Fall 2022

Colloquium in EALC-“Yellow Peril Redux: From Coolies to Cars, Trade Wars and Coronavirus (1900s-2022)” *This undergraduate seminar bridges the disciplinary gap between cultural, economic and political studies of U.S.-East Asian interactions. It aims to introduce to students an interdisciplinary study of the historical roots and cultural idioms beneath contemporary economic and political debates concerning the “Trade Wars” and the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the broader popular rhetoric and political policies that deeply impacts people’s daily life and contributes to the divisive acrimony in U.S.-East Asian relations. Students will be trained to examine primary sources from a variety of genres, including legal cases, news reports, films, political cartoons and governmental documents, during the past one century or so. Topics to be covered include Origins of Yellow Peril, Vincent Chin and Japanese Cars, Industrial/Corporate Espionage and Law, Politicians on Trade War, Science without Borders and National Interests, The Japan / China that Can Say No, Coronavirus and Yellow Peril Redux. Our interdisciplinary approach and transnational topics will help to translate academic research to classroom teaching and to address real-life problems faced by people from various walks of life in this era of community reconstruction via cross-border cultural and economic confrontations, controversies, communications and conversations.