Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian studies combines aspects of sociology, history, cultural anthropology and many other disciplines to study political, cultural and economic phenomena in Asian traditional and contemporary societies. Asian studies form a field of post-graduate study in many universities.
It is a branch of area studies, and many Western universities combine Asian and African studies in a single faculty or institute, like SOAS in London. It is often combined with Islamic studies in a similar way. The history of the discipline in the West is covered under Oriental studies.
Branches
- South Asian studies (Indology)
- Southeast Asian studies
- Filipinology (Philippine studies)
- Thai studies
- Vietnamese studies
- Myanmar studies
- Indonesian studies
- East Asian studies
- Sinology (Chinese studies)
- Taiwan studies
- Japanese studies
- Jurchen studies
- Khitan studies
- Korean studies
- Manchurology
- Mongolian studies
- Tangutology
- Tibetology (Tibetan studies)
- Uyghur studies
- Western Asian studies
- Central Asian studies
- Semitic studies
- Jewish studies (often overlapping with Middle Eastern studies)
- Islamic studies (often overlapping with Middle Eastern and Central Asian studies)
- Middle Eastern studies or Near Eastern studies
See also
External links
- International Institute for Asian Studies
- Graduate Programs in Asian
- ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
- Contemporary Asian Studies – University of Amsterdam
- Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies – Lund University
- "Area Studies: Asia". NYPL Recommendations: Best of the Web. US: New York Public Library.
- "Help for Researchers: Asia". British Library.