HISTORY OF MODERN EAST ASIA
Spring 2002
JOHN FLOWER
HIST 2201-001: Tues/Thurs 2-3:20 McEniry 134
office tel: 687-4637
email: jmflower@email.uncc.edu; web pages:http://www.uncc.edu/jmflower/syllist.htm
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, 1-2pm
This course explores the development of modern East Asia from a historical perspective, focusing primarily on China and Japan, but also including some consideration of Korea and Vietnam. This semester we will cover the period from the impact of Western imperialism in the nineteenth century to the present. The course is designed to help students experience a historical tradition outside the Western experience, to provide the opportunity for students to encounter primary sources in translation, and to introduce different approaches to the study of history. Lectures and readings will try to balance the survey method with an emphasis on the rich particulars of biography, scenes from daily life, literature and films.
Course Requirements:
1) Classroom environment:
a) Attendance is mandatory. More than four unexcused absences will lower one mid-term exam portion of the course grade by 10 points for each additional absence.
b) Tardiness is not tolerated. Students must come to class on time. Late arrivals are considered absent.
c) Preparedness is required. All students are expected to do the assigned readings and participate in class discussion.
2) Course work:
a) Two Mid-term exams (exam 1, February 12; exam 2 April 2). Each mid-term will consist of a take-home essay (five to seven pages) and an in-class short answer exam. The mid-term exams will count as 20% of the final course grade.
b) Paper: Each student will write one seven to ten page paper that will count as 30% of the final course grade. The paper is due March 12. Late papers will be marked down 10 points for each day they are late.
c) Final exam (May 2). The final exam consists of a take-home essay and an in-class short answer exam. The final exam will count as 30% of the final course grade.
Please note that this syllabus should be viewed as a work in progress; the instructor reserves the right to make changes as required.
Texts:
East Asia: a new history, Rhoads Murphey
Family, Pa Chin (Ba Jin)
Note: additional assignments are accessed through the course website: http://www.uncc.edu/jmflower/history_of_modern_east_asia.htm
Course Outline
WEEK ONE: introduction to East Asia
(1/10) Review of syllabus; course introduction
WEEK TWO: East Asia on the eve of imperialist intervention
(1/15) Chinese society and thought; the Qing dynasty
(1/18) Film: the two coasts of China
Readings: East Asia, chapters 1, 8
WEEK THREE: INVASION AND REBELLION IN CHINA
(1/22) The Opium War
(1/24) Rural Rebellion
Readings: East Asia, chapter 14
Web assignment: (1) Lin Zexu’s Letter to Queen Victoria; (2) Taiping Rebellion
Lin Zexu’s letter to Queen Victoria: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1839lin2.html
Taiping Rebellion: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/taiping.html
WEEK FOUR: MEIJI JAPAN
(1/29) Japan and the West
(1/31) Meiji Modernization
Readings: East Asia, chapters 13, 15
Web assignment: Civilization and Enlightenment
WEEK FIVE: IMPERIALISM IN EAST ASIA
(2/5) China’s crisis
(2/7) The East Asian Periphery *(take-home essay 1 handed out)
Readings: East Asia, chapter 16
Web assignment: (1) The Chinese Boycott; (2) The Hermit Kingdom
The Chinese Boycott: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/1906foster.html
WEEK SIX: CHINESE NATIONALISM
(2/12) Revolution and the New Culture Movement *(essay 1 due; in-class exam 1)
(2/14) Discussion of Family by Pa Chin
Readings: East Asia, chapter 17
Family
Web assignment: (1) Sun Yatsen’s Nationalism
2) Selected Stories of Lu Xun: a)Diary of a Madman b) Preface to "Call to Arms"
WEEK SEVEN: THE ROAD TO WAR
(2/19) Japan’s democratic moment and militarism ;
(2/21) The Nationalist Decade and the Long March
Readings: East Asia, chapter 18
Web assignment: (1) Japanese ultra-nationalism (2) Mao’s Report on the Peasant Movement
Mao’s Report on the peasant movement: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1927mao.html
WEEK EIGHT: Films: Yellow Earth; Red Sourghum
WEEK NINE: No Classes; Spring Break
