Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies.
Limited places are also open for exchange students. Please note: this course takes place in The Hague.
Description
This survey course has the ambition of narrating the modern history of the East Asian region, not as a bundle of three different national histories (China, Japan, Korea), but rather as collection of divergent responses to shared historical challenges. The course covers roughly the history from the mid-nineteenth century through to the present. The rise of the modern nation state is one ordering principle that structures this survey of regional history. The belief in progress is another motor that spurred regional history into the development of diverse interpretations of modernity. Then and now, modernization is a rallying cry, but the tensions and upheaval that came with the modernization drive led to social and political revolutions, from fascist to communist, that affected and continue to affect the region.
Course objectives
In its most general terms, this course seeks to familiarize students with the modern history of East Asia and offer them a historical context for understanding East Asia today. This entails that students will have a good grasp of the general chronology of the modern era in East Asia; they will have a broad understanding of both the history of the constituent parts (i.e. China, Japan, Korea), and of the transnational dynamics that shaped the region. On a more methodological level, students will be encouraged to question received wisdom and challenge established knowledge by critically engaging apparently familiar concepts from new angles.
Timetable
The timetable is available on the BA International Studies website.
Mode of instruction
One two hour lecture per week; bi-weekly tutorials.
Attending lectures and tutorials is compulsory. If you are not able to attend a lecture or tutorial, please inform the tutor of the course. Being absent without notification can result in a lower grade or exclusion from the final exam or essay.
Course Load
Total course load for the course 5 EC x 28 hours is 140 hours, broken down by
12 lectures: 24 hours
4 tutorials: 8 hours
Preparation for lectures and tutorial assignments: 72 hours
Preparation exams: 36 hours
Assessment method
Tutorials 30%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 40%
If the final grade is insufficient (lower than a 6), there is the possibility of retaking the full 70% of the exam material, replacing both the earlier mid- and endterm grades. No resit for the tutorials is possible.
To complete the final mark, please take notice of the following:
the final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used. For tutorial groups: please enroll in blackboard after your enrolment in uSis
Students are requested to register on Blackboard for this course.
Reading list
Jonathan Lipman, Barbara Molony, Michael Robinson, Modern East Asia: An Integrated History (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2011)
Additional articles for critical essays.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable.
Contact
Dr. L.M. Teh, email l.m.teh@hum.leidenuniv.nl