REL 249 Martial Arts and East Asian Spiritual Traditions
The following course will explore how East Asian spiritual traditions and philosophies inform and shape East Asian martial arts. Students will learn key concepts such as qi, yin and yang, Tao, and ch’eng and how they inform understandings of relationality, agency, and an aesthetic of movement within martial art traditions. The course will further engage with historical dynamics of power across East Asian geographies as well as the reception of East Asian migrants in the United States and the role martial arts played in popular culture to shape the politics of representation for East Asians.