EASN 295 Topics in East Asian Studies

Topics vary semester to semester.

Cultural Appreciation and/or Appropriation through the Lens of Asian Cinema

At its core, this course is an attempt to investigate, analyze, and ultimately comprehend the concept of cultural appropriation, in particular through an East Asian context. With a history of imperialism, be it Western or Japanese, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the topic of cultural appropriation is controversial and complicated, whether it is Katy Perry performing wearing a kimono at the American Music Awards or Chinese-Taiwanese-American chef Eddie Huang and his embrace (appropriation?) of African-American black culture. Prior to the actual viewing and analysing of films, a comprehensive, albeit limited, survey of theoretical works will be conducted; works including but not limited to Richard Rogers’ “From Cultural Exchange to Transculturation: A Review and Reconceptualization of Cultural Appropriation,” Baris Buyukokutan’s “Toward a Theory of Cultural Appropriation,” and Lisa Nakamura’s concept of “identity tourism.” Some of the pairings to be analyzed are: William Shakespeare’s King Lear and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran; Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992) and Lee Sang-il’s Japanese Western Yuzusazarumono (2013).