http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/dodgen/syllabi/436/436%20SyllabusS07.doc
History 436
Class and Gender in Modern East Asia
Prof. Dodgen
This course examines the definition and social meaning of gender and its
relationship to economic and social class in East Asia (including China, Japan, Korea,
and Vietnam) since 1600. This undertaking embraces both a vast span of time and a wide
range of cultural variations that offer numerous opportunities for students to follow
specific issues and questions. Our goal will not be to “master” the question of gender and
class, but to sample widely in these linked but often very different cultural and historical
regions in order to identify key issues and develop research topics that can illuminate the
way the role of gender and class have changed in the modern period.
Evaluation will be based on class participation, assigned presentations, and a final
paper. Written assignments will include two 3-5-page reports on assigned articles or
books to be presented to the class.
In addition, students will give two presentations on their research topic, one a
preliminary report on sources being pursued, topics under investigation, and problems
and progress on the work. This report requires no written material other than the ongoing
bibliographic deadlines assigned in the syllabus.
The second report will be a presentation of the student’s findings. The final
research paper will be due on the day of the final. Length will be a minimum of 15 pages,
typed, double-spaced, proofread and edited. Footnotes must be in the Chicago Manual of
Style format.
Students are encouraged to come by to discuss their topics or research problems.
My office is Stevenson 2066, extension 42462. My e-mail address is
dodgen@sonoma.edu. Office hours are Monday and Wednesday 9:30-11:00, and
Thursday before class.
Readings Assignments:
The course will begin with a series of short selections designed to introduce some
of the fundamental concepts of gender and family roles in Asia. These will be read by all
members of the class and will form the basis for the first weeks of discussion. Guidelines
for reading articles can be found at:
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/dodgen/syllabi/436/How%20to%20read%20an%
20article%20for%20seminar%20discussion.doc
The second round of texts will be chosen by individual students from the list of
works appended to this syllabus. Students will be responsible for reading, presenting and
leading discussion of their chosen book or article.
Syllabus
Date
2/1
Topics and Assignments
Introduction: questions of class, gender, and power.
Film: “Raise the Red Lantern”
2/8
The foundation literature of Asian gender
Read the following articles for discussion:
Ban Zhao’s “Lessons for a woman.”
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/banzhao.html
the poem “Woman” at:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/c-poet2.html
and Kaibara Ekken’s “Greater Learning For Women” at:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/
kaibara.html
Presidential address: myths of Asian womanhood, Susan Mann, The
Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 4 (November 2000) 83562.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00219118%28200011%2959%3A4%3C835%3APAMOAW%3
E2.0.CO%3B2-7
2/15
Film: “Memoirs of a Secret Empire.”
2/22
No class that mattered.
3/1
Traditions of Gender in China
Read the following articles for discussion:
Widows in the class, kinship, and community structures of Qing
dynasty China, Susan Mann, The Journal of Asian Studies 46, no. 1
(February, 1987) 37-56. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00219118%28198702%2946%3A1%3C37%3AWITKCA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D
Feng Meng-lung's Treasury of Laughs: Humorous Satire on
Seventeenth-Century Chinese Culture and Society,” Pi-Ching Hsu,
Journal of Asian Studies, v. 57, no. 4, Nov. 1998, 10421067.http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00219118%28199811%2957%3A4%3C1042%3AFMTOLH%3E2.0.CO%3B2
-U
Women in Honglou meng: Prescriptions of Purity in the Femininity
of Qing Dynasty China
Louise Edwards, Modern China, Vol. 16, No. 4. (Oct., 1990), pp. 407429.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00977004%28199010%2916%3A4%3C407%3AWIHMPO%3E
2.0.CO%3B2-G
3/8
Women in modernizing Japan
Read the following articles for discussion:
Women and War in Japan, 1937-45
Thomas R. H. Havens
The American Historical Review, Vol. 80, No. 4. (Oct., 1975), pp. 913934.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00028762%28197510%2980%3A4%3C913%3AWAWIJ1%3E2.0.CO%3B2
-4
Women's Groups and the Japanese State: Contending Approaches
to Political Integration, 1890-1945
Sheldon Garon
Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1. (Winter, 1993), pp. 5-41.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00956848%28199324%2919%3A1%3C5%3AWGATJS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
Managing the Truth of Sex in Imperial Japan, Sabine Fruhstuck, The
Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 59, No. 2. (May, 2000), pp. 332-358.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00219118%28200005%2959%3A2%3C332%3AMTTOSI%3E2.0.CO%3B2
-6
The World's Oldest Debate? Prostitution and the State in Imperial
Japan, 1900-1945
Sheldon Garon, The American Historical Review, Vol. 98, No. 3. (Jun.,
1993), pp. 710-732.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00028762%28199306%2998%3A3%3C710%3ATWODPA%3E2.0.CO%3B
2-O
3/15
Contemporary Japan
Writing Assignment Due: Initial Bibliography and Thesis paragraph.
This should be a paragraph that goes beyond simply stating what your
topic is going to be and proposes what you plan to say about it. In other
words, you should already have some sense of what angle you’re going to
take on your topic. The bibliography should include important, major
works on the subject that will be your starting point for more focused
research later on. One of these works will be presented to the class next
week.
