HIST 321 - The History of Sexuality and Society in East Asia Since 1200

Under the global #MeToo movement, people in East Asia also speak out their stories of sexual harassment. However, East Asian countries have their unique battlegrounds where perceptions of good/bad sexual behaviors have been deeply rooted in history. This course provides an opportunity for students to understand complicated sexual politics in China, Japan, and beyond. It surveys various sexual practices and their intersections with law, labor, leisure, reproduction, money, health, science, and warfare from 1200 to the present. We will explore questions such as: Who can have sex and who cannot? What did legal and illicit sex look like in the premodern period? Did people in this most populous region practice birth control? How did East Asian people receive Western sexology? Why are “comfort women ” still controversial in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and mainland China nowadays? Following a chronological order, the course will finally turn towards a futurist perspective: how to make gendered and intimate relationships better in the East Asian world.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.