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

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

n people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian studies combines aspects of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

, cultural anthropology and many other disciplines to study political, cultural and economic phenomena in Asian traditional and contemporary societies. Asian studies forms a field of post-graduate study in many universities. It is a branch of

area studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what ...

, and many Western universities combine Asian and

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...

in a single faculty or institute, like SOAS in London. It is often combined with

Islamic studies Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...

in a similar way. The history of the discipline in the West is covered under Oriental studies.

Branches

South Asian studies Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...

(Indology) ** Bengal studies **

Dravidian studies Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature, and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of South Asian studies. Early missionaries The 16th to 18th century missionar ...

*** Tamilology ** Pakistan studies **

Sindhology Sindhology ( sd, سنڌولوجي) is a field of South Asian studies and academic research that covers the history, society, culture, and literature of Sindh, a province of Pakistan. The subject was first brought into the academic circles with th ...

* Southeast Asian studies ** Filipinology (Philippine studies) ** Thai studies **

Vietnamese studies Vietnamese studies (Việt Nam học) in general is the study of Vietnam and things related to Vietnam. It refers, especially, to the study of modern Vietnamese language, Vietnamese and literature, history, ethnology, and the philological approach ...

Myanmar studies Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Indonesian studies Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

East Asian studies East Asian studies is a distinct multidisciplinary field of scholarly enquiry and education that promotes a broad humanistic understanding of East Asia past and present. The field includes the study of the region's culture, written language, histo ...

Sinology Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to th ...

(Chinese studies) **

Taiwan studies Taiwan studies, or Taiwanese studies, is a multi-disciplinary academic division of area studies (a part of East Asian studies) focused on studying Taiwan and the people on/in/of Taiwan both on its own and in comparison with other world areas. Academ ...

Japanese studies Japanese studies ( Japanese: ) or Japan studies (sometimes Japanology in Europe), is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japan ...

***

Ainu studies Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

***

Okinawan studies Okinawan may refer to: * Something of or relating to: ** Okinawa Island ** Okinawa Islands ** Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawan language, an endangered language spoken by the people of Okinawa Island * Okinawan people, a subgroup of the Ryukyuan people ...

***

Ryukyuan studies The Ryukyu Islands are a volcanic arc archipelago. Ryukyu may also refer to: * Kingdom of Ryukyu, a former kingdom annexed by the Empire of Japan * Ryukyuan languages * Ryukyuan people * Ryukyu (My Hero Academia), a character in the manga series M ...

** Jurchen studies ** Khitan studies **

Korean studies Korean studies is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of Korea, which includes the Republic of Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and diasporic Korean populations. Areas commonly included under this rubric include Ko ...

** Manchurology ** Mongolian studies ** Tangutology **

Tibetology Tibetology () refers to the study of things related to Tibet, including its history, religion, language, culture, politics and the collection of Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious significance. The last may mean a collection of ...

(Tibetan studies) ** Uyghur studies *

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...

** Jewish studies **

Iranian studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

Central Asian studies Central Asian studies is the discipline of studying the culture, history, and languages of Central Asia. The roots of Central Asian studies as a social science discipline goes to 19th century Anglo-Russian Great Game. During the 19th century, C ...

Turkology Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative cont ...

Semitic studies Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a ''Semiticist'' or a ''Semitist'', both terms being equi ...

** Assyriology ** Hebraic studies * Jewish studies (often overlapping with Middle Eastern studies) *

(often overlapping with Middle Eastern and Central Asian studies)

External links

International Institute for Asian Studies

ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies - Lund University
* * {{Regional Cultural Studies Area studies

Branches

See also

External links