WEEK TEN: JAPAN AND WORLD WAR II
(3/12) War in China * PAPER ONE DUE *(take-home essay 2 handed out)
(3/14) Japan’s defeat
Readings: East Asia, chapter 19
Web assignments: (1) The Rape of Nanjing; (2) Dropping the bomb
The Rape of Nanjing: http://web.missouri.edu/~jschool/nanking/
Dropping the bomb http://www.doug-long.com/
WEEK ELEVEN: POST-WAR JAPAN AND KOREA
(3/19) Reconstruction in Japan
(3/21) Korea Divided
Readings: East Asia, chapter 21
Film: Sentimental Imperialists
WEEK TWELVE: AMERICA IN EAST ASIA
(3/26) Vietnam
(3/28) Discussion of America’s role in East Asia
Readings: East Asia, chapter 22
Web assignments: (1) the Vietnam War; (2) Ungrateful Wretches
the Vietnam War: collection of documents on Vietnam
Penatgon Papers: Background to the crisis, 1940 - 1950
State Department report on North Vietnamese Aggression (1965)
Letter exchange between President Johnson and Ho Chi-minh
Vietnam Veterans Statement against the War (1971)
Timeline of Vietnam War (from PBS American Experience)
WEEK THIRTEEN: THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
(4/2) Liberation and Land Reform *(essay 2 due; in-class exam 2)
(4/4) The Great Leap Forward
Readings: East Asia, chapter 20
Web assignments: (1) Xiakou village
WEEK FOURTEEN: REVOLUTION WITHIN REVOLUTION
(4/9) The Cultural Revolution
(4/11) Post-Mao China and Tian’anmen 1989
Web assignments: (1) Picturing Power; (2) the Tian’anmen Papers
Picturing power: http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/poster/exhibintro.html
Tian’anmen: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB16/documents/index.html
WEEK FIFTEEN: CONTEMPORARY CHINA
(4/16) transformation of the countryside
(4/18) urban culture: the case of Cui Jian
Web assignments: (1) A Temple Reborn; (2) Seeds of Fire
WEEK SIXTEEN: EAST ASIA TODAY
(4/23): "East Asian industrial civilization": prospects and problems
(4/25): Human rights and cultural globalization
WEEK SEVENTEEN:
(4/30): Discussion and Review
FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, MAY 2, 12-3 PM
Paper Topic
Due Date: Thursday, March 12, 2002
Content:
Write a 7 to 10 page (double-spaced) essay on the novel Family by Pa Chin (Ba Jin). Your paper should use the novel as a primary source document to explain the main themes of the May Fourth movement (also referred to as the "New Culture Movement") in China. Some questions to consider: What messages is the author trying to convey through the characters in his novel? What is the author’s portrayal of traditional culture, and why was this issue so important to Chinese thinkers of that era? What is the position of women in the novel, and why was the emancipation of women so significant to Chinese reformers ? How did student activists in the May Fourth period try to change their society? What was the role of literature in the May Fourth movement, and how does the novel Family reflect that role?
Format:
You may refer-- in endnotes-- to the textbook and to the website readings in your essay, but you should quote directly only from the novel, and then sparingly (i.e. no more than three "block quotations"; that is, quotations of more than one sentence, set off in a separate, indented, single-spaced format). Examples:
1) The format for a block quotation (try not to exceed the length of the example quotation below):
Ba Jin portrays Chengdu, the setting of the novel and the city where he came of age in the 1920s, as a provincial "anywhere," giving only fleeting glimpses of the urban landscape:
A row of residential compounds, with large solid wood gates painted black, stood motionless in the icy gale... Within were dark caverns; what was inside them, no one could see. Each of these residences had a long history... Each had its secrets. When the black veneer peeled off the big gates, they were painted again. But no matter what changes took place, the secrets were kept. No outsider was ever permitted to know them. (p. 12)
For Ba Jin the really important mise-en-scenes were interiors...[etc]
2) Endnote format: for the purposes of this paper, simplify your citation of the source, e.g.
Rhoads Murphey, East Asia : a new history, p. 337
Lu Hsun, Diary of a Madman, p. 10
Hu Shih, quoted in Sources of Chinese Tradition, p. 158