This course will provide a broad overview of East Asian civilization through a selection of primary and secondary sources, as well as other media such as film and art, that will highlight important cultural developments during representative eras of Chinese and Japanese history. Although the resulting snapshots cannot hope to paint a comprehensive picture of East Asian civilization, they will provide you with a basic understanding of the cultural foundations of contemporary Chinese and Japanese societies and as such will serve as both an introduction to the various courses on East Asia offered at North Central and a gateway to the East Asian Studies Major.