For over a hundred years Asian studies have been a vital and evolving part of teaching and research on the Berkeley campus. Because of the foresight of University founders, Asian studies courses were offered soon after the University's inauguration. Early programs, concentrating on language, literature, and history, laid the foundation for the development, after World War II, of full blown academic programs encompassing most humanities and social science, science, and professional disciplines. In the last two decades the burgeoning economies of the Asian countries have catapulted a once esoteric branch of knowledge to prominence throughout the University.

A Hundred Harvests: the History of Asian Studies at Berkeley, was an exhibit in the Brown Gallery of Doe Library from June 20, 1997 through February 1, 1998. It lives on here as a virtual exhibit. Through archival holdings and matchless library collections showcased in the exhibit, the story unfolds of the scholars and philanthropists who founded and nurtured the Asian programs that today are consistently rated the best or among the best in the country and that attract scholars and students from all over the world.

Choose a link on the left side of this page to begin viewing the exhibit. For a printed catalog of the exhibit, please contact us at ssea@library.berkeley.edu.

Exhibit Coordinators: Suzanne McMahon, Yu-lan Chou | Exhibit Catalog Coordinators: Yu-lan Chou, Jean Han, Suzanne McMahon | Catalog and Virtual Exhibit Text: Richard M. Buxbaum, Asia, Suzanne McMahon, South Asia, Vanessa Tait, South Asia, Virginia Jing-Yi Shih, Southeast Asia, Rebecca Williams, Southeast Asia, Joan Kask, East Asia, Tom Havens, East Asia, Jean Han, China, Alison Altstatt, China, Hisayuki Ishimatsu, Japan, Yong Kyu Choo, Korea | Photography: Dan Johnson, Suzanne McMahon | Printed Catalog Design: Catherine Dinnean | Web Catalog Design: Vanessa Tait