East Asian Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA) – Honours

Explore language, culture and history 

Take your appreciation of East Asian culture to the next level with our programs. We offer a rich and flexible program focusing on culture, cultural nuance, and history and literature. 

You’ll benefit from our diverse faculty who are well-connected with East Asian culture and the regional Chinese diaspora. Many are multilingual, so they can help you to understand the cultural context in your studies.

Our students are given the important cultural and historical contexts needed to work and thrive in the growing economies of East Asia. You can choose courses cross many Faculties, including politics, philosophy, music and art, to create a unique combination that best serves your academic interests and career aspirations. Many graduates use East Asian Studies as a stepping stone to international or public policy work. 

Quick Links

• Academic Advising
• LA&PS Colleges
• Peer Support
• YorkU Libraries
• Writing Centre
• York Centre for Asian Research

Are you a future student?

OUAC Code: YBE

What you’ll learn

• Gain an understanding of Chinese, Japanese and Korean societies past and present.

• Appreciate the importance of East Asian languages, literature and fine arts, and these nations’ political, economic and social impact.

• Learn the concepts, skills and knowledge of at least two academic disciplines.

Hands-on experiences

• Participate in research and gain valuable experience at the York Centre for Asian Research.

• Attend or volunteer for the annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.

• Visit the Royal Ontario Museum’s galleries of East Asian Art & Culture.

What I like best about the East Asian Studies program is the variety of subjects to choose from. There are courses available on topics in my field of interest that I feel might not be available at other institutions. The professors are all very well-versed in their respective fields and class discussions are really rewarding. The classes I’ve taken so far are quite challenging, and I think they’ve helped me develop better essay-writing and research skills. I’ve always wanted to study abroad and I was able to do that with the help of the people at York International. I studied abroad in Japan for one year and through that exchange I was able to broaden my horizons in ways I never could have expected.

— Bianca Moncaleano Gomez
Alumna, East Asian Studies

Read more testimonials from our alumni