This module provides an introduction to the modern and contemporary histories of Asia including India, China and Japan. Western representations of Asia are filled with exotic images of Shangri La, Geisha, Samurai and snake charmers, yet in the present day, the twenty-first century is often described as the ‘Asian century’. This module attempts to familiarize students with major themes in the history of a diverse, yet interconnected continent.  Mainly focusing on the last two and half centuries (ca.1757-ca.2000), we will trace the historical processes of imperialism, colonialism, and nationalism and the attendant process of globalization in India, China and Japan. Asia and the West, have deep connections going back in historical time. We will examine the transformations Asian peoples underwent as a result of their interaction with Western colonialism, and the different strategies of resistance adopted by them to overcome and/or adapt to the changes they confronted.  Asian interaction with the West created three very different forms of political, economic and ideological systems in the three Asian societies under scrutiny. The module seeks to analyse the historical processes that led to the emergence of a popular communist leadership in China, an elite liberal-democratic leadership in India and an oligarchy devoted to the market economy in Japan. Exploring the similarities and differences in the experience of Japan, China and India, this course compels students to reflect on the factors that link Asian societies and histories together, and those that make them distinct. The class will follow a lecture-seminar discussion format.  To gain diverse perspectives, various types of readings are utilised such as primary sources in English and in translation, alongside fictional works and scholarly interpretations of Asian societies. Where possible, visual aids such as films, trips to museums and guest lectures are integrated in order to explore and deepen students’ understanding of Asian history and culture. No prior knowledge of Asia is required.

• Critically read and gain knowledge of the broad contours of the political, social, economic and cultural histories of China, India and Japan from ca. 1757 to ca. 2000.
• Understand and interpret the connections and interaction between the West and indigenous societies of Asia in the areas of politics, ideologies and economic organisation.
• Outline and critically discuss a number of major events, episodes and themes in Indian, Chinese and Japanese history and their historical significance.
• Bring an Asian perspective to a number of historical concepts, such as questions of imperialism, colonialism, modernity, under-development and globalisation.
• Articulate the role of history in shaping contemporary Asian politics of China, India and Japan.
• Instil a greater appreciation of, and, nurture sensitivity towards Asian cultures, societal norms and dilemmas in historical context.

A diverse range of teaching and learning methods will be used in each of the sessions of the course, comprising a combination of lectures and seminar discussion of major events, themes and issues pertaining to Asian history. Broad brush lectures on specific themes such as imperialism/colonialism are gainfully explored further and elucidated through visual history such as field trips to museums or film workshops. Occasionally guest lectures will be accommodated to further the student learning experience. The syllabus is divided into a series (5 blocks) of major course themes, and further sub-divided evenly [see Syllabus] by considering developments in the three major regions of Asia – China, India and Japan. Attendance at lectures/seminars is mandatory.

Lectures:

The core aims of the lectures (17 in total) are to provide an overarching introduction to a particular topic, establishing the main features of major course themes, identifying key issues, providing historical explanation, causal connections and pointing to differences in historiographical interpretations of Asian histories. The lectures aim to provide a basic framework for understanding and should be thought of as useful starting points for further discussion and individual study. Where appropriate, power point presentations, hand outs and other materials may be distributed to reinforce the material discussed in lectures.

Seminars:

The primary aim of seminars will be to generate debate and discussion amongst students. Seminars for each of the course topics will provide an opportunity for students to analyse and further discuss key issues and topics relating to lectures. Since no prior knowledge of Asia is presumed, user-friendly material such as maps, short stories, memoirs, novels and film clips will be included to help students gain easier access to unfamiliar societies and cultures.

Alternative Teaching/Learning Strategies:

The course may include as appropriate, one guest lecture, OR, one field trip to a major museum in the UK OR, a film workshop. Eminent historians on India, China or Japan who will enhance the learning experience of the students will be approached for the former. For the latter, the aim is to illustrate pertinent topics and themes of Asian history through visual aids and material cultures.

Knowledge and Understanding

• to demonstrate a broad knowledge and an understanding of the historical processes that contributed to the making of Asia;
• to demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of historical approaches used to analyse the inter connections between Asia and the West;
• to demonstrate a critical ability to gather, assimilate and interpret historical knowledge.

