Last summer, sophomore Lee Fan took her first trip to Japan. Her biggest surprise? She was not surprised by what she saw.
By the time she arrived in Japan, she felt she has already visited the country. At Duke, she had been introduced to the popular culture through courses, film screenings and speakers.
"Media is a really good reflector on the culture and the society," said Fan, who is Chinese and grew up in Chapel Hill. "Japan was exactly like what I imagined from the movies I watched (at Duke), the news I watched."
In recent years, Duke's approach to teaching East Asian studies has evolved from a traditional area studies model to an interdisciplinary approach, with a number of faculty members working on contemporary mass culture and globalization. That evolution has been accompanied by increasing interest in the discipline among students.