EASIA224 | Fall 2025

Global, Multi-cultural, Intercultural: these are all words used to describe our world today. Yet, perhaps with the exception of the current Global concept of cultural interaction, cultures in various regions of the world have continuously interacted over the course of history. This class will examine such historical interactions in the context of music in Asia. Using China as a focal point, we will examine how cultures and music traditions to the West of China (India, Persia and Central Asia) interacted with one another and eventually came to influence Chinese music via the Silk Road. From this intercultural interaction, we will examine the history of Chinese music and then turn to examine how Chinese culture and music influenced culture and music to the East of China: Korea and Japan. Coming full circle, we will end the semester examining how Chinese culture and music tradition, in the context of today's world, changes yet again in the context of a new interculturalism.