Intellectual Skills

• to demonstrate, as a necessary foundation for more detailed analysis in the second and final years of the degree, an understanding of concepts such as “globalisation”; “imperialism”; “nationalism” and “modernization”;
• to use a range of techniques to initiate and undertake analysis of information.

Subject Specific (Including Practical) Skills

• to develop causal explanations of historical processes;
• to demonstrate skills in comparative historical analysis;
• to deepen understanding of broad themes and developments considered in the course through case studies of particular historical phenomena;
• to identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and/or peculiarities of alternative historiographies.

Employability Skills

• communicate ideas and arguments effectively, whether in class discussion or in written form, in an accurate, succinct and lucid manner;
• formulate and justify arguments and conclusions about a range of issues, and present appropriate supporting evidence;
• an ability to modify as well as to defend their own position;
• an  ability to think critically and challenge assumptions;
• an ability to use a range of information technology resources to assist with information retrieval and assignment presentation;
• time management skills and an ability independently to organise their own study methods and workload;
• work effectively with others as part of a team or group in seminar or tutorial discussions.   

How the module will be assessed

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of two 2,000 word assessed essays (excluding empirical appendices and references), the best of which will count towards the final mark [50%], and one two-hour unseen written examination paper in which the student will answer two questions [50%].

Course assignments:

1. The Assessed Essays are designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. They must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references). The best mark of the two will count towards the final mark.
2. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total.

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

The usual provisions for reassessment are made in this respect. Individual cases will be decided by the Examination Board of the History Board of Studies. Reassessment generally will take the form of a reassessment of the failed component in the August Resit Examination Period.

Introductory Lecture: Mapping global connections between Asia and Europe

BLOCK 1: EUROPEAN EMPIRES OVERSEAS: IMPERIALISM & ASIA

• From ‘trader’ to ‘ruler’: How did a ‘nation of shopkeepers’ make an empire in India?
• Global Alliances and Global Threats: How closed Japan was made open.
• When China faced the West: from the Canton system to treaty-ports China.

BLOCK 2: REBELLIONS, REVOLUTIONS AND RESISTANCE IN ASIA

• Resisting Imperial Rule: Representations of The People’s Uprising in 1857, India.
• From Samurai to Peasants: Reactions to Modernity in Japan.
• How did Communism go Global? The long march to power of the Chinese Communist Party.

BLOCK 3: NATION-MAKING AND STATE BUILDING IN ASIA

• Was Indian Nationalism a Western Import? Gandhi and the making of modern India.
• After Empire: Building a modern nation in China.
• The Creation of a Modern Asian nation-state in Japan.

BLOCK 4: WOMEN AND GENDER IN ASIA

• “Mothers of the Nation”: Women’s roles and participation in the Indian nationalist movement.
• Mothers, Revolutionaries and Soldiers: Chinese women in revolution and war.
• Good Wives, Wise Mothers, New Women & Modern Girls in Japan.

BLOCK 5: GLOBAL UPHEAVALS: MAKING OF CONTEMPORARY ASIA

• The Second World War in Japan’s Past and Present
• Asian Globalisation & India’s Big Moment: Prospects and Problems of the world’s largest democracy.
• The West faces China: why China matters in the global context.

Alternative Teaching/Learning Strategies: Guest lectures/OR field trip to museum OR film workshop

Concluding Lecture/Revision : An Overview

Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian, (Picador, 2006) Sections 3 and 4.

Aparna Basu, ‘The role of women in the Indian struggle for freedom’, in B.R. Nanda, (ed.), Indian Women: From Purdah To Modernity, (New Delhi, 1976), pp.16-40.

Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger: A Novel, (Free Press, 2008).

Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf, A Concise History of India, (Cambridge, 2002), Ch.4.

Bipan Chandra, et.al. India’s Struggle for Independence (Penguin,1989), Ch. 1, pp.31-40

Bipan Chandra, et.al. India’s Struggle for Independence Penguin, 1989, Chs, 14, 15, 22 & 35.

Brantlinger, P., Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914, , 2nd edn (Ithaca & London,1994)

Burton Stein, A History of India (revised by David Arnold ed.). London, 2010. (chs. 9 and 10).

