News and Events
Current Department Highlights
Department member Daromir Rudnyckyj’s research on Islam and capitalism was recently featured in the Vancouver Sun: Read it Here
“Read Professor Katsuhiko Endo’s reflections on the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake in Japan”. [ Link to Article ]
Daromir Rudnyckyj, an assistant professor in the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, has published an essay, “Post-secular Development,” on The Immanent Frame, a prominent academic blog focusing on secularism, religion and public life. The essay can be accessed at here.
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East Asian Forum
Asia Pacific Memo
Possible grant to the University of Victoria library for the preservation of documents on the Chinese-Canadian community in Victoria.
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Course offerings - Summer 2011
Full List of Summer Courses in PAASPAAS 354 - Masterworks in Chinese Fiction
Course Outline
Masterworks: Chinese Fiction
The Plum in the Golden Vase
金瓶梅詞話
The Jinpingmei, or The Plum in the Golden Vase, is the most infamous book in the canon of pre-modern Chinese fiction, and was thus banned as pornographic not long after it’s publication in book form. The “novel” is just over 400 years old, yet the narrative themes are absolutely contemporary; the rise of the merchant class, the accumulation of wealth, corruption, sexual license and murder, set against the backdrop of luxury and conspicuous consumption. This narrative will resonate with anyone who’s been awake in this period of unimaginable greed, unregulated financial markets, systemic corruption, drug use, high-priced prostitutes (courtesans), scandal and murder.
While students must read the required text, they are actively encouraged to approach the novel as they see fit, i.e., literary text, cultural artifact, gender politics, historical document, or history in art (e.g., food aesthetics, fabrics, porcelain, paintings), or through acts of creative writing. The Plum in the Golden Vase is marked by incredible depravity and the utterly sublime. How students approach this text it is limited only by their own imaginations and creativity. All takers from whatever disciplines are welcome.