CHN 425 W / EAS 425 W | Food and Culture in East Asia

Welcome To CHIN/EAS 425W

Course Information

Course Description:

Food is the necessary material for everyone’s daily life. You may have the experience of discussing your favorite food or restaurant with friends or family members. But food is not just about food but the lens to scrutinize culture. In this course, we will place food under analytic scrutiny, interrogate the different ways of imagining, understanding, and defining Asian foods, and explore how human relationships to food in East Asia have changed over time. This course will guide you to know how food interacts with family systems, politics, gender issues, consumerism, classes, minorities, regionalism, and globalization by analyzing cultural products, such as film, literature, and new media materials, with food as the subject matter. This course meets continuing writing requirement.

Course Objectives:

After taking this course, students should be able to…

Understand the interaction between food and culture
Know the major themes relating to food
Utilize critical theoretical and methodological approaches to study food and relevant topics
Successfully navigate the academic research process, including defining a research topic, writing academically, and completing a peer review.
Analyze cultural materials, including literature, films, and new media materials.
Improve writing and presentation skills

Course Materials

Most of the course materials will be uploaded on Canvas. Links to assigned films will be available on Canvas, too.

Assigned materials may be changed, but you will be informed in advance.