AS 320, Fall 2008

Introduction to Modern Asia

 

MW 2:00 ~ 3:20pm

 

[At Roosevelt Hall 209]

 

Date

Course Schedule

Reference

 

W    8/20

Overview of course and discussion of syllabus

 

·      Timeline for China: 1700~2004

·      Timeline for Japan

·      Map of China , Japan maps , Vietnam map , maps of Korea

·      Base maps of Asia

M    8/25

Introduction:  China before 1800

Confucianism, Ancestor worship, Education, Women’s position

 

Readings:     Ch. 16

 

 

Video: The Family

 

Questions: 

1.  Briefly describe the economical activities and the main problems of China before 1800.

2.  Briefly describe the educational system in China. (use the Who, What, How, why these question words to guide your answer.)

3.  Describe the political system of the Qing dynasty.

4.  What kind of life do the Qing people live? (the Han people vs. minority; women vs. men; the rich vs. the poor; family life).

 

Education:

·      Chinese Education System, 1575

·      When I Went to School in China, 1880

Economy

·      Qing Economy

Philosophy and culture

Ancestor Worship

Women and family hierarchy

·      The Classic of Filial Piety

W    8/27

China’s world view in the early Qing Dynasty and the arrival of the West (1760 to 1864)

 

Readings:       

                       

 

Optional:  The New Chinese Empire: Ch. 3, We are the world, by Terrill, R., 2003.

Question: 

1.  What is (are) the reason(s) that the Christian missionaries banned from China?

2.  Who is Qian Long (Ch’ien Lung)?

3.  If you were a leader of the US., how would your response to England’s request for trade resemble or differ from that of Emperor Qian Long to Lord Macartney’s?

Early Contact with Christians

·       Hsu Kuang-chi, Memorial to Fra Matteo Ricci, 1617

·      Controversy with Chinese Rites

·      The Reception of the First English Ambassador to China, 1792

·      China's initial attitude toward foreigners.

·      (Ch'ien lung's Letter to George III)

 

Image:

Image of Emperor Qian Long.

M    9/01

Labor Day, No Classes.

 

 

W    9/03

Introduction to Modern Japan:  the Tokugawa Japan, 1600-1800

 

Readings:  Ch. 17

 

Reference:   Video:  Kagemusha,  (1980)

 

Question:

Briefly discuss the social, economical conditions of  the Tokugawa Japan before 1800 – how is it similar or different from those of China during the same period?

·      Timeline for Japan

·      Japan maps

·      Modern Japan Outline             

·      Will Adams: My Coming to Japan, 1611, Guide to Japanese History

·      Closed Country Edict of 1635

·      Exclusion of the Portuguese, 1639

 

·      Honda Toshiaki: A Secret Plan for Government, 1798

M     9/08

Tokugawa Japan: Intellectual Trends

 

Readings:  Ch. 18

 

Questions:

The Way of Samurai from Tsuentomo Yamamoto, Hagakure (1709-1716)

Hayashi Razan

Yamaga Soko

Ito Jinsai

Ogyu Sorai

Ishida Baigan

Motoori Norinaga

Dutch Learning

W      9/10 

China in Decline (1800-1900):

The Opium War, and wars against imperial powers.

 

Readings:      Ch. 19

 

Questions:

1.  Commissioner Lin's letter to those of Emperor Qian Long's almost half a century earlier. Do you see any changes in the perception of the outside world?

2: Do you think the Treaty of Nanking could have been avoided if Emperor Qian Long had agreed to trade with Britain?

·   Commissioner Lin's Letter to Queen Victoria on the Opium Trade in China (1839).

·   The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment

·   The Treaty of Nanking (1842)

·   First Open Door Note, 1899. 

·   Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895)

 

M     9/15

China in Decline (1800-1900):

Crisis & Opportunity in China: Rebellion & Reform

Readings:     Ch. 19

 

Questions:

1.  What are the major domestic problems in the 1800s’ China? What are the causes of all these problems? Do you think the Qing government can solve the problems and restore order to the Chinese society, if without the threat from outside?

