Hocbigg - Asian Studies
Summary
The Asian Studies curriculum is a complete education in Asian Studies using online materials.
Asian Studies is inherently broad, covering East Asia (China, Japan, Korea), South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.), and Southeast Asia. Students should select a primary regional focus early (e.g., East Asia) while maintaining comparative exposure.
Language study runs parallel throughout, aiming for intermediate proficiency in one Asian language (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, or another relevant to the chosen region).
Communities
- Forums:
- Subreddits:
- r/AsianStudies
- r/AskHistorians (frequent high-quality threads on Asian history and culture)
- r/southeastasia
- You can also interact through GitHub issues. If there is a problem with a course, or a change needs to be made to the curriculum, this is the place to start the conversation. Read more here.
Curriculum
Geographical and Environmental Foundations
World Regional Geography: South Asia (Social Sci LibreTexts/Caitlin Finlayson) - Open-access textbook modules analyzing the river systems, physical geography, and demographic dynamics of the Indian subcontinent.
World Regional Geography: East and Southeast Asia (Social Sci LibreTexts/Caitlin Finlayson) - Open-access textbook modules exploring Asia's eastern landscapes, monsoonal dynamics, river basins, and human settlement patterns.
A History of Asia (Routledge/Rhoads Murphey & Kristin Stapleton) - Standard introductory textbook examining the relationship between physical environment, agrarian systems, and civilizational growth across monsoon Asia.
Macro-Histories & Trans-Eurasian Connectivity
The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford University Press/Valerie Hansen) - Canonical history documenting the overland oasis networks, multilingual communities, and religious transmissions across Central Eurasia.
Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (Oxford University Press/Jerry H. Bentley) - Foundational comparative study on pre-modern trans-Eurasian trade routes, cultural diffusion, and conversion patterns.
The Indian Ocean in World History (Routledge/Milo Kearney) - Accessible survey of the maritime trading circuits connecting the Persian Gulf, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East China.
The Silk Roads (Smarthistory/Dr. Eiren Shea) - Open-access digital guide examining the material culture, trade networks, and artistic transmissions across Eurasia.
East Asian Civilizations: China, Japan, and Korea
A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press/Charles Holcombe) - Comprehensive single-volume textbook surveying the shared traditions and distinct political trajectories of China, Japan, and Korea.
East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History (Cengage Learning/Patricia Buckley Ebrey & Anne Walthall) - Widely assigned undergraduate history emphasizing social institutions, religion, and gender alongside dynastic statecraft.
ChinaX: China's Past, Present and Future (Harvard University/Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby) - Open university course series covering foundational Chinese history, geography, and intellectual shifts from antiquity to the modern era.
MIT OpenCourseWare: East Asia in the World (MIT/Peter C. Perdue) - Undergraduate syllabus and reading lists covering diplomatic, commercial, and cultural interactions across pre-modern and modern East Asia.
South Asian Civilizations: The Indian Subcontinent
History of Indian Civilization (UCLA/Vinay Lal) - Complete 26-lecture university course recording surveying Indian society, politics, and culture from the Indus Valley Civilization to the early modern period.
The Wonder That Was India (Internet Archive/A.L. Basham) - Classic foundational study detailing ancient and classical Indian society, political governance, art, and religion.
Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (Routledge/Sugata Bose & Ayesha Jalal) - Premier narrative survey tracing civilization, state-building, and social diversity in the Indian subcontinent.
A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge University Press/Barbara D. Metcalf & Thomas R. Metcalf) - Standard history analyzing Mughal regional authority, British colonial consolidation, partition, and the independent republics.
MIT OpenCourseWare: The Making of Modern South Asia (MIT/Haimanti Roy) - Free university syllabus providing discussion topics, primary source readings, and historical analyses of South Asian civilization.
Southeast Asian Civilizations: Mainland and Island Worlds
Southeast Asia in World History (Oxford University Press/Craig A. Lockard) - Compact, accessible survey tracing ecological adaptations, classical kingdoms, maritime trade, and cultural evolution across the region.
Southeast Asia: An Introductory History (Internet Archive/Milton Osborne) - Accessible overview detailing the evolution of classical kingdoms, colonial impact, and national transformations.
A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads (Wiley-Blackwell/Anthony Reid) - Comprehensive history exploring maritime trade, ecological conditions, religious localization, and cross-cultural adaptability.
Indian Philosophical & Religious Traditions
Classical Indian Philosophy (History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps/Peter Adamson & Jonardon Ganeri) - Open audio and reading series walking through the philosophical developments of the Vedas, Upanishads, Jainism, Buddhism, and classical Darshana systems.
Asian Philosophies (Routledge/John M. Koller) - Readable introductory textbook unpacking the metaphysical and ethical frameworks of the Vedas, Upanishads, and orthodox Indian schools.
Sources of Indian Tradition, Volume 1: From the Beginning to 1800 (Columbia University Press/Ainslie T. Embree, ed.) - Indispensable documentary reader containing translated primary texts spanning Brahmanical, Hindu, and Jain thought.
The Bhagavad Gita (Internet Archive/trans. Eknath Easwaran) - Accessible classical translation and commentary on duty, moral action, yoga, and devotion within the Indian intellectual tradition.
Chinese Philosophical & Religious Traditions
China's Political and Intellectual Foundations: From Sage Kings to Confucius (Harvard University/Peter K. Bol & William C. Kirby) - Free audit online course detailing early Chinese worldview, archaeology, and the rise of classical philosophical schools.
Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (Hackett Publishing/Bryan W. Van Norden) - Clear, student-focused introduction to early Chinese thought from Confucius through the Han synthesis.
The Art of Chinese Philosophy: Eight Classical Thinkers (Princeton University Press/Paul R. Goldin) - Rigorous, beginner-accessible analysis of core debates among early thinkers including Confucius, Mozi, Zhuangzi, and Han Feizi.
Sources of Chinese Tradition, Volume 1: From Earliest Times to 1600 (Columbia University Press/Wm. Theodore de Bary & Irene Bloom, eds.) - Canonical documentary anthology translating essential primary texts across Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, and Neo-Confucianism.
Buddhist Traditions Across Asia
What the Buddha Taught (Internet Archive/Walpola Rahula) - Canonical, clear exposition of foundational Buddhist doctrine, including the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and Non-Self.
An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (Cambridge University Press/Peter Harvey) - Academic survey detailing the doctrinal developments and monastic lineages of Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism.
Buddhism Through Its Scriptures (Harvard Online/Charles Hallisey) - Free audit MOOC exploring Buddhist beliefs, textual interpretation, and religious practices across varied regional cultures.
Islamic Traditions in South and Southeast Asia
Islam in South Asia: A Short History (Brill/Jamal Malik) - Essential survey analyzing the historical spread of Islam, Sufi networks, Indo-Islamic syncretism, and Muslim statecraft across the subcontinent.
Teaching Islam in Southeast Asia (Education About Asia/Nelly van Doorn-Harder) - Open-access scholarly analysis exploring the peaceful adoption, localized practices, and cultural role of Islam in the Malay-Indonesian world.
Islam in Asia: Histories, Cultures, Practices (Association for Asian Studies) - Curated open-access academic articles and pedagogical modules addressing Islamic civilizations across Asia.
Classical and Premodern Asian Literatures
Masterworks of Asian Literature in Comparative Perspective (Routledge/Barbara Stoler Miller, ed.) - Standard pedagogical anthology guiding independent readers through major Indian, Chinese, and Japanese epics, plays, and lyric poetry.
The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (Columbia University Press/Victor H. Mair, ed.) - Authoritative collection of pre-modern Chinese verse, narrative prose, and theatrical drama translated by leading sinologists.
The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry (Columbia University Press/Peter H. Lee, ed.) - Comprehensive selection of traditional Korean poetic forms, including Hyangga, Sijo, and Gasa in English translation.
The Norton Anthology of World Literature: Volumes A–C (W. W. Norton/Martin Puchner et al., eds.) - Comparative anthology containing definitive translations of the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Tang poetry, and The Tale of Genji.
Visual Culture, Material Culture, and Architecture
Smarthistory: Guide to Asian Art (Smarthistory) - Structured open-access collection of peer-reviewed essays, image galleries, and videos on Buddhist, Hindu, East Asian, and Islamic art and architecture.
Visualizing Cultures (MIT/John W. Dower & Shigeru Miyagawa) - Digital learning project using image records and scholarly essays to explore Asian cultural history and encounters with modernity.
Indian Art (Oxford University Press/Partha Mitter) - Concise, authoritative art history survey analyzing South Asian temple architecture, sculpture, and Mughal painting.
The Arts of China (University of California Press/Michael Sullivan) - Standard undergraduate introduction to Chinese painting, ritual bronzes, ceramics, and architecture from antiquity to the modern era.
Imperialism, Anti-Colonialism, and Decolonization
Modern China: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press/Rana Mitter) - Concise historical analysis of China's encounter with Western and Japanese imperialism, the fall of the Qing, and twentieth-century revolutions.
The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History (University of Hawaii Press/Norman G. Owen, ed.) - Definitive history tracing Southeast Asian societies through Western colonial rule, Japanese occupation, and anti-colonial independence movements.
MIT Visualizing Cultures: Canton Trade and the Opium War (MIT) - Visual-historical learning unit examining early modern commercial exchanges and the onset of Western imperialism in China.
Sources of Indian Traditions, Volume 2: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Columbia University Press/Rachel Fell McDermott et al., eds.) - Primary document collection detailing anti-colonial intellectual movements, the Indian National Congress, the Muslim League, and post-colonial state-building.
Contemporary Asian Politics, Governance, and Political Economy
International Relations of Asia (Rowman & Littlefield/David Shambaugh, ed.) - Core undergraduate textbook examining regional security architecture, great power relations, and multilateral forums across the Asia-Pacific.
The Political Economy of East Asia: Wealth and Power (Edward Elgar Publishing/Ming Wan) - Undergraduate text analyzing the East Asian developmental state, trade policy, manufacturing supply chains, and finance.
Southeast Asia in the New International Era (Routledge/Robert Dayley) - Comprehensive survey of contemporary political regimes, economic modernization, and regional cooperation under ASEAN.
The United States and Asia: Regional Dynamics and Twenty-First-Century Relations (Rowman & Littlefield/Robert G. Sutter) - Detailed analysis of post-WWII regional alliances, economic interdependence, and trans-Pacific diplomacy.
MIT OpenCourseWare: International Relations of East Asia (MIT/M. Taylor Fravel) - University syllabus and reading lists examining regional foreign policies, security dilemmas, and diplomatic flashpoints.