Asian studies

Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies.^[1] 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.

The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) only considers Asia to the east of the Indus River in its scope of "Asian Studies".^[2]

Branches

• South Asian studies (Indology)
  • Bengal studies
  • Dravidian studies
    • Tamilology
  • Pakistan studies
  • Sindhology
• Southeast Asian studies
  • Filipinology (Philippine studies)
  • Thai studies
  • Vietnamese studies
  • Myanmar studies
  • Indonesian studies
• East Asian studies
  • Sinology (Chinese studies)
  • Taiwan studies
  • Japanese studies
    • Ainu studies
    • Okinawan studies
    • Ryukyuan studies
  • Jurchen studies
  • Khitan studies
  • Korean studies
  • Manchurology
  • Mongolian studies
  • Tangutology
  • Tibetology (Tibetan studies)
  • Uyghur studies
• Western Asian studies
  • Jewish studies
  • Iranian studies
• Central Asian studies
  • Turkology
• Semitic studies
  • Assyriology
  • Hebraic 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

• Asian American studies
• East Asian Studies
• Black and Asian Studies Association
• Cultural studies
• Egyptology
• European studies
• International Journal of Asian Studies
• Journal of Asian Studies
• Asian American Writers Workshop
• Asia Society
• Bachelor of Asian Studies