 

·  Internal Crisis

·  Taiping Rebellion, 1850-1864

·  Tianjin Massacre, 1870;

·  A Description of the Boxer Uprising, 1900

·  Pierre Loti, When the Allies Entered Peking, 1900

 

W     9/17

China in Decline (1800-1900):

From reform to revolution    

Readings:      

Discussion questions

1.  How do you respond to the different approaches the Chinese reformers took toward incorporating Western culture into China?

2. From an American point of view, what was interesting about the reform bill of 1898?

 

Optional: The New Chinese Empire: Ch. 4, “The king is dead; Long live the king,” by Terrill, R., 2003 (951.05 T278n)

Discussion question 5 : Comment on Terrill's argument of the continuity between imperial rule and modern Chinese governments. Which aspects of Terrill's arguments do you find most interesting/provocative?

 

·  Managing the Barbarians in Time of Crisis

·  Discussion of "essential" and "peripheral" cultures--  the beginning of cultural borrowing.

·  Proposals for Self-Strengthening

·  Emperor Kuang Hsu's Attempted Reforms, 1898;

·  Imperial Edict to Abolish the Imperial Examinations, 1898.;

 

Scholars and Reformers:

·  Feng Guifen: SOCT, pp. 235~240

·  Yan Fu: SOCT, pp.  256~260

·  Liang Qichao SOCT, pp. 284~298

·  Sun Yat-sen: Fundamentals of National Reconstruction.  SOCT, pp. 320~328

·   

M    9/22 

The Fall of the Tokugawa Shogun (1800-1867)

·         Domestic secessions & domainal reform

·         Shogunal Reform & Japan’s Opening to America  and the samurai in mid-19th century

Readings:    Ch. 20

Hopper, chaps.1 & 2.

Questions: 

1. Is Meiji Ishin a revolution from below?

2. How did President Fillmore and Commodore Perry’s letters reflect the attitude of the U.S. toward Japan?

3. How did the Japanese react towards the American’s request?

4. What was samurai’s life like in the 19th C?

 

·        St. Francis Xavier, Letter from Japan, 1552

·        Commodore Perry and Japan, Black Ships and Samurai

·        An aggressive daimyo’s response, and A Conciliatory Daimyo Response

§  Sakuma Shozan

§  Yokoi Shonan

§ Fukoku kyohei

§  Yoshida Shoin

§ Sonno joi

·  Kanagawa Treaty, 1854

·  The Harri’s Treaty, 1858

W    9/24 

The Meiji Transformation (1868-1900)

The Meiji Restoration Transformation of samurai lives (1868-1900)

 

Readings:   

 

 Film: The Last Samurai

Questions:

1. Why did the Japanese restore their imperial system in order to modernize?

2. Which aspects of the Japanese responses to the Western powers do you think were ingenious, and which parts were not very good?

·  The Meiji Restoration and Modernization: Meiji charter oath and the constitution.

·  Marxism and the Restoration

·  Kume Kunitake: Records of My Visits to America and Europe, 1871-1873

·  Fukusawa Yokichi

 

·  The Meiji Restoration

·  The Meiji Restoration

·  The Meiji era and the Modernization of Japan

M    9/29

The Meiji Transformation (1868-1900)

The Modern Japanese political system

Readings:    Ch. 21

Hopper, chaps.3, 4, & 5

Question:

1. What changes were brought about by the Meiji Restoration and the constitution?

·  Meiji Oligarchy

·  Meiji Constitution

·  Meiji Modernization

W     10/01

Meiji Society and Values: Bunmei Kaiga

Education,

Kokugaku

Popular rights movement

Conservative resurgence

 

Readings:   Ch. 21

 

Question

1. How did concepts of education in Meiji Japan differ from the American ideas of education?

·  The Rescript on Education, 1890

·  Fifty years of New Japan, by Ōkuma Shigenobu

·  Kishida Toshiko (Image)

·  Fukuda Hideko

·  Baba Tatsui

·  Ueki Emori

·  Ida Bunzo

·  Fukuzawa Yukichi

M    10/06

Meiji Society and Values :Nationalism, Social Darwinism, and Meiji expansion

Industrialization

Economy

Readings:    Ch.21

Hopper, chaps. 6, 7, and Epilogue

 

Discussion question 

1. What changes were brought about by the Meiji Restoration and the constitution?

·  Meiji Modernization

·  Fifty Years of New Japan, 1907-1908

·  SJT Chapter 39

 

W    10/08

Mid Term Exam

 

M    10/13

Remaking China (1900-1927)

Nationalism and the New Culture Movement

Readings:       Ch. 23

 

Discussion question:

1.  Describe the reform made by the Qing government between 1901 to 1911 before the fall the dynasty.

2.  Discuss why China changed from an empire to a republic in 1911, though the Qing government had attempted to reform? 

3.  Who is Yuan Shikai? His role in the new republic? The later development of warlords in China?

4.  Describe the cultural/intellectual atmosphere and the characteristics of nationalism during the early Republic years.

