East Asian Studies (MA) (60EC)

About the programme

The one-year master's in East Asian Studies, a specialisation of Leiden University’s master's in Asian Studies, offers focused study of either China, Japan or Korea.

Programme structure

Courses (September start)
Course	EC
Introduction to Asian Studies	10
Advanced Mandarin 1	10
Advanced Japanese 1 (60EC)	10
Advanced Korean Reading	10
Comparative Asian Linguistics	10
Advanced Readings in Classical Chinese	5
China's International Political Economy	10
Topics in Modern Chinese History	10
Democratizing Histories (10 EC)	10
Democratizing Histories (5 EC)	5
Automation, Justice and Governance in China	10
State, Economy and Politics in Contemporary China and India	10
Critical Approaches to Heritage Studies	5
Topical Readings in Classical Japanese	10
Lives on the Margins: Korean Peninsula Migration and Identity (10 EC)	10
Lives on the Margins: Korean Peninsula Migration and Identity (5 EC)	5
Urban Ecology of Asian Cities	10
Cultural Heritage in East Asia: Dealing with the Past in Present and Future	10
Japan’s Quiet Order Building Amid China’s Rise	10
Material Culture, Memory and Commemoration along the Silk Roads in Central Asia	10
Topics in Chinese Art History, Things and Paths: Approaches to Chinese Art and Material Culture	10
Pure Land Buddhism	5
Pilgrimage and Holy Places	10
Introduction to Asian Studies	10
Advanced Mandarin 2	5
Advanced Japanese 2 (60EC)	5
Topical Readings in Korean (10 EC)	10
Topical Readings in Korean (5 EC)	5
MA Thesis Asian Studies (60 EC)	15
Word and Image in Premodern Japanese Culture: Reworking the Classics	10
Approaches to East Asian Cinema (10 EC)	10
Approaches to East Asian Cinema (5 EC)	5
The Politics of Destruction: Targeting World Heritage	10
Modern Japanese International Political Thought	10
Sinographics: Chinese Writing and Writing Chinese	10
China and Global Cyberspace	10
China-Africa Relations in a Changing Global Order	10
Topical Readings in Historical and Literary Chinese Texts	10
The Past in the Present: Nation-building in Modern China (10 EC)	10
The Past in the Present: Nation-building in Modern China (5 EC)	5
From Welfare through Work to Work without Welfare? Japan’s Changing Welfare Regime in Global and Regional Comparison	10
Forgery as Historiography in Korean and East Asian History	10
Modern Japanese International Political Thought	10
Topical Readings in Korean (10 EC)	10
Culture and Conquest: the Impact of the Mongols and their Descendants	10
Taiwan MA Seminar	10
Buddhism seminar	10
Art and Environment in East Asia	10
Contemporary Japanese Literature and the Anthropocene	10

For a more detailed programme, see the Prospectus.

Please note that this guide applies to the current academic year, which means that the curriculum for next year may slightly differ.

Ethan Mark

Senior University Lecturer

“I try to encourage my students to think critically by pushing them to interrogate the categories through which we think and by which we describe the world: where they came from, what forces constructed them, and for what purposes.”

“In a world in which we are so often confronted with the appearance of essential differences, I seek to stimulate an awareness of the interconnectedness of our identities and our histories, informed by an awareness of history itself not as a single narrative of objective facts, but as a field of ongoing contest between competing narratives and competing political agendas.”

Admission and Application

Do you want to find out if you are eligible for this Master's Programme?

Check the entry requirements