East & Southeast Asia Season
An ancient cradle of humanity, East and Southeast Asia are home to 2.2 billion people and some of the world’s most influential cultures, histories, and traditions. Spanning 19 countries and territories, these regions have shaped global politics, economics, philosophy, art, cuisine, and wellbeing practices for millennia. From the rich histories of China and Japan to the dynamic cultures of Indonesia and the Philippines, their legacies transcend borders. Whether you're drawn by family heritage, a love of travel, or curiosity sparked by global media, City Lit invites you to explore and celebrate the profound significance and contemporary impact of East and Southeast Asia.
63 courses available
The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema: Ozu, Kurosawa and MizoguchiThis course examines the transformative period of Japanese cinema during its so-called Golden Age (from late 1940s to early 1960s), a time when Japan’s traditional film studio system was at its peak, and several iconic directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi, were making their most iconic films. We will discuss, analyse, and contextualise several of these directors’ films, as well as look at films by other directors of that period, such as Mikio Naruse and Masaki Kobayashi, and more. We will consider the socio-political and film industry contexts which shaped the films, including the cultural meanings behind the samurai genre, the post-war Occupation of Japan by Allied Forces, and the international impact of Japanese cinema on global filmmaking.
Online
Tue 15 Sep 2026Jean-Baptiste de VaulxFull fee £239.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £155.00- Sustainable Development and Global Risks
This course explores why greater global cooperation is needed if sustainable development goals are to be achieved in the face of global risks.
Online
Wed 16 Sep 2026Anita PunwaniFull fee £89.00 Senior fee £89.00 Concession £58.00 - Tales from Everywhere
This course looks at freshly translated or newly rediscovered gems of international writing from the second half of the 20th century. Texts include The Way to Colonos by Kay Cicellis (Greece); God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane (Senegal); Behind the Portrait by Siburapha (Thailand); and Woman in the Pillory by Brigitte Reimann (Germany).
Keeley Street
Wed 16 Sep 2026Aamer HusseinFull fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Tai Chi Wu style beginners level 3
This ten week course is a continuation of the beginner level 1 course in Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan as practiced by the Wu family, from its origins in the Forbidden City of Ching dynasty China to this day. It will enable you to further build the foundations of what is for some a lifetime of practice and begin to experience the many benefits that this practice brings.
Keeley Street
Wed 16 Sep 2026Neville CoteFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £151.00 Concession £132.00 - Chinese Philosophy: the nature of nature
“Heaven and earth are produced from Nature. The myriad things are produced from Heaven and Earth. Nature has nothing outside it; thus it is the name of heaven and earth together.” (Ruan Ji)
Online
Sat 19 Sep 2026John GoffFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00 - Introduction to Global Literature
Are you curious about reading literature from across the world? Would you like to encounter some of the world’s major literary works, reading across cultures and national borders, and in translation? This in-college taster session will give you a flavour of what it’s like to study and explore what global literature is, reading excerpts from two recent works of global literature.
Keeley Street
Sat 19 Sep 2026Hannah Hutchings-GeorgiouFull fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00 - Postcolonial Cinemas: Memory, History and Remembrance
This course explores how filmmakers across the world have used cinema to confront, question, and reimagine the legacies of colonialism through memory and history. Focusing on specific films from Lebanon, Palestine, Taiwan, the Philippines, Chile, Africa, and the diasporas, we will examine how cinema has become a crucial medium for addressing historical violence, displacement, silence, and resistance in postcolonial societies. These films span fiction, documentary, essay film, and experimental modes, and they engage with topics including gendered memory, forbidden histories, colonial amnesia, Indigenous erasure, exile, diaspora, and intergenerational trauma. Cinema emerges here as both a site of remembrance and a space of counter-history: a medium through which suppressed stories can be visualised, and emotionally reactivated in the present.
Please note that for those students who have taken previous versions of this course, the selection of films and the topics covered will be different from past iterations of the course.
Online
Mon 21 Sep 2026Jean-Baptiste de VaulxFull fee £189.00 Senior fee £189.00 Concession £123.00 - China and AfricaThis course studies the evolution of Chinese involvement in Africa, from the 1950s to the present day. Themes explored include diplomatic and defence relations, trade and commerce, politics and ideology.Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00
- Shiatsu: taster workshopShiatsu is a Japanese healing art, deeply rooted in the philosophy and practices of traditional Chinese medicine. This therapeutic form of body work involves applying pressure to the body using a practitioner’s thumbs, palms, elbows, knees and feet. Discover the basics of how to give this relaxing and therapeutic pressure point massage.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00
- Korean 5: advanced practice
Learn Korean on this lively online course.
Develop your intermediate Korean on this communicative course. Suitable if you have studied Korean for about 5 years.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £259.00 Concession £168.00 - Gua Sha body massage: taster workshop
Gua Sha is a traditional Chinese medicine practice in which a tool is used to scrape people’s skin in order to reduce inflammation and chronic pain. It can also help to relieve muscular pain and tension. Come along and learn some techniques to use on family and friends.
Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £69.00 - Japanese Literature 1900-1950
On this course we will study the development of Japanese literature in the first half of the 20th century through four great novels: Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s Kappa, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters and Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country.
Online
Fri 2 Oct 2026Lewis WardFull fee £239.00 Senior fee £191.00 Concession £155.00 - Japanese woodcut printmakingAn introduction to the beautiful and delicate printmaking world of Japanese Woodcut. Explore this water based, non-toxic process and build an appreciation for the handmade. You will learn how to design, carve and make a multi-coloured print. Beginners welcome.Full fee £349.00 Senior fee £279.00 Concession £227.00
- The art of Chinese gardens: nature and philosophy
This lecture will examine how the intersections of art, architecture, philosophy and sensory experience of Chinese gardens show continuity and change from the early modern period to the present day. In early modern China, gardens were more than places of retreat, they functioned as major social, cultural and economic sites. In our time of ecological crisis, gardens play a crucial role in mitigating pollution. This lecture is part of the 2026 Art History Festival organised by the Association for Art History.
Online
Tue 6 Oct 2026Xinrui ZhangFull fee £0.00 - Climate change and COP31: a beginners' guide
Learn about global solutions to the global challenge of climate change and the role of the COP31 climate conference.
Online
Wed 7 Oct 2026Anita PunwaniFull fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00
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