This course examines the formation, contestation, and negotiation of meanings attributed to sexual difference at various points in time in China, Korea, and Japan. After surveying theoretical approaches to using gender as a category of historical analysis, we consider case studies, looking at how philosophical, religious, and political traditions, along with significant historical events and changes in technology and production, combined in various constellations to shape the way people in these societies conceptualize femininity, masculinity, and sexuality, utilizing primary documents, literature, art, and secondary studies.