape of East Asia have seen a renewed concern with the plight of workers and other sections of the oppressed under conditions of late capitalism. This course offers students the opportunity to situate these developments within an extended historical trajectory as the basis on which to think about the relation of radical histories to our present and possible future. It does so by integrating contemporary cultural texts with earlier cultural experiments that arose amidst the political turbulence of the 1930s across a range of locations in East Asia.
E、EARL GU4023 Women in Buddhism
This course examines a broad array of topics related to the nature of women in Buddhism, both as presented in historical and religious texts as well as in the lives of female Buddhist practitioners. Our aim will be to consider these rules and traditions within the context of their creation as well as their subsequent use. We will also look to the words and examples of women Buddhist practitioners directly, including in modern Western Buddhism.
职业前景
作为一个跨学科的专业,东亚研究的就业方向其实非常广泛。主要可能分为四种:
1.学术型:很多东亚研究专业的同学在本科毕业后在学术研究上不断深造,继续攻读PhD,最后往学者或者教授的方向发展。
2.语言型:因为东亚研究的专业特性,可能会让同学们习惯通过两种语言(英语和地区语言)进行研究工作,最终可以成为翻译或者语言老师。
3.结合型:因为东亚研究涵盖范围较广,通常同学们会选择作为另一个专业作为互补和加强,将东亚研究的知识和思考能力应用到别的行业。例如化学和东亚艺术史相结合可以去做文物修护类工作,东亚研究和政治科学相结合可以去做外交相关事务,等等。
4.内容型: 由于东亚研究专业跨学科、跨领域的性质,很多同学知识储备丰富,擅长撰写对专业知识有一定需求的内容, 可能会进入文化传播类的行业,甚至是广告业和自媒体。
图:东亚研究背景的同学可以做什么?
图源:https://eas.fas.harvard.edu/ways-concentrate
我们为什么要学习东亚研究?
我们学习东亚研究,或者说留学去读东亚研究,本质上是一个“Make the strange familiar, and make the familiar strange”的过程。用他者的视角看东亚文化,历史,政治,艺术和以往的学习体验不同,即使是以往接触过的事物,也会产生全新的的发现和思考。最后我们可能会为一些曾经熟知的概念祛魅并重新建立一套自己的理解,也可能会对这个“他者”的立场产生质疑。
其实很多从国内出去留学的同学们,特别是人文社科方向的,由于从小接触的是中日韩文化,难免会出于兴趣和熟悉选一些专业内部的东亚研究相关课程。即使不作为主要专业,很多人也会把东亚研究当作自己专业内部的一个研究方向。
最后附上东亚研究专业排名靠前的学校供大家参考:
综合性大学:
1. Harvard University
2. Columbia University
3. Yale University
4. Brown University
5. New York University
文理学院:
1. Colby College
2. Oberlin College
3. Wesleyan University
4. Middlebury College
5. Wellesley College