1) This course will introduce the roles and functions of Chinese characters as the common writing medium in East Asian history (China, Korea, Viet Nam, and Japan), and the roles of literary Chinese (wenyanwen) as their common writing system before the modern time as well. 2) It will introduce the students the general knowledge on Chinese written characters as the most important starting point and basis as we think about East Asian traditions and cultural heritage. 3) It will also lecture on the shift to the modern writing vernaculars in the transition of modern East Asian context. 4) It will also introduce the brief history of the vernacular writing movements in East Asia as well as the Japanese influence to the rest of East Asia in this regard. 5) The course will also introduce the linguistic and cultural policies and politics on Chinese characters in modern Japan and China in an ideological perspective. 6) The cross cultural factors such like the East Asia’s encounter with the West, and the influence by the linguistic nationalism of Europe also will be introduced. 7) Some essential key concepts will be introduced for a critical rethinking of the concept of “Chinese language” itself.