East Asian history
BT BB DT GA PA BC BP BDT BJ BY
Malcolm Kennedy
Subject value of 1.0 (6 points) * 3 hours per week * First semester * Gippsland/Distance * Prerequisites: GSC1501 and GSC1502 or equivalents
This subject examines China and Japan from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present, comparing their historical development within the general themes of modernisation and sociopolitical continuity and change. Attempts are made to find explanations for the differing approaches of each country to the problems of foreign intrusion, economic exploitation and development; the social transition from feudalism to capitalism and beyond, and revolution and reaction. Topics to be studied are drawn from traditional society and government in China and Japan; the impact of Western penetration; the Chinese and Japanese response to the need for modernisation; Imperial Japan; the Chinese revolutions; the impact of war on Japan and China; defeat, occupation and civil war; the recent modernisation and developmental problems of Japan and China.
Assessment
Mapping exercise: 20% * Tutorial paper (1500 words): 30% * Essay (3000 words): 50%
Prescribed texts
Hsu Immanuel C J The rise of modern China 3rd edn, OUP, 1983
or
Schirokauer C A brief history of Chinese and Japanese civilisations 2nd edn, HBJ, 1989
Storry R A History of modern Japan Pelican, 1982