Beyond Yellowness: Representations of Race and Ethnicity in East Asia

Catalog description

What do race and ethnicity mean to regions outside Europe and North America? How did the perceptions of different physiological and cultural features define premodern and modern East Asia? Since when and for what reasons did some people, whom Marco Polo considered “white,” become racially Asian or yellow in literary and cinematic representations? This survey course will demystify East Asian homogeneity and discuss how various literary, cinematic, and critical works from antiquity up to the modern era present notions and issues related to race and ethnicity in the region now known as East Asia. The reading material will include excerpts from The Zuo Tradition, The Travels of Marco Polo, Bai Juyi, Min Jin Lee, Orientalism, and others. The course will be taught in English, and no prior knowledge of Asian cultures or languages is required.