Infusing Asian Studies INTS 2105: Introduction to International Studies & Cross-Cultural Learning Becky Becker Professor of Theatre & International Studies Certificate Coordinator Columbus State University Columbus, GA

Context  CSU is a largely commuter campus of approximately 8,000 students; on campus population grows each year.  Center for International Education and Study Abroad programs are strong; numbers in international learning communities and study abroad programs growing yearly.  New course to the university—and to me.  Gateway course for the new International Studies Certificate; students shape their program in conjunction with faculty mentor.

INTS 2105 Course: Introduction to International Studies & Cross-Cultural Learning  Syllabus built around the theme of “mapping international cities,” inspired by Shana Brown.  Roland Barthes, quoted by Yingjin Zhang in the article assigned to us by Prof. Yun Peng: “The city is a discourse and this discourse is truly a language: the city speaks to its inhabitants, we speak our city, the city where we are, simply by living in it, by wandering through it, by looking at it.” ∞ From “Semiology and the Urban”

INTS 2105 Course: Introduction to International Studies & Cross-Cultural Learning  Units focusing on international cities interspersed with other course content: cross-cultural communication, globalization, politics, economics, global identities, etc.  Honolulu, Hawai’i as “bridge” city to look at international cultures within American culture.  Shanghai, China and Tokyo, Japan as cities in a larger unit drawing largely on materials from our seminar, as well as my own travels in Japan.

Mapping a City: Honolulu, Hawai’i Potential Topics/Resources:  Mythology: birth of Hawai’ian islands  History of indigenous peoples, drawing on Aaron Sala’s lecture, personal visit to Bishop Museum, and other research materials.  Colonial history, international migrations  Pearl Harbor, internment and the impact on Honolulu  Contemporary Honolulu: Cultural Fusion and Tension

Mapping a City: Shanghai, China Potential Topics/Resources:  Religious underpinnings: Confucianism, Daoism, Chan Buddhism, later Islam  Early Chinese history; culture and gender roles: article “The Life Course” by Susan Mann.  Opium Wars, British occupation and Shanghai’s opening trade to the West; article “The Metropolis and Mental Life,” by Georg Simmel.  International settlements and Shanghai’s “divided city”; Shanghai and the Cultural Revolution.  Shanghai as cosmopolitan city and center for commerce; Shanghai’s changing skyline.  Arts/Literature: drawing from Fred Lau’s lecture on Regional Chinese Music; potential films such as Jia Zhangke’s I Wish I Knew or Luo Ye’s Suzhon River.

Mapping a City: (Edo) Tokyo, Japan Potential Topics/Resources:  Mythology: Birth of Japan and re-imagined in the Kojiki (Connect to birth of Hawai’i)  Religious underpinnings: Shinto & Zen Buddhism; article “Religions in Contemporary Japan,” by Ian Reader and circle diagram provided by Prof. Michel Mohr  Commodore Perry, Gunboat Diplomacy and the opening of Japan to the West.  Meiji Restoration and Edo/Tokyo: drawing on seminar materials and personal visit to Edo/Tokyo Museum.  Tokyo as modern metropolis; tensions between technology and tradition.  Arts/Literature: Travel Literature in Medieval Japan, Haiku by Bash ō ; Japanese approach to architecture and its Chinese connections and the concept of “Ma.”

Works Cited/Consulted Goldblatt, Howard. “Border Crossings: Chinese Writing, in Their World and Ours.” In Timothy B. Weston and Lionel Jensen, eds. China Beyond the Headlines. Rowan and Littlefield, Hershock, Peter. “Chinese Buddhism: Chan and the Authority of Responsive Virtuosity.” Chan Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press, Huey, Bob. Travel Literature Packet. Mann, Susan. “The Life Course.” Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century. Stanford, Mirashige, Stanley. “Japanese Art: Premodern Traditions and Modern Transformations.” Moses, Kelema Lee. “Architecture and the Critique of American Presence in Nineteenth-Century Honolulu.” Chicago Art Journal 20 (Fall 2010): Reader, Ian. Religions in Contemporary Japan. University of Hawaii Press, Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life” (1903) in Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, eds. The Blackwell City Reader. Oxford and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, Zhang, Yingjin. “Introduction.” The City in Modern Chinese Literature and Film: Configurations of Space, Time an Gender. Stanford, 1996.