 

·         Republican China.

·         The Twenty-One Demands, 1915

·         May Fourth Movement Stories from Lu Xun:  Link 1, Link 2

 

·  SOCT, pp. 331-337

·  Attack on Confucianism, SOCT, pp. 353

·  The Literary Revolution, SOCT, pp. 357-391

·  The True Meaning of Life, SOCT, pp. 366~368

·  Science and Philosophy of Life, SOCT, pp 375~377

 

 

W   10/15

Rise of Modern Japan: Pre-war Japan (1900-1931)

Colonialism

Taisho democracy and mass movement

Readings:      Ch. 24

 

 

Discussion Question: 

1.  What were the major international events during the early 20th C.  Europe? Russia? China?  the US?

2.  How did the international events  affect Japan domestically and internationally? Discuss two or three prominent features of Japanese society and politics from the 1900s to the 1920s.

3.  Did Japanese politics become more conservative or liberal in the 1920s and early 1930s? Why? 

 

·         SJT (pp. 148-154; 163-164;181, 193, 199-200)

·          

M    10/20

The rise of Chinese Communism, and the Chinese Civil War (1927-36, 1945-49)

 

Readings:      Ch. 26

 

Discussion question: 

1.  Nationalists: Who were the representative Chinese Nationalists? What was the nationalists' ideology? 

2.  How did Mao Zedong compare with the Chinese nationalists?

3.  Without the Japanese invation, do you think the May Fourth Liberalism and its requrest for democracy would prevail?.

·  Mao Zedong: The Early Years. 

·  Farmers and the Chinese Revolution.:  Spring silkworms. ·  Mao Tse-tung, Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan, March 1927

·  Mao Tse-tung, On Tactics against Japanese Imperialism, 1935

SOCT, pp. 420~404

SOCT, pp. 408~412

 

W    10/22

The "15 year war"--Japan's war in Asia (1931-45).

 

Readings:   Ch. 27

Comfort Women

Pearl Harbor, 1941

Battle of Midway

Kamikaze

Film: Graveyard of the Fireflies

Black Rain (LPL)

 

Discussion question:

1.  What was Japan's plan for its place in Asia? 

2.  Was Pearl Harbor inevitable?

 

·  The League in Manchuria, 1930

·  Japan’s Quest for Power and World War II in Asia

·  Incidents, events between 1928-1937

·  The Nanking Massacre and here

·  Agreement between US and Japan, 1941

SJT chapter 7 (pp. 260-287)

SJT chapter 8 (288-317)

M     10/27

The Occupation (1945-1952)

Readings:       

Dower, chaps.1& 2.
Dower, chaps. 6 & 8.

Film: Reinventing Japan (DS511 .P23 1992) 

MacArthur’s Children

Discussion questions: 

1.  What were the major changes in Japanese politics and society brought about by the American occupation?  (Also see the Poster Gallery link)

2.  What reforms took place in Japan? Who were the greatest supporters of the American reform?

3.  What were MacArthur's goals of the Occupation? What's your evaluation on MacArthur? Should he do his job differently? 

Reference: Birth of the Constitution of Japan

·  The Potsdam Declaration (June 26, 1945) or here

·  The surrender policy for Japan

·   MacArthur's memoirs  of his objectives

·  The Us Shogunate:  the MacArthur Era

·  The Confucian Era:  Poster Gallery

·  The Occupation: Democratic Reform Under the Allies

 

W     10/29

War Responsibility and  Changes in the role of the emperor.

 

Readings: Dower, chaps.11 & 12.

 

Discussion questions:

1. Who made the decisions on what to do with the emperor? What was the advantage to keeping the emperor in MacArthur's views?  Do you think the Emperor was responsible to the war? 