Read the following articles for discussion:
Gender inequality in contemporary Japan, Robert J. Smith, Journal of
Japanese Studies 13:1 (1987)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00956848%28198724%2913%3A1%3C1%3AGIICJ%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
Late Marriage and Less Marriage in Japan, Robert D. Retherford;
Naohiro Ogawa; Rikiya Matsukura
Population and Development Review, Vol. 27, No. 1. (Mar., 2001), pp.
65-102.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00987921%28200103%2927%3A1%3C65%3ALMALMI%3E2.0.CO%3B2S
Film: “Dream Girls.”
3/22
Contemporary China
Presentations: Students should be ready to discuss one of the important
sources from their initial bibliography and explain its place in the
historiography of their topic.
Read the following articles for discussion:
Virginity and Premarital Sex in Contemporary China
Xiao Zhou Feminist Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, The Problematics of
Heterosexuality. (Summer, 1989), pp. 279-288.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00463663%28198922%2915%3A2%3C279%3AVAPSIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4
Scripting Extramarital Affairs: Marital Mores, Gender Politics,
and Infidelity in Taiwan, Jui-Shan Chang
Modern China, Vol. 25, No. 1. (Jan., 1999), pp. 69-99.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00977004%28199901%2925%3A1%3C69%3ASEAMMG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W
Buying Brides in China-Again, Hill Gates, Anthropology Today, Vol.
12, No. 4. (Aug., 1996), pp. 8-11.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0268540X%28199608%2912%3A4%3C8%3ABBIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
3/29
Planning and its discontents
Topics due. Write a paragraph or two describing your topic, how you plan
to approach it, and what issues scholars who have written on the subject
have emphasized. Attach a preliminary bibliography (works which are
relevant to the topic).
Family Planning and Women's Lives in Rural China
Karen Hardee; Zhenming Xie; Baochang Gu International Family
Planning Perspectives, Vol. 30, No. 2. (Jun., 2004), pp. 68-76.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=01903187%28200406%2930%3A2%3C68%3AFPAWLI%3E2.0.CO%3B2C
Prenatal Sex Determination and Sex-Selective Abortion in Rural
Central China
Chu Junhong, Population and Development Review, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Jun.,
2001), pp. 259-281
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00987921%28200106%2927%3A2%3C259%3APSDASA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I
Film: “Small Happiness”
4/5
Other trends
Courtship, Love and Premarital Sex in a North China Village
Yunxiang Yan, The China Journal, No. 48. (Jul., 2002), pp. 29-53.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=13249347%28200207%290%3A48%3C29%3ACLAPSI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3
Katharine H. S. Moon, “South Korean Movements against Militarized
Sexual Labor,” Asian Survey, v. 39, no. 2, Mar. - Apr., 1999, 310-327.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00044687%28199903%2F04%2939%3A2%3C310%3ASKMAMS%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-C
Sharon Kinsella, “Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the
Amateur Manga Movement,” Journal of Japanese Studies, v. 24, no. 2,
summer 1998, 289-316. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00956848%28199822%2924%3A2%3C289%3AJSIT1O%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
China Awakens to Fight Projected AIDS Crisis
Dennis Normile, Science, New Series, Vol. 288, No. 5475. (Jun. 30,
2000), pp. 2312-2313.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00368075%2820000630%293%3A288%3A5475%3C2312%3ACATFPA%3
E2.0.CO%3B2-1
Initial bibliography due. This should be the list of works you have
already looked over and think you will actually use for the paper. It can be
expanded, reduced or modified as needed at a later time. This bibliography
should contain the most recent and the most important work
done on your subject. Discussion of assigned readings.
4/19
Preliminary research presentations. Students should be able to discuss
issues and problems in the historiography of their topic and explain their
own research strategies.
4/26
Husbands.”
Preliminary research presentations. Film: “A World Without Fathers or
5/3
No Class, individual consultations on research. Students will meet
individually with the teacher to discuss the progress of their research, problems,
theses, and issues of interpretation or evidence.
5/10
Final presentations Guidelines for final presentations can be found at:
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/dodgen/syllabi/Guidelines_for_final_presentations.doc
5/17
Final presentations.
5/24
Final papers due.
Online bibliographies for gender studies on China
Paul Hallsall
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/chinbib.html .
Marylin Shea
http://hua.umf.maine.edu/China/womtxt.html
Nancy E. Riley
http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/asdp/biblio/women's/easian/china/chinesef.html
The Internet History Sourcebooks provide access to partial texts relating to women’s
history in China at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/eastasiasbook.html#East%20Asian%20Genders
%20and%20Sexualities and
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/women/womensbook.html#China
Online bibliographies for gender studies on Japan
Neuman and Lindsey
http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/asdp/biblio/women's/easian/japan/neuman.html
Collazo and Copeland
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~copeland/Bibliography.html#WOMEN%20AND%20GEN
DER
On the Comfort Women question:
http://home.sandiego.edu/~kelliej/bibliography.html
Some online primary materials:
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/japan/
The Internet History Sourcebooks provide access to partial texts relating to women’s
history in Japan at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/women/womensbook.html#Japan