Courses

In 1868, samurai revolutionaries and their allies seized the reins of power and established a new capital they called Tokyo.  Against all odds, this fragile regime survived and made Tokyo a center of power that would transform both Japan and the world.  This survey of Japanese history explores the rise and fall of Japan as a modern imperial power; its foreign relations; its economic and scientific development from "feudalism" to futuristic technologies; and Japan's many modern revolutions, from the rule of the samurai to Westernization and democracy, from democratic collapse to fascism and World War II, and from Japan's postwar rebirth to the present.  We will examine not only big events but also everyday life, including gender and sexuality, family and schools, and art and popular culture.

Full details for CAPS 1622 - The World of Modern Japan

This course surveys modern Chinese history from 1644 to 1949. Time will be devoted to each of the three major periods: China's last empire, the Great Qing (1644-1911); the early Republic (1912-1927); and the Nationalist period (1928-1949). It guides students through pivotal events in modern Chinese history, and uncovers the origins and trajectory of China's painful transition from a powerful early modern empire to a country torn by civil unrest and imperialist invasion, and then from a newly-recognized "Great Power" in the post-World War II international order to a vanguard of the global communist revolution.

Full details for CAPS 1920 - Modern China

China was and still is regarded in the Western world as a country without the rule of law. In this course, students examine recent scholarship that challenges this simplified understanding of the role of law in Chinese politics and society. It approaches law in early modern and modern China both as a state institution of governance and control, and as a platform that facilitates interactions and negotiations between state and society, between different social forces, and between different cultures. At the same time, this course guides students to develop projects of their own choice, either addressing legal issues or using legal sources, from tentative proposals to research papers based on their examination of original or translated primary sources.

Full details for CAPS 2132 - Law and Society in Early Modern and Modern China

Interdisciplinary introduction to Chinese culture especially designed for students not majoring in Asian Studies. Explores literature, history, religion, and art, and other aspects of China's rich and diverse heritage, from earliest times to the present.

Full details for CAPS 2212 - Introduction to China

The twentieth century was a time of unprecedented change in China as the country's ancient imperial system collapsed and a new modern order began to emerge. This course will explore the myriad transformations that occurred during this remarkable century of revolution and renewal. Among the major changes that we will focus on are the fall of the Qing dynasty, the intellectual awakening of May Fourth, the rise of the Nationalist party-state, and key events of the Communist era, such as the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong and the capitalist reforms of Deng Xiaoping. The class will encourage historical reflection on China's engagement with the modern world in order to better understand the complex reality of China today.

Full details for CAPS 2985 - Transformations in Twentieth Century China

The course is attached to the Cornell Contemporary China Initiative lecture series, which brings high profile speakers on various aspects of contemporary China to Cornell most Mondays throughout the semester.  Students will attend one or two foundation-setting lectures by the instructor, then attend weekly guest lectures & write short assignments. 

Full details for CAPS 3308 - Issues in Contemporary China II

Ever since the creation of the concept of a culturally and geographically stable center in China, people have been intentionally excluded from that center. Disgraced officials are sent to far-flung provinces, loyalists to past regimes hide out across China's borders, and dissidents have their entry visas revoked, making it impossible for them to return home. The experiences of these people, and the poems and stories they write, tell us a great deal about what it means and how it feels to be included and excluded. What is the difference between the way China looks from the inside and the way it looks from the outside? Who has the power to decide who gets to live in China, and how and why do they use it? What is the relationship between our identities and our homes? Texts studied will range from 300 BCE to the present; all will be read and discussed in English. 

Full details for CAPS 3329 - Literature of Leaving China

This seminar examines the various issues that surround being a specialist of one of the world's most complex and exciting places. The course will first look at the various groups of people that have been China Hands, including missionaries, academics, businesspeople, journalists, and government officials. One central theme is the continual conflict between being a country specialist and gaining an understanding of the broader world. The second part of the class considers the strategies for going into the field and doing research on China, including finding a host and making connections, using written sources (electronic and printed), conducting interviews, and implementing formal surveys. The last segment of the class considers the charge that China Hands are prone to self-censorship because of ideological affinity.

Full details for CAPS 3502 - Becoming a China Hand

Using resources specifically available in China, this course combines lectures, guest lectures, field trips, and faculty-directed research projects to help students achieve an in-depth understanding of China's changing politics, economy, society, and culture.

Full details for CAPS 4001 - China in Transition

This course, offered by faculty members of Peking University's School of International Studies, provides Chinese perspectives on contemporary China's international relations.

Full details for CAPS 4002 - Chinese Perspectives on International and Global Affairs

Honors students complete research and finish a thesis on a topic of their own choosing under the direction of a faculty member.

Full details for CAPS 4020 - Honors Thesis Tutorial II

This course serves as the wrap-up seminar for CAPS students.  It is designed for CAPS seniors to review the critical issues and topics in China and Asia-Pacific Studies from broader theoretical perspectives, to engage in academic discourse and policy debate about implications of China rising, to reflect on their four-year learning experience in Ithaca, Washington, D.C., and Beijing as students of contemporary China studies, and to enhance their abilities to pursue future studies and/or careers that are related to their CAPS experience after graduating from Cornell.  The seminar is organized around the central theme - China rising - and roughly divided into three sections:  (1) China's rise and the "paradigm change" in world politics; (2) China's quest for identity and order; and (3) implications of China rising for the U.S. and the world.  Under each of these sections, a few specific topics are identified for class discussion.

Full details for CAPS 4030 - Issues in China and Asia-Pacific Studies

This course provides an overview of the various features of work and labor in contemporary China. After a brief section on historical background, we will analyze how market reforms have impacted work for Chinese employees, and how unions, employers, the state, NGOs, and workers themselves have responded to these changes. Additionally, this course will situate China's changing labor relations within the broader global context.

Full details for CAPS 4355 - Work and Labor in China

Through guided reading in Chinese, students in this course explore topics, themes and techniques that define the body of works known as chuanqi (stories of the marvelous) and zhiguai (stories of the strange). The aim of the course is to help students achieve an appreciation for the early development of Chinese narrative tradition in the context of Chinese literary and popular culture of Tang dynasty China.

Full details for CAPS 4418 - Stories of the Strange and the Marvelous from the Tang Dynasty

This directed study course allows CAPS students to enroll at Beida (Peking University) in courses offered to international students by the Peking University School of International Studies.

Full details for CAPS 4888 - Directed Study - Beijing

Chinese discourses have long linked the circulation of cosmic energies, political power, and bodily vitalities. In these models political order, spiritual cultivation, and health are achieved and enhanced through harmonizing these flows across the levels of Heaven-and-Earth, state, and humankind. It is when these movements are blocked or out of synchrony that we find disordered climates, societies, and illness. In this course, we will examine the historical emergence and development of these models of politically resonant persons and bodily centered polities, reading across primary texts in translation from these otherwise often separated fields. For alternate frameworks of analysis as well as for comparative perspectives, we will also examine theories of power and embodiment from other cultures, including recent scholarship in anthropology and critical theory.

Full details for CAPS 4931 - Vitality and Power in China

Independent study course in topics not covered in regularly scheduled courses. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course work.

Full details for CAPS 4999 - CAPS Independent Study