2.  Do you think keep the Emperor was essential to Japan's social harmony and economic recovery after the war?

 

·  American prisoners of war working in China under Japanese rule 

·  War Responsibility by Dower

·  War Responsibility at Daily Yumiuri

·  Emperor Hirohito: From Myth to History

 

M    11/03

China under Mao  (1949-1976)

    Women and post-1949 political movements,

Readings:     

Women in Imperial Chinese;

Women’s role in Chinese History and Tradition;

Women in Traditional China

Women in Modern China; Women in China;    

SOCT, pp.  452~454

Film:  

Wild Swans, by Chang, chaps.1-5. 

     
Discussion questions:

1.  How do you think the lives women in China before Mao  (even during Mao in some cases) differed from American women? Do you identify any similarity between them and modern American women, however?

 

 The Common Program of The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, 1949

Mao Zedong: The People's Democratic Dictatorship



Reference:

W   11/05

Political campaigns in China: the Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution (1958-1976) 

 

Readings:       

Discussion questions: 

1.  Is there anything in your life experience that can be compared to the people's lives during the Cultural Revolution? What were the causes for its start and its end?

2.  Use a specific example to describe the different motivations and goals of those who were involved in the CR.

Film: Balzac and seamstress 

The Blue Kite

Lu Ting-y, Let Flowers of Many Kinds Blossom, Diverse Schools of Thought Contend! 1956:

·  Chinese Communist Party, “The Leaders of the CPSU are the Greatest Splitters of Our Times,” 1964

·  “The Anti-Soviet Policy of Communist China,” February 16, 1967

·  Mao Tse-Tung's Thought is the Telescope and Microscope of Our Revolutionary Cause,  June 7, 1966

Posters:

Great Leap Forward, 1958 - 1960

Cultural Revolution Posters; Cultural Revolution Artifacts; Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution;

Reference:

SOCT, pp. 462~464, 465~474

SOCT, pp. 474~479

Wild Swans, by Chang, chaps.6-11. 

M     11/10 

· 

·   

W   11/12

Market economy 1:  corruption, and women

Readings:   TBO

 

Optional:  The New Chinese Empire, Ch. 6, “Your Mother Is Still Your Mother,” by Terrill, R., 2003.

Video:  Qiu Ju

Discussion question 11: Did market economy lead to greater corruption or was corruption inherent in the socialist regulated economic system?

Discussion question 13:  Did women's status improve in the market economy compared with the earlier socialist years?

 

Popular China, chaps.2 & 5, by Link, Perry.

Popular China, chaps.3 & 6, by Link.

M    11/17

 

Market economy 2: corruption, and Floating Population

Readings: TBO

Discussion question 14: How do you evaluate the issue of rural migration: is that a successful solution to the perennial rural/urban gap?

Problems plaguing contemporary China: state corruption, rural migration, and social protest.

 

W    11/19

China’s AIDS problems

Film: To Live is Better than to die [KU:  : RA643.86.C62 H46 2003, ] The Blood of Yingzhou District, 39min documentary film ??.

 

W    11/19

Population and One Child Policy

 

M    11/24

The Olympic Games

 

W    11/26

Thanksgiving Break

 

M    12/01

Gender politics and feminism

Readings: SJT (p. 472-504)

Woman in Japan:  http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2007/Nakanishi.html

Question:  

 

 

W    12/03

 Japan's economic takeoff.

Readings: Postwar economic takeoff.

Question: Give some chief reasons for Japan's post WWII economic takeoff.

Japan's recent economic recession.

Readings: Decline of the Japanese economy: a brief explanation.

      NYT article: Japan and China reach new understanding.

Question: What were the main reasons that led to the burst of the economic bubble? What measures do you think may help redress the problems?

Explain in your own words some major factors that caused Japanese economic decline, and whether they had anything to do with the style of Japanese economic development in the past fifty years.

 

 

M      12/08

Aging and Economic recession. 

Readings : Japan's Aging Society.

 

 

W    12/10

Presentation!!

 

 

 

                                        

 

Important Dates:

 

  Opium War:

1850-1865  Taiping Rebell

1856-1860   2nd Opium War  (British and Frensh)

Revolution War

1914-1918  WWI

1919  May 4

 

 

Links