Danke Li,), ‘Introduction: History, Women, and China’s War of Resistance against Japan’, in Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China, (Urbana, IL., 2010), pp. 1-31.

David Arnold, Gandhi, (London, 2001).

Douglas Howland, 'Translating liberty in nineteenth-century Japan', Journal of the History of Ideas, 62 (2001), pp. 161-81.

Geraldine Forbes, ‘The Indian women’s movement: A struggle for women’s rights or national liberation’, in G. Minault, ed., The Extended Family: Women and political participation in India and Pakistan, (Delhi, 1981), pp.49-82.

Gurcharan Das, India Unbound: The social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age,  6^th edn. (Delhi, 2013).

Heather Streets, ‘The Rebellion of 1857: Origins, Consequences, and Themes’ Volume I, Teaching South Asia. An Internet Journal of Pedagogy, No. 1, Winter 2001, http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/tsa/VIN1/Streets.htm

Hung-yok Ip, Intellectuals in Revolutionary China, 1921-1949: Leaders, Heroes and Sophisticates, (London, 2005), Ch. 4, “Manufacturing political leadership II: Mao”.

James H. Buck, ‘The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. From Kagoshima Through the Siege of Kumamoto Castle’, Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Winter, 1973), pp. 427-446.

James L. Hevia, English Lessons: The Pedagogy of Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century China, (Durham, 2003), ‘Ch. 1: Introduction: Imperialism, Colonialism and China’, pp. 1-29.

John Dower, ‘Black Ships & Samurai’, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visualizing Cultures, http://visualizingcultures.mit.edu

Jürgen Osterhammel, ‘Semi-Colonialism and Informal Empire in Twentieth-Century China: Towards a Framework of Analysis’, in Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Jürgen Osterhammel (eds.), Imperialism and After: Continuities and Discontinuities (London, 1986), pp. 290-314.

Marie-Claire Bergère,), ‘Chapter 9, Sun Yat-sen, Soviet Advisers, and the Canton Revolutionary Base, 1920-1924’ in Sun Yat-sen, (Stanford, 2000).

Prasannan Parthasarathi, “India and the global economy, 1600–1800”, in Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not, Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850, (Cambridge, 2011), Ch. 2.

R. Mukherjee, The Penguin Gandhi Reader, (London, 2005).

Rhoads Murphey, “The Rise of British Power in India”, A History of Asia, 6^th edn., (New York, 2009) Ch.13.

Robert A. Bickers, ‘Shanghailanders: The Formation and Identity of the British Settler Community in Shanghai, 1843-1937’, Past and Present, 159 (1998), pp. 161-211.

Sebastian Conrad, 'Entangled memories: versions of the past in Germany and Japan, 1945-2001', Journal of Contemporary History, (2003), pp. 85-99.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India, (New Delhi: 2004), subsection 3.3 in Chapter 3.

Stephen R. Bown, “Robert Clive”, in Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600—1900, (London, 2010), Ch.3.

Thomas Heberer “China in 2013: The Chinese Dream’s Domestic and Foreign Policy Shifts”, Asian Survey, Vol. 54, No. 1, 2014, pp. 113-128.

Vera Mackie (2013), ‘New Women, Modern Girls, and the shifting semiotics of gender in early twentieth century Japan, Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, 2013 (July) pp.1-13.

Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, (Oxford, 2008).

Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian, (London, 2006).

Bipan Chandra, et.al. India’s Struggle for Independence 2^nd reprint, (Delhi, 2012).

Burton Stein, A History of India (revised by David Arnold, ed.). (London, 2010).

Geraldine Forbes, Women in Modern India, (Cambridge, 2013).

Ian Buruma, Inventing Japan, (New York, 2004).

Kumari  Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, 2^nd edn E-book, 1994 (London, 1986) Chs.6,10,13.

Marius Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, (Cambridge:US, 2002).

Michael Dillon, China: A Modern History (London, 2012).

Pamela Kyle Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800: An Interpretive History, (New York, 2010).

Rana Mitter, Modern China: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford, 2008).

Rhoads Murphey, A History of Asia, 6^th edn., (New York, 2009).

WMT De Bary, C Gluck, & AE Tiedemann, Sources of Japanese Tradition, Second Edition, Volume 2, (New